Tom Barnes, Consultant, Joint Communications Corp., Atlanta, GA
by Jerry Vigil
Tom's start in the business was at age sixteen in the late seventies with Broadcast Automation Associates in Florida where he performed maintenance on tape decks and automation systems. He had his first airshift by the time he was seventeen. From high school, it was on to Babson College in Boston for an education in management and marketing. While there, he worked for WBCN and WFNX, assisting the stations in their call-out research programs and music departments.
From Boston, it was back to Florida for a production gig at WOVV, then to Atlanta and a long stay with Southern Surveys, a consumer research firm for many Fortune 500 companies which also did radio research.
After gaining a great deal of knowledge and experience in research methodologies, marketing strategies, and the integration of the two, Tom decided to apply his skills exclusively to his first love, the radio industry. He is presently a consultant for Joint Communications Corporation (Atlanta, GA) and an avid proponent of quality creative production as a must for a successful station. Some of Joint's client stations include KISW-FM, Seattle; KZAP-FM, Sacramento; WROQ-FM, Charlotte; WRQN-FM, Toledo; and WKHK-FM, Richmond.
Tom: Radio, up until the past few years, really hasn't been at the cutting edge of marketing technology, at least that's the way I saw it in the late seventies and early eighties. That was one of the reasons I decided to pursue a business career and explore marketing and entrepreneurial studies. I wanted to bring that kind of thinking from academics and large corporations into radio so radio could use the technology effectively where it hadn't in the past.
R.A.P.: How much of your time in radio was spent producing?
Tom: The entire early part. Production to me was the first thing that really got me going. As soon as I got off the air, I immediately went into the production room. I've been a musician since I was eight years old. I've been playing the drums for nineteen years and the guitar for twelve. It was always very attractive to me, from the musician's side of things, to have a studio at my disposal.
I was really lucky when I was getting started. I had very indulgent Program Directors who would say, "Yea? Give it a try and let me hear what you can do [in production]." I think it is very important for somebody who is getting started to play in the production room. I would go in there for hours building feedback loops with my guitar and pretending I was Robert Fripp. I would play with the EQ's, play with white noise, play with anything just to see what it would do. When it was finally time to be a Production Director, I had a chance to utilize those skills I had gained as a musician and utilize my marketing knowledge as well.
R.A.P.: What memory sticks in your mind from your experience as a Production Director?
Tom: It's just amazing to me how many advertising experts there are in smaller markets. I don't know how many times advertisers said to me, "I was in marketing before you were a sparkle in your daddy's eyes. I've been in advertising for twenty-five years," as they would come in and cut their own spots dry, with their own voices and their own speech impediments.
R.A.P.: How did you apply your musical skills in production?
Tom: Well, it's really a function of understanding the way the sonic landscape works, understanding how things fit, and understanding audio symbolism. I think those are the keys to great production. I'd try to bring that into the production room by looking at spots almost like pieces of music in the sense that music and audio production for radio are pieces of audio art and understanding the basics of art in that you need tension and resolve. You need to use meaningful symbolism, and you need to communicate clearly what your message is using those tools. If you're writing a song, you have an emotional message to get across, i.e. love, hate, anger, fear. The same is true when you're producing a spot except that you're producing a buying impulse on the part of your listener instead of an emotional response. But I see them as very similar things in terms of basic human psychology. They're different ends, but you're basically getting there the same way. It's manipulation, and in whatever level you choose to approach it at, you're still either trying to manipulate someone emotionally or manipulate someone to buy something; and the degree to which you're successful is the degree to which you're successful.
The analogy is so clear. People that are missing it, I think, are really missing the boat, and I would encourage anyone involved in production to get involved in making music as well because the two really trade off immensely. Most of the successful Production Directors I've met have been involved in a musical process of some sort and have been very musically sensitive.
R.A.P.: Elaborate more on the "audio symbolism" you mentioned.
