Radio imaging glossary

Radio Imaging Terms: A Glossary of Sweepers, Liners, Stingers and Beds

Radio imaging terms are the names for the short produced pieces that tell listeners which station they are on, such as station IDs, sweepers, liners, stingers and drops, plus the intros, beds and effects they are built from. Of all the radio terms a small station runs into, this glossary explains the 32 about how it sounds between the songs, in plain English, and where a term is something you can hear, it has a finished example made in JingleLark next to it.

Updated Oct 9, 2026

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Sweeper vs liner vs stinger: the short version

These three get mixed up more than any other imaging terms, and stations do not all use them the same way. This is how most people in small-station radio use them.

Term	Typical length	What it says	How it sounds
Sweeper	5–15 s	The station name or its promise. "More music, less talk."	Produced: voice with effects, often a riser in and a hit out, between two songs.
Liner	5–15 s	One piece of information: a slogan, a contest, a web address.	Plainer: read live by the presenter, or recorded voice over a light bed.
Stinger (sting)	Under 5 s	Often nothing, or just the name.	A short burst of sound used as punctuation, for example into the news.

The lines blur in practice: a liner with heavy effects is a sweeper to most listeners, and many stations call every short piece between songs a sweeper.

All 32 radio terms

Station and DJ names in the examples are made up. Every example was generated in JingleLark and mixed with the same settings every account gets.

Station identity

The pieces that say who you are.

Radio imaging: Everything a station airs to brand itself rather than to fill time: IDs, sweepers, liners, drops, show tags and the sounds around them. Together they give a station a recognisable sound between the songs.
Station ID: A short piece that names the station, usually with a slogan or frequency: "You're listening to Copper Pines FM." Most run 3 to 10 seconds.
Hear one
Script: “You're listening to Copper Pines FM. The beat goes on, all night long.”
Voice: Nathan (Radio & DJ) · Mixed with: Neon Stab intro · Neon Drive synthwave bed · Exit Sweep outro · Length: 5.9 s
Legal ID: The station identification a licensed station must air. In the US, FCC rules require the call letters followed by the community of license, at the beginning and end of each time of operation and hourly, as close to the hour as feasible, at a natural break. The station identification guide quotes the rule.
Top-of-hour ID: The station ID played at the start of each hour. On a licensed US station it is usually the legal ID; on internet radio it is simply a habit that tells listeners where they are.
Hear one
Script: “It's the top of the hour on Copper Pines FM, independent radio streaming around the world, twenty-four hours a day.”
Voice: Nathan (Radio & DJ) · Mixed with: Broadcast Open intro · Clean Start bed · Bell Tag outro · Length: 9.8 s
Call letters: The official identifier of a licensed broadcast station, such as four letters starting with K or W in the US. Internet stations do not have them, so they ID with the station name and web address.
Slogan (positioner): A short line that says what the station is or what it plays: "The best mix of the 80s." It is usually read right after the station name in IDs and sweepers.
Sounder: A short musical signature, often just a few notes, that a station repeats so listeners recognise it before anyone speaks. Some stations call it a sonic logo.

Between songs and segments

The short pieces that sit between songs, breaks and shows.

Sweeper: A produced voice piece of about 5 to 15 seconds between two songs, saying the station name or what it promises, usually over effects. It "sweeps" the listener from one song into the next.
Hear one
Script: “Pulse Harbor FM. More music, less talk — the hits that never stop.”
Voice: Xavier (Hype & Announcer) · Mixed with: Uplift intro · Neon Drive synthwave bed · Exit Sweep outro · Length: 12.4 s
Liner: A line carrying one piece of information, such as a slogan, a contest or the web address. Presenters often read liners live; recorded ones are plainer than sweepers.
Hear one
Script: “Lanternwick Radio, streaming worldwide at lanternwickradio.com.”
Voice: Nathan (Radio & DJ) · Mixed with: Radio Blip intro · Bright Future bed · Tail Whoosh outro · Length: 5.4 s
Stinger (sting): A very short burst of sound, sometimes with a word or two of voice, used as punctuation: into the news, the weather or a feature. It marks a change without saying much.
Bumper: A short piece that marks the programme changing, going into or coming out of a break or a show segment.
Drop: A short voiced tag, often a name, that a DJ drops over or between tracks: "DJ Harlow Static, in the building!" The DJ drops page has more.
Hear one
Script: “DJ Harlow Static, in the building!”
Voice: Xavier (Hype & Announcer) · Mixed with: DJ Rub intro · Hard Stop outro · Length: 6.3 s
Show tag (presenter tag): A short piece that names a show or its presenter, played at the start of the show or coming out of breaks.
Promo: A produced announcement for something the station itself is doing: a show, an event or a contest. It runs longer than a sweeper and asks the listener to tune in or take part.
Tease (teaser): A line that hints at something coming later in the hour, such as a song, a guest or a contest, so listeners stay through the break.
Shout-out: A quick greeting or dedication to a listener, a town or an event, read live or recorded.

Inside a jingle

The parts a finished jingle is built from, and what happens when they are mixed.

