Here’s a guest blog from producer Alistair Miskin – looking at some of those radio production cliches that come up time and time again … do you recognise some of these gems?

I’m sure that many of us have been guilty of using them in a script at one time or another.

No? Are you sure? Not even the time when you were given that S&P brief at 4.30pm on a Friday for a “garden tool winning weekend”?

There are loads of annoying clichés used in radio ads and promos. I know, so many of you told me when I asked on Twitter earlier this week (@alistairmiskin)

So… To celebrate the fact that they annoy the heck out of you (See what I did there?), here are YOUR suggestions for some of most irritating ones heard in radio commercials and promo trails.

I feel sorry for the voiceovers who probably have to read many of these day in, day out. What I would say though is that I never personally considered some of the above as clichés, but hey, they’re your suggestions.

If you’re rushed for time or have hit a creative wall it’s all too easy to reach out for a worn-out phrase or concept. My belief is that it’s probably best to walk away, do something else and come back to the script with fresh eyes.

Right… It’s time for you to cleanse yourself of the tired, the repeated and often used phrases. Leave your suggestions for clichés below or via my website and I’ll update the article with your comments.

Remember, it’s only a bit of fun, so no naming and shaming of specific ads or stations!

Thanks to @ChrisSigsworth @codoherty @KarlSvenson @aldupres @lisamccormick @ellisstuart @rickilee @johnfoster257 @dicannell Michelle Dignan, Matthew Lomax, Brian Place and so many more for their help via twitter #radiocliches and Facebook.

Al

Read more and get free production audio from http://www.miskaudio.com/

The story of the week in UK radio circles has been Orion Media’s announcement that it plans to drop four heritage station names and replace them with one umbrella brand, Free Radio, that they can promote on regional tv.

This rings bells. Around ten years ago my team produced a positioning campaign for BBC Local Radio in England. The outdoor and radio spots were simple enough but there was a mighty hoo-ha about which station names would go on the telly.

The tv regions didn’t match those of the radio outlets so stations would have to be promoted outside their TSAs and valuable media would be wasted. Listeners to Radio Shropshire were divided across three tv regions, one of them Wales. When the message was one of localness we couldn’t reasonably promote Radio Shropshire in Cardiff.

In the end, we sidestepped this mess by simply branding the tv promos “BBC Local Radio”. Research showed it worked because people in the target demographic generally knew what their local BBC station was anyway, even if they didn’t always know what it stood for.

Another lesson I learned back then was that nobody understands the West Midlands radio market better than Phil Riley, nor the heritage value tied-up in the brands he’s planning to close. After all, goodwill would have been on the balance sheet when he bought them.

And Phil (being Phil) will have researched his group’s new plan to death and back.

Of course research is no guarantee of success. Respondents can say one thing and do another. The UK’s Labour party discovered this to their cost at the 1992 election. So my view is that there’s very good logic to what Orion plans but clear risks too.

I am also a little surprised that Phil says the only effective marketing platform for radio is television. Outdoor, press, cinema and DM and social media can all play their part as this blog demonstrates regularly.

But what interests me most about this story from a creative perspective is the size of the gesture required to make a meaningful difference.

Thanks to Einstein we know that to keep on doing the same thing while expecting a different result is the very definition of insanity.

What’s new is that if you want audiences to reappraise your station it’s no longer enough to announce an extra hour on the breakfast show, a star presenter signing or a sports commentary deal.

You have to make a big, clean, simple move: an action driven by a good thought, or what you might call ‘an idea’.

Getting cut-through was tough enough in traditional, shouting, hierarchical media but if your message was small or complicated you could always amplify and repeat it by outspending your competitors.

Today’s world operates through networks, not hierarchies. The spark of the idea ignites the conversation, not the money you throw at it.

Orion’s idea is certainly big enough to get noticed even before the group has spent a cent on advertising. Nobody saw it coming. For some it is shocking, for others it’s unthinkable, but it’s certainly brave and I believe in radio promotion we need to think the unthinkable more and more.

As creatives much of our work is about tiny incremental tweaks, holding the listener’s hand through change and managing detail but bold creative moves have never been more necessary.

Big, strong and surprising ideas fight their way into people’s minds. They’re what we need today to change perceptions and behaviour.

So if you’re charged with ideas generation in radio, work on thinking the unthinkable and never be afraid to pitch the unthinkable to your bosses.

As we’ve seen this week, they may have more guts than you think.

