Chuck Blore — perhaps the most successful American radio programmer in history, creator of KFWB/Los Angeles’ “Color Radio” — reminds us once again that some of us just happen to be born “radio people.”
A Loyal Reader Writes:
“Here is my dilemma. I have been a copywriter/production director at a small-market radio station cluster for eight years. I write and produce copy for the LISTENER, as opposed to the client. I feel it is my job to keep our listeners tuned in during the stopsets. After all, what’s the main reason our listeners have tuned in? TO BE ENTERTAINED.
“Therefore, I try so desperately to give our clients creative commercials that will keep our listeners tuned in.
“Dan, trying to achieve this in a small market is no easy task. Let me re-phrase that….It’s IMPOSSIBLE!
“Do you have any suggestions how to make our clients understand that if we put a commercial on the air that provides some kind of entertainment value or leaves some kind of impact, the listener is more likely to stay tuned in and, hopefully, patronize the client’s business?
“They seem to think the laundry lists and phone numbers and address and same-ole-same-ole cliches will do the trick. Doing things differently around here is like breaking one of the Ten Commandments. I want our radio station to be compared to the Super Bowl — I want us to become known for our commercials! I want our clients’ traffic to increase as a result of that.
“HELP!!!! Whatever you respond, I will forward to our sales staff. Thank you!”
I respectfully disagree vigorously with your point-of-view.
You should be writing and producing commercials designed to produce results for the client, not to entertain your listeners.
Your clients are gambling their money on your station’s ability to help them make money. For some of them, this is very much a life-or- death situation insofar as their businesses are concerned.
When your salespeople convinced them to advertise on your station, they did not promise, “If you give us money, we’ll try to make commercials that entertain our listeners.” Instead, they promised to increase in-store traffic and/or otherwise make the client’s cash register ring.
The station already should have in place commercial guidelines to protect the station’s overall sound and image, and clearly you should adhere to those guidelines. But your sole goal should be to create commercials that make money for the advertisers.
Also, you are laboring under a horrible misconception if you think the only way to maintain the listeners’ interest in a commercial is to “entertain.” All you need to do is make the commercial messages interesting. That could be mean: Funny….Dramatic….Shocking…. Provocative….Emotional….Anything that involves the listener. And, above all, relevant to their lives.
And that could simply be a single voice asking, “Have you been trying unsuccessfully to lose weight?”
Do you have any suggestions how to make our clients understand that if we put a commercial on the air that provides some kind of entertainment value or leaves some kind of impact, the listener is more likely to stay tuned in and, hopefully, patronize the clients’ business?
You’re talking about communicating to the client, “Hey, there’s a real danger here that no one will stay tuned long enough to hear your message!”
A commercial shouldn’t attempt to provide “some kind of entertainment value” or “some kind of impact.” It should be designed to produce specific defined results: to get people to call to request the free information booklet. To get people to come to the dealership and test drive the vehicle being advertised. To come to the restaurant on Wednesday evenings.
We do agree on one thing: Laundry lists street addresses and local retail phone numbers are typical ingredients of bad commercials. And there are ways to teach clients about the follies of their bad advertising.
I can’t believe you’d aspire to being the Super Bowl of radio commercials. The Super Bowl has become infamous for squandering scores of millions of dollars on advertising that sometimes entertains, sometimes wins awards…but almost never helps the advertiser in any way.
What I get from your question mostly is this:
Like most people in your position, you’re a radio person who was given the title of Production Director but who really doesn’t know much about advertising and has not taken it upon himself to acquire a professional-level education in that subject. So you just sort of “wing it,” trying to cope with ridiculous deadlines and trying to make entertaining commercials but not necessarily commercials that provide a positive return on the advertiser’s investment.
And I’ll wager you and your employer have never had a single meeting in which one of you said, “Dammit, we’ve got to find ways to produce better results for our advertisers!”
I offer these thoughts because you asked for my opinion, not to make you feel bad or to insult you.
But allow me to be the first to say this to you:
Radio advertising is not an exercise in creativity. Radio advertising is Mass Salesmanship.
