DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

LET’S VOTE GARY BURBANK INTO THE RADIO HALL OF FAME

by Dan O'Day on July 15, 2009

Here are the final moments of a spectacular radio career…

Gary Burbank spent 35 years doing more things brilliantly than any radio personality I’ve ever heard.

My biggest disappointment of 2008 was that he wasn’t voted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

I hope you will join me now in voting for Gary Burbank for induction into the Radio Hall of Fame this month.

Deadline is July 31.

The voting process is very quick and easy. In fact, doing it will be faster for you than reading these instructions. (You can simply click on this link to vote and ignore my instructions; I’m just trying to make it as easy as possible for you.)

How To Cast Your Ballot For Gary Burbank

1. Click on this link: https://nrhof.votenet.com/nrhof/register/

2. Fill in the free registration form. (The only required fields are First Name, Last Name, and Email address.)

3. Check your email for a message with the subject:
“NRHOF 2009 Radio Hall of Fame Vote”

4. Follow the instructions in the email, which are:

A) Click on the link they send you.

B) Enter your user name (which will be your email address).

C) Enter the password they give you in that email.

5. Click on “Ballot” (top of page, 3rd from the left)

6. Gary’s category is the first one: “LOCAL OR REGIONAL – PIONEER”

7. Vote for Gary.

8. Vote for any others you prefer in the other categories (including, of course, our friend Dick Orkin).

9. Keep clicking on “Click to Continue” until you get to the page that says “VOTE” in a big green box at the bottom of the page.

(All of this is VERY quick. Total voting time probably is a minute or less.)

You’re done!

I was a young jock when I first heard Gary Burbank. He raised the bar for all of us.

Let’s see that he gets the credit he deserves.

And if you have your own memories of Gary Burbank, please feel free to share them here…

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SALES/CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS IN REAL-WORLD SITUATIONS

by Dan O'Day on July 14, 2009

Real World

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MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: An Award Winner That (Gasp!) Works

by Dan O'Day on July 13, 2009

Newborn Baby Hey, here’s a refreshing change: A Radio Mercury Award winning commercial that’s actually…

Good.

This campaign has been running for a long time. But because the human stories they tell are so vivid and so relatable, the campaign continues to work. (Unlike a certain other long running, always award winning beer campaign…)

Some subtle strengths:

• Unlike 99% of radio advertisers, they do not begin with the advertiser’s name. They are too smart to open with, “At Mount Sinai Hospital…”

• Listeners are not told they are going to hear two parallel stories. They figure it out for themselves.

• Listeners irresistibly are drawn into the “what happens next?” aspect of the storytelling.

• The voice representing the “other” hospital is just as empathetic as the voice representing the advertiser. No attempt is made to demonize the competition.

• Think about the pictures this spot painted for you: The doctors catching the problem and immediately performing heart valve surgery…The arrival of the healthy baby…In other words, the results the advertiser is selling.

There Is Only One Dumb Thing About This Commercial:

The Call To Action.

“For more information, call 1-800-MD-SINAI.”

Huh?

For more information about…what?

You think I’m being too harsh? Go ahead, dial 1-800-MD-SINAI and tell the operator, “I’m calling for more information.” See what happens.

(This spot is so well done that I suspect we’re hearing the heavy handed results of a client insisting upon including their phone number.)

They’re also using a dumb vanity number. No one will remember “1-800-MD-SINAI.”

A vanity number is used when it’s important to get people to remember it. If the goal of this spot is to make people remember their phone number, this spot will fail.

If the goal is to get people to call that number (again, for reasons that have not sufficiently been explained), you want to make it as easy as possible for them to call.

Before listeners can call 1-800-MD-SINAI, they’ll need to translate it into digits. Why put that obstacle between them and the telephone call?

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