March 2003 RAP
March 2003 Highlights
Feature: The 60 Second Club
By Ed Thompson
What is our competition? Is it the radio group across town? BUZZ! Sorry.
Wrong answer. No Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat for you. Next
contestant please. Nope. The radio group across town is only a very tiny
piece of a very large, very sweet pie. Our true competition is TV, print,
outdoor, web, and anything else that can communicate a commercial message
from one person to another. Yet day after day after bloody day, our sales
forces are out there doing battle against each other, trying to win the
radio ad wars. I call that cannibalism; and no, it don't taste like chicken.
Interview: Paul Cugliari & Steve Thompson, Oldies
1090/105.3 Kool FM, Kitchener, Ont., Canada
By Jerry Vigil
Its nothing new to you. You know how important the creative is to the
success of the clients campaign. We talk about it all the time in these
pages. What is new is when not only you understand this simple truth, but so
does your sales staff AND your General Manager. And even more amazing are
clients that understand, clients that understand how much more important
their message is than getting that spot on the air tomorrow. This is how
things work at Oldies 1090 and 105.3 KOOL FM in Kitchener, Ontario. And
guess what? It all revolves around a common-sense approach of doing "what's
right" for the client. Imagine that servicing the customer.
With the vision and leadership of General Manager Paul Cugliari and the
expertise of Creative Services Manager Steve Thompson, these two stations
are proving that you CAN teach clients that the phone number doesn't need to
be in the spot 12 times. You CAN teach salespeople that if the spot has to
start tomorrow, the creative is going to stink, the ad wont work as well for
the client, he wont be back, and everybody loses. Paul, Steve and their
entire creative team are using the power of radio to its fullest for their
clients and are rewarding themselves with long-term happy customers. They
tell us how it works and why in this months RAP Interview. Listen for a demo
of commercial work from Steve and his team on next months RAP CD. (RAP
Awards Finalists on this months CD.)
Test Drive: The MadPlayer from MadWaves
By Steve Cunningham
What do you get when you cross an MP3 player, a MIDI sequencer, and a
Nintendo game controller? For the Radio One group of stations, you get an
almost unlimited supply of royalty-free music beds for its Hip-Hop and R&B
affiliates. You see, Radio One is the first group to use the subject of this
months review, the MadPlayer from MadWaves Corp., for just this purpose.
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - How Did the Radio
Production Bug Bite You? - Part 2
Q It Up: What happened when you first learned that radio
production was something you wanted to do for a living? What was the turning
point for you? When did you realize this was your path? How did you wind up
living your dream? And how has it turned out for you? Has it met your
expectations?
Production 212: Every Tool in the Box
by Dave Foxx
I had a rare opportunity the last couple of days. I had two of the best
producers in the country come in to Z100 and consult with me. Anne DeWig and
Dave Kampel, of DC101/Washington and Kiss-FM/Chicago respectively, spent
some long hours with me, trying to figure out what's next on the image
production horizon. Those who are familiar with our varied styles can
probably see how it could be valuable to each of us, because we all bring
something different to the table. Annie is the lyrical producer, full of
stories and scenarios, while Dave is the musical producer, making his work
very much flow oriented. Im an ear-candy guy, always searching out the new
effect or phrase thatll hammer my point home to the listener. We all borrow
from each others genres all the time, but those are our individual
strengths, which made the entire exercise enlightening for each of us.
...And Make It Real Creative:
By Trent Rentsch
Id like to mention three separate times in my career when the phrase, "Do
you see what I mean?" was greeted with a blank stare. The first came from
the owners wife at a company Christmas party some years ago. As I recall it
was the last year that there was an open bar.
The second occurred at the same station, six months earlier that broadcast
year. Let me confess that I have an issue with the marketing concept known
as "Crazy Days." I have plans for the genius that first concocted the idea
of putting all the crap that wouldn't sell INSIDE the store on card tables
IN FRONT OF THE STORE, then bought time on the local station to scream about
"CRRRRRRRAAAAAAZZZYYYYY MARKDOWNS!" He should be tied up in a clown suit and
forced to listen to frantic calliope music on a plane ride to Turkey, where
he would then be propped up in front of a bathhouse with a sign around his
neck, promising "Wild & Crazy, HALF PRICE!"
Radio Hed: Writing to Voices
By Jeffrey Hedquist
Sometimes its easier to write a commercial if you have specific voices in
mind. Hearing those voices in your head helps you to write from their point
of view. Even if you only have a limited stable of talent available, like a
radio station staff, imagine each of their personalities. As you write you
are essentially speaking for them. How would they express themselves? How
would they react? How would they tell a story?
Feature: She's All That -- The Female Demo
By Shawn Kelly
Through my years in radio advertising, one thing has been constant. Women
are in control. They make the final call of what, when and where to buy.
They constantly shop for bargains. She is the one you must win over. Before
you read any further you must remember that when an advertiser wants to
target women, he or she is not just talking about soccer moms. As you know,
women are single, married, divorced, widowed, homemakers, single moms and so
on. They are different, yet the same. But where do you begin?
Feature: Less Boom in Your Spots; More Bang for Their
Bucks
By Dave Hughes
I don't know, maybe its me. It seems like, every time I write an article
for a publication about radio production, I always come back to a "just the
basics" message. I do it often enough that its starting to bother me. Well,
after spending a good bit of time wondering about this, Ive come to the
conclusion that I always come back to that because most of the things that
bother me about various spots I hear are fundamentals. And why are the
fundamentals not learned by everyone? I blame technology.
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