And you should be focusing every ounce of your abilities on selling, not on entertaining.
A Loyal Reader Writes:
“Our consultant recently said that he doesn’t want any online music streaming of our station.
“Why not? He doesn’t want to make it easy for our competition’s out-of-market consultants to get ahold of our playlist.
“Does that make any sense?”
It makes perfect sense.
After all, if you don’t stream your music online, then there’s absolutely no way that your competition (or your competition’s out-of-market consultants) can hear what you’re playing.
You see, if you stream your music, then your competitors’ out-of-town consultants will sit at their computers all day long and carefully write down each song as you play it.
But if you don’t stream your music, then there’s no way any outsider can figure out your playlist.
I mean, what’s he going to do — have your local competitor record your station for a couple of days and then have a part-timer spend a few hours skimming the recording and jotting down the names of the songs that played and the times they aired?
Of course, research consistently shows that the #1 thing listeners want from their favorite radio station’s website is the ability to listen to that station on their computers.
But your consultant is wise to ignore what would drive listener traffic to your website and instead to worry about a competitor learning what music you play.
Just in case my sarcasm doesn’t translate well here:
Your consultant’s logic and actions are idiotic.
Recently I came across a letter someone sent me after one of my R&R columns from 1991.
In the column I analyzed a particularly bad tape & resume that I received from a disc jockey (whom I didn’t identify).
Yes, “tape.” You’ll also see a reference to an archaic device known as a “typewriter.”
Some highlights:
* The applicant used a grease pencil to scrawl his name on his aircheck cassette.
* The cover letter said, “References on Request.” I pointed out that this is a big pet peeve among PDs. If you have references, include them. Or don’t include them. But there’s no point in telling a prospective employer, “I have references, but you’ll have to ask me for them.”
* The cover letter (that was sent to me) was addressed to “Selection Committee.”
Dear Dan,
Thank you very much for your informative article, “How Not To Apply For A Job” (R&R, May 10). It was right on target, indicating exactly how far out of touch you really are with the difficulty associated with landing a better radio job. As with a number of programmers, consultants, and GMs, your diatribe was laden with what you DON’T want and nothing about what you do want; focusing entirely on the problem without mentioning any solution whatsoever. You’ve left us only, once again, to keep guessing.
Alas, another person claiming to be a “communicator” fails miserably in his communication.
As “The Overnight Guy” at (W___) in top-50 Greensboro, North Carolina, it has been my experience that if you’re not in the “good ol’ boy” network of PD’s, jocks, etc., you’re not “in”, and are reduced from having a human existence with a pulse to being “known” by your resume. Talent, desire and perseverance have nothing to do with it. The individual your article bludgeoned did the best knew how with his five years’ experience. Have you always composed the “perfect resume”? I think not, for no such animal exists. Your degradation of this person as a professional for handwriting on his cassette with a grease pencil is totally inconsistent with his attempt (and I emphasize “attempt”) at being professional in the wording of his cover letter and resume. This guy is merely trying to enjoy this business, make progress in it, and still pay his rent. You arrogantly come across sounding like you’d rather he drop a hundred bucks at the printer’s for personalized die-cut labels!
…Or, even BETTER: an arm, leg, and left nut for one of your seminars!
Regarding the matter of “References Upon Request”: I don’t care if it is ”pet peeve of many PD’s,” I am not going to bandy about the names, addresses and phone numbers of MY references (i.e., colleagues with whom I’ve had a good working relationship) to God-knows-who, without first contacting them and ASKING THEIR PERMISSION to do so! The business changes so rapidly that the reference I might list (according to your criterion) in March may not, for any number of reasons be valid by the time you’re ready to follow-up on it in November. This is yet another inconsistency in your article: If my education and experience catches your interest from my resume, in which you seem to invest so much credibility (you’ve never lied on a resume, have you?), you’re going to contact me anyway, right? You can reasonably ask for references at that time and I’ll give them to you over the phone or mail them to you in another letter. “References Upon Request” gives me an opportunity to sell myself a little more; maybe even thank you for considering me for a job, and allows me to maintain a little control in an uncontrollable situation by letting me know that I’m not farting into a tailwind. By your peeved state at this very common — and PROFESSIONAL — business practice, I can only conclude that you get your chuckles from what people are saying about me behind my back! Even after 15 years’ experience, I’m not so jaded that I will broach the confidence of a co-worker or past or present PD in that way. I suggest that you live with it.
