July 2005 RAP
July 2005 Highlights
Feature: Summertime and the Living is Easy
By Craig Jackman
It’s summertime and that means vacation season. In my cluster, that can
become a big deal, with different reps covering each other’s accounts, and
then directing those accounts to different writers in the Creative
department, to say nothing of all the different jocks taking time off. In
Production it’s a little different. Of the five producers we have on staff,
we have one guy with 25 years in the company and six weeks vacation. I’m
coming up on 20 years with the same company and five weeks vacation. There’s
a third producer with 25 years in the market, though not all with the same
company. The other two are younger than us geezers, with only a handful of
years’ seniority and vacation each. However we’re all family men and that
means different demands on vacation time as well, with trips here, extended
time at the lake there, and the odd stretch transporting the oldest off to
another term at University. As Production Supervisor, one of the things I
have to do is balance all the vacation time with the amount of work that
never ends and still needs to get done.
Interview: Ken Scott, TourDesign, Indianapolis, Indiana
By Jerry Vigil
Ken Scott had quite a career in radio prior to his departure to work for
TourDesign. As a teenager, he held down four different radio jobs at one
time. He held simultaneous part-time positions at a Country FM and Gospel AM
in Decatur, Alabama, sign-on duties at his local hometown AM station and
drove 40 miles to another radio gig at a Contemporary Christian FM in
Huntsville. At his first full-time gig at WDRM-FM in Huntsville, Ken became
the first talent there to cross the ratings threshold of a 30 share in the
coveted 25-54 demographic. Ken accepted his first management job in 1992 to
become group PD for Prarieland Broadcasters in Decatur, IL. He was only 25.
He was also a popular morning show host on WDZQ-FM in Decatur (and can still
be heard there today as the stations image voice). He very nearly took a
different path when approached by the local ABC TV affiliate to do on camera
weather reports. Ken succeeded in his transition to an on-camera
weather-caster, continuing this for just over a year. Then there was his
first major market gig at WLS in Chicago before landing at TourDesign as the
Director of Audio Services. Ken, a.k.a. "That Voice Guy", and wife Patti
also operate their own creative services company, ScotSpots Creative Audio.
In this month’s RAP Interview, Ken gives us an inside look at TourDesign in
2005, offers some tips to creating killer concert spots, shares some
enlightening information about caring for your voice, and more. Be sure to
check out Ken’s demo on this month’s RAP CD!
Test Drive: Pristine Space and Voxformer from Voxengo
By Steve Cunningham
From the northwest of Russia, about 800 miles due east of Moscow, sits
the Republic of Komi, home to Aleksey Vaneev and his Voxengo Pro Audio
Software company. I’ve noticed that the Voxengo line of plug-ins is quite
popular with radio pros, so this month we’ll take a look at a couple that
are of particular interest to production, Pristine Space and Voxformer.
Production 212: You're Either Creative... Or You're Not!
(NOT!)
By Dave Foxx
Well… it’s finally happened. I’ve run out of ideas. Gas tank is empty!
Gone. Goodbye. I can’t do this anymore. My career is finished. This time
next month, I’ll be selling shoes at a discount store. My name badge will
say “Doofus,” and all the hard work and…. FREEZE. You’ve probably been there
before. The boss walks in and hands me some bullet points on a new promotion
and then stands there, tapping his foot, waiting for me to have a
magnificent idea for a new way to promote giving T-shirts away this weekend.
Boss! It don’t work like that. It’s hard being creative on-demand!
Radio Hed: They're Not Just Spots, They're Sales Calls
By Jeffrey Hedquist
Morris Hite, legendary ad man has been quoted as saying: “Advertising is
salesmanship mass produced. No one would bother to use advertising if he
could talk to all his prospects face-to-face. But he can’t.”
As radio advertisers we often forget this truism in an effort to be clever,
funny or outrageous. Those qualities can be effective ways to get a
listener’s attention, but what we want our commercials to do is convince the
listener to make the call, visit the web site, go to the place of business,
request the brochure, attend the free seminar or ask for the free
consultation.
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - What Mics Do You Use?
Q It Up: What mic do you use for your commercial and/or
imaging production? What are your likes and dislikes about the mic? If you
had your choice of ANY mic, what would you choose and why? Feel free to add
any other related comments.
...And Make It Real Creative:
By Trent Rentsch
This seems like a good time to revisit The Wall, especially since I seem
to have hit it. You know the one… you’re cruising along fine, knocking over
every Creative project that comes your way, when suddenly, WHAM! In front of
you is The Wall. Too wide to work around, too tall to work over, too thick
to work through. You are stranded, frozen in front of an imaginary barrier
that has sapped you of all of your Creative juice. To say it’s frustrating
is one of the great understatements. It can leave you feeling stupid,
humiliated, and utterly useless. The Wall always appears at the worst
possible times; when you least expect it, and/or when you’re faced with a
deadline that’s written in stone.
The Monday Morning Memo: The Feel of Real
By Roy H. Williams
In her 1991 book, The Popcorn Report, Faith Popcorn wrote of a trend
called Fantasy Adventure: “What is Fantasy Adventure exactly? It’s vicarious
escape through consumerism, catharsis through consumption. It’s a momentary,
wild-and-crazy retreat from the world into an exotic flavor, a foreign
experience, some product-assisted derring-do of the imagination.” Soon after
that, we saw The Disney Store make its appearance in the malls of America
and ChuckECheese gave us the first animatronic band, The Rock-afire
Explosion. Then the powerboys of Las Vegas announced a series of themed
retreats, each one carefully designed to make us feel as though we were
walking through an Indiana Jones movie.
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