Inside the January Digital Edition:
Q It Up: Who were your mentors and what did they teach you?
Over 3 dozen pros respond to this month's Q It Up: Who Were Your Mentors? What person or people most influenced your skills? This doesn’t necessarily have to be someone you knew personally or worked with. Maybe it’s just someone whose work influenced you, simply by hearing and studying it. And what is one or more of the biggest things you learned from this person or persons that has helped shape your style and skillset?
26th Annual RAP Awards - Last Call For Entries!
Best Promo, Best Commercial, Best Imaging, Best Feature Production! Pick your category and go for the gold! ENTRY DEADLINE: JANUARY 19, 2016. Updates in the RAP Community at rapmag.com and on Twitter @radioprod.
Production 512: A New Year… A New Beginning
by Dave Foxx
And now… LIVE from Austin, Texas… it’s Dave Foxx and Production 512! As promised, this month’s column is coming to you from Austin. You might have noticed the new name for the column too… I’ll explain in a moment. It IS a new year and with that comes all sorts of new things… like resolutions.
The Commercial Chronicles: Whose Voice Is That? Wait! It’s Mine!
by Dennis Daniel
When you’ve been doing this gig as long as I have, everything kind of meshes together. I don’t even think it’s possible for me to calculate how many radio commercials I’ve done since I started professionally in 1981 (My God… the mind reels!) It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve done thousands! At 55 years of age, that really does seem quite mind blowing.
Feature: 7 Tips for Mentoring New Radio Talent
by Earl Pilkington
When we discover new and fresh talent, are we as radio professionals prepared to mentor, coach and guide them through their first few years in radio? Here are 7 proven tips to help to make them, and hopefully our industry grow.
Radio Hed: How to Make Radio Testimonials Work
by Jeffrey Hedquist
Ah… tried and true testimonial spots. Some work well, some… not so much. Audiences have heard so many commercials using testimonials that yours better ring true or your advertisers’ messages will be ignored. How can you help your client get the most effective testimonials? Simply ask customers for them.
Relationship Goals for a Producer and Voiceover Talent
by Amber O'Neill
Have you ever looked back on a project and felt it could have gone better? It’s like that feeling you get when you get home from the grocery store and you realize you bought crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth… it’s not necessarily bad but it’s just not as good as it could have been. We can have the crunchy vs. smooth peanut butter debate another time; for now, let’s talk about steps you can take to ensure your next experience with your voice-over talent is a smooth one.
"....And Make It Real Creative!”: Pitch Imperfect
by Trent Rentsch
It’s been THAT day again. Big project, must have the perfect music. I spent 2 ½ hours hunting for said music (not an exaggeration; I kept track). “Surely you found it,” You gasp. “Yeah, right,” I grunt. I cannot and will not blame the music library we use. It’s deep; the perfect cut IS there, somewhere. I COULD blame it on lack of sleep (the old brain doesn’t shut down like it used to), the weather (how could I possibly be productive on an early winter day that feels more like summer?), even the project itself (the copywriter was too ambitious… oh, wait. That was me…). I could blame the unexpected meetings I was called to, the phone calls from clients, my lack of lunch… heck, why not blame the socks I wore today? I could be an excuse machine, but as usual I only have to blame myself.
The R.A.P. Soundstage
Up first is this month’s Editor’s Choice Award winner, an ace promo from Evan Surminski at Corus Radio Winnipeg for the Shadoe Davis show – cool concept, well-performed and produced! Track 2 is audio Dave Foxx references in his Production 212 column -- it’s the last promo he wrote, cut and produced for Z100 before his exit! Track 3 is the commercial Dennis Daniel talks about at the end of his Commercial Chronicles column this month. Track 4 is a spot Steve Wein produced back in 1973 and talks about in his Q It Up response on pages 6/7. Track 5 comes from Dave Stalker, a spot he had in the station archives that the client decided to start running again – a really good, creative spot that Dave notes was produced by an agency in Portland called Pink Martini and thought it was worth sharing, and it is. Track 6 from the young Tom Baker is a spot he entered in the NextRadio contest. It placed 1st and aired on 30+ stations nationwide! More commercials are on tracks 6-13. Track 9 features a British accent on the VO, but this spot isn’t from the UK -- interesting how a non-local accent can put a whole new flavor on the message. We get some excellent promo work on tracks 14-17, and we wrap it up with some imaging montages on tracks 18-20. The teasers on track 20 were interspersed in regular programming before a station launch.
...and more!
Get the whole story! Subscribe today!