Our imaging guru Rich Van Slyke is back with his latest Programming To Win. Van Slyke offers his Top 10 myths of radio imaging – and then proceeds to dispel each one of them!
Rich Van Slyke
By Rich Van Slyke
Your imaging! One of the most important elements of your radio station. If you program a music station, your imaging is heard way more often than any of your jocks and it’s got to be great. If you program a talk station, it’s your main branding method and it’s critical. When you get the imaging right, your station flows smoothly, with less tune out. If the audience does tune out, they come back because they remember how much they like you. That’s the power of a well branded radio station.
If you’re a new Brand Manager or Imaging Director, this column is for you. You may not know this stuff. You’re looking for general guidelines on what really works, and maybe you haven’t yet formed a solid opinion based on experience. But if you are a radio pro with 15-20 years experience, this might not be for you, because you already know what works. You’ve tried every concept, broken every rule, and been successful. Way to go!
The daily flow of sound on a great radio station consists of the music, the personalities, and the overall sound of the imaging. As you sit down to write and produce a new batch, you may ask yourself: “What can I do to make this good?” “What do people want to hear?” “How can I increase the ratings?” “What will my boss like?” “What have I done in the past that worked?” “How can I be different and create something special?” Sometimes, these questions lead to common myths about imaging. Things we’ve all come to believe, that just aren’t true. Here’s the top 10.
Myth 1. Listeners Care About Great Sounding Imaging – No they don’t. They care about music and personalities. They don’t even notice the imaging, unless it’s really horrible. Why? Think of radio as a NASCAR race, and each car is a different station. The music is the engine in each car. The personalities are the drivers. The sponsor logos are the commercials. And the imaging, is the color and number on the cars. Does anybody think about the color or number of the car? No. But how do we find our favorite car and driver? Does the paint help your car go faster? No. But you’ll never find a top race team with bad paint. They all look great! The race team cares about the quality of the paint. Like the numbers on a race car, imaging is crucial to branding a station. And the overall sound must consistently match the brand identity of the radio station.
Myth 2. I’m sick of it that promo, it’s old and making people tune out. – You’re sick of the promo? 98% of your audience hasn’t even heard it enough to know what it’s about. Even for your most passionate P1 listeners, a promo has to run at least 40 times, for people to hear it 3 times. And it takes 3 times to fully hear and understand a promo. So you can run that Trip To Cancun promo 400 times. You might be tired of it, but your audience just became aware you are giving away a trip to Cancun! Don’t toss the keg until the beer is all gone.
Myth 3. Our imaging must SELL the station – Selling is for commercials. Most people hear imaging and think “that’s just another commercial”. Commercials are the biggest tune out on a radio station. But, you have to brand your station to be remembered. So how do you create imaging that doesn’t seem like a commercial? STOP SELLING! Make a statement, but don’t sell it hard. Don’t shout it like a car dealer, just say with plenty of confidence like you already know it. “We are the station for Nothing But The Hits, we don’t have to sell you on it, because, well, because we just know it.” There’s a certain comfortable way of saying things that exudes confidence and it very pleasant to the ear. Without the hard sell.
Myth 4. Our imaging makes people listen longer – Imaging can’t make people do anything. We shouldn’t tell people what to do. But we can offer suggestions. And we can keep in mind the things we know listeners like. People like music and personalities and helpful information. But they don’t like to be told what to do. It’s the difference between a car salesman saying “you must buy this car” and “if you like BMWs, but you have a smaller budget, you might like this car.” Stop barking orders and start suggesting tasty treats. Like a waiter in a fine restaurant.
Myth 5. Listeners love our impressive production with amazing SFX – It’s not about the effects, it’s about touching emotions. Radio imaging is like CGI (computer generated imagery) in movies. In a great movie, you feel fear, you laugh, you feel mad and sad. You don’t even think about the CGI. Because you care about that characters. On a great radio station, you don’t notice the imaging, because you care about the music and the personalities. Want to make some great imaging? Stop producing to impress other producers, and start producing things that celebrate what your listeners care about. Do they love bands? Then, tell a story about the bands! Do they loves sports? Crack a joke or tell a story about athletes. Then use your amazing FX and awesome productions to make the story really COME ALIVE!