Please continue splitting your insignificant hairs and hacking out your negative articles which pigeonhole those of us with resumes containing words with more than three syl-la-bles as untalented, unprofessional and unworthy of any success in our radio careers. We will continue to get jobs, lose jobs, move up, and try to keep a little humanity and sanity about ourselves for this business. You won’t be missed.
Finally, after you’ve cut our man with the bad resume to shreds, seemingly out of spite because you were referred to as the “Selection Committee” as opposed to, perhaps, “Sir Dan,” or “Your Highness,” you didn’t even have the decency (or is it capability?) to take your massive ego out of overdrive long enough to say ONE WORD about how our boy’s air-check sounded. Was it as good as his resume was “bad”? Did it make you that nervous? Or are you being THREATENED? Your priorities here are totally confused and your lack of comment on this is conspicuous by its absence.
That, in my most PROFESSIONAL opinion and utmost candor, CHAPS MY ASS!
Sincerely,
( )
Dear Mr. ( ),
1. I am aware that landing a better radio job is fraught with difficulty. People whose presentations make as poor an impression as the one I wrote about are likely to experience more difficulty than is necessary.
2. Regular readers of my column have not been left to “keep guessing” what PDs do want. I’ve written regularly and often on the subject in painstaking detail…including a multi-part series entitled “The Radio Job-Hunting Survival Guide.”
3. In my experience, most people send tapes & resumes in the hopes of getting a job, not as a means of having one’s human existence validated.
4. Most program directors prefer to hire people who act professionally — not people who unsuccessfully “attempt” to do so.
5. Spending $100 for die-cut labels is one alternative to scribbling one’s name with a grease pencil. Another alternative is to use a typewriter and a plain cassette label. I believe the latter suggestion is the cheaper of the two.
6. My next seminar runs two very long, full days. The registration cost is $179. If that represents to you an arm, leg and left nut, then you place a far lower value on your nuts than I do on mine.
7. A job-seeker who doesn’t “care if it is a pet peeve of many PDs” is a fool.
8. If you wish to list references, you can get permission from the people on your list before including it with your package. Also, you seem to miss the fact that I did not insist that references be included in the resume package. I said, “Either list your references or don’t.”
9. If business changes cause changes in your list of references, you can edit the list as needed and only send out the current, up-to-date list at any given time.
10. Fortunately, I don’t have to “live with” unprofessional tapes & resumes. The only person who does is the one who mails them to prospective employers. After 15 years in radio, you have been fortunate enough to have risen to an overnight position in Greensboro, North Carolina. Others who hope to attain or even exceed your success can help themselves by making their first impression as positive as possible.
11. I didn’t discuss the content of the aircheck because it was irrelevant to the article. I already have written extensively about aircheck contents; this piece was devoted to packaging, not content.
Best,
Dan O’Day
Before listening to this commercial, please make a list of the attributes that you look for in a bank — the things that make up “your kind of bank.”
Done?
Okay, now the commercial….
Please review your list. Exactly where does “ranking first in a JD Power and Associates survey” show up on that list?
If that’s not on your list, then according to this commercial Bank of the West is not your kind of bank.
“We’re the kind of bank that puts our customers first.”
Oooh, what a powerful positioning statement. As original as it is persuasive.
“For exceptional service that can make banking easier for you”
Sure would’ve been nice if they’d given us an example of their exceptional service and how it makes banking easier for us.
This is a commercial for JD Power and Associates, complete with a Call To Action to visit the JD Power and Associates website.
Paid for by Bank of the West.
