Whenever I write one of these columns, I get questions. Lots of questions. Some of them are technical, like “Do you produce the track first or edit the VO first?” Technical questions always seem to require an ‘it depends’ kind of answer. In this case, it depends on whether the music or the verbiage is the main point of the piece, although I do have a preference I’ll explain later.

When writing and producing commercials telling our listeners how great advertising on the radio is, one of the downfalls to these spots are phone numbers…THEY DON’T WORK! We even tell our clients that phone numbers don’t work. When was the last time you pulled your car over to write down a phone number? Never. After all, it seems everyone listening to the radio is carrying around a computer in their hand in the form of a smart phone. The best thing that has happened to radio in a generation is the internet and websites.