STATION IMAGING TELESEMINAR: HOW WAS IT?
After weeks of preparing...
Of burned-out servers and lost files...
Of sifting through hundreds and hundreds of questions and selecting the most-asked and most relevant ones...
"Radio Station Imaging Secrets" with Dave Foxx is history.
And, by the way, history-making: the first worldwide teleseminar devoted to radio station imaging ever held. 245 attendees from 17 different countries.
So....If you were among the 245: How was it? Anything in particular that stood out as especially valuable?
29 Comments:
Very interesting insight, and very valuable knowledge...gave me lots to work with. Thank you very much gentlemen.
Robin Jay.
Producer, 106.1/99.7 the Goat,
Lloydminster, AB, CANADA.
Dave is always very good. Interesting tid-bits on how using limiting, highpass filtering on VOs and channel delay.
Mike Carta
Super Sweepers
Thanks Dave and Dan a very informative event and well worth listening in. Let me know the date of the next one...there will be a next one right?
Cheers
RJ McNicol
Production Manager
Mix 103.7 FM
Fort McMurray, AB, Canada
I really enjoyed the teleseminar. The time flew by (even though I get a little lost sometimes with the technical stuff).
Hopefully, if there is a Part ll, or lll, etc., there can be some questions from the voiceover perspective as well.
I've seen Dave several times at the Summit, but, there is never a loss for "fresh" information.
Janet M. Ault
The Voice of Choice
Scottsdale, Arizona
Dan & Dave
You fanned the fire I felt back in radio school as we all sat around and listened to Bobby Ocean air checks from KRFC and B100's Birthday Party in San Diego. A 9th generation dub on a tape created by splicing together old commercial tapes just to get a full 7 inch reel so's I could have my own copy. There are no limits to Production Creativity if you love what you are doing and seek inspiration. Thanks 'A Ton' for the 'Key' and for the opportunity to gather from your well. What you guys described as Merging the voice and music, I have illustrated the right feel for my promos and spots as the Package. All tucked in and neatly wrapped with plenty of Scotch Tape. I would write more but I am just so giddy there really are guys out there still learning in 'the old' school keeping it fresh. Going to hang an "Out of VO Order" sign on the bathroom stall and go gather some common experiences.. Creating at 5:00 in the morning? Geez.. maybe after a listen to Imaging Secrets II.
Aloha!
Ron Klohs
KHNL-TV/Dolphin Sound
and playing the part of
"The Real" Ron O'Neil
Oldies 107.9 Honolulu
Stew Herrera from KLOS here. Thanks for sharing, Dave. Can't wait to try out the tech stuff like the 400k. Wish my "writing" brain worked more like yours... or Eric's... or John's... or Hoffman's, Moss', Madrigal's or Spindle's. You guys are all so great!
In any case, well worth the $20 and I'm looking forward to more events like this. Off to fill the mug... er, WELL!
Now I have a great excuse to tell my wife why I need to go out to the bars at night. I need to hang with the listeners so I can feed the brain with creative juices. Seriously, I walked away with a few more tools in the toolbox. Great questions, great insight. Info I can put to work immediately.
Todd Bradley
Imaging Director
99.7 The Rock
www.997wrkz.com
103.9 WTDA Talk FM
Columbus, OH
WOW, Best 20 bucks I ever spent... Seriously, I think I've spent more on fast food in one night while working on a station launch, and all I got out of that was some average splitters and gas!...
On a serious note, it WAS the best 20bucks I've ever spent. The fact that you guys got into some of the technical stuff was really great. I use the L1 from WAVES on all my VOs as well, and it was interesting to hear how "You" use it. Also, I really like your take on what hours are spent at the station and how many hours you spend "filling the tank". This is something I'm going to really start working on. On another side note... it's nice to know that I'm not the only one out there who may spend an entire day working on 5 or 6 splitters. It's funny, I used to always question if I was just a slow producer, maybe I spend too much time on something and put too much into it, or maybe I'm not that far off pace as far as "how much" I do in a day. I do LOVE my career choice, like you said it's great to know that everyday I get paid to "play" in the studio.
Thanks for your insight guys, let me know as soon as part 2 is announced, I've already got my 20 bucks sitting in paypal.
Cheers
Jesse Simon
Audio Architect/Image Producer
Jack FM and Lite 96
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
@ Todd:
I don't recall Dave saying you can't take your wife with you when you're feeding your brain....
Thank you so much Dan & Dave. It was one of the best $20.00 I’ve spent. I’ve done radio imaging for about a year and a half and it has helped me out a ton. Knowing how long a promo station should run was great advice.
