May 2004 RAP

The RAP CD

May 2004 Highlights

Feature: How Not To Get The Job Redeux

Many years ago I wrote an article for RAP called, "How Not To Get The Job." It was written so long ago in fact that I cant even remember if I ever sent it in for publishing or whether it even ran. If it did run, then this article is kind of a refresher on the subject because the problem hasn't gone away. If it didn't get published and is still languishing somewhere in the vast void of my brain then here it is anyhow.

Interview: Jim Hausfeld - Clear Channel, Dayton, Ohio

A lot of people dream about where they'd like to be in ten years, but never get there. Jim Hausfeld dreamt of working at WTUE ten years after he got out of college. As fate would have it, he didn't need to wait ten years. He got his job at his dream station right out of college. And what do you do when you find your dream job? You stay there, as Jim has for the past 16 years! This months RAP Interview stops in at the Clear Channel cluster in Dayton, Ohio, market #58, where Jim Hausfeld heads up a production team of four and handles the imaging for three of the stations, including the top-rated classic rocker, WTUE. Our congratulations to Jim for winning this years Best Promo RAP Award/Medium Markets, and you can hear more of Jims great work on this months RAP CD.

Test Drive: Yorkville YSM1-P Bi-amped Near Field Monitors

Last week, my wife came down into the "Snake Pit" (my underground home studio, affectionately named after the old Hitsville, Detroit home studio because of the cabling everywhere), and looked at me funny. "Why are you crying, honey, anything wrong?" she asked. "I'm not crying," I quickly and manfully replied, uh, through a crack in my voice! "What is that wet stuff running from your eyes down your cheeks?" she insisted. Indulge me the following is a simple, but LONG answer. I bade her sit down and listen to things with me that I had never heard before, or don't remember hearing, what with the current wave of cheap "boom-box" quality speakers passing themselves off as studio-monitors which seem to have surfaced in many radio stations in the last few years.

Production 212: The Zen of Production

I never talk about politics or religion with people I don't know. Its a rule in life that I follow, well religiously. But I figure most of you who are reading this, are pretty much cut from the same cloth as me, so Im breaking that rule this month to talk about the first tenet of the Holy Church of the Workstation. Don't worry, we don't take collections and you'll never hear a sermon filled with fire and brimstone. Uh, make that almost never.

Radio Hed: Seven Critical Story Questions

Lets say you've unearthed lots of stories from your memories or from your clients recollections. You've turned the best of them into story commercials, but they could still use some tweaking. Here are Seven Questions to ask to help you find the focus in your stories. These are variations on the ones I got from my friend Andy Goodman www.agoodmanonline.com.

Feature: Reflections

I just turned 40. The big 4-0. The turning point Insert your favorite cliché here. What else do you do when you're 40? No, I mean besides the surprise party where you get drunk and all your closest friends chip in to get you a case of Depends. When you are 40 you sit and reflect on where you've come from, where you are, and what lies ahead.

Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - What New Toys Are In Your Studio?

Q It Up: What software purchases and/or upgrades have you or your station(s) made in the past year or so for your studio? This could include any software that you find useful in the studio for day-to-day business, such as archiving software or an organizational program; not just audio software. Please provide a brief description (for not so popular products), and give us your opinion of the new product(s) or upgrade(s). Tell us how you're using the product(s) if that's not obvious, and add any other relative comments you might have.

The Monday Morning Memo: When Good Ads Fail

You ran an inspired series of wonderful ads. And got nothing in return. What? Like so many Sir Galahads on the quest for the Holy Grail, businesspeople continue to search with near-religious ardor for "the perfect ad campaign." And many, when they have found it, learn that its not enough.

...And Make It Real Creative:

I'd like to report to you that I wasn't the typical gawking tourist, but that would be a lie. The truth is that if it had been raining, I would've drowned, staring up at the buildings with my mouth open like that. Yes, New York City was the eye opener I expected it to be, and then some.