Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

33° - overcast at 1:40pm

Happy Sunday.

Listening: This morning to WGRF/Buffalo (97 Rock). Now playing: "Something To Believe In" by Poison segued into "LA Woman" from The Doors. Great imaging. Great radio. Guest DJ was Buffalo Bills punter Brian Moorman - for Super Bowl Sunday.

On the 97 Rock website: "Tom Tube" - a collection of Tom Petty videos from You Tube. Very cool tie-in to today's half-time appearance and upcoming tour.

Talkin' Spots. Commercials. Consultant Harve Alan writes:

"Have you listened to the commercials that are running on most stations today? How many are poorly written, carelessly slapped together, and for advertisers that don’t mesh with a particular stations audience? It’s not just the locally produced spots, either many of the agency spots are the worst offenders!"

"This has always been a contentious issue at most every radio station. Programming wants to protect the product, sales needs to make the sale, and the client needs to get that spot on this afternoon. Sounds all too familiar and given today’s economic realities ill suited commercials frequently make it on the air."

"Effecting change in this area is not going to be easy."

Yep. This is one area I haven't been shy about in my career - but its very hard to fight the money. Even offering suggestions on changing the creative to keep the dollars is never well received for fear of losing the revenue all together. The "let's not rock the boat" thing.

99% of the time its been an issue with production that comes from the outside; and the occasional client who insists on voicing his own stuff. Some should, others should not.

This really isn't a solution - but after losing a battle, I've massaged the log after traffic load to place the offenders at the end of a stopset. Or talked my traffic director into doing it. A valuable relationship.

Harve points out: "Stating the obvious—better quality spots helps everyone." Harve's piece is here.

Worse than poor production or spots that don't fit are the (usually national) spots accepted by stations that are "consumer risks". Audio spam.

Friends (us) shouldn't do this to friends (listeners).

Speaking of spam: Sean Ross writes about something of value that might be in your email spam folder. Read here.

Enjoy the game - have a great Sunday.