In the second installment of a continuing series of conversations with programmers, production/imaging/voiceover wiz Rich VanSlyke talks with Chris O’Kelley, PD of WDRR-FM, Classic Hits 93-9 The Drive in Augusta, Georgia, who says “you can’t have enough imaging!”
Rich Van Slyke
By Rich Van Slyke
Previously on Programming To Win: Rich VanSlyke talked with 2 PDs about imaging a station with no DJs. In part 1, Kayvon Motiee, PD of KYLZ-FM, Utah’s 104-7 Cool. Classic. Rock. in Salt Lake City answered questions like: What advice do you have for PDs that are re-imaging? What do you look for in an image voice? What categories on imaging do you have? And Kayvon explained his Top 5 imaging goals. Now, we talk to Chris O’Kelley, PD of WDRR-FM, Classic Hits 93-9 The Drive in Augusta, Georgia, who says “you can’t have enough imaging!”
Rich: Chris, 93-9 The Drive is a very successful station in Augusta, and it’s your baby. You program the music, you coordinate the promotions, do the remotes, and you write and produce the imaging. Most PDs in your shoes would be happy with 50 imagers, yet you have over 220! Explain.
Chris: My goal is to make the station sound like it has personality, even though we don’t have DJs. We do not want it to sound like a jukebox. Having lots of different imaging cuts allows me great variety and it lets me bring them in and out. I rest the ones that have been playing a lot. And I put in the ones that have been resting for a while. We do timely imaging, like localizing charity events. When I have you voice a promo, I cut it into shorter versions to run as sweepers and bumpers. And whenever we do a remote, I have you voice short bumpers to run during the remotes. And I usually produce 2 or 3 versions of a promo, just to have lots of variety.
Rich: How many categories of imagers do you have at The Drive?
Chris: I have about 10 categories right now, but we are always adding more. In addition to the Top of the Hour IDs, we have 9AM Commercial Free Workday Promos, City Liners, Listener Liners, Web Streaming Liners, Music Menu Promos, Quick Stingers, Dry 93-9 The Drive Voiceovers, plus Speed Breaks, Into Stop Set Liners, Out of Stop Set Liners, and All Music Morning Show promos.
Rich: How do you keep them all straight?
Chris: Linker. The program that works with Selector to schedule imaging. Linker allows me to make the most of our 222 imaging elements. I can match slower tempo liners with slow tempo songs. But it won’t schedule 2 slow tempo liners in a row. I love it! I can make sure songs contained in Music Menu promos don’t follow that promo, which creates burn. One of the best features is being able to track how many times each imager has played. Once it’s burnt, I put it in a hold category and rest it. Then, I’ll bring it back. On an automated jukebox, you hear the same promos everyday. Not on The Drive. You can go 3 days without hearing the same imager.
Rich: What about your listener liners?
Chris: Since there are no jocks, we like to make the listeners the stars of the station. We put all kinds of listener comments on the air and we keep them fresh. It’s a lot of work, but the payoff is huge. We’ll even put negative comments on the air too!
Rich: What are your thoughts on voice talent?
Our station voice really must be a talent that is not going to be a long term turn off. That’s why we don’t use a Darth Vader deep voice. When you are a non-jock station and all you have is your voice guy, you really have to find ways to keep him or her from wearing on listeners. In a perfect world, I’d love to go back to having two voices. We did this for a while and it worked nicely. We would use the second voice, which was female, for promos and liners that went into the softer songs of the format, James Taylor, Elton John etc. Using listeners as VO talent helps as well.
Rich: What about production? Do you like it multi-layered or simple?
Chris: I like to try multi-layered production, but it normally turns out to be simple. This year we have had to take on our own imaging, which is a story being heard all around radio this year, so it has forced to me to spend more time with production and imaging on The Drive. I am trying more things and learning to produce more multi-layered pieces. The more I do, I’m not gonna say the easier it gets, but I try to learn a little more about to how to control it and not let multi-layered imaging kill me and drive me crazy!
Rich: Ok, last question. If a PD told you he wanted to image his station just like yours, what would you say are the top 5 most important things to consider?
Chris: 1) Local, Local, Local, as best you can. It will be the hardest part of the imaging.
2) Lots of different imaging, to keep it fresh.
3) Make sure your Voice Talent is not someone that is going to wear people down. Go for the relaxed natural friendly read.
4) When it comes to remotes and promotions, which still go on even without an air staff, promos for remotes, giveaways, book promotions or concert tickets need to be different and stand out, the production value on these always tend to change in the sound for me, different read from the VO, the music used etc.
5) Keep a good mix of short and long imaging. PPM, which we are not on yet, shows even long imaging is taken as a turn off or in some cases a commercial. Mix them up, you still have a message to sell and sometimes they will be longer, but again back to #2. With more imaging cuts you can shorten the message and still get the point across with frequency!
Rich VanSlyke is a voice guy/producer on WGRD, WKQZ, KYLZ, WDRR, KZND, KQWB, WGIC, WJLT, MORE 94, XFM Nairobi, WKZQ, WKLR, WRXW, KZOZ, WIXO, KCBL, WSFM, KKPL, WRZK, and the image voice for FMQB’s Inside Alice In Chains: Black Gives Way To Blue. Got a question about imaging? Drop him a line at richvs@bellsouth.net or to hear some demos, go to www.richvanslyke.com.