Image credit: Birmingham bull ring 6 by AJBeanster, on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons licence.

Earshot Creative Review Podcast

Oh come on -you didn’t expect us to start of list of festive listens without mentioning our very own home grown podcast did you? If you’ve not already, take a listen to Steve’s latest foray into audio production which was recorded in front of a live studio audience at the bar within the West End’s Novello Theatre. You’ll hear sixteen pieces of great audio from stations like BBC Radio 1, URN, Capital FM, Choice FM and Classic FM, Norway’s P1 and Xfm. You’ll also hear the informed views, expertise and experience of James Cridland, John Myers, Nik Goodman, James Stodd, Lou Nash and Jacob Rickard.

Carols in Surround Sound for Headphones

Take a listen to a audio experiment from the BBC this Christmas. A 2007 carols service from the BBC archives will be available online in a ‘binaural’ format that creates realistic surround sound through ordinary headphones. There are six different surround settings to choose from, to suit different types of headphones and head shape. The trial is part of BBC Radio’s continuing innovation in audio, including the launch of HD Sound, the Wimbledon NetMix experiment and ongoing trials of ‘3D Sound’ technology.

A Year in Radio

This Christmas Day (Sunday 25th December) at 7pm, BBC 5 live will be broadcasting a two-hour programme about the year in radio. Produced by Ben Green and supported by Heather Davies (a fellow Radio Academy 30 under 30 recipient) – the shows look at some of the highlights on UK radio in 2011 from Chris Moyles on the air for days to Ronnie Woods assault on the awards circuit. During the 2 hour programme, many of the biggest names in broadcasting talk about highlights from the year gone by and the people that inspired them to get behind the microphone in the first place. Plus, station controllers and industry experts look ahead to the big issues in the year ahead – such as the impact of 5 live’s relocation to Salford, the planned cuts to BBC local services, radio’s future in the digital and mobile world, and there are still so few women in the industry.

John Peel’s Shed

Earlier this year – I was invited by Maple Street Studios to see an intimate performance of John Osborne’s memoir to his prized box of records that he won from John Peel and his extended love of radio. Radio 4 have recently broadcasted the adaption from this performance direct from a five-star, complete sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival. A story about one man’s love for radio, how it allows you to escape into another world. Based on his book Radio Head, up and down the dial of British Radio, this is about what happened next: a show about the pleasure of having your own personal project. The story is about passion, obsession with music and about legacy; trying to do something special with such a rare, eclectic box of records.

We also throughtly recommending reading his book called ‘Radio Head’, if you’ve not already asked Santa for it.

If you’ve got any other seasonal listening recommendations – please get in touch via jonathan@earshotcreative.com

Thank you to all our readers and listeners in 2011. It’s been great to connect with so many of you. From Jonathan and Steve, we wish you a happy, healthy and merry Christmas and New Year!

Earlier on in the year – BRMB run a re-work of the Fugative/Renegade promotion called The Shadow. Read our guest post from Radio Academy Cheif Exec John Myers who examines traditional radio promo mechanics.

Well, its coming back -I persume as a January cash giveaway promotion. Rather than an abundance of promo trailers and presenter reads to launch the feature – BRMB have used a tactical drip feed way of introducing the BRMB Shadow character within existing editorial output.  I was listening to BRMB during the Breakfast Show. It was a background listen and all sounded normal – however, the use of  a robotic caller voice did draw my attention and made me want to find out more. It drew me to the station especially at a time when I’m doing multiple things getting ready in the morning.

Take a listen to the audio of the BRMB shadow and hear the hi-jacks!

Download audio file (38768shad1.mp3)

Download audio file (Link1.mp3)

It even took over a weather bulletin …

Download audio file (weather-hijack-for-TX-1.mp3)

This is a similar tactic used by the BBC last year to launch Doctor Who within Chris Moyles Breakfast Show – have a listen to the audio from James Stodd on a previous edition of Earshot Creative Review.

Download audio file (doctor_who_example2.mp3)

Not contempt with creativity with on air – those Brummies have also created a video viral to launch the campaign tease too.

How do you launch your promotions? Do you go over and beyond the standard – listen at 8.30 on Monday morning for the big announcement? PR? Virals? Social Media? If you’ve got any great examples -please do send them in jonathan@earshotcreative.com so we can share them.