Myth 6. In a PPM world, shorter is always better. – Yes, between two interesting messages, the shorter one is better. But if you cut out everything interesting, you fail to get across anything at all. A good imager captures your attention, and then makes a branding statement. By touching your emotion. Is a :20 sweeper too long? If you really want to see how often people tune out because of a :20 recorded announcement, click to read this report. (http://www.rab.com/public/reports/WhatHappens2011.pdf)
You’ll see that the audience during a :60 spot is 100% the same as the audience before the :60. In the second :60, it goes to 99%, 3 :60s – 96%, 4 :60s – 92%, 87% after 5 :60s. So yes, longer does cause tune out. But there’s no difference between a :16 sweeper and a :08 sweeper. None at all. This is a fascinating study. You should read it. Basically you’ve got about :60 before people start tuning out.
Myth 7. Forget it, going out to record our listeners is not worth the effort. – Most radio production guys would rather have 15 nails hammered into their tongue then go out to record listeners. But nobody can talk about your station better than the people that actually listen to it. In our FB-Instagram-Twitter world, it’s easy to spot a fake. That’s why most imaging sounds like a commercial. But nothing connects better than a message that’s hip and relatable. And nobody is more relatable than your loyal listeners.
Myth 8. No more song clip promos, they already know what we play – Promos that feature clips of great programming, whether its song clips, or talk show clips, are the most powerful imagers. Why? Because they feature the very thing people love about us. I can talk about how good the ice cream tastes, or I can give you a free sample. Which is better? We, as radio pros may get sick of the ice cream, but your audience never does. So build promos that give you listeners the BEST of what you program in a free sample. Just like ice cream, they will want more! And you’ll be reminding them who brings the goodness. That’s what branding is all about.
Myth 9. Clips from TV and Movies make our imaging better – No they don’t, they just add clutter. Great writing is really what matters. Great writing beats an out of context drop any day of the week. Most people don’t even know why that drop is in there. Unless that clip is topical – Something that’s happening this week. Don’t just put them in there to put them in there.
Myth 10. We must have the voice of God – As a voice guy, I know the pure pleasure of turning up the headphones and listening to the amplified sound of my own awesome voice. We all love it. But sometimes it results in a sound that’s a bit too much. We love to hear athletes say: (getting angry, threatening) “Grrrrr, we are going to come back next game and kill them!” There’s plenty of attitude and energy. Anger is an exciting emotion. But, do you really want to hear that all day long? Lose the angry. You must tell your voice guy, “dude you have an awesome voice, but anger is not the right emotion. We are looking for confidence.” It’s the difference between a WWE wrestler saying “I WILL CRUSH YOUR NUTS!” and Clint Eastwood saying “Go ahead, make my day.” Both have the same impact. Both communicate the same message. One is much easier to hear over and over. Because it’s more natural. Not pumped up and fake sounding. The goal is to think of your imaging as the sum of many parts. All the sweepers add up to one big message. When you string them all together, what is your overall message?
Big thanks to the following for help with this Programming To Win – Victor Lisle, Bill Jacobs, Andy Safnauer, Forrest Martin, Peter Smith.
Rich Van Slyke does VO for KUFX San Francisco, WBIG Washington, WIOD Miami, WXYZ-TV Detroit, WWSK Long Island, KSEG Sacramento, KXTG Portland, KCFX Kansas City, WRIT Milwaukee, Production Vault Classic Rock, WONE Akron, WXMX Memphis, KBRU Oklahoma City, WGRD Grand Rapids, KKFM Colorado Springs, WAFX Norfolk, KDFO Bakersfield, KARS Albuquerque, WZEW Mobile, KTHK Idaho Falls, WKQZ Saginaw, KIGL Fayetteville, WKZQ Myrtle Beach, WTMM Albany, KZOZ San Luis Obispo, KTUX Shreveport, WIXO Peoria, WRMR Wilmington, KKPL Fort Collins, XFM Nairobi, The Minnesota Timberwolves Radio Network, and more. www.richvanslyke.com 770.962.4788 richvs@bellsouth.net