What a fabulous way to have spent my evening!! There was a lot of great information given out. One thing that Dave said that got my mind going was how someone sat down with him and asnwered all of his basic produciton questions early on. I think it would be a great idea if you guys put on a "Producing for Idiots" seminar for those of us who have the basic idea but need a bit of help to fine tune and get lost in the tech talk.
I also thought it was really interesting to hear some numbers about how branding and imaging can effect your numbers. Great job :)
Deborah Bonner
Dragonfire Productions
New Albany, OH
The question came up: how much of your audience can you reach with a promo. Arbitron will tell you that 70% of your AQH comes from 20% of your cume audience, the "heavy listeners," - the group known as "P-1s." The remaining 80% of your cume listens in declining amounts of time.
Practically speaking - even if you play an element (song or promo) once an hour every hour every day, you are unlikely to effectively reach much more than 50% of your cume - the heavy and moderately heavy listeners. Your P-4 and P-5 listeners are hardly listening at all, maybe 10- to 20 minutes a week. No matter what you do - they won't hear it often enough for it to cut through. So every hour is obviously overkill and really unnecessary. So how do you fine tune the exposure?
Look up and use the OES Formula (Optimum Effective Schedule). (Cume/AQH X 3.29) The answer is the # of spots per week to reach 50% of your cume 3 times. It's called an "Optimum Effective Schedule" because it
1. reaches the heaviest listeners on your station
2. often enough to be effective,
3. without excessive burn.
Also - dive into the PPM stuff now. P-1s are even MORE important in PPM than in the diary.
A great seminar - as expected. A couple of suggestions (don't know how practical, but here goes...) as one of those listening from "another country" (Philippines) I would have liked to know where the questions were coming from - especially if they were from outside the USA.
Suggestion 2 - would it be possible in the future to have more interactivity? If we could type in some of our own questions in a chat sort of way, perhaps - or seek follow-up information - that would be great - again, with 300 people tuned in, I don't know if it can be done - but if it COULD be done - I think it would be worth it - I'd pay a little extra for that!
I've been the Imaging and Production Director at Taiwan's largest English language station for more than 15 years - and now I'm on my own - still imaging for them, and a few other stations - out of my studio in Manila - thank God for the internet and FTP!
I just had a long talk with the new Production Director at the Taiwan station and she told me that she "didn't like my production" - - why? "Because you put the music too close to the voice - and your voice sounds too thin!"
I told her - BLAME DAVE FOXX!
Since I've been able to be free with my imaging ideas (about the last 3 years) the station has improved tremendously in the ratings. Go figure!
@ Janet, Stew, Deborah:
Thanks, guys. See you all at the Summit.
(Janet, Stew: Be nice to Deborah. Unless you Repeat Offenders, this will be her first time.)
@ Mike:
highpass filtering on VOs and channel delay.
I guess it's a good thing Dave was there. I thought "channel delay" was a reference to TiVo.
@ RJ:
there will be a next one right?
Once we recover from the exhaustion, if there's enough interest, sure.
@ Ron:
It's amazing how many young production people (myself included) were influenced by Bobby Ocean. I still remember a Billboard article he wrote about how, when you're stuck with copy that doesn't sell itself, you need to "find the love in the scene." (Example: If it's selling motorcycles, then perhaps the announcer -- this was before we called ourselves "voice actors" -- can use "love of speed" or "love of adventure" as the emotional motivation.)
Re: Creating at 5am: That's Dave's m.o. The only way I could create at 5am would be if I hadn't yet gone to bed the night before.
seminar for those of us who have the basic idea but need a bit of help to fine tune and get lost in the tech talk.
Interesting idea. Maybe in another posting I'll solicit "basic" questions. I think a teleseminar on "the basics everyone pretends to know and is afraid to ask about" would be worthwhile.
@ Robert:
While Dave was answering that question, I actually had made a notation to suggest applying OES.
Mike McVay has experimented using OES -- which was designed to estimate commercial airplay -- for music.
One challenge facing the use of OES for promos is there's a difference between "exposures" and "being heard." With so much lame imaging going on, often there is NO danger of overkill because to so many listeners, "they all sound alike" -- so they've been trained to stop listening when the cheesy, deep-voiced, boastful station imaging guy appears.
@ Gray:
I would have liked to know where the questions were coming from - especially if they were from outside the USA.
I agree it would've been more fun if the international questions were identified.
