Media Info Bureau

TV stations in markets outside of the Top 50, and stations in the Top 50 markets that are not affiliated with one of the Big 4 networks, need to begin to upload new material placed into their political files into their Online Public File as of July 1 – just a few weeks away. David O’Connor of my firm and I conducted a webinar for television broadcasters from 7 states last week, where we discussed this new obligation for smaller TV stations, and talked about what documents are supposed to go into the political file.

One of the ways to improve your skills in any field of expression whether it’s visual art, poetry, songwriting, filmmaking or writing is to analyze the work of the masters in each medium and discover the principles that make the piece successful. Will it work for radio commercials? In my experience, yes. Whether you use it as a way to break writers’ block, or as a continuing method to improve your writing this exercise may be useful.

Since your audience views radio in their mind's eye, ask yourself, "Where is the camera? What will be the audience's point-of-view?" In a conversation between two people in a car, is the camera to their left or right? On the dashboard facing them? Between them, looking over their shoulders? In the back seat, listening from the passengers’ perspectives? Put your microphone where the camera would be, or mix the elements so that the listener is in that place.

People buy from people, not from institutions. Advertisers often forget this, and are more concerned about their perfect "image" than about relating to their audience as fellow human beings.

Time and time again I hear about sales people refusing to use their Customer Relations Management software for one reason or another. The most common reasons for resistance are old habits, CRM inadequacies and flat out insubordination. I am here to tell you that no matter the CRM tool you choose, you will find “things” you do not like. Think that switching CRM’s will help? Most of the time, not. So, what if I told you that sales experts tell us that sales people that use a CRM daily show improved performance by as much as 25%? Would you get busy now?

The FCC’s proceeding on its multiple ownership rules, adopting rules that make Joint Sales Agreements “attributable” (meaning that they

Life is full of conflict (No it's not!), yet most radio commercials have none. The characters in commercials usually agree with each other (Says who?)