Tom: Audio symbolism is sparking people's emotional memory with a particular sound that they can respond to. Symbolism is very important in our society, whether it's visual or sonic. There are all kinds of symbols in our lives. Mostly, we think of symbolism as a cross representing Jesus Christ, or we think of a swastika as representing Adolph Hitler or the Nazis. The same is true for sound as well -- the tight EQ of a voice in an airport, or the bell that a bell captain uses in a hotel to get somebody's attention, or an electronic phone ring that sounds like an office phone versus one that sounds like the phone in your home. These are all symbols, and as we get more involved in technology in our lives, sound is going to have even more meaning.
On my Macintosh on my desk I have the sound of Hal when it boots up. It says, "I'm fully functional and all my circuits are working normally." The way that it is said, the way that it was sampled, and the way that it comes out of my Macintosh mean something beyond the words that are said, A) because the movie was so emotional for me, and B) because now, it's saying it on my Macintosh! What has happened in this world? What's going on? This is beyond just some neat little trick that a Macintosh can do. This means more. This goes to humanity, and that is what symbolism is about, touching that common thread of humanity. That's what you've got to do when you create good production, touch that common thread that people have.
There's a great little saying about art that I once heard that says, "All our secrets are the same, and the degree to which you are willing to reach deep down inside yourself and tell your secret is the degree to which you touch other people in that same manner." Sounds can do that, just like hearing Hal on my computer. It conjures up thoughts about how Arthur C. Clarke had really explored the limits of what computing was going to do, and it touched on artificial intelligence and the boundaries of where our consciousness is. You don't think about that consciously. Your brain doesn't go through that whole process every time you hear Hal, but it does in a sense. It just kind of whisks right through, and it has meaning in everyday life. So there's a new symbol. Hal the computer is a new symbol all of a sudden.
People that do production need to reach in themselves, in their own memories, and find those sounds, no matter how subtle they think they may be. Time will make them more adept at using that symbolism, but they need to look for symbolism in their everyday life. When they watch movies and when they consume any kind of media, they need to be aware of symbolism so they can bring that in the studio and touch people with their own production.
Symbols are something we use every day to understand things more deeply rather than in just the upper part of our cortex. This is something that goes all the way down the hypothalamus. This is your strength. This is something that carries all the way back to your ancestors. Sounds are the same way. That's why music touches us so deeply.
R.A.P.: Give us a sample of the philosophy of Joint Communications as it pertains to radio and the production on the air.
Tom: We're very much committed to the idea of "stationality." You'll hear consultants discuss stationality a lot, and everybody kinda goes, "Oh, that's a cool word. What does it mean?" What it really refers to is the sound that ties the station together, the sound the people think of when they think of the radio station. At least forty percent of that, if not more, comes directly from the production on the radio station.
It's important that production people realize how important their roll is in the radio station. A lot of times it gets glossed over. In talking with people in radio in general, most of the focus is put on the songs. I've got to tell you, as a researcher -- and I've seen hundreds of auditorium tests -- everybody is playing the right music. Everybody's playing the right songs. Sure, you may slip up and play one wrong cut an hour, or it might be in the wrong position, but it's getting to the point where that's nit-picking. In my mind, there are bigger fish to fry these days in terms of the sound of the radio station.
There are some guys out there that are doing some intense production, amazing production! It's very hard though for people to pick it apart and say, "Why is this amazing production? Why can't I get my guys to do this? What's killing me? Is it the voice I'm using?" That tends to be one of the big things that's touted now, that you've got to have the right voice on the radio. That's important. It's important to have the right voice, but what's even more important is having the "sound" of that voice working with other things that make it really stand out. It's important to concentrate on those things and know what they are. Know how they work and know where to place them.
