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By Steve, February 1, 2009 1:43 pm

A station in Orlando has launched Careereoki. Listeners are invited to sing about their work skills and upload a video for a shot at a career makeover.

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By Steve, February 1, 2009 12:59 pm

Some rules are meant to be broken. Like the rules for creating bad radio commercials.

* Rule #1: Don’t attract the listener’s attention. [Ever heard a radio commercial that didn’t command your attention? Make sure your spot doesn’t have the same effect on listeners.]

* Rule #2: Fail to paint a picture. [Radio is a visual medium. Your words create a mental image that inspires and motivates listeners to act.  Words are powerful – choose them carefully.]

* Rule #3: Be so clever or creative you forget to sell. [A good commercial isn’t one that just makes people laugh; it motivates them to act. Make your message clear. Don’t bury it in a clever idea.]

* Rule #4: Use cliché-ridden copy. [Commercial clichés are trite and empty and don’t communicate anything to listeners. Find a way to say it fresher. It’s worth it.]

* Rule #5: Write way too much copy. [Read your copy out loud at a normal conversational pace and time yourself. If it takes you seventy-five seconds to read it, what makes you think your talent can do a good job with the same copy in just sixty seconds?

If you write and produce great radio commercials, visit the Radio Mercury Awards website.

(via Jaye Albright’s Breakfast Blog)

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By Steve, January 21, 2009 4:49 pm

Forward to your sales manager:

Consumer spending may be at all-time low, but Forbes.com reports there are plenty of things people can’t seem to live with out. The ten things we’re still buying:

• Smart phones
• Videogames and consoles
• Gym memberships
• Personal care items
• Toy building sets
• Car maintenance
• Dress casual shoes
• Food at restaurants
• Movie tickets
• Netbooks (small, cheap laptops)

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By Steve, May 23, 2008 5:28 am

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” 

From Hear 2.0: Why does radio so abhor risks that it punishes those who take them when they fail? After all, those who fear to fail rarely achieve success.

This has never stopped Google. Or, for that matter, thousands of other go-getters on the Internet. Is failure OK? Yes. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and try again.

PC World’s look at Google’s failures reminds us that radio needs to keep trying new things, coming up with new ideas. And the article reminds us that all employees at Google are supposed to spend 20 percent of their time working on personal projects of interest. The policy encourages creativity.

Call it research and development, if you will. Imagine how innovative every company would be if we were encouraged to try something new?

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By Steve, August 1, 2007 2:05 pm

Here’s a fun idea one of our InterPrep subscribers sent us. Each week for four weeks the station would put a list on its website of five things to be photographed with or next to, like a famous statue, a well-known sign, in front of a local mall. The first person each week to email photos of his or herself with those five things received a $100 gift certificate to the mall (the one that was on the list each week). He said it was unique added value for the mall, and a nice way to draw people to the station website.

You could also tie in with a local tourism office and have listeners take their photos next to local tourist attractions. Or, if you have a chain of stores in town, say a muffler shop, the listeners could be required to have their photos taken in front of each location for a decent size gift certificate.