The latest issue of my Radio Programming Letter includes articles about the challenges of creating radio advertising for bars and nightclubs…A simple lesson you should teach your advertising clients…And the case of the emergency medical clinic whose goal is to have a funny commercial.
This posting is for subscribers to add their own comments….
If you’ve never heard John Landecker’s Boogie Check as it was broadcast across 37 states nightly from WLS/Chicago, here it is.
If you have fond memories of John Landecker’s Boogie Check as it was broadcast across 37 states nightly from WLS/Chicago, here it is again.
KFWB Los Angeles program director Chuck Blore explains how Danny Dark went from “DJ” to one of the most influential commercial voice over artists of the 20th Century.
October, 1996 (continued):
On Halloween, I found myself booked to present How To Create Maximum Impact Radio Advertising for Paul Taff and the Connecticut Broadcasters Association’s convention near Hartford.
This was quite exciting for me, because it was the first time I had ever been asked to conduct a seminar in my home state.
The flight from Chicago to Bradley Field — oops, sorry; these days it’s called Bradley International Airport — left 90 minutes late.
Once we were aloft, it was announced that due to bad weather we would have to land not at Bradley, which is located between Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts, but instead at Boston….a couple of hours’ drive from Hartford.
Everyone on the plane immediately scrambled for the in-flight telephones to try to change their plans. I figure GTE made several thousand dollars on that one flight…and then we ended up at Bradley after all.
I spent much of the day after my seminar for the CBA wandering around my old hometown. A long exploratory visit in the local cemetery (which dates back to the American Revolution) offered an unexpected lesson in West Hartford history.
Many of the surnames that repeatedly turned up on gravestones are the same names that adorn the city’s streets: Brace, Griswold, Bishop (a name long-since memorialized via a shopping intersection called “Bishop’s Corner”).
On the following day I presented a day-long version of Air Personality Plus+, attended by nearly 100 radio personalities and program directors from the New England area.
All in all, a very satisfying trip.
A Loyal Reader Writes:
“I’m the sports director of a small market radio station that broadcasts lots of ballgames. One of my duties is to write liners and promos for the upcoming games.
“My program director and general manager require me to submit the promos and liners for approval before going on the air. And nine times out of ten they get thrown back in my face as being ‘too negative.’
“As an example I once wrote:
‘The (Local) Panthers try to diffuse the (Out of Town) Rockets.’
“My PD and GM both said I couldn’t use it because it sent a ‘negative connotation’ to the listener.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I’m simply writing, ‘(Local Team) plays So-And-So this Friday Night….’
“The promos have gone from what I think are rather creative to bland and boring.
“Am I getting worked up over nothing, or do I have a gripe?”
As a PD, I would want to make sure that everything that airs on my station supports the brand I’m trying to build or maintain.
So I’d do the following:
1) I’d screen all the promos myself.
2) Once I’d developed confidence in the ability and willingness of my sports director to produce the kinds of promos that conform to the guidelines I’ve laid down, I’d delegate the screening process to someone else (e.g., Assistant Program Director) — making sure that person understands his job is not to nit-pick or criticize; it’s only to advise me if he thinks there’s a spot I should hear before it airs.
I would not, however, create psychosis among my staff by requiring them to clear promos with both the program director and the general manager.
Trying to please one person is hard enough.
Trying to please two different sensibilities leads to severe headaches, intense dyspepsia, alcoholism, and early death.