Another thing that really gets missed a lot of times is that it's so important to pull listeners through time. That's the big job of radio. We call radio "mood service," and it does that; but another thing about radio that is very important to production people is that people use it to spend time, to get them through a boring task or to get them through a time which isn't really where they want to be. Radio is that companion that gets them through that and makes life more enjoyable. So, it's our job to pull them through and be linear with our production, our marketing messages and our communications. The keys are to be linear, to be clear, and to be efficient. When we listen to production we need to think about how the production is accomplishing those tasks -- how it goes about accomplishing efficient communication, how it goes about moving the listener through time quickly, and how it keeps the listener from being bored. People are so inundated with messages, either from a marketing angle or just people communicating with one another, that it all becomes noise and becomes very boring. We've got to get people out of that boredom, and the best way to do that is to pull them through time efficiently with what you're communicating. People will be very drawn to that which is more efficient. People are looking for the easy way out.
Another thing that's important is the way people learn because we are teaching people things. We're teaching them about the radio station, or we're teaching them about a client that's paying money to be on the radio station. People learn things basically two ways. I'm not a cognitive psychologist, but I have a couple of friends that are studying that, and one thing they told me in a nutshell is that people learn through surprise and repetition. If you come across new knowledge that amazes you, you will more than likely remember it versus something that is inane to you. The other stuff you learn through constant repetition, hearing it over and over and over again.
Production Directors can utilize this knowledge. Let's say you get some copy from a salesperson that's a laundry list. Well, it doesn't take a genius to know that this is not the best kind of copy, but what do you go back and tell your salesperson? "Hey, I don't like this copy." "Well WHY don't you like this copy? Now you've attacked my ego! I'm a pretty weird person anyway, and now you're attacking my copy!" What production people need to be able to do is communicate effectively with the sales department or the copywriter, depending on what size market they're in, about why the copy doesn't work. One of best ways to do this is to evoke the surprise and repetition law and say, "Mr. Copywriter, where's the surprise here? Where's the repetition here? Let's focus on the hook and repeat it, just like a song. A song has a hook that people remember. When we do auditorium tests, we play eight hundred and fifty hooks for people, and they recognize the songs from those hooks. We've got to do the same thing in our advertisements particularly because we have less time. We don't have four minutes like a song does. We have thirty or sixty seconds. So we've got to grab that hook and play it over and over again, and it's got to be really catchy. It's got to surprise the listener."
If you can think of a way to surprise the listener and use repetition at the same time, you're going to have an effective advertisement. I don't care what rules you throw out, if you keep those two things together, you're going to stick in the mind of the listener. That doesn't mean you have to be obnoxious. That doesn't mean that every spot you put on the air is louder and more obnoxious than the preceding one. It just means you've got to surprise the listener.
That's where the creativity comes in, and that's where you've got to sit with your sunglasses on in your dark office and try to figure out just exactly how you're going to approach whatever subject you're working on. That's when it gets to be work, and sometimes you've got to be willing to say, "I'm outta here, man. I'm gonna do something really wacky so I can come up with a good idea for this spot!" It's all a battle of knowing when to hold on and get it done or when to let go. That's where you bring discipline into the creative process.
I hate to talk about Robert Fripp again, but he's got a great line that says, "discipline is not an end in itself, only a means to an end." That's a really great rule-of-thumb for creative people of any type. You've got to have some sense of discipline, but don't freak out if you have a little problem trying to come up with an idea. Let it go, and then bring the discipline in. Use discipline as a method to impart your data so your communication is efficient, and use discipline as a means to generate ideas by understanding that balance between holding on and letting go.
R.A.P.: As a consultant, what problem do you encounter most often regarding production at your client stations and prospective client stations?
Tom: The biggest problem I see -- and I know there'll be a lot of people that will agree with this in the smaller markets and medium markets especially -- is the fear of technology. There's a fear of DAT and a fear of digital audio editing. That's really frightening to me because I really think that it's obvious, and I'm sure that it is for ninety-nine percent of your readers, that digital audio editing is going to take the place of the analog tape machines in the production studio. There are a lot of guys that are going to say, "That's a bunch of crap. I've got to feel the tape," and on and on. Man! The writing is on the wall!
