The 2011 Radio And Production Awards: Finalists Announced! - RAP Members vote this month. Winners announced next month!
RAP Members worldwide will now cast the votes and pick the winners and runners-up of the 22nd Annual RAP Awards. Members, see further instructions on this month's CD track sheet or click here to go to you ballot and vote. The winners will be announced next month in the April issue of Radio And Production and posted here on the site.
R.A.P. Interview: Rod Schwartz - Account Executive, KHTR-FM/KQQQ-AM & Owner Grace Broadcast Sales/Radio Sales Café, Pullman, WA - Part 2
by Jerry Vigil
We wrap up our interview with Rod this month, and like we said last month, his title above is correct. Rod Schwartz is an Account Executive, a salesman, being interviewed for a production magazine. But he's not your ordinary salesman. Rod knows a few things about what we do, too, particularly when it comes to what makes radio advertising work for his clients. And he's been making those ads work for 33 years at the same stations in the small market of Pullman, Washington. But his story doesn't stop there. Along the way, Rod established Grace Broadcast Sales, a company servicing radio with syndicated "sales booster" programs as well as creative services. And more recently, he launched the fast-growing Radio Sales Café, a social website for radio salespeople. You'll find even more great stories and worthwhile information in the conclusion of this two-part interview. You can check last month's RAP CD for some excellent commercial work from Rod with extra notes on the spots from Rod on the February CD page at rapmag.com (click on Back Issues).
Production 212: 2 Turntables and a Microphone...
by Dave Foxx
As I write this month's column, I'm sitting in my room at St. James Albany hotel, just across the street from the world famous Louvre Museum in Paris, France. I've just spent a lovely evening over dinner with two dear friends from Holland, Diedereck and Berber of Pure Jingles/VHU, who are also here as principal sponsor of a conference called Le-Radio, a gathering of radio professionals from all over France and surrounding countries. As we were talking over coffee, I was reminded that I needed to write this month's column. I decided that I would share with you the essence of what I'm presenting to our European cousins, and not just because it's easy. It's what sets really dynamic, top-end producers apart from run-of-the-mill producers everywhere.
For sound this month [audio link], I offer a promo I just did a couple of weeks ago that brought most of this to the table, along with interview parts from the star of our weekend, David Guetta. David dropped by the Z100 studios several months ago and appeared on Elvis Duran and The Z100 Morning Show with an interview that was full of energy. Using key parts of that interview, I assembled tracks from some of his biggest hits of the last year and came up with a first class weekend promo for Z100. I hope you like it.
Technology: Stalking Product at NAMM
by Steve Cunningham
It's been awhile since I've attended the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show in Anaheim, California. As a matter of fact, it's been well over two presidents ago. But this year I felt the need to be there, to stalk new gear for voiceover and production purposes, and to get a sense of where technology will take us in the coming year. So I donned my best-looking walkin' shoes and made the trek. What follows is a description of a few products that seemed to me to be useful, interesting, or just really hot (think gear lust), plus one clinker; read on please.
Radio Hed: Clairvoyant Copywriting
by Jeffrey Hedquist
If you know your client, know his reputation with listeners, understand the market, the economy, the demographics and psychographics of his audience, then you can pretty much guess what those listeners are thinking... and often it's to not respond to your client's entreaties. When you tell that audience directly what they're thinking, you get their attention. You've established a bond, maybe even shocked or surprised them with what you know. Say the unexpected.
...And Make It Real Creative: THAT'S Creative?
by Trent Rentsch
I'm always intrigued by what people consider Creative radio production. To some, it means funny, to others it means multiple voices, to others it means lots of sound effects, and to some it means "borrowing" someone else's idea and adapting it to their use. Some find the use of children "sounding adult" to be Creative, others feel the use of adults (usually men) "acting like children" is Creative. Singing the copy will get the Creative nod from some people, while others find that simply speaking in a tone several octaves below God is a terribly Creative approach. You might be the kind who finds retro music under a commercial or promo to be a quirky Creative touch, or you could feel that high-speed, contemporary music "mash-ups" are the perfect Creative underscore. There are even those who feel that a bad impersonation of a character Arnold Schwarzenegger played in a movie two decades ago constitutes great Creative... hmmm.
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