I give just the person's first name and no other info because:
* They might feel embarrassed by publicly admitting their lack of understanding of a particular point -- especially when their colleagues or employers might be listening.
* I suspect if we gave more information on the questioner, we might get fewer specific questions.
would it be possible in the future to have more interactivity? If we could type in some of our own questions in a chat sort of way, perhaps - or seek follow-up information - that would be great - again, with 300 people tuned in, I don't know if it can be done - but if it COULD be done - I think it would be worth it - I'd pay a little extra for that!
There are systems I could use that field text questions during the teleseminar. They definitely would require charging a higher registration fee. But the main reason I don't do that is I want to focus 100% on the answers my guest is giving.
I've heard tons of teleseminars (and, uh, radio programs) where it's obvious that while the guest is talking, the host isn't listening...or is barely listening.
One result of that is it ends up being not a conversation but instead a static series of questions & answers.
Another result is you rarely hear follow-up questions. The host can't ask for clarification or amplification of a particular point, because he's busy doing something else.
As someone who routinely yells at the radio or TV, "Hey, he didn't answer your question, you idiot!", I see my "on-air" role as the listener's surrogate -- to ensure the questions are answered...and answered clearly.
The other alternative is live voice Q&A. I plan to utilize that for some events, but:
* You've heard the kind where multiple people speak at once? Where all the lines are unmuted and invariably some idiot has his speakerphone on and we hear everything that's going on in his office? (Or, even better, we hear the station's on-hold broadcast.)
I won't do those.
* It will be more expensive. (But worth it, I think.)
But for smaller groups attending more elite, more expensive teleclasses -- Yes, I think you'll be seeing that.
I'm working on several different, multi-module teleseminar courses (copywriting, voiceover, sales) -- anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks each. Those will cost more, will attract fewer people...and often will include a live Q&A with attendees.
By the way, I'm also considering launching a monthly "station sales meeting" focused on commercial copywriting. For stations that consider the quality of the commercials they air to be important, the higher price should seem like a bargain. To the stations who don't care about delivering results to their advertisers -- Well, probably any price would be "too expensive."
@ Michael:
Oops, didn't mean to exclude you in my mention of Summit Repeat Offenders. See you, too, in August.
I really love the tips,
and especially the personal flavor of the informal interview slash seminar part.
Jonathan, The Netherlands
especially the personal flavor of the informal interview slash seminar part.
Thanks, Jonathan. The hardest part was getting Dave to read the scripted ad-libs I had given him in advance.
Very happy to be a part of imaging history…
Dave’s intellectual curiosity and experiences prior to entering radio
certainly helped lay the foundation for the great work he continues to deliver.
I also got the vibe that empathy was part of his emotional make up.
Fairly important when enticing strangers to do your bidding – buy this – go here - listen all day.
Would be curious what a roundtable with j frost, e chase and d fox sharing a bottle of rum would sound like.
Hook that up for us will ya, dan.
perk
production/imaging director
kajm-fm/knrj-fm
Scottsdale, az
a roundtable with j frost, e chase
There was no bottle of wine (that I recall), but these two come awfully close:
http://www.danoday.com/radical
http://www.danoday.com/moreradical
Dan/Dave-THANKS!!!! I've been on alot of different calls, but I have to say THIS WAS THE BEST!!! Well worth the price of admission.
I can see, sometime in the near future, that streaming video will be added and it will be like a virtual convention. (something to think about). Great nuggets of information! Dave, it's so great that someone of your caliber continues to "pay it forward".
I look forward to Part II-just say the word. By the way, thanks for answering my question on the call about "merging a vo with music" for promo's and concert spots.
Rick Andrews
Operations Manager
Radio Amarillo
Amarillo, TX
The Dave Foxx telesminar was great!.
Interesting, and informative on several topics. Even if you get to hear Dave Foxx over the telefon or to a seminar you participate, he´s always inspiring listening to. Bring us another one (or 2..)
Morten Petersen
Creative Services Director
Skala Fm - Denmark.
I just had a good listen to the Radio Imaging Secrets Teleseminar with Dave Foxx, and with radio being such a small industry here in South Africa there's pretty much nowhere to go for insight on whether you're on the right track or not. Now I can honestly say that whether you feel you are on the right track or not, at least now you know. Thanks for being the change you want the world of radio to be!
Great seminar! There are a few effects which Dave uses that I've been trying to emulate for some time, with out success, but the explanations he gave meant that I could go away and get it right first time!
"Filling the well" is another great tip. Looking forward to the sequel!
Stewart Priest
Stewart Priest Productions
Glasgow, Scotland
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