All you need to do is go to a Digidesign seminar and see how the stuff works and not get hung up in the fact that it looks and feels different. Just see what the capacity is of the AKG machine, and the arguments become mute. Don't be afraid of the waveform. Don't be afraid of the different kind of feel digital editing has. If you don't make the move, somebody is going to learn to use this stuff, and he's going to dust your head! You're gonna be toast! People have got to recognize this. Yes, it's scary. Change is always scary, especially when you start talking about audio technology. For some reason, tech nerds love the audio realm. They love experimenting with it and bringing new technology in. We as creative people who have deadlines often times don't feel we've got time to learn about new things, but there are guys out there making the time, and they are going to be the ones who change the way the radio sounds.
When I come across GM's who don't want to put out the money for a portable DAT machine, it's very frustrating for me. I understand how they feel, and there are two arguments. The first is that the machine will be obsolete in four years. The second is that it is too expensive and they want to wait until the price comes down. Both of them are valid arguments and it's really hard to come back, but what's really the key here is what you can do right now with a portable DAT machine. Instead of having to bring people into the studio and cut stuff, you can go to them. You've got a studio under your arm! Because the noise floor is so low, now you can use noise to create an environment. You couldn't do that before because the noise floor of analog tape is so high, and you have generations that create an even higher noise floor. With DAT and digital transfers, you can transfer stuff forever and never have any of that noise problem, and that really does make a difference, even on the radio. A lot of people will say it doesn't make any difference because of the frequency spectrum of the radio. To some degree that's true. In the abstract, it is true, but in a more practical sense, you can still hear long reverbs on the radio and things of that nature. You can hear the difference when you're building an effect with several elements and you don't have that noise floor. And let's not forget the space saving benefits of archiving on DAT rather than on analog tape or that you can send your DAT's off and have them transferred over to CD and have them forever. That brings something else to mind.
I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a radio station and wanted to do things about heritage, and just couldn't find the stuff. One of the coolest things I ever heard was when Pirate radio first went on the air, and they pulled out all that old LA radio stuff. Talk about audio symbolism! They were grabbing people and throwing them right back into their teens, right back into their childhood with that old stuff! I'll go to radio stations and be lucky if I find things that are just three or four years old, just because they don't have the archiving ability.
We've really got to start recreating people's pasts for them because as the baby boom generation gets older, they're going to want to relive that childhood. That's why the hippest people are always wearing retro-fashion. It's just a grasp at reliving youth. Now, everybody's digging on the seventies disco stuff. Disco's the hottest thing in Europe, and in some of the major markets on Sunday nights, you can go to the clubs and listen to disco music. Radio is going to have a very hard time servicing that fun and that feel if we're not archiving things. If there are guys reading this that do have an extensive archive, I suggest they use it. Use your old production, your old positioning statements. It's fun. It's kind of warm and a little bit noisy, and all of that has symbolic importance. It's very effective.
R.A.P.: How do you approach the problem of GM's who don't want to spend the money on new technology or are afraid of quick obsolescence?
Tom: One of the best things to do if you're a production guy is keep learning the stuff and don't give up on your GM. GM's, for the most part, are salespeople. Some of us are fortunate enough to work for GM's that come from programming, but the general rule is that they come from sales. What production people need to do when it comes to equipment is continually try to sell the GM on the equipment they want.
First of all, get to know what's out there. Don't just say, "I want an SPX-1000 because everyone else is using one." Make sure that's what you want and that it's going to get the job done for you. There's also the Eventide H3000. Just about everybody has those two pieces, and so those are the ones that everybody thinks they want. But there's stuff like the Alesis QuadraVerb that really gets it done, and it's not as expensive. The only way you find out about this stuff is by learning. Pick up magazines with reviews. Go down to the music store and talk to the guys about the rack gear. When you go see bands, talk to the guitarist about what he's got in his rack and why. Find out about this stuff and then sell your GM, repeatedly. When you find a really cool article about something you want, put it on his desk! When you read about a new DAT machine that's portable and under a thousand bucks, put it on his desk and tell him about it. Tell him what you can do with it. Tell him you can go down to the auto dealer and put it in front of somebody's face who just bought a car and ask him three questions about the purchase process. When somebody is just totally psyched about their new car, stick the mike in their face and go, "Hey, what's it like to buy a car from Joe Steely's Chrysler/Plymouth?" They'll go, "Oh, this was just the best experience!" People can tell the difference between actors and real people, and if you've got a portable DAT machine, you can get a real good sound.
