We'll Be Right Back After These Annoyances, Or Why They Change The Station

For a long time, I used to tell sales, "there is 50 minutes in the hour that is for Programming and 10 minutes for Sales to program with client material". Over the years, I have adhered to that, for the most part. Then my ear started to catch on to how bad the stop sets on radio were getting. Bad writing, bad production, bad reads, etc.

Here is the problem, for years, sales gathered the copy points, handing it over to copywriters who would write and edit copy then give it to the production department who choose the correct sound (voices and music) and would produce it then, voila, we have a commercial that was interesting, entertaining and had sound continuity with the radio station. Then it all ended.

As times changed, consolidation took place and then the economy tanked. The unfortunate byproduct was a cut back on "non-essential staff" and have other members of the staff take on additional responsibilities. I don't blame owners for the necessity of having to make these changes in order to survive and compete. However, it eroded part of the radio station...the quality of the 10 minutes of ads per hour (length of the break, obviously, depends on your market and the company). There has been no quality control of what has been coming out of the speakers for this segment of our stations for quite some time. This alone can drive part of your audience away.

When you drill down on those stop sets, how many stop sets have you heard with a string of "rip and read" spots? Or the same voice back to back to back in the same stop set? Or the phrases:

• "Family/Locally owned and operated"

• No one cares, reference revenues of Walmart/Amazon, et al

• "In business since (insert year)"

• That's nice, until a new guy does it better at a lower cost

• "You heard me right"/"That's Right!"

• If I am listening, I heard you the first time

• "But wait, there's more!"

• Oh, so you are filling time because there isn't enough copy or you think that some 1980's term will make someone pay attention

• "Prices too low to advertise"

• B.S. alarms are going off. No one would ever believe that.

• "Tell them you heard it on (insert station name)"

• This is a great way for the advertiser to tell you they don't want to buy advertising on your station again/tell you they don't want to pay for ineffective advertising/or ask for free ads...add this to the list of the excuse that "radio doesn't work", all because you are being gauged on if someone will say they heard it on your radio station. And we have to take the client's word that no one said your station name....mmmhmmm...next

• "I", "Us" or "We" when it is a DJ from the station or staff member who doesn't work for that company reading the spot.

• Unless you have a fee for the DJ, anything in first person is a lie

• "Honestly"

• If you have to say it, the audience thinks you are lying

• Street addresses

• No one ever remembers street numbers. Try next to unrelated businesses that people will remember

• Not memorable phone numbers

• Unless you are spelling something with your phone number or it repeats in a memorable fashion...DON'T DO IT....USE YOUR WEBSITE or FACEBOOK PAGE to direct them.

...you get the the picture. At the end of the day, those overused items aren't just an annoyance to radio people; they all scream Bull***t to the audience. It also gives the client a reason to say that radio doesn't work.

The reason that bad copy happens is the sales staff has been entrusted to write the copy (and many clients think a business card has all the info needed). To the defense of the sales department, they have not been schooled in the best practices of copy writing.

How do we change this?

Teach!

This is where a Production Director and air staff need to be part of the process and offer their Creative Services. And of course, this should be encouraged by the Programmers and Sales Managers.

Just as a PD is already supposed to teach the staff the direction of the station, so everyone has the same overall goal and direction. The same should go for Production. That, too, is the product. We cannot discount this part of the station, as the younger generations have a limit to how much they will tolerate.

Over the last few months, I have been spending a lot of time with 10-18 year olds getting to know their radio habits and the subject of commercials comes up as a reason they will change the channel or turn the radio off. But it isn't just because of commercials, themselves. It is the quality of the commercials.

That was an eye opener. I asked the kids, if they liked any commercials and a number of hands went up. Everything they liked included, multiple voice spots, humor and even straight reads. They pointed out that they liked a variety of styles, but they had to sound creative. When I asked for commercials they loved and hated, they named off a number of local clients. The one's they didn't like were boring, lacked excitement and were just voice over music. They also didn't, in many cases, like business owners doing their own spots...unless that person had a distinct personality that they could laugh at or relate to. (Basically, memorable)

So when I asked the kids, would you sit through a commercial break, the answer was yes...IF they were as entertained. That one thing is what it is all about. We are in the entertainment business, but we are also in the business of entertainment. It is a business, but we must balance our priorities and always create quality on all fronts. This way we give people a reason to say that radio works more often.

#commercials #production