DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

Last week I critiqued a radio commercial by Kathy Lepak, who had ordered my How To Create Maximum Impact Radio Advertising course and subsequently uploaded a couple of commercials for my review.

Here is Kathy’s second spot, followed by my comments (which, once again, she has given me permission to share with you.)

The combination of the music and the number of words you need to deliver results in my not being able to hear the actual message.

If this really were a children’s story, you wouldn’t be speaking so fast.

Suggestion: See if you can cut literally 50% of the words from your script.

You might not be able to remove that many, but I suspect you’ll discover quite a few you can do without.

Of course, trying to serve three advertisers in a single 30-second commercial is, to say the least, a bit of a challenge.

This is an experiment.

Kidd Kraddick’s death affected so many of us in part because it was so unexpected.

Unfortunately, usually Life doesn’t give us enough, if any, warning. We don’t get a second chance to say goodbye.

Here’s the experiment.

On the 4th Friday of each month, I’ll devote this space to thanking someone who helped me professionally.

By “professionally,” I don’t necessarily mean “helped me get a job,” although that could qualify. I just mean…helped or inspired me personally.

I hope each installment will generate two reactions:

1.  Anyone who also had positive encounters with the individual I’m writing about will relate them there.

2.  You will post your own story here about one person who helped you professionally. More than one person has helped you? Great. Save all but one for next month.

Gary Owens

I was in my 2nd-to-3rd year in radio, working in the unrated, unheard-of market of Lake Wales, Florida.

Prior to moving across the country to start my radio career, I had lived in Los Angeles for a couple of years. That’s when and where I learned that Gary Owens wasn’t just the announcer  on Laugh-In. He was an exceptionally funny disc jockey on KMPC.

KMPC was a “middle of the road” (MOR) station, playing music that a teenager raised on rock ’n’ roll had no desire to hear. But what Gary said between the records was so clever that I listened every afternoon.

I don’t recall if I had written to Gary (whom at the time I hadn’t met) in advance; I don’t recall how I arranged this. But when I returned to L.A. on vacation, I dropped off an aircheck at the KMPC studios in the hopes that Gary Owens would listen to it and give me some feedback.

Before I returned to Florida, I made another trip to KMPC to pick up a 2-page, handwritten letter from Gary…offering feedback on my radio show and career advice.

(One of the markets he suggested I try was Phoenix. I wish I’d saved the rejection letter from the program director of KRUX, telling me “I don’t think you’re KRUX material.”)

There’s a lot more I could say about Gary Owens — all of it with admiration and appreciation. I’ll save the other stories for future postings.

But for now I’ll just say: Thank you Gary Owens for helping that young kid you never heard of from that tiny market you never heard of.

That’s my Radio Kidd Friday memory. What’s yours?

A Loyal Reader Writes:

“I’ve just taken the CPCC (Certified Professional Commercial Copywriter) course, and doing so has made me even more aware of the differences between Sales and Production. 

“It seems that Sales goes out armed with facts and figures, ratings and frequencies, demos and average listener profiles. They use them as well as their skills and techniques to convince the client that they should advertise. But it seems that little (if any) effort is put into the sales message until it’s time to fill out the production order.

“I would like to propose to our Director of Sales a ‘Message First’ way of selling, especially to new clients. We develop the sales message for the client even before we ask them to advertise with us.  

“We get them excited about what they will say to the listeners before they grumble about how much money they’re spending. We don’t let them waste money on the wrong message, because the very first thing we did was craft the right message.

“Any thoughts on this?”

Although I know that some stations already do follow the procedure you described, I’m afraid I can’t endorse it.

Key Principle:  Advertising Solves Problems.

But if you create a spec spot before ever having met with the business owner, you are presenting a “solution” without first having identified the prospect’s problem.