So, if you can try to show GM's why the old technology just isn't acceptable anymore, and repeatedly show them why you need this higher technology, eventually they will soften. Eventually, they will understand. Eventually you will be able to get what you need because if you don't, you're going to either A) find a better job with somebody who does understand and who is going to hire you because you understand this equipment, or B) the GM's going to face a situation where he's saying, "Man! Everybody else sounds great, and we're just not happening! What's the problem?" "Well, the problem is, Chief, I don't have the equipment I need." They basically come to a situation where they've got to make a move. It takes a long time and it is frustrating, but you just have to use their own tactic against them which is just wear them down! It's not really a question of beating them up as much as it is just reminding them, constantly demonstrating your expertise, and constantly expressing your need.
One of the problems with the new technology is that some of the people selling it are happy to take your money and hand you the new technology, but they're not really happy to follow up with the support and walk you through the problems you're going to encounter as you learn this new technology. It's very important to deal with people that can help you in this area. One company that's great about support is Micro Music in Atlanta. They handle all types of MIDI gear and digital audio software and hardware. I want people to know they're out there because these guys really understand how important support after the sale is. I think AKG is doing a great job in this area. So are Digidesign and Turtle Beach. All of these guys are really interested in tapping into the broadcast market, and they're willing to work with you.
R.A.P.: How important is production to the success of a radio station?
Tom: I always bring things back to economics. A lot of guys get on me about that and think I compromise my artistic integrity, but in this particular case, I think this is good news. Morning show prices are getting out of hand. Talent prices are getting out of hand. It's not like the production people are in competition with talent, but when it gets to the open market, they are. In my discussions around the country, I've discovered that there's a great deal of dissatisfaction with the high cost of morning shows, and morning shows are your franchise. That's what gets people to lock into your radio station for the rest of the day. A lot of people will say, "Gee, I don't want to pay $200,000 a year for these guys, but I've got to because I've got to have the franchise if I'm going to be competitive." So they put that money out, and they get what they get. A lot of times it's good. Sometimes the morning show is great, but it doesn't fit the market or the target demo.
One of the things I've been saying, and it has somewhat fallen on deaf ears because it's kind of out there, is that you can hire a couple of great production people for $35,000 a year each that will be absolute maniacs because you're paying them what they're worth, and then get a reasonably priced morning show guy to kind of "M.C." all the creative stuff that these guys pump out. Now you've got yourself a morning show that can extend into middays and afternoon drive. You've got the perpetual morning show, which is something Lee Abrams has been talking about for a couple of years as well. This is not economically feasible utilizing the current management methods, but, all of a sudden, it does become economically feasible if you go out and find kick ass production talent and give them the tools that they need.
Now, a lot of people haven't heeded my advice yet. In fact, nobody has heeded my advice yet, but I'm convinced it will happen. It's just one of those things that's going to take time for people to wake up and realize. It has got to start with production people who realize that, "Hey, I really can contribute more. There is a lot more I can do for the sound of this radio station, and it's up to me to begin to realize my potential by learning about equipment that I have in my studio and by doing things for the air talent that are above and beyond the call of duty." Learn about audio symbolism. Learn about creating sounds for the radio station to use rather than just going to the library and pulling something out that has been used a hundred times before. It's just a function of going above and beyond, showing people what can be done, and blowing them away. Then, people like me will be going around saying, "Hey, we've got to change the economics of this thing a little bit. Understand the importance of the role of the Production Director in making the station have a "whole" sound."
The Production Director is the only guy whose creativity is on the radio all day. Think about what that means! That's huge! That's really important, and not a lot of people consider that they are the only person, beyond the Program Director, who is responsible for the way the radio station sounds all day. If you're air talent, you go on and have your shift, and you've got your voice on a couple of spots, but you didn't necessarily create the texture and the feel of the spot like the Production Director did. The Production Director is the guy who, with the Program Director, gives the radio station that whole sound. They're incredibly important, and they're really undervalued.
