LEAP OF FAITH RADIO PRODUCTION, PART TWO: Finding The Sweet Spot

(Second in a series by Bobby Ocean.)

We were using our Production Channeling Abilities to observe this period radio is going through as our golden opportunity. We also clearly see — not much in the way of competition.

We know, and listeners have heard, that corporate owners never learned elements of entertaining, plus are blinded by the crushing pain of their own debt load. This major dual handicap cannot be overstated. Their attention diverted, it ought to be easy to steal their audience.

HOMEWORK:
Listen to spots, promos, get good at “finding the sweet spot.” You don’t need anyone to help you with this exercise, especially if you do it enough.

“You are a Production (freak) (guru) (whiz) (addict) (marvel) (authority) (genius)!” All those things and more have been attributed to (you/me) and all of them are not at all who or what we are.

Speaking for self, it’s like when friends or family glimpse my frame hunched over gear in my working environment and declare, “Boy! You sure know a lot about computers!” Kinda nice they would think of me as competent, but nope, not with computers. Not so. Not really, not at all.

I run Macs, after all.

Actually, I only found out how to make certain applications in the computer, designed for what I do, operate as they were designed. Even then, I only learned because sound was going digital, I love what I do and I love to do it well.

You too, huh? No genius, no super powers, except when I’m/we’re  negotiating, of course. We’re every kind of ordinary folks who just happen to have a larger than usual portion of “I love audio/music/gear/radio,” that’s it. That’s more than enough.

Because of, and with that enthusiasm, we continue to try and find better and better ways to play. Ideas are everywhere.

Let’s start by looking at what we have been using and see how many ways we can update. Here’s an area in which we can all share thanks to Dan’s Comment section.

I’ll start, just to get things rolling, with what I think is a “universal technique,” that still works today in writing and production: Finding the “sweet spot” in any piece of production.

The “sweet spot” can be a variety of things — a jingle line or melody; the product or service’s price; chemistry between characters; the tag line; even the phone number. The sweet spot is attractice and not only charming, but charm’s peak, the simplest thing, the thing the listener will remember.

And if you can’t find one, all the better! You can be the ‘genius’ who writes one in.

The sweet spot is what we use for our fulcrum, our leverage point, our focus. Uses/styles of working the sweet spot include everything from tension to leverage to the cue when we change the music’s key.

Never has there been an easier period for alternative audio (and video) programming — of every device from online to hand-held — to woo away and create a loyalty among an audience. It’s as easy as picking low hanging fruit. Do your homework, make it fun, so you’re good at it.