I don’ agree with all of it, however, felt it was worth passing along…  From Steve Casey at http://www.upyourratings.blogspot.com/ 

A lot of smart people have been expressing their concerns about the quality of our commercials.

I think most of us are forced to agree with them.

As programmer Bobby Rich has written “Every time we play a screaming car dealer or an offensive TV station spot I can hear radios punching out and turning off.”

What can we do to improve the quality of the advertising?

Here are five suggestions:

1. Write out an explanation of the role your station plays and the mood it provides to its listeners. Explain how you talk to your listeners, and why. This should be a joint effort by the General Manager, the Sales Manager and the Program Director. Once you all agree, this needs to be presented and taught to the sales staff. Based on their questions and feedback, refine it. This will be more useful than you can imagine. Clearly, the way a commercial is written, produced and voiced for a smooth jazz station is very different than for a CHR. And commercials for an active rock station require yet another approach. By the way, this will be a useful tool for your air staff as well.

2. Create a production “bible”. Write down the guidelines for spot length, information required, levels, repetition of phone numbers, speed of delivery, use of sound effects and music, etc. This is a document which, if your station is like most, will continue to evolve over several months. Put it in a loose leaf binder so it is easy to update. Obviously, this becomes required reading by the sales staff and the air staff. Revisit and revise at least quarterly.

3. Allow the air staff to note anything they believe falls short of your standards of quality. This needs to be reviewed daily by the program director and your production staff. You can either look at it as a painful and time consuming exercise, or a way to continually refine your standards and build a better station. I hope you’ll choose the second.

4. If you do any research, continually ask your listeners about the quality of your commercials. Learn how you compare with other stations. When you can, play actual spots that you are concerned about. What do the listeners say when you ask for their comments? Are they as sensitive as you are? When you can see results that show you are perceived as much better than your competitors, it will have been worth the effort.

5. Put even more effort into the quality and creativity of your promos. More than any other “commercial” a promo reflects on you in a very direct way. Always be proud of that reflection.

It is easy to forget that our brand is communicated every second of every day. This doesn’t stop when the commercial starts. When we think more about the quality of each commercial, when we insist that standards are met in the copy and production sent to us by advertising agencies, when we always respect the mood and energy level our station’s listeners expect and want from us, we can go a long way toward improving our radio stations.