Production guys need to realize that that's the situation right now. I know they know this, but it only makes them mad. It doesn't really motivate them to action, which is what they need. They need to say, "Boy, there is a lot of stuff out there I need to learn about, and there's a lot of stuff I can explore and experiment with." It really is going to have an impact in a couple of years. The status quo isn't going to stay the same. It just can't because market number fifty five cannot afford to pay $200,000 for a morning show. The talent price has really peaked out, and the money is going to have to be shifted elsewhere. Guys just need to realize that and understand that and believe in it and use that as a motivation to get really hot because the demand is going to happen, and it's going to happen in a snap. Once something works in radio, once somebody takes a chance on something that ends up working, everybody copies it. Trust me. One of the guys that reads this is going to go out and get this done, and he's going to be the first guy that does it. Then everybody is going to follow.
R.A.P.: You have a very interesting concept that may spark a lot of production people into action, but how do you get this creative concept across to a GM that comes from a non-creative sales background?
Tom: Ultimately, it's economics that drives the decision, and that's what I'm really trying to get across to everybody. Ultimately, they're going to hit a wall. There'll be that time when they're going to need a morning show, and they'll find out that what they can afford just sucks. The economic environment in radio is really under a lot of stress, and a lot of GM's don't feel like there's any way out.
It gets to a point where you just gotta be able to be a good cook and utilize the right skills. It's just like what Rick Allen said in the last issue (March '91 R.A.P.): "Don't try to do it all." The guys that try to do it all are going to end up being mediocre at everything. It's going to come to a point where GM's will say, "Well, instead of getting one guy, one superstar that does it all, I'm going to get five guys that are maniacs with the blade, and maniacs with the typewriter, and maniacs with people, and are willing to go out there and go nuts. And I'll pay them the same amount of money I would have had to pay the superstar and see what I get." It's going to work. Then, all of a sudden, GM's are going to have this new option, and things are going to come more into check, more into balance.
Let me say that morning show guys are some of the most creative guys around. I'm not coming down on morning show guys, and I'm not trying to take anything away from them. All I'm trying to say is that a lot of them are overpaid relative to what they do. Now some of them aren't, and some of the ones that make the most money are not overpaid. It's really important to me that morning show guys understand that I'm not bashing them. There just needs to be some equity. You're paying your morning show team $200,000 a year, and you're paying your production guy $30,000. What's wrong with this picture? Is it because the production guy doesn't have great pipes? Give me a break! Is it because he doesn't write great jokes? There are a lot of great joke writers out there that are less expensive. Creativity needs to be compensated for in an equal fashion. What you bring to the table is what you should be compensated for. Morning show guys who are Production Directors or have that under their belt know what I'm saying. They're going to think I'm trying to take bread out of their pocket, but that's not the case. It's just a function of things having to be a little more equal.
R.A.P.: Do you see a day when it is the Production Director who is making "the big bucks?"
Tom: Yes. I would like to see that. I would like to see guys get good enough. I would like to see guys work with writers -- get writers on the phone and network with writers more -- and yes, make the big bucks. Instead of just having the morning team, you also have your production team of Joe the production guy, and below him, the writer, both making the big bucks.
R.A.P.: How does the problem of many stations being over-leveraged affect this "big buck" plan?
Tom: This problem is going to affect everybody's paycheck in the short term. People need to realize this. While I might be painting a picture of utopia in the future for production people, the short term is going to be tough. Guys that are in the trenches don't realize this, but there are a lot of GM's and owners who are really sweating bullets right now.
Once we get over all this over-leveraged crap, things are going to be great. That will be the time when production people make the big bucks. The key now is to bring the writing into the production. Bring that symbolism and that creativity into it. Then Program Directors will begin to hear how much a Production Director can really do for radio stations, and they'll begin to demand those skills for their radio stations. Then the production guys will start making the big bucks, after we get over the effect the Wall Street guys had on our industry.
