October 2006 RAP
October 2006 Highlights
Production 212: I Give It a 5 'Cause It's Easy to Dance
To
By Dave Foxx
I recently got back from Los Angeles and the Dan O’Day International
Production Summit. Dan very graciously asked me to come out and do some live
production sessions on the stage while the attendees all gawked at a
projection screen, eyeballing everything I did, as I did it. Honestly, it
was a little un-nerving to sit up there and just do what I normally do,
while explaining the entire process, all while keeping track of the time. I
don’t normally talk while I’m producing and I never look at the clock, so I
felt a little like I was trying to chew gum and walk at the same time,
something I never really mastered.
Interview: Ian Fish, Heart Radio, West Midlands, United
Kingdom
By Jerry Vigil
This month’s RAP Interview takes another trip outside the good ol’ USA to
the UK where we hooked up with Ian Fish, Head of Production for A/C
formatted Heart radio, a Chrysalis owned group. Ian’s clean, professional
production style has been featured on the RAP CD many times, but what you
don’t hear on the CD is how diverse Ian’s skills are, and how his multiple
talents play a big part in keeping Heart at the top of the ratings charts.
Ian talks about his unique skill set and offers some ideas we can all use to
further the cause of bringing our stations up to par with today’s
technology, and strengthen our positions in the battle for listeners in this
iPod-Internet-Satellite infested world of personal entertainment. Be sure to
check out Ian’s sampler on this month’s RAP CD!
Test Drive: A Pair of USB Microphones
By Steve Cunningham
Podcasting. Everybody and his uncle Bob is podcasting. Often podcasting
is little more than remote recording, which we all do now and again. But
beyond the actual activity of creating, editing, and uploading, podcasting
is important to me because it represents an opportunity to engage in one of
my favorite activities — checking out new gear! Woo-hoo! This month we’ll
look at a couple of affordable USB microphones that plug directly into your
laptop. While they both were clearly designed with podcasting in mind,
they’re also appropriate for remote recording in general. Let’s see how they
fare when used to interview the owner of Honest John’s Used Car Emporium for
a commercial campaign. Do they capture his sincerity well enough to air?
Feature: Scenes from a Mall
by Craig Jackman
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m the perfect candidate for one of
those TV makeover shows. No, not because I’m some clothes crazed fashionista
keeping up with the latest trends, in fact it’s quite the opposite as I hate
shopping. For me, shopping ranks right up there with catching the common
cold. It’s something that’s not a great necessity in my life but still
manages to happen to me a couple of times a year whether I want it to or
not, no matter how hard I fight to prevent it.
Radio Hed: Six Commercial Ruts (and how to dig yourself
out of them)
By Jeffrey Hedquist
If your commercials sound like commercials, listeners will probably
ignore them. Here are some of the ruts we fall into, making our commercials
sound like commercials:
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks! - Do You Have a
Nightmare Client? - Part 2
Q It Up: Nightmare Clients. Do you have one? More than
likely, you have at least one client that you dread dealing with. Perhaps
they come into the studio and spend three hours on one spot. Or they insist
on bringing their entire staff along to impress them and waste your day. Or
maybe they’re revision addicts. Maybe they’re just obnoxious people. Do you
have a nightmare client? Tell us about him/her, what they do to destroy your
day, and what you do to deal with it. For the sake of saving your job,
you’re more than welcome to change the identity of your nightmare client,
but let’s keep the story real. Purpose of this Q It Up question? To vent, to
remind us all we’re not alone with our nightmare clients, and hopefully, to
share some ways of dealing with these people that will help us the next time
the client from hell calls.
...And Make It Real Creative:
By Trent Rentsch
Let me start by saying, "I can’t see some ugly thoughts till she burps."
Wait, I think I got a word wrong. It should be, "I can’t see some PRETTY
thoughts till she burps." Hold on, I’m getting new information... okay,
here, "I don’t dig her pretty thoughts because she didn’t clean the
windows." Damn, that can’t be it! Let me check my sources again. HERE we go,
"I’m not a patient man when her beautiful windows aren’t clean. I gotta ask
if she used the knock-off Windex." I think we’re closer, but the window
thing really has to go. Let’s try, "I’m impatient with her beauty, cuz I
can’t see it." Oh geez, HERE’S the problem!! It’s some guy, not a woman!
Maybe it’s, "I’m impatient for his beauty, cuz he won’t show me..." No, that
is REALLY wrong!
Personal Computing: How Not to Stick Your Foot in Your
Mouth Via E-Mail
by Reid Goldsborough
E-mail is the most common form of business communication today and among
the most common forms of all communication. Yet many people communicate
poorly with e-mail. That’s the opinion of Janis Fisher Chan, and I agree.
Chan makes her living doing something about this. She’s the co-founder of
Write It Well (www.writeitwell.com), a publishing and training firm
operating out of Oakland, Calif., since 1980 that specializes in helping
business people write clearly and concisely in e-mail and elsewhere. She’s
also author of the just published book E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide, and
eight other books on business writing and other topics.
The Monday Morning Memo: Targeting Through Ad Copy
by Roy H. Williams
For years, advertisers have at tempted to target "the right customer"
through carefully selected media vehicles. Mailing lists aimed at specific
demographic, geographic and psychographic profiles have fallen short so
often that a 3 percent conversion rate is considered a big success.
Carefully selected TV shows and radio formats have failed to deliver equally
as often. And now email opt-in lists are disappointing a whole new
generation of advertisers.
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