by Dan O'Day
on September 13, 2013
One of the all-time classic radio promotions was Jack McCoy’s “Last Contest.”
This piece (written by Russ Wittberger, voiced by McCoy) demonstrates the key elements of great parody, including:
– Writing it exactly in the style of the original work being parodied
– Performing it exactly in the style of the original work (which in this case wasn’t too hard, inasmuch as McCoy simply stuck to his usual, Rod Serling-ish dramatic delivery)
– Ending it with a brilliant payoff that made it feel complete (rather than just continuing until they ran out of jokes)
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by Dan O'Day
on September 12, 2013
I was at an international departure gate at Los Angeles International Airport.
The gate agent was completely serious when she announced, “Is there anyone here who does not speak English and needs an interpreter?”
Hey, that was a commercial.
It was a message intended to elicit a reaction that would accomplish a specific goal — identifying anyone in the gate area who didn’t understand English.
Think about your specific goal before you craft your radio commercial message.
It was only with extreme effort that I prevented myself from jumping up, grabbing the microphone, and saying, “If you speak and understand English and do not need an interpreter, please raise your hand.”
Then the gate agent could have looked for any passengers who hadn’t raised their hands.
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by Dan O'Day
on September 11, 2013
It was at a Radio Sales/Copywriting seminar I conducted last year that a Radio Production Director complained, “Our station has a deadline for account executives to turn in commercial copy orders, but the salespeople ignore it.”
I responded, “You’re not telling the truth. You say you have a deadline, but you don’t. A deadline is something that is enforced. If it’s not enforced, you don’t have a deadline.”
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by Dan O'Day
on September 10, 2013
Probably you’ll guess the punch line to this story, 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.
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by Dan O'Day
on September 9, 2013
At a couple of recent radio advertising seminars I’ve been asked, “Why do so many businesses continue to do such terrible radio advertising?”
Both times, “car dealers” were used as examples of businesses that spend huge amounts of money to broadcast lousy advertising.
I offered the answers I’ve shared here previously — ignorance, ego, incompetence, naivete, etc.
I also included another reason that I don’t think I’ve mentioned here before:
In some cases, even bad advertising is better than no advertising at all.
Screaming “Ed’s Used Cars! Ed’s Used Cars” 20 times a day probably isn’t the smartest use of the medium.
But screaming those words 20 times per day for a year will make Ed’s Used Cars more familiar to your listeners than if Ed never advertises to them at all.
And everything else being equal, the car dealer you’ve heard of is more likely to get your business than one you’ve never heard of.
So the car dealer does generate some business via those annoying, abusive commercials.
And the car dealer thinks, “I sure do know how to make a radio commercial.”
What he doesn’t know is how much more effective his advertising could be.
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