4-21-2014
In a recent article, the writer singled out radio station copywriters ? whether they were actual members of an actual creative department or the forlorn and reluctant salespeople who also got saddled with the job of typing the hype. They were noted for being compelled by management to write copy that was, at best, "not offensive." Now, there?s a strategy for producing wildly successful advertising!
Besides, the issue is not one of spots being ?offensive.? It?s about their being insulting. Big difference! An advertiser can offend me all day long. My bones are hard. Although rare, I might even get emotionally involved. But, when an advertiser is continuously insulting me and audiences everywhere, we are so out of there. Our minds put up automatic blocks and our fingers go to the punch-out mode.
This is also the case for on-air presentations ? syndicated, V/T?ed or ?live & local.? As has been pointed out before, morning shows comprised of two or more presenters have the potential of immediately and continuously avoiding insulting audiences by attempting to intimately include audience members ? individually. So long as the talents are restricted to directing their comments to each other, they can bypass the immediate, destructive fiasco known to all as ?going one-to-one.?
Now, it might come as no surprise to readers that this is a practice (applying a one-to-one strategy) that is more than just expected of writers and presenters. It is mandated ? either explicitly by direct orders from Programming, or implicitly by way of tradition and dogma. That writers and presenters are also making demands-for-behavior of the same innocent, unsuspecting audience members is a totally separate, but ubiquitous radio strategy. Both are equally insulting and destructive practices.
I accept the ongoing reality that station owners, managers, on-air participants, and writers have yet to recognize these principles/elements as being, not just pervasive, but spectacularly counterproductive. Given the rest of the banality, pap, and useless blathering being foisted on audiences during much of the broadcast day, people working at stations can be forgiven for missing these subtle factors, particularly as they also have to deal with all the white noise that is a part of toiling around lava pits or open microphones.
But, from out here ? in orbit ? the signals are distinct, obvious, and loud. So far, radio participants are totally unaware that these ?signals? are bouncing right back to the stations as invisible death-rays that gradually consume everybody they touch.
Although I generally operate across the hall in the ?bubbles? that (supposedly) surround and protect programming departments, the people I do have an affinity for, and who are impacted ? perhaps even more harshly ? by this situation, are those straining in the sales departments. As radio has already and continues to eat its young and curtail any hope of improvement by stripping themselves of both on-air and creative talent, more of the responsibility to generate something akin to actual radio advertising falls on these same weary and anxious individuals in the sales department.
We (radio) have nobody to blame but ourselves when it comes to introducing potential advertisers to the services we render. But, even that is not fair. Over the decades, as stations have been gutted, sales staff have been whipped into generating the most base, crass, and insulting forms of electronic advertising.
From out here ? still in orbit ? it seems so obvious that a better job of sabotaging local radio enterprises couldn?t be accomplished, even by someone whose intentional mandate was to destroy or, at least, cripple radio. Are there many, I wonder, among the leadership of radio who will argue that the last 30 years or so have been about supplying the least possible programming and advertising services at the least possible cost? Those who might risk the criticism that would surely result from their putting up even a milquetoast objection would immediately be greeted by boos, hisses, and catcalls ? but only from those whose jobs weren?t on the line.
Radio salespeople are obliged to hit the streets every day. Many may have their pitches down pat. Some will be terrific closers. Others may be able to generate genuine relationships with a number of clients. If they couldn?t do these things, we wouldn?t have a business to bitch about.
The harsher reality, however, is that the majority go to the streets with no flak jackets and no ammo. Those who do make it through the minefields can count themselves as some combination of ?skilled? and/or ?lucky.? But they still won?t have the necessary messaging in their satchels to powerfully influence a broadcast audience. This is why it is that, so often, an advertiser must be preparing to drop their drawers on price before considering buying radio. This is convenient to the salesperson/writer as they can whip off a hunk of copy that, essentially, says: ?Huge deals! Store needs cash flow! Buy today in case they go out of business tomorrow! Your best-price sale is on now!? Fortunately, even the janitor or GM can write those ones.
Most will agree that many of these ?campaigns? are no more than examples of very short-term ?desperation advertising? ? hardly the stuff of which long-term, profitable marketing strategies are made. In such circumstances, the client is spending money advertising the fact that their margins are being trashed.
Indeed, radio salespeople have enough on which to be concentrating without being stuck with the creative, as well. And since the generation of powerful advertising messaging is a combination of education, acquired skills and talent, there are those ? available somewhere ? who are better suited for these tasks. Besides, the standard-issue ?grippin? & grinnin?? and acquiring a thorough understanding of the medium is more than enough to keep any salesperson engaged.
A full compliment of professional radio services cannot be supplied by unskilled labor. We don?t run sod-laying companies where managers have to continuously remind workers: ?It?s green side up!? Anything less is insulting.
Ronald T. Robinson has been involved in Canadian Radio since the '60s as a performer, writer and coach and has trained and certified as a personal counsellor. Ron makes the assertion that the most important communicative aspects of broadcasting, as they relate to Talent and Creative, have yet to be addressed. Check out his website www.voicetalentguy.com
(4/24/2014 2:47:22 AM)
"Let me repeat that for emphasis: After almost 7 months, the NextRadio platform currently services an average audience of only 119 listeners."
http://www.markramseymedia.com/2014/03/is-nextradio-growing-or-sinking/
(4/23/2014 2:33:34 PM)As Jack London deems to chime in. I just read "Sea Wolf" again. Great work, Jack.
(4/23/2014 1:29:25 PM)
Do I get a side-order of smegma with this, dick-cheese?
(4/23/2014 12:14:18 PM)
Quite so, Ted.
Because we radio-folk live in a somewhat "closed society" it doesn't even cross the minds of owners and managers that there might be a bit of a self-imposed set of severe limitations in play - at all times.
For those who recognize the situation, it is a profoundly frustrating scenario.
(4/23/2014 9:50:08 AM)
Unfortunately, members of production departments rarely, if ever, get out to meet the clients or see their places of business. Nor do they want that task. The salesperson is actually in the best position to know the client, know about their business and to feel their pain. The problem is that the neophytes who are given a phone book and a pile of contracts and told to "go out and sell something" are not given enough training in copywriting to put together effective and engaging copy.
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