script

RADIOVERACTIVE

I’ve long had a particular affection for radio advertising. It goes back to my younger days when I sat in broadcast booths and shared time and temperature before spinning large round pieces of vinyl. Handled correctly, radio spots are almost a mini-version of the programs that captivated audiences in the days before TV. Often, they’re more entertaining than the programming they support.

But a lot of people who create radio advertising don’t seem to grasp the realities of the medium and its listeners. A key example of that is what they expect the listener to take away from the spot. Many expect listeners to remember complicated phone numbers or website addresses. Locally, a law firm and a construction company that run sponsorships on public radio do that even though their names are difficult to understand and even harder to spell. If your CPA firm’s name is Finklestein, Chapeau and Huang, do you think most listeners are going to be able to spell that on the first try?

Read more