Should You Write Your Own Radio Commercial?

It's a question that many business owners face it some point or another when working on their marketing plans. Should they write their own radio commercial scripts?

Of course the person who knows more about the products and services being offered and sold is the business owner. At least, usually it is. However could too much knowledge be a bad thing when it comes to marketing the product or service itself? Often times the answer is yes.

Once a consumer has the product or service in their possession, the person with this knowledge would undoubtedly be the number one source to go to with questions or concerns. However this may not be the person to pitch the product or service to a potential new customer or client. This is especially true if that business owner has no background in marketing or promotions. There is a method to the madness when it comes to promoting a product or service, with no understanding of that method, often times a radio commercial crafted by someone who does not know how to execute that madness, will crash and burn. They then sit back wondering what happened or what went wrong.

Having a third-party come in and analyze the product or service that you want to promote is often times the best way to craft an effective radio commercial. A fresh perspective is what you are looking for. This person will take the time to get to know the product or service and can give you honest feedback as to what attracted them to it and what features stand out as a newcomer. These will very likely be the same features that stand out to a potential buyer of your product or service.

You can probably see how these may be hard to identify if you are too engrossed in your product or service and know every bit of it inside and out. Identifying specific traits that stand out and attract customers may not be so easy to spot. This is not something that an expert on that product or service needs to be ashamed of. It is simply a result of the passion and knowledge built up over years of crafting something that other consumers can use.

In conclusion, if you're looking at writing your own radio commercial is a way to save money, this will likely not be the result of your actions. It will likely cost you more in wasted airtime if an ineffective message is put on the air versus simply investing a small amount up front to have an expert craft your radio commercial for you.

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Emergency Communications Planning - Your Emergency Preparedness Achilles Heel?

Do you have family and friends you care for? Or do you have other responsibilities, such as being involved in law enforcement, fire, medical, emergency communications, or any other emergency services? If so, please pay attention. Being able to use most of your key emergency plans in a serious event will depend on what I discuss in this article.

Do you have a disaster preparedness plan? Or have you tested emergency response plans for your communications teams or emergency office? Maybe you've tested your plan with your family or friends. Maybe you've worked through a county-wide earthquake drill or simulated hurricane or tornado response. Many of us have done some kind of simple testing or exercise. But one very important part of these exercises is usually not covered. Specifically, what happens if you're at work and your family is in danger? In other words, how well will those plans work if:

1. You aren't where your family is or
2. All your key partners/team members aren't around because they're busy trying to determine whether their families are safe?

No Personal Emergency Communications Plan?

Most emergency operations people I meet are well-prepared for a short-term problem, with at least the three days of food and water, a CERT class certificate on the wall, first aid, CPR and other basic certificates in place. But in a recent talk I gave to an audience of emergency management professionals in government and the private sector, I asked how many of them had a written, personal emergency communication plan. The results were eye-opening. Nobody in the audience raised their hands! While it may be different in your family, on your team or in your office, the numbers aren't surprising to me. Not many people have answered "yes" when I ask whether they have a written plan. Does your disaster preparedness plan contain a specific emergency communications plan? For most people, the answer is "no."

Let's think about this problem a little more: most of the people we will need to rely on during or post-disaster don't have a personal or family emergency communications plan. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to take this one step further. If the people who are already actively engaged in emergency preparedness don't have a personal emergency communications plan, the vast majority of people in their offices won't either. The people we all rely on won't be available. When we test our official plans, we assume our emergency personnel will be available. In too many cases, they simply won't.

Or you can look at it this way. If you're at work and your region is hit by an earthquake, twister, unexpected flooding, power outage or anything else that could seriously impact your family, what will be your focus? For that vast majority of us, our top priority will be to ensure our families are safe. Everything else in our lives will be a lower priority, even if our job is to help others in emergencies. You can read about Paul Schubert, 30-year police veteran who needed to care for his wife after Katrina hit: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-02-20-neworleanspolice_x.htm. If you get to the end, you'll see the meat of the issue: "I chose my wife," Schubert says. "It was a no-brainer."

This is a glaring gap in our overall ability to respond to a disaster at all levels. No amount of equipment and supplies will prepare us to survive disaster without the ability to communicate with our families or teams.

How Do You Fix This?

What's the solution? Just as with our planning at the city/county/state level, we should have a written and tested personal emcomm plan for every critical member of our various emergency response teams. This idea certainly shouldn't be foreign, but it is still generally overlooked.

