A few items on this month's Cassette need a setup from their producers. Read this column while listening to The Cassette!
...enclosed are 3 promos for a competition currently on the air here at 2DAY-FM..."Sex In Space." There is a story behind the concept of this promotion. Our direct FM competitors here in Sydney went to air with a promotion where they are giving some lucky listener the chance to go to Russia and fly "at the speed of sound" in a Foxhound Fighter jet. Codenamed "Red Angel," it's a prize that obviously lends itself to some great imaging promos and theatre of the mind. In short, they implied that they were sending someone into space!! We decided to confuse the listeners and have a little bit of fun at the same time. Have a listen. Oh, by the way, we are actually sending someone into orbit with their partner -- it's a space/gravity simulator.
Daryl Missen, 2DAY-FM, Sydney, Australia
I just finished this jingle...it's a full sing :60 for Saturn Insurance. They're basically a high-risk company. Because there are about a half dozen companies competing for this business on our station, the client wanted something that would stand out (yeah, don't they ALL?). I wrote the lyrics first, with a general idea of how the melody would sound. Then I created the music on the station's Korg 01/Wfd Workstation, recorded on a Tascam 58 8-track recorder, then mixed down on a Tascam 32 2-track. Reverb came from a Yamaha SPX-90II. My vocals were sung in 5 parts. We market the jingles we do here as outside production and ask market rate. The sales rep gets 20%; the rest is mine. Obviously, the station benefits by having a client who is blown away by your creative department, and they tend to stay with you. If the jingle's solid, there's no reason to undercut anybody, so hold out for your price. As far as phone numbers go, the best way to have the listener remember it is to sing it. Remember the song, "Jenny?" "867-5-3-Oh-Niy-ine." It's in concrete when it's in a jingle.
Rick Calvert, Production Director, KIOZ-FM, Rock 102.1, San Diego, CA
I'm enclosing a one minute montage of sweepers and image IDs from K-Arts that we use coming out of stop sets and between selections. Most classical stations in my experience don't use this approach, but we find that it keeps the pace fast and lively and helps us to differentiate ourselves from the competition, a more "traditional" classical station licensed to the University of Houston.
Tom Richards, Program Director/Operations Manager, KRTS-FM/KRTK-FM, Houston, TX
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