Do you know how important imaging is to your radio station? Promoting your brand and highlighting your station’s benefits are absolutely crucial to your success. Plus, it sounds cool. Especially imaging that is aligned with your brand. The challenge is to keep it fresh, keep it current, and keep it focused on the benefits you provide to your listeners.
Rich Van Slyke
by Rich VanSlyke
Do you know how important imaging is to your radio station? Promoting your brand and highlighting your station’s benefits are absolutely crucial to your success. Plus, it sounds cool. Especially imaging that is aligned with your brand. The challenge is to keep it fresh, keep it current, and keep it focused on the benefits you provide to your listeners.
How do you define excellent imaging? Does it capture your attention without too much hype? Does it sound well produced? Does it have to be funny? Does it have to state a benefit and re-enforce your brand?
If you ask listeners what they think of imaging, they will almost always say, “It’s just another commercial, and I hate commercials.” The challenge is to promote the station without sounding like you’re promoting the station. The answer? Focus on the listener. Instead of saying: “we are great” try to communicate “we do things for you.”
When it comes time to write liners, ask yourself one question: Does this liner support your brand? It has to match the feel and the energy of your identity in the market.
Whether you prefer straight liners or humorous liners, the ultimate goal is to get new liners on the air. If you prefer straight liners, the best way to keep them fresh is with great production. You can add different sounds, drops, music hooks. Sign up for an imaging service like Short Bus Radio. Or you can make it more streamlined. Try using some odd sounding music to grab attention. Both approaches sound great. But remember to keep the message focused on your station. One way to really make production sound great is to use a laid back cool approach from your station voice. The complete opposite of hype. That doesn’t mean it should be flat and lifeless, but it doesn’t have to be “in your face.” The current trend is a more direct approach. Preach the benefits without the hype. Does your station voice have the ability to sell the good stuff without too much hype? A laid back cool voice combined with great production makes great sounding imaging.
Or, if you prefer creative liners, an easy way to weave current events into the fabric of your station is to check out the gossip pages. Just Google “Gossip” or “Sports Gossip” or “TV Gossip.” Then, find a celebrity story that makes you laugh. Ask yourself why everyone is talking about this particular celebrity and draw a similarity between their actions and your station. If they tested positive for steroids, what does your station test positive for? If they are getting fat, or smoking dope, or whatever they’re known for at the moment, that’s what you make fun of. It only takes a few minutes.
- Forget congress, we’ve got your stimulus package right here. Everything That Rocks….
- Longer than it’ll take Michael Phelps to explain that picture. It’s an extra long music blitz…..
- More good stuff…. than Jessica Simpson’s refrigerator. It’s a solid block of Rock….
- Giving you more hits, than Chris Brown gives his girlfriends. OK, sorry about that….. Today’s Best Music….
- Hey A-Rod, we just tested positive. For the best new Rock…..
Liners like these are great for keeping your imaging timely. But they burn fast. So, you’ll have to create new ones on a regular basis. Why not set up a time every two weeks to write 5 or 6 topical liners? And if a big event drops in your town, take 5 minutes to write a liner. Local stuff is best. If you can incorporate local sports and entertainment celebrities, perfect. When you notice a big story everyone it talking about, go for it!
How do you handle the imaging? An imaging director on staff? Farm it out? One of your jocks? Whatever your method, put in place a system for responding to current events by writing liners. Maybe you write them every Thursday at 10:00 am.
One technique for creating liners is surprise and repetition. The first section offers something unusual. Like the sound of a woman breathing hard. You don’t expect it to be a station liner. That’s the surprise. Then comes the station benefit. “We’ll get your body movin’…. with today’s best music. Mix 102.5”
But what if you prefer straight liners? “Bob and Tom in the morning. The Best Classic Rock All Day. 98 Rock.” Why not produce 10 versions of this liner? I like to hear the same liner produced many different ways. Surround it with listener drops. Surround it with artist ids. Put song hooks in between the lines. Even weird sound effects and animal noises. Sing a line! Use different voices on key phrases. And don’t forget to produce some straight ones with little or no production. Start it off with a sound not usually heard on a radio sweeper. Surprise and repetition make great imaging. The key is to write stuff with a plan in mind. And it can be done in 15 minutes a week.
Rich VanSlyke is a voice guy/imaging producer/whacky liner expert for stations all over the place. Reach him at 770-962-4788. Or richvs@bellsouth.net. Hear his demos at www.richvanslyke.com.
