November Highlights

The 26th R.A.P. Awards - Call For Entries!

Time to gather your best Promos, Commercials, Imaging and Feature Productions from 2015, or create your award winner before the year is over! ENTRY DEALINE: JANUARY 19, 2016 Updates in the RAP Community and on Twitter @radioprod.

Production 212: Five Things to Do When You Hit the Wall

by Dave Foxx

Whatever you do with your day, be it writing, voicing, producing, jocking or doing counted cross-stitch, you will eventually hit that certain barren space. That place where it seems like you’ve completely run out of gas, no more creative juice to fuel the fire, no vision to build a castle in the air, just… nothing. There are reasons for that little bald spot on the tire of your imagination, but creativity is not one of them. You have the goods. You just displayed them a week ago with that brilliant concert promo... So what do you do?

Q It Up: Do you use an external controller for your DAW?

The Q It Up panel responds with some surprising and not so surprising answers to this Q: Do you use or have you ever used an external controller for your DAW, maybe something like the Mackie Universal Controller Pro? If so, what controllers have you used, and with what DAWs? What is/was your experience with them? What would you say are the pros and cons of using an external controller?

Radio Hed: Copy Catalyst – Ask Someone

by Jeffrey Hedquist

Stuck for an idea, a new angle, or a new approach to create a commercial that will help your client get results? Ask someone else how they would convince/influence an audience member to purchase from (or vote for, or donate to, or volunteer for, or visit) your client.

The Commercial Chronicles: You Are Not a Hack!

by Dennis Daniel

In the Talking Heads song ONCE IN A LIFETIME, lead singer and genius extraordinaire David Bryne states, “You may ask yourself… how did I get here?” As you sit staring into space thinking about yet another creative idea that’s needed immediately, are you asking yourself, “How did I get here?” Or more specifically… ”How did I end up using my gift of creativity to help sell crap?” Ohhhhh, I tell you… this question really knocked me for a loop by the time my mid-life crisis hit at age 39.

Finding that Creative Spark

by Ashley Bard

The majority of us are perfectionists (in my experience) and we constantly feel the need to make award-winning, mind-blowing and innovative production, that bursts through the speakers like an aural stampede and commands the attention of any listener it finds. Ideally, we’d always want to write amazing scripts that feature a ‘money can’t buy’ prize, win a life-changing amount of money or maybe... a trip to space? But the reality is, these opportunities are rare. Instead we are worn down by the same disappointing briefs from the sales teams or station director...

"...And Make It Real Creative!": The Adventures of an Award-Winning Loser

by Trent Rentsch

I sit in front of the computer. Beside the keyboard, a list of “instructions” and “facts,” neither of which resemble a compass. Despite any real direction, I begin a journey I’ve taken, what, thousands of times by now? (I did count, at the beginning; there were so few that first year that it was easy to keep score… six months later I gave up…) Same road, time and time and time again, with a different destination every time. That’s the romantic view.

The R.A.P. Soundstage

Up first is this month’s Editor’s Choice Award winner, a recruitment spot from Kat Morgan Gaines at Scripps in Springfield, MO. Over the years, recruitment spots have been some of the most creative spots submitted, and this one is no exception. Track 2 is audio from Dave Foxx referenced in his Production 212 column. Track 3 is the commercial Dennis Daniel writes about in his Commercial Chronicles column this month. More commercials on tracks 4-12, including a well-done PSA on track 9 from a couple of second year students at SAIT. A few promos light up tracks 13-15, imaging montages are on tracks 16-19, and we wrap it up with a little Halloween bumper from Al Peterson...

The Monday Morning Memo: Cost of Advertising: 2 Cents a Week

by Roy H. Williams

I’ve been writing these weekly memos for 20 years. This is number 1,051. This week, for the first time, I’m going to tell you about my business. Thirty-one years ago, David Ogilvy wrote, “In some developing countries radio still reaches more people than television. Yet even there nobody really knows what kind of commercials make the cash register ring. Isn’t it time somebody tried to find out?” - David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising, 1983, p. 116. Sleep well, David. We found out. And by “we,” I mean the Wizard of Ads partners.