This video originally appeared here.
I heard this on a Southern California radio station:
“And now, continuous light rock continues….”
A Loyal Reader Writes:
“I’ve had a few clients who truly believe because they enjoy writing, they know exactly how to construct an effective commercial.
“One of my clients has a employee who writes poetry. One day, the client told me they’d like to run an ad the employee wrote, so I asked her to read it to me. Eagerly, the employee snatched the phone and read me her ad.“To sum it up, it started with a cliche, talked about how great the client was…and said nothing about what they can do for the listener.
“To let her down gently, I told her I can use ‘something like it’ and asked to speak to the client.
“She was very offended that I wouldn’t use her copy, and she hung up on me.
“Later, the client called our sales rep and made it sound like I was being rude, disrespectful, and ignorant.
“Other times I get scripts from clients who attempt 2-voicers. Often, they’re so bad I can’t even entertain the thought of putting them on the air.“Usually they’re chock full of unrelatable human conversations, and the core message is buried somewhere in the announcer tag.
“What’s the best way to handle these clients?“How can I encourage them to stick with providing just the copy info?
“I know writers (including myself!) are sometimes a testy breed. I want their commercials to work, but I don’t want to insult our clients.”
It’s all a matter of the account executive (not the copywriter) educating the client ahead of time regarding what radio advertising is, how it works, and how your station employs people who are expert at creating it.
In other words, before the client ever talks to the copywriter, the client has to believe that the copywriter knows more about writing effective radio advertising than the client does.
A Loyal Reader Writes:
“I’d like to suggest a blog topic for you: ‘Industry jargon on the air.’
“Maybe I’ve got a touch of OCD, but this is a huge pet peeve of mine. I cringe when I hear a jock say, ‘Listen for the drag race sounder.’ My mind wanders when someone says, ‘Here’s a PSA,’ since that’s a test my doctor runs on me now that I’m over 40. And I shiver when I hear jocks say, ‘We’ll be doing a remote at…’ To most listeners, a ‘remote’ is what they use to change channels on their TV or the thing that opens their garage door. These aren’t even the best examples.
“Log, segue, promo, stopset, pot, board, etc. The list goes on.
“Have we forgotten what it’s like to be a listener? Do we not realize that these terms have no meaning — or a radically different meaning — to most of the people to whom we’re talking?
“I once heard a jock use the ‘Listen for the drag race sounder’ line above on the station I was programming. I asked him not to phrase it that way again, as the vast majority of our listeners had never worked in radio and don’t know what he means when he says ‘sounder,’ because it’s an industry term. He looked at me as if I’d grown a slightly smaller second head, took about 10 seconds to form his thoughts, and replied with as much sarcasm as he could muster, ‘Well, what do I tell ’em to listen for? Do you want me to tell them to ‘listen for the sound of the drag race??’
“When I replied ‘Sure, because that’s how they’d describe it to a friend, and they’re sure to understand it,’ he was incredulous.
” ‘You’re over-thinking it,’ was his reply, ‘If they’re interested, they’ll take the time to figure it out or they’ll look it up.’
“Unless it’s something REALLY compelling, I can’t fathom listeners taking time to Google what we say in every break — and that’s honestly how often I hear jargon on some stations. If they don’t immediately understand it and they’re not motivated to sit and think about it or to do an online search to see in what context we used a word or phrase, what good has it done for us to have even said it? We’ve wasted our time AND theirs. Worse, we may have made them feel excluded.
“Is it just me, or is making your listeners feel excluded a not-so-smart way to do radio?”
Usually radio jargon that many listeners won’t understand is foolish.
The most commonly known radio expression probably is “PSA.” Perhaps 15% of listeners would know that’s an abbreviation for “Public Service Announcement.” Jocks who refer to a PSA, therefore, are using a term that probably means nothing to 85% of their listeners.
I do hear radio people refer on-air to “doing a remote at….” Dumb, dumb, dumb. Perhaps they mean “a personal appearance, broadcasting live from…”?
Some radio people might defend the use of such “inside” verbiage as “breaking the fourth wall” — letting listeners see what goes on behind the scenes. For the right show and performer(s), breaking the fourth wall is good. But that’s not how you do it.
Jocks who say “doing a remote” or “after this PSA” are distancing themselves from their listeners.
They might as well say, “I’ll talk up this vocal now, then backsell the song, give our new positioning liner and jingle into a music sweep, during which I’ll run into the production room and record the new tag for that stupid restaurant trade spot we’ve got to do a make-good on.”
Jocks who believe “If they’re interested, they’ll take the time to figure it out or they’ll look it up” don’t understand audiences, don’t understand radio, and vastly overestimate their own importance in the lives of the station’s listeners.
A Loyal Reader Writes:
“Just how many radio spec spots do you need to write and produce for a client that a rep is prospecting?
“I frequently get a note at the bottom of my creative request sheets: ‘Would love to have 2 or 3 really great spots for them!’ “Jeepers…”
Yes, he really did say “jeepers.” He probably just got out of a creative meeting with Wally and The Beav.
“Jeepers, I write 30 to 40 radio commercial scripts a week. Am I wrong in thinking that we should focus all our efforts on researching the client/business/product, designing an ad that best sells their product/business, and then putting our best effort into producing one really good spec ad? Or is quantity better?”
If your account executives offer prospects two or three different commercials, hoping the prospects like one of them, they are lowering your entire company from “Experts in Radio Advertising” to “They’re Not Really Sure What To Prescribe For Our Business Goals” status.