What kind of plan am I discussing? As with any "professional" plan, it needs to consider the following variables:

• Who? (e.g., family, friends, possibly neighbors we feel responsible for)
• When do we attempt communication? If phones don't work, when do we use precious battery power to transmit or listen?
• What gear do we use at which time? Do you try with an FRS/GMRS radio, amateur radio, satphone? Which frequencies or channels do we use if the first ones are busy?
• What are the backup plans, and what are their schedules?

What's the best way to make your own personal emergency communications plan? I make it easy for you, even if you have no background in radio, satphones, etc. Please see the resource information below.

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Is Commercial Radio Really Dying - Part I

Over the past decade, commercial radio has stepped up their non-spot revenue hunt. Digital sales have become a major part of budgets for the local sales staffs. Each year brings more competition and audiences have become harder to harness. In 2006, radio revenue was 18.1 billion according to Investing In Radio Market Report. By 2016, projected revenues are only expected to be 17.0 billion. Digital sales are only projected to increase .36 billion! That will not fill the gap.

Will Digital Save Commercial Radio?

Probably not! Why would you chose commercial digital over any of the "make your own personal format" choices available today? Like Pandora, Jango, Slacker, AOL Music, MeeMix, or the choices on satellite which have no commercials. You can pick only the music you like, make it as eclectic as you like and see one commercial every 5 or 6 songs. Or listen to commercial radio digital and hearing the same streaming that you would hear on live radio.

Is Less Really More?

I love radio. I started out in broadcast sales with radio and it has always been near and dear to my heart. It has also been one of the most frustrating to watch. Big broadcast groups with big money continue to make decisions they bought from one of their many consultants in an attempt to increase sales. They have actually made it harder to buy. Turns off a lot of potential clients and they still don't see the mistake in their thinking.

This is one of my favorite pitches of late; the "less is more" sales strategy employed by a major radio chain. They somehow think they can convince you that selling a:30 second spot is just as good as a:60 second spot. Oh, I forgot to mention, at the same rate or at a premium rate because "you're getting the same [or more] after all"! Then you tune in the station and you hear 12 commercials in a break instead of the old 4-6 before the new concept came into play.

If you are an advertiser and you are the 5-12th position in the commercial break, you need to rethink how you are spending your money. You certainly could have more impact in other ways.

What is the answer to the problem?

Consultants have many solutions... or... ideas, most of them not tested. Or if they have been tested, it's in not similar markets with not similar formats. I have my own thoughts which I will cover in Part II of this subject. In the meantime, I'll look into what the experts say, what radio sales reps say and other active personnel have to say. All should create interesting comments and theories. As they say, "Stay Tuned"...

Antennas and Their Uses

Antennas have been around for a very long time. The two most common types of antennas that we encounter frequently are the TV antenna and the radio antenna. Antennas are used to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves. Without an antenna, our TV and radio sets would not be able to pick up a signal from the stations. The number of channels that your television set is able to show depends on the strength of the antenna and how the signals are able to pick up. The location of the antenna, its quality and weather can affect the quality of the transmission as well as how many stations your device will be able to pick up.

Television Antenna

A TV antenna is specially designed to receive signals that are usually transmitted at frequencies of 41 to 250 MHz in the Very High Frequency (VHF) band, and 470 to 960 MHz in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band in the different countries around the world. Various antennas are designed differently. They consist of several conductors that have different lengths and these correspond to the wavelength range that the antenna is designed for. In order for an antenna to work, it has to be used together with a tuner that is included with TV sets.

TV antennas can be indoor or outdoor. An indoor antenna, also called half-wave dipole antenna, is usually small in size. They have "ears" that can be adjusted in lengths to improve signal. However, these antennas are not as good as those that are mounted onto rooftops or outdoors. Outdoor antennas are generally bigger and are able to receive better and more signals. The problem with these antennas is that it can be easily affected by the weather. For example, if there is strong wind blowing outside, it can change the position of the antenna that would disrupt the signal. To overcome the problem about weather, you can mount the antenna on the highest window in the building or on the attic. This can ensure good quality signal and prevention of disruption of signal. The downside of outdoor antennas is that they can be relatively expensive. Another factor that affects the quality of the signal that you receive is your location relative to the transmitter. If you are located close to the transmitter, the signals that you would receive would definitely be of better quality.

Radio Antenna

How a radio antenna works is the same as a TV antenna. It is a device that changes electric currents into radio waves and vice versa. Like TV, it has a transmitter and a receiver. The signals are transmitted when the transmitter applies radio frequency current to the terminals of the antenna which radiates this energy as radio waves that can also be known as electromagnetic waves. For reception, the process is similar as the terminals detect the signal and receiver decodes it to be amplified.