January 2001 RAP
January 2001 Highlights
Feature: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Internet
By John Pellegrini
Websites... you love 'em,.. you hate 'em, and you cant live without 'em.
Most of us radio prod geeks use the Internet in some form or another, either
writing stuff for our respective stations' sites, or writing stuff for our
own personal sites. Or, we just sit in our studios with the doors locked and
look at porno sites. However, many of us have discovered that the Internet
can be an invaluable research tool for commercial writing purposes.
Interview: Jim Cook - Clear Channel Atlanta
By Jerry Vigil
The convergence of consolidation and technology is having a huge impact
on radio production. That super producer on the east coast is now all of a
sudden available to you on the west coast. Wide area networks offer high
quality production elements, free of charge and ready for you to download
and use on your next promo. Tomorrows production departments are beginning
to take shape, and Clear Channels Jim Cook is one of the people helping to
shape them. In this months RAP Interview, Jim shares some insights into this
new world of radio production and gives us a glimpse of how Clear Channels
five Atlanta stations are taking care of business.
Feature: Client Voiced Commercials: A Time Wasting
Chore, or Your Opportunity to Shine?
By Craig Jackman
One part of radio production that I've had success with over the years is
client voiced
spots. Everybody has to do these, but not all of them sound like there was
the same amount of effort involved. In fact, I would venture that most
client voiced commercials sound like crap. Clients who want to voice their
own spots generally fall into 2 categories: those who want to stroke their
own ego, and those who feel that only they can truly represent their
business. I really don't care which category they fall into, its our job to
make them sound believable.
Test Drive: Lexicon MPX500 Dual Channel Processor
By Steve Cunningham
Lexicon is to reverb as Xerox is to photocopies, and they've established
themselves as the market leaders for quality reverb processors. The company
produced the first commercial digital delay line (the Delta-T 101) back in
1971, and it has always been known for their high-end studio effects. Back
when I was a degenerate rock musician, I drooled regularly over the Lexicon
Prime Time delays and 224 reverbs we used in recording studios. I was
fortunate to acquire a couple Lexicons in the mid-80s at fire-sale prices a
used Model 200 reverb (circa 1983, list $5000) and a new PCM-70 (circa 1987,
list $2500). I still have them both and they're among my favorites, in some
cases besting some fancy software plug-in reverbs.
So when the editor of RAP told me there was an MPX500 on its way to me for
review, I was more than ready. What I was not ready for was how much Lexicon
sound you can get today for a list price of $599.
Production Libraries: TA&A - Deep Impact & Rock Impact
By John Pellegrini
Barter production library packages are all the rage right now in the
radio industry. The concept of trading a couple of commercials per day in
order to gain extra production beds and audio candy is quite appealing to
many stations. Most of the barter packages offer bi-weekly CD updates of
music beds, stagers, sweepers, and montages of audio to fit particular
formats. Some even go so far as to offer fully produced imaging promos that
can either be aired intact or used as idea starters. These are all great
supplements to a stations existing library packages.
Yet the question can occasionally be heard echoing throughout the lonely end
of the station hall down where the production person makes his or her nest,
"why dont the production library companies offer their actual music
libraries on barter?" The answer: welcome to TA&A. Toby Arnold & Associates
have launched a barter program for their entire production and imaging
library. Not just a few music beds every 2 weeks; were talking the entire
catalog of CDs under the TA&A banner.
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - Archiving Commercials
from Multiple Sources
By Jerry Vigil
Q It Up: Not so many years ago, archiving spots was
easy. Pretty much everything arrived on reel easy to label, file and
retrieve. Now, stations get spots delivered on reel, the occasional
cassette, CD, MiniDisc, DAT, via an FTP site, as an e-mail attachment, on
the DGS box, on floppy or Zip discs, and the folks at Audiosonix, Spot Taxi,
and similar services are knocking at the door. Do you have an efficient
system for saving and cataloging spots from all these different sources so
salespeople and production people can easily find them down the road? If so,
please describe your system, and please include any other comments you might
have on the subject.
Radio Hed: Inside Story
By Jeffrey Hedquist
Yes, its improv time again. Remember when this column used to be about
radio? It still is. If the world of improv can contribute just one more
technique to help us create better radio, then it will have been worth it.
Write a dialogue spot. The two characters interact, but their "real"
thoughts are spoken by their own voices filtered and/or echoed, or by one or
two other voices playing the "inside" voice(s). Each time a main character
speaks, the "inside" voice says what the character is "really" thinking.
Personal Computing: You've Got E-Mail
By Reid Goldsborough
Despite flashiness of the Web, e-mail is and has always been the
Internets killer app. E-mail is the primary reason people go online,
followed by research, according to a survey by Louis Harris & Associates.
More than 1.6 billion noncommercial e-mail messages are sent each day in the
U.S., which is nearly three times the number first-class postal mailings,
according to an analysis by eMarketer, an Internet market research firm in
New York City.
Way Off The Mark: Make My Day
By Mark Margulies
A mans got to know his limitations" Dirty Harry
The line is from one of the early Dirty Harry movies, starring Clint
Eastwood, but it just as well may have been written for us in the radio
business as a warning. That's because this is a business where the tendency
to over-promise starts at the very top, works its way down through sales,
and ends up, finally, with us, in the writing and production end. That's
where a Production Director and creative specialist have to keep that great
line in mind know your limitations. Its the key to helping to prevent
tune-out during stop sets.
...And Make It Real Creative: Brainstorming
By Trent Rentsch
Done properly, a Brainstorming session can give you a ton of great ideas
for your current, and even future clients. Brainstorms can also be a great
bonding experience with the rest of the staff. Done properly, you'd be
amazed what wonderful, gifted, funny, FUN people you work with!
RAP Forum: Are Your Spots Super Bowl Caliber?
By Shawn Kelly
Last year, on January 31, 2000. Millions, possibly billions of people
were glued to their television screen. About of them were locked into the
excitement of what is the Super Bowl. What were the others watching for?
Commercials! Yep! Commercials. The Super Bowl has become a national pastime
for commercial gazing.
|