In fact, in one of my Radio Advertising Letters I quoted a business owner who was pitched in the very manner you suggest:

“I gave the local radio station my card at an open house a while ago. Based solely on my business card, they came up with a 30-second  commercial for me. They never talked to me at all about our business, objectives, methods used, etc. Now there’s a faith-builder in their abilities….”

Although clearly your proposal is motivated by a desire to do what’s best for the advertiser, you owe it to them first to determine their goals, their frustrations, and their “pain” and then to come up with a plan to meet or surpass the goals, overcome their frustrations, and eradicate their pain.

I held my second Air Personality Plus+ seminar in Dallas, Texas, in 1988.

Among the 90+ attendees were two very good disc jockeys from KEGL/Dallas.

One was Jimmy Steal, now the longtime program director of Power 106/Los Angeles. The other was Kidd Kraddick.

During that weekend, Kidd was hard to miss. Rather, the sound of his large portable computer was hard to miss; he sat in the back row, constantly inputting notes into the only computer in the room.

During a break during the first day, Kidd came up to me and said, “Do you remember when I came over to your house?”

“You came over to my house?”

“Yeah. Ten years ago I was working in Fresno. I called you up and you invited me to come over, and we spent an entire afternoon on the floor of your living room, sitting in front of your stereo while you played me a bunch of airchecks. That afternoon changed the way I looked at radio.”

I still didn’t quite remember. But I knew it must have happened; I’ve always had the annoying habit of telling friends and acquaintances, “You’ve got to hear this.”

That would’ve been during Kidd’s first radio job, at KYNO-FM. He was 19 years old.

The “changed the way I looked at radio” remark staggered me.

Lest anyone mistakenly think I’m taking credit for any of Kidd’s success: No way. Kidd had everything you need to succeed as a radio personality: Intelligence. Self-awareness. Passion. Dedication. Vision. Strong work ethic. Resiliency.

He also had compassion and humor and genuinely liked people; not all successful radio jocks have those qualities, but in this biz those attributes really come in handy.

Kidd (Dave) was a natural entrepreneur.

(To me, “entrepreneur” doesn’t mean “someone who makes money.” It means “someone who has an idea, works hard to bring it to life…and possibly makes money as a result.”)

As I recall (he told me this that day in Dallas), when he was 19 he already was earning more money doing disco gigs than he was at his full-time radio job.

Fast forward to when the Internet turned the world upside down: Kidd quickly launched one of the first online show prep services. Just as later he entered the world of radio syndication, I don’t believe his primary motivation was money. It just seemed like a good idea to him, so he made it happen.

Until Rusty Humphries reminded me of this on Facebook this weekend, I had forgotten that Kidd (along with Rusty) also attended my Air Personality Plus+ seminar in Los Angeles a year later, in 1989. Among my guest speakers were Mark & Brian of KLOS.

Sometime after the seminar, I had a phone conversation with Kidd in which he related how he had approached the KLOS morning team after their session.

Mark Thompson had been cordial and courteous to him. Brian Phelps, on the other hand, “treated me like something you’d scrape off your shoe.” (I forgot the incident had occurred, but when reminded of it I immediately recalled Kidd’s report.)

Kidd really was shaken by that encounter. I remember how surprised I was by his reaction, because he so obviously was a talented, immensely likable guy who already was successful.

From what Kidd and a couple of other people told me over the years, Phelp’s shabby treatment of him made him consciously aware of the way in which he, as a celebrity, treated other people on an individual basis could have a profound effect on the other person.

Some radio people meet a rude “successful” jock and think, “Oh, so that’s how you’re supposed to act when you hit the big time.”

Kidd was smart and sensitive enough to think, “I never want to make a fan — or a colleague — feel as bad as that guy made me feel.”

Both in Dallas and in the radio industry itself, there probably are a thousand individual stories of how Dave went out of his way to make someone feel special. I doubt you’ll hear even a single tale of his playing the role of Big Shot Jerk.

Kidd, you knew I liked your work. But I wish I had thought to tell you:

I was a big fan of yours.