R.A.P.: You've put a lot of emphasis on the importance of production people to a station's morning show. What thoughts do you have regarding the more common tasks of the Production Director of producing spots and promos?
Tom: It's interesting. I don't know how many production people really make an effort to go out and meet their clients, but that is something that is really important. Every business has a culture, and if you're trying to produce a commercial for a business -- I don't care if it's a two man shop -- it's going to have a culture. It's incumbent upon a good Production Director to go in and learn the culture of the business they're creating an advertisement for so they can reflect the culture of the business in the ad. It's not only a vanity thing for the business -- the business will go, "God, I loved your spot! You were very flattering and had fun with my culture and my business and I love that!" -- but it's also very endearing to the listener to know about the culture of a business because everybody is sensitive to it. If you can reflect the culture of a business and have fun with it, if that culture allows it, ads can be very effective. I think guys really miss that, and I know that the client appreciates it for the most part.
Most clients are happy to have you come and patronize their businesses. You have a responsibility as the employee of a radio station to patronize advertisers, but it's even more than that. It's going in and saying, "Hi, I'm the Production Director for WXXX. Mr. Pizza Guy, tell me how long you've been here. Tell me what kind of cheese you use. Tell me about who works here." You're going to find something. You're going to find a hook. You're going to find something that is endearing about the company, something that's cool, something you can really grab on to and utilize and bring out. Advertising really works effectively when you get to know who your client is.
I know people are going to read this and go, "Man, I don't have time to do that. I've got too much going on. I've got salespeople jumping down my throat. I've got a Program Director jumping down my throat, and I just don't have the time to do that stuff." You've got to make the time. If you're really committed to making the big bucks in this business, you've got to make the time.
R.A.P.: That sounds good, but for many Production Directors there just simply isn't the time to spend an hour traveling to and from a client's business, then another hour with the client. Where's the compromise?
Tom: Maybe you don't go to the client that's a half-hour away. You see the client that's ten minutes away and have lunch with him. Get a salesperson to throw a party for her clients at a bar where she's got trade. Go to that party and get the salesperson to introduce you to all her clients and talk with them. Or just call them on the phone. There's a lot of ways to contact them and get close to them.
Guys that have been doing this for a long time know that it works. These have got to be goals that everybody makes for themselves. Maybe you do it on the weekends. It's a very easy thing to do, and it's really painless because all you're doing is going out to meet somebody and talk about what they do. It's one of the easiest parts of the job there is. Then, once you demonstrate the power of getting close to the clients and what it really means to the business, you can go to the GM and say, "Boy! PR is really becoming an important component of my job, and I'm really getting bogged down with all these dubs. Do you think I could bring an intern in to do dubs for me or help me with my filing and clerical things?" Then, just build it up from there. Extend yourself and create the need, and demonstrate how it will pay for itself. I think you'll find that General Managers are a lot easier to deal with in that environment.
Tell your GM, "You know, I've gone to these two clients and they went from being $450 a month clients to $900 a month clients, and that was just the two guys I went and visited. Mr. GM, if I could go and visit four, by having a little help, who knows what that would bring? I think it's pretty clear what I've demonstrated and what I can do on my own. What I really need is some help so I can do more of this and bring more money into the radio station." You've got to be a salesman, understand the process of sales and speak the GM's language.
Of course, everything I'm talking about means more work, but that's going to be the difference between making the big bucks in the big markets and just being a tape head for the rest of your gig until you finally just hate it, get pissed off, and get into something else.
R.A.P.: What do you have to say about clients and salespeople that don't give their production people the time necessary to create a good spot?
Tom: That's the most common thing I hear when I go out and do production seminars: "Dammit, I wish the salespeople would just give me another day. They would be blown away by the stuff they'd get!" One thing we try to do is show the salespeople how much more their client gets for their money if they give the production people an extra day. "I know you're getting ready to have a sale, Mr. Advertiser. If I can get that order in now, three days in advance, my creative team will be able to work on this and will be able to bring you an amazing spot. If you're going to wait until Friday, when the sale starts on Saturday, they're going to give you a good spot, but it won't be as kick ass as it would if they had a couple of extra days."
