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Radio And Production
November 2009
November 2009 Highlights
Interview:
Terry Phillips WYCD/WOMC, Detroit, MI
by Jerry Vigil
“Texas” Terry Phillips may be one of the hardest working
production dudes in radio. We managed to catch up with him one
Saturday afternoon just as he was waking up. Seems he got home
from a long Friday at work at 5:30 that morning. No doubt, Terry
has a passion for his work, and it certainly pays off for CBS
Radio’s Country and Classic Hits stations in Detroit, WYCD and
WOMC. And there’s work for a number of HD and internet stations
as well. You may have met Terry at one of Dan O’Day’s recent
Creative Summits where he was a panelist. This month’s RAP
Interview checks in with this busy creative as we take a peek at
these two successful stations and Terry’s approach to their
imaging. Check out some great audio from Terry on this month’s
RAP CD.
Notes Off the Napkin:
Reclaiming Disclaimers
by Andrew Frame
Quite literally, mere weeks before we were to hand the keys
to our house over to the mortgage company, a radio/TV cluster
that we had been calling on for the previous year, called back.
They wanted to know if we were still interested in working the
monthly retainer we had proposed. Um, yes? A month into the
deal, they’re a machine. We should have charged more. Anyway,
one of the things I’ve been working on with our agency clients
that is being carried over successfully to our new local-direct
work, is to lose the disclaimer. Write scripts so a disclaimer
is simply not necessary. Some localities have laws that require
some kind of disclaimer, and often we throw on a see dealer for
details, or on your approved credit to make the bureaucrats
giddy with legislative glee.
Test Drive:
Sony Sound Forge Pro 10
by Steve Cunningham
It seems that about every two years Sony releases a new
version of Sound Forge. Indeed, it’s been a little over two
years since we last looked at Sound Forge version 9. Since the
percentage of RAP readers who use Forge on a regular basis is
high, I figured you’d want to know about what’s new sooner
rather than later. Here’s the deal in a nutshell -- overall,
Sound Forge Pro 10 is all about streamlining the user interface
and improving the program’s overall workflow. It’s still the
same Sound Forge we’ve known and loved and used for all these
years. But menu items have moved, new menus have sprung up, and
toolbars have been eliminated or replaced.
Feature:
Vanishing Colleagues
by Michael R. Lee, Ph.D.
The unthinkable has become the norm. In the ravaged landscape
of radio, our colleagues are disappearing in ever-increasing
numbers. And the sad fact is, they’re not coming back. The radio
crisis is at critical mass or beyond. Let’s just call it free
fall. Revenues, spots, spot prices, station prices, stock market
losses. But the worst losses are, certainly, of the human
variety. People who have dedicated their lives to the practice
of radio lose their jobs. It’s not like soldiers in Iraq or
Afghanistan losing their lives. Yet, these losses make those who
remain feel much emptier.
Q It Up:
The RAP Network Speaks - Advertising
agencies that bring you multi-voice scripts loaded with sound
effects and expect it all for free.
Q It Up: Do you ever
deal with advertising agencies that bring you 4-voice
scripts loaded with sound effects and expect it all for
free? These are typically the smaller agencies who do not
use an independent production house for their work, but
instead believe the radio station’s production department
and voice talent is there for their use, at no charge,
because “they’re bringing the buy” to the radio station.
Sometimes they just deliver a script and coach you from a
distance; other times, they lock up hours of your studio
time “directing” the production themselves. How do you deal
with these agencies? Is this a service radio should provide
for free? Do you have any policies or guidelines in effect
for these situations?
If you have a question for the RAP Network, email it to
editor@rapmag.com!
Radio Hed:
Competitive Advantage
by Jeffrey Hedquist
In a commercial, we’re asking the audience to give us their
attention for the purpose of letting us convince them to give us
their money. They’ll only do this in their own self-interest.
They don’t care about us, so we need to answer the question,
“Why should I buy from you?” In a very short amount of time, in
the midst of a crowded environment we need to reach an
over-communicated audience with a message that answers this
question. In short, we need to clarify our client’s competitive
advantage. I was inspired to discuss this by the extensive work
done by Jaynie L. Smith, author of Creating Competitive
Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over your
Competition. I’ll be paraphrasing some of her points here as
they apply to being a better marketing partner with our clients.
...And Make
It Real Creative
by Trent Rentsch
I’ve written before about the power of shared experience,
of pulling the listener into your Creative by using
compelling bits of your own life in your scripts, bits that
everyone can relate to. It’s a powerful tool to establish an
emotional connection between your message and your audience,
but I’ve also found that it can be therapeutic as well. If
I’ve made a bonehead move in life, it takes some of the
sting out of it if I make it a set up in a commercial…
people laugh, they relate, and hopefully I can live and
learn. It’s the same with the more sobering aspects of life.
Monday Morning Memo: The Extraordinary People Myth
by Roy H. Williams
It’s like you’ve asked him to defend his
religion; the business owner who believes in growing his
businesses through exceptional service delivered by
extraordinary people gets testy when you ask him to name a
business that has successfully employed this strategy. It’s
like trying to convince a believer there is no God. I’ve
encountered dozens of business owners who believed in their
hearts they had extraordinary employees. None of them ever
did.
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