April 1999 RAP
April 1999 Highlights
1998 RAP Awards: Winners Announced! CONGRATULATIONS
WINNERS!
The ballots are in, and the votes have been counted! Please join us in
congratulating the winners of the 1998 Radio And Production Awards!
Feature: Do It... It Builds Character
By David Hughes
Nothing makes a radio spot better than fantastic characters, the type of
characters that seem to pull you into the spot, enthrall you with the
action, bring a chuckle to your lips and a sigh of satisfaction after
hearing a quality piece of entertainment. ...I may have never written a more
complete load of bull in my life.
Interview: Gary Bertwistle, Blue Moon Creative, Sydney,
Australia
By Jerry Vigil
The word "creative" is found in almost every classified ad looking for a
Production Director or imaging producer. It’s a quality every station wants
in their production department, and it’s a quality every producer/writer
wants to be labeled with. Gary Bertwistle took the search for the essence of
creativity to the extreme and discovered ways to tap the well within us all.
His techniques were so effective that he was able to leave his comfortable
management position at Australia’s Triple M Network and open his own
company, teaching others the basics of creativity, how to find it in
yourself, how to get it from others, and how to use it. In this month’s RAP
Interview, Gary shares some of what he discovered about creativity and
offers techniques you and your station can put into effect today that will
take your creative to the next level.
Feature: Dalet at Radio Netherlands
By Jonathan Marks
Radio Netherlands (www.rnw.nl) is Holland’s external public broadcasting
service. With more than 50,000 hours of output per year, it is one of
Europe’s more active multimedia operations. You can hear us on short-wave,
satellite, and in Real Audio on the Internet. In 1996, Radio Netherlands ran
a side-by-side comparison with several networked systems for digital audio.
By July of 1997, the choice for Dalet for use in a newsroom/features
environment was clear.
Radio HED: Condense It
By Jeffrey Hedquist
Having trouble giving your spot direction? Try writing that :30 or :60
first as a :10. Pretend you just have ten seconds to motivate a listener to
respond to your commercial. This forces you to choose only the most powerful
benefit, to pare your message to the bone, to polish the one gem that will
catch that audience's ears and stick in their minds.
Feature: Point/Counterpoint/Counterpoint - Final
Thoughts on the Great Zoller/Pellegrini Debate
By John Pellegrini
Well, as I said when I started and finished these articles
[January/February '99 RAP], I knew I was going to leave things out that
others would determine to be vital. I’d like to thank Ms. Pierce-Zoller for
her input [March '99 RAP]. However, I don’t want to give the impression that
I’m making things up, either.
...And Make It Real Creative
By Andy Capp
Why do Creatives worry about showing their hand? Do they really believe
that someone will steal their ideas? Of course, the potential for that is
always there, but is that really the reason? It seems that the real problem
is paranoia, a firm belief that knowledge is power and that they will
somehow lose any upper hand they might have in the building (real or
imagined) by sharing what they know. Like the sales rep who isn’t sure when
their power lunch with a mysterious client will be over, the Creative would
like to cloak all of their talents in smoke and mirrors, trying to show the
world how important and metaphysically intricate their job is. What a load
of bull! And they’re not only selling it to the world, they’re selling it to
themselves.
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - Copy Deadlines, Part
II
By Jerry Vigil
Copy deadlines…myth or mandate? Just a few short years ago, when owners
were limited to two stations in a market, it was a dogfight for the ad
dollars, and money was seldom turned away because "the copy came in after
deadline." Today, with owners having more power in a market, and things much
busier in the Traffic, Continuity, and Production Departments, things might
be a little different. That’s what this month’s Q It Up hopes to shed some
light on.
Q It Up: How many stations does your production department
work for? Are there deadlines for scripts and agency tapes? What are they?
Are deadlines strictly enforced or are they only guidelines? Do the
salespeople follow these guidelines or meet these deadlines? What happens if
they don’t? Please add any further comments you might have.
The Monday Morning Memo: Floating Under Sunny Skies
By Roy H. Williams
I’m watching the hit movie Jaws from the back row of a movie theater
during the early 1970s. The scene on the screen is quiet and calm, without
even a hint of trouble on the horizon. The actors are engaged in
uninteresting dialogue on a boat that floats lazily under sunny skies. It’s
time to go for popcorn.
As I’m about to step from the darkness of the theater into the bright lights
of the lobby beyond, I hear a collective, strangled gasp and look behind me
to see 400 people floating above their seats in a series of spastic
positions worthy of Seinfeld’s Kramer. (It seems the shark has unexpectedly
leaped into the back of the boat, utterly terrifying everyone watching.) A
moment later, as 400 posteriors land in 400 padded seats, I realize that
everyone watching was emotionally in that boat when the shark leaped out of
the water.