We’ve just made 3 new audio seminars available for download:
Harry Shearer (writing & performing for radio)
Dan O’Day (commercial copywriting)
Christine Coyle (directing voiceovers)
I’m pretty sure the punch line to this story will be telegraphed, but it still remains a bit painful after all these years.
My 3rd year in radio, I’m programming a small market station. I had pulled an on-air stunt at the expense of a competing station. But it was good-natured, and it didn’t make them look bad.
As a result, the two owners of the station called me and asked if they could come visit our operation. It was a brother and sister in their ’20s. Their father had bought them a radio station as a gift.
They came to my station, and as I was giving them the grand tour I said, “By the way, who the hell is that woman you have doing middays? She’s the worst jock I’ve ever heard.”
Yep, you can see it coming.
As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew that “worst jock I ever heard” was the sister…to whom I was giving the tour.
An insignificant moment, but one that I still wish never had happened.
One of the highlights of 2008’s International Radio Creative & Production Summit was the State-of-The-Art Station Imaging panel.
Here are our three imaging wizards, just before their session began. I guess I don’t need to tell you how excited they all were at having been invited; they’re all big fans of mine.
Terry Phillips, Howard Hoffman, Jamie Watson
Spec Spot — An audible, unsolicited invitation to say no.
Station Vehicle — The primary device by which excess gasoline is burned.
Traffic Department — Employees whose primary function is to take the blame for mistakes made by the sales department.
Consultant — A person who can predict with unfailing accuracy what happened a couple of years ago in a different market.
Weekend — The last two days of the Promotion Director’s work week.
It’s not every day that a radio commercial achieves a 0% effectiveness rating. Congratulations to the advertising team at Wachovia.
The commercial’s goal is to get people to use Wachovia’s Way To Save Program, whatever that is. Meanwhile, the opening line is the commercial for the commercial: It’s your one chance to grab the attention of your targeted listener.
Does “One easy way to save money is to make sure the tires on your car are properly inflated” really attract the attention of banking customers?
And is that really a valuable tip?
If Wachovia truly believes “proper tire inflation” is an attention grabber, then here are some other gems they can use — no charge, my compliments:
“One easy way to save money is to turn off the air conditioning when the natural indoor temperature is below 40 degrees.”
“One easy way to save money is to wait to receive your change when using a $100 bill to pay for a McDonald’s Happy Meal.”
“One easy way to save money is not to carelessly drop it behind you as you walk down the street.”
And hey, not one…not two…but three Calls To Action.
Ending perfectly with an unintelligible disclaimer.