This is all an education process. Even though the salespeople kind of know this in the back of their heads, they're not really fully cognitive of it when they're involved in the sales process. This is another place where the responsibility falls on the Production Director to repeatedly remind salespeople of your need for extra time. Don't do it in an angry way though -- "I can't believe you always wait until the last minute to bring your orders in!" That'll never work. You'll never get your message across if you handle your salespeople that way. You've got to work with them as soon as they come on board at the radio station. Explain things to them in a real clear way: "Hey, Joe Salesguy. Come into the studio for a second before you go on your first training calls with the Sales Manager. There's something I want to show you." Have a couple of spots ready, then say, "This is spot number one. This is a spot I had three days to make. This is spot number two. This is a spot I had one day to make. I want you to listen to them." Boom, boom. Play the spots and go back at the salesman again: "Now, I don't want to keep you from making any money, Mr. Salesguy, but I will assure you that in the long run, if you give me three days and I can create spots like this one for you all the time, in two years you're going to be making a lot more money than you would be making if you make me make spots for you like this other one all the time."
You've got to get them up front, when they come on board. If you can't, you've got to really spend some time with them to remind them of your needs. Take them out for a drink, or whatever. Again, surprise and repetition. Use it, not only in your spots, but in the education of your salespeople. For the most part, they're just victims of their own ignorance. They just don't understand the importance of time to creative people. Creative people and salespeople are diametrically opposed personality types. You've got to play their game up front and show them how their going to make more money because that's really what they're interested in.
R.A.P.: We have many Program Directors who read R.A.P.. What advice do you have for them regarding their production departments?
Tom: Pay close attention to the production process and learn to speak the language of production. Learn to identify and discuss the way equalization works, the way the digital delay works, the way the editing process goes. Learn with your Production Director about the process because you can never know enough. Guys will sit there and go, "I've been splicing tape for fifty years. There's nothing anybody is going to tell me about production." That's a bunch of crap. I'd like to see those guys go in there and do digital sampling and know how that stuff works.
Program Directors really need to understand what's going on in terms of technology and in terms of communicating with their audience and building that stationality. Their right hand man should be the Production Director. Those guys should be best buddies and work together all the time. The Program Director that hears something on the air, calls his Production Director and says, "That promo sucks! Get it off and do it again," is never going to get the sound he wants out of his production guy. It is the responsibility of the Program Director to be able to express, in clear terms, what he wants from the Production Director. This idea of saying, "I know what I want in my head, and this isn't it," is just a load of crap. A Program Director should understand how impossible that kind of communication is to work with. A Program Director has to be really aware of being specific with what's wrong with spots, and the only way to do that is to be able to speak the language of production. You have to be aware of the process that the Production Director is going through. You have to be sensitive to his creative process as well. Don't come down on your Production Director when he splits in the middle of the afternoon because he's wiggin' out. Let him go. Teach him discipline skills, and then let him discipline himself. You're in the Program Director's chair. You need to be a manager of people. The way to manage people is to speak to them in a language they understand, and teach them specifically what it is you want them to do.
R.A.P.: Any parting words for the Production Directors of the world?
Tom: Look for a really bright future, because I believe the future is brighter for the production people than almost any other job in the radio station. Marketers and production people are the ones on the fast track. There's also going to be a lot of movement from production into programming, just like you see a lot of Program Directors becoming GM's.
Also, when you're moving to a new job, demand that you have the equipment you want. You have the most leverage when you're starting a new job. That's when they really need you. Don't just think about the money. Think about your future career. Think about the step you're on and the next step. Consider taking less money than they're offering with the condition that you get the equipment you want. That will make you better and help you get to the next market. People are going to hire you in the big markets in the future because of your technological understanding. Think about that when you're changing jobs. It's not only going to help you, but it will help your fellow production people, too.