Jingle: In radio, any short produced piece that carries the station's name. Some are sung; JingleLark makes spoken ones: a voiceover over an intro, a bed and an outro. Every example on this page is a spoken jingle.
Voiceover (VO): The spoken part of a jingle. In JingleLark it is the only step that costs credits; mixing and downloads are free.
Dry voice: A voiceover on its own, with no music or effects. Stations that do their own production ask for dry reads; a finished jingle adds the intro, bed and outro.
Hear one
Script: “You're listening to Copper Pines FM. The beat goes on, all night long.”
Voice: Nathan (Radio & DJ) · Mixed with: nothing: the voice on its own · Length: 5.1 s
Intro: The sound that opens a jingle before the voice comes in: a swoosh, a hit, a riser or a few bars of music. JingleLark's sound library has 45 intros.
Outro: The sound that closes a jingle after the voice: a chime, a hard stop or a sweep out. The library has 15 outros.
Bed: Background music that runs under the voice. It fills the gaps between words and sets the mood. The library has 28 background beds.
Ducking: Turning the bed down automatically while the voice speaks and back up in the pauses, so the words stay clear. Mixers usually do it with sidechain compression, where the voice controls the level of the bed. You can hear it on and off below.
Loudness normalisation (LUFS): Levelling a finished file to a target loudness measured in LUFS, so one jingle is not louder than the next. JingleLark levels every mix to -16 LUFS.
Donut: A jingle with a gap in the middle, music or singing at the start and end with room for a voice or a live read in between.

Hear ducking: the same station ID with it off and on

We took one voiceover (Nathan reading the Copper Pines FM line above) and mixed it twice with the same intro, bed and outro: once with ducking switched off and once with it on, as JingleLark does by default. Both files were then levelled to -16 LUFS, so the only difference is what the bed does under the voice.

Ducking off

The bed stays at the same level under every word.

Ducking on (JingleLark default)

The bed dips while Nathan speaks and comes back in the pause after the station name.

Measured Oct 9, 2026: the bed was run through the mixer's ducking settings with this voiceover and its level read with FFmpeg in 0.25-second windows (RMS) and over the whole read (mean). Finished files: 5.9 s each; -16.1 LUFS (off) and -16.3 LUFS (on), measured with the EBU R128 meter.
Moment in the read	Bed level, ducking off	Bed level, ducking on	Difference
On the words (loudest dip)	-26.1 dB	-35.2 dB	9.1 dB quieter
Pause after "Copper Pines FM."	-25.8 dB	-25.8 dB	back to full
Whole read, 0.5–4.6 s	-24.9 dB	-28.8 dB	3.9 dB quieter on average

The "ducking on" file is byte-for-byte the same as the standard ID on our station identification guide, which was mixed in the app on Oct 3. Ducking only acts while there is voice, so the bed dips on words and recovers in the gaps instead of sitting low for the whole jingle.

Scheduling and playout

Where the pieces go once they are made.

Hot clock: A circular plan of one hour of programming that shows where songs, IDs, sweepers, ads and news fall. Playout software uses it to build the hour automatically.
Rotation: How often a song, or an imaging piece, repeats. Stations rotate several IDs and sweepers so listeners do not hear the same one every break.
Stopset: A break where the music stops for ads, announcements or news, often opened and closed with imaging.
Segue: Moving from one item straight into the next without talk; a sweeper or stinger often sits in the segue between two songs.
Dead air: Unplanned silence on air, from a missed cue, a missing file or a gap in the log. Stations keep IDs and sweepers loaded in their playout software so a gap can be covered in seconds.
Playout (automation) software: The program that plays a station's music and imaging on schedule, such as RadioDJ, AzuraCast, mAirList or PlayIt Live. The playout guide shows how to load jingles into each.
Imaging package: A matching set of IDs, sweepers, liners and beds made for one station, traditionally bought from an imaging company and refreshed every year or two.

Making these pieces yourself

In JingleLark you type the script, pick one of 24 radio voices, and choose an intro, a background bed and an outro; the mixer ducks the bed under the voice and levels the file to -16 LUFS. Swapping the sounds and rebuilding is free, so you can make the same line as a sting, a sweeper or a full ID and keep the one that fits. Downloads come as MP3 or WAV.

Need the words first? The radio jingle scripts page has 40 templates for IDs, sweepers, liners and drops.

Related guides and tools

Radio imagingWhat radio imaging is, every element from IDs to beds, and what a starter set costs.Station identificationWhat a station ID is, the FCC legal ID rule, who needs one, and 20 example lines.Radio sweeper generatorMake sweepers and liners, and hear one sweeper mixed three ways.Add jingles to playout softwareStep by step for RadioDJ, AzuraCast, mAirList and PlayIt Live.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a sweeper and a liner?

A sweeper is a produced piece with effects that carries the listener from one song to the next and usually says the station name or its promise. A liner carries one piece of information, such as a slogan, a contest or a web address, and is often read live by the presenter or recorded over a light bed.

What is a stinger in radio?

A stinger, or sting, is a very short burst of sound, sometimes with a word or two of voice, that a station uses as punctuation, for example going into the news or a feature. It is shorter and says less than a sweeper.

What is a bed in radio?

A bed is background music that runs under a voice, in a jingle, an ad or a presenter link. In a well-mixed jingle the bed is ducked, turned down while the voice speaks and back up in the pauses, so the words stay clear.

What does imaging mean in radio?

Imaging is everything a station airs to brand itself: station IDs, sweepers, liners, drops, show tags and the sounds around them. It is what makes a station recognisable between the songs.

Is JingleLark free?

Partly. The voice costs credits, because AI voice generation costs real money; mixing and downloads are free. Credits come in one-time packs from $14.90 for 50, with no subscription. A new account gets 1 free credit, and a 7-day check-in streak earns 1 more (it expires after 30 days); you can play every voice and sound without an account, and there is no watermark. Free jingle packs and plain text-to-speech tools cost nothing, but packs sound like every other stream and text-to-speech gives you a bare voice with no bed or mixing.

Make your own station ID

Type your station name, pick a radio voice and the sounds, and download a finished ID in MP3 or WAV.

Make a station ID