DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

I’ll just assume Eastwood Insurance paid a license fee to use “Tighten Up” as this spot’s music bed. A little surprising, but it would be even more surprising to discover they used a copyrighted piece of music without paying for the rights.

Why did they think that piece of music would increase the impact of their sales message? Beats me.

They actually have the germ of a human story that could grab the attention of the targeted listener, but they make a couple of mistakes:

1. They “bury the lead.” Instead of beginning with the human story, they start with a generic attack on “broker fees” and then start talking about themselves.

2. They claim they’re telling a “true story,” but they don’t give us enough details to believe it. The “guy” who “stopped in” — If it’s a true story, that guy has a name. Tell us his name. Details increase credibility.

Do you believe “Mark Ramirez” is an Eastwood agent? Sure. He speaks everyday “regular” language — and he begins by telling us his name. We believe he exists. We’re not so sure about that guy and his buddies.

The misuse of music obscures the excellent dialogue:

“We don’t charge a broker’s fee, and that saves you cash.”

“True story: This guy…”

Excellent fast start. Complete sentences not always necessary. (But, again, it “started fast” 18 seconds into the commercial — which is too late to start.)

“A guy stops in after his buddies tell him about…”

“He knew they had to be jokin’.”

“He was droppin’ 460 bucks — ouch!”

“So we run the numbers, and the price drops like a rock.”

Poetic? No.

The way real people talk? Yes.

HERE COMES THE CLUE TRAIN (which, fortunately, made a stop at Eastwood): Speak the language of your target audience.

Quick & dirty edit to demonstrate how this spot could have begun with the story and grabbed the attention of the target audience from the opening words:

If it weren’t for Pandora, I never would have discovered one of my new favorite songs.

Although I never especially cared for “girl groups” (The Angels’ “My Boyfriend’s Back” being one notable exception), what I most love about this recording is how faithful they are to the original form. Not even for a moment do they lose their focus or stop to wink at the audience.

The group is The Hot Toddies.

Consultants might — okay, they will — disagree, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this would be popular among Oldies audiences. Yes, Oldies.

The Hot Toddies

December, 1993:

I’m aware that people most enjoy the episodes in which terrible things happen to me. Although no misfortunes befell me this month, returning to two former radio stomping grounds as an “Expert From Out of Town” felt both gratifying and a little odd.

I don’t have any illustrations for this posting, so as usual I’m filling the gap with a photo of Tuesday Weld.

Back in the ’90s, I rarely found myself with a seminar booked in December. But I was pleased to be invited to visit Tampa, Florida, for a couple of days to work with the air staff of WXTB.

Their program director, Greg Mull, scheduled a full-day seminar for the entire staff on the first day. On the second day, I got up VERY early and silently sat in on their very successful morning show. This, in fact, was my very first Morning Show Tune-Up.

Greg had devised quite an unusual strategy for an AOR morning show: all request, every day, hosted by a personality-oriented morning team. My mission was simply to observe during the show.

(I was pleased to learn that, although the morning team initially was a bit apprehensive about my being there, eventually they completely forgot that I was sitting in the corner and just went about entertaining their listeners.)

I made a lot of notes, not regarding “things they were doing wrong” but rather observations on ways they might structure what they’re doing in a more consistent and powerful manner. The rest of the day was spent sharing my thoughts first with Greg and then with the morning team.

Although I cannot pretend to have been thrilled to get up at the crack of dawn, once I was awake I found the entire process rather exhilarating. And, more importantly, it appeared that Greg and his morning show thought the exercise was worthwhile, too.

The trip offered some emotional resonance for me: I hadn’t been on the West Coast of Florida since leaving the state (my early radio career was spent there) nearly 20 years before. Back then, Tampa was a real big market to me, and I would have loved to work there. Now here I was, returning in the role of the supposed big shot from Los Angeles.

But even this didn’t feel as strange as my second seminar trip of December, as I drove from San Francisco Airport to KSJO in San Jose. Not only had this station been one of my competitors 17 years earlier; its PD, Dana Jang, had programmed it against my station. Now I was coming to coach his air staff. It felt rather disorienting, pulling into the KSJO driveway. But, as always, once inside the radio station — Well, when I’m inside a radio station, I feel at home.