An opinion by Steve Timmins, 107.6 Juice FM – @juicesteve

Arg on the Radio

This week I found out that James ‘Arg’ Argent from The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) had landed a network radio show. As a professional Broadcaster, who has learned (and is STILL learning) his trade the long, hard way, I can honestly say that this news of Arg’s appointment deeply saddened me. So, I did what most people in today’s social network society do when they are annoyed with something… I took to Twitter to air my frustrations! I was then asked if I’d write my thoughts as a blog entry, so here goes.

Let me make it clear from the start that this is not a personal vendetta against James ‘Arg’ Argent. I have never met him, and wish him well in the future. However this doesn’t mean that I agree with his appointment. “Why so against it?” you might ask. “Why would it even bother you?” I’ll tell you exactly why it bothers me. It’s wrong. I say that not as someone who works in the radio industry, but someone who loves the medium of radio, someone who lives, breathes and sleeps it every single day. I’m not saying that you have to be a self-confessed radio ‘geek’ to land a job on air, I just know the difficulties that many people face actually landing that first on-air, behind the mic job.

I believe it was an episode of TOWIE (a few weeks back apparently) that showed ‘Arg’ taking to hospital radio. How many of us started out there? I know I did. It’s a great stomping ground and a great place to learn. Now, how many of us, weeks later, land a network show on commercial stations? Not many. Was it down to his incredible presenting skills demonstrated in a 2minute clip on TV? Or was it down to the fact that it’s ‘Arg’ from TOWIE we’ll get some good RAJAR figures for this?

Arg on the Radio

I think that the frustrating thing for me, is that I know how hard my path into radio was, the endless hours in whatever studios I could manage to gain access to, the countless rejection letters, the comments of ‘you’ll just never make it’ (which unfortunately people in this industry will and do dish out), I’ve made tea, handed out flyers, dressed up in scuba gear in town centres to give away cash, all in an effort to simply get my foot in the door.

Too many reality TV characters (I prefer ‘characters’ to ‘stars’) seem to think that being a radio presenter, or possibly the more popular career migration to Club DJ is a sensible route for them after their 15minutes of fame. I’ve been a Club DJ for the past 15 years, and it’s fair to say that in the past couple of years there’s been a massive influx of gigs boasting ‘see XXX guest DJ’ from ‘XXX reality show’ on the bright glossy posters adorning every available space in the City. The truth is that most of these ‘XXX guest DJ from XXX reality show’ either turn up for 20 minutes with a mixed CD and pretend to mix, or actually attempt to mix, and you cringe with embarrassment as it’s very apparent to both professional onlookers and revelers that they can’t. To a DJ who’s been in the game as long as I have, it’s a big slap in the face to your profession. People with no discernable talent, turn up to a club, pretend to work, then stand in a VIP area getting sozzled, get papped, while the ‘real’ DJ’s entertain the crowd, it’s all compounded by the fact that they are paid handsomely for it too.

I’m not saying that if you’re on the TV you can’t make the transition to radio successfully, that’s untrue, casing point, Radio 1, notably Fearne Cotton and Vernon Kay, both successful TV presenters, both now successful radio presenters, and there’s the key word ‘presenters’, it’s something that they already know how to do, and do well, the leap across the medium is not that far.

By contrast, a cast member from TOWIE who is not a presenter is clearly ousted when put in-front of a microphone. A pre-recorded show non-the-less, does that not say a lot in itself, I can see a PD’s mind working now;

“This will be great publicity for us, but there’s no way he’s doing it live, and we need to get a producer in with him” (so much for the confidence in him)

Is a quick hit on RAJAR figures worth the risk? Me personally, I don’t think that it is, reality TV shows are Marmite, and personally I know I’d flick the station rather than have to endure it. What kind of a society have we become that we adore these mediocre entertainment shows.

I hope this doesn’t come across as a jealous point of view, far from it, I love my job and my station, and I genuinely wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. I work as part of a great team and that’s a rare thing to find. I also shy from any kind of limelight, I don’t do my job for the celebrity interviews or showbiz parties. I just, well, love radio. That simple.

Radio is, has been and always will be a notoriously difficult industry to penetrate, the ones who truly love their craft, persevere and have a little bit of luck along the way will, and do make it. Failing that, you could always try and land yourself a role in a reality TV show!

The show runs across the following stations Southend Radio, Chelmsford Radio and Connect FM Peterborugh.

This guest post reflects personal opinion and not necessarily the views of Earshot Creative.