Friends and others I haven’t talked to in years…

I’ve been on-air since Weds morning at 5:00. We thought we’d be able to drive in until around 11 that morning. When I got the call they were evacuating I came in immediately. Kristin was staying with Stacey the station Manager… they were here just before 4. We almost didn’t get into the station via truck… and he almost didn’t get out… we’re boating in and out at this point but only 1 trip in and out per day… We boated Kristin out yesterday… she did the updates with me until around 11 then covered the rest of the afternoon while I was on the phone with engineers working out a backup plan…

Thankfully we didn’t have to put the backup plan in place… We do have several backups of all data located off-site, however, the other concern is the radio station being overtaken by water forcing us to shut down before it causes major damage or worse, electrocution. Power, oddly enough, has been solid, even though we’ve got a genset and enough diesel to last 3-4 days. If we need to move. here is a tower farm about 8 miles away with a monster non directional AM tower that is setup for ham radio contesting… and a 500 foot tower used for em-comm… all generator powered. We’ve got a 250 watt FM exciter and a single bay antenna as well as processing lined up and a 60 watt am transmitter on our frequency in case we need to relocate. It wouldn’t be as good as the 50,000 watts we put out, regularly and would cover the county…

My most important concern, besides the employees here are the listeners that are affected by this water… I’ll do whatever it takes to keep us on-air and the engineering team that I have lined up should be able to make this happen quickly if it comes to an evac.

We nearly evacuated the station as water in the crawl space was threatening our power supply… we’ve been able to drop that significantly and are constantly pumping…

She was amazing… She’ll be my relief this morning at 8… I’m going to try to lay down for 2 hours and then prep for the 5a news… WGFA’s News Director was here before I was here Weds… He is also the “part time” County Emergency Services Director. That’s a joke… the job is full time x2 as it is… plus we’re a very large county, and now he’s doing this… IL EMA are in town surveying… Cty has been declared a State Disaster agency…

Details at http://www.wgfaradio.com

Look for aerial footage of the flooding here… http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/

Most recent pics of flooding are at http://www.flickr.com/wgfaradio

Some others at http://www.flickr.com/jrkaiser

My home is fine… Sheldon is 10 miles away and much higher… even though the drainage around that area is very bad, we had 4-6 inches around the area and my entire property was a lake… but the home and garage/studio are dry… a little water in the crawl space. Diana and the dogs are doing well, lonely, but well… and SAFE.

We’ve got water lapping at both doors… never been this high… ever… Rarely comes within a few hundred yards of the station with the regular floods… Yes, I said regular… About once ever couple of years… Jan 2005 was very bad because it froze and there was no where for the water to go… then it got down to 20 below.

This year, we had a lot of snow melt last week, and now the rain.

That’s the update… I need to get some sleep before I do the 5am news… I had 90 minutes yesterday and need to get some beauty sleep.

We’re fine… the community isn’t, but we are…

Justin
_____________________________

Here to Help!
Justin Kaiser & Associates
Creative Identity Group
Voiceovers and Internet Marketing
Phone/FAX - (888) 519-9575
http://www.JustinKaiser.com
http://www.CreativeIdentityGroup.com
_____________________________

A couple of things I recommend to people interested in announcing / voiceover:

1. Read aloud. To your kids, to your spouse, to whomever, to a recording, to yourself. Try to achieve a “natural read.” Reading aloud helped me immensely. The best class I took in college as far as my announcing career is concerned was “Oral Interpretation of Literature.” We had to read different kinds of literature in a dramatic way to actually “perform” the piece. Great class for announcers!

2. Practice, practice, practice. Read copy aloud from catalogs, newspapers, shampoo bottles, etc. Try to imitate the delivery of announcers you hear on TV and radio (not necessarily imitating their voice, but their delivery style).  Ask yourself how you would change the delivery if it were you.

I have known many people who had great voices who could not give you a natural read on a script if their lives depended on it. I’ve brought people into the studio to try them on a script because I thought they had a great voice only to find that they couldn’t deliver a natural sounding read. Delivering a natural read requires practice, especially critiqued practice.

Too Much Information -or- Death Of A Sales message

Sally Salesrep slides in to the sales pit and Susie Salesrep (no relation) politely asks how her weekend went. Fifteen minutes later, during the retelling of the Great Bunion Attack, Susie is regretting she rolled out of bed that morning.

You know the problem – T-M-I … Too Much Information.

It shows up in sales pits, jock lounges, parking lot meetings – and on the air in the form of Too Much Information being crammed into the sales message. With use of short advertisements – fives and fifteens – TMI is easy to do.

Most of you still write your own commercials, so it’s up to you to stop the spread of TMI.

When it comes to fives and fifteens, remember the Four Fundamentals:

1. Client name
2. Location/Contact
3. Service/product
4. Call to action

Everything beyond that is a supporting actor.

“Metal pad brakes on sale - this week only - at Ray’s Auto Parts, Maple at Greenwood, Our Town.”

In this case – product, call to action, client name and location.

“Ray’s Auto Parts has metal pad brakes on sale – this week only! Maple at Greenwood, Out Town.”

Client name, product, call to action, location.

Anyone who uses the phrases “conveniently located”, “friendly and knowledgeable staff”, “for all your (product) needs”, or any of the dozens of other tired, bad, and overused clichés is wasting the advertisers time – which means you are wasting their money. Money that you may have worked very hard to get them to part with. Money you want them to continue spending at renewal time. So why would you even think to put such pandering pap in their sales message – especially when you may only have five or fifteen seconds?

Every word must carry the weight of the sales message or it does not belong.

A fifteen is – for all intents and purposes – two fives with a little honey on top. A fifteen gives you the ability to have an opening hook, bring in your Four Fundamentals, and reinforce any one of them a second time, preferably the contact information.

A thirty allows for a little vignette perhaps, wrapped around the content of a fifteen.

A sixty is almost an art form unto itself. TMI is a significant problem with sixties, and really shows the experience level of the writer – or lack thereof.

To sum up: Remember the Four Fundamentals, avoid useless clichés, make sure each word is important to the structure of the sales message.

Sometimes AE’s need to be reminded about things that can make them money and you successful. Simply telling them does not kill two birds with one stone. Like maybe a creative way to tell them which in turn, will show them you have some creativity in your bones. I thought I would share with you.

I came across this very interesting recording. Apparently, different people here different things, but the bottomline is that if you are stalled on some clients and you’re wondering how to get in front of those who may have closed the door on you before. For some reason within this news cast you might here some answers that will speak to only you.

Should you hear anything that might be needing the assistance of this department, keep in mind I am here and anything you hear that you reveal to me will not be discussed with your collegues!

Thanks and give it a listen it might help.

http://www.creativeidentitygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/nprsubliminalad.mp3

EVERYBODY’S FREE (TO LEGAL I.D.)

Ladies and gentlemen of the radio industry of 2004:
SAY THE CALL LETTERS.
If I could offer you only one tip for the ratings, call letters would be it.
The use of call letters is required once an hour by the FCC, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than this morning’s R&R Hot Fax.
I will dispense this advice, now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your airshift.
Never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of your airshift until you no longer have one.
But trust me,
in 20 years you’ll listen to old airchecks of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how good you really sounded, and how many attractive, single women actually called you on the request line.
You are NOT the geek that you imagine.

Don’t worry about being fired.
You will.
Or worry, but know that worrying is about as effective as trying to serve a major market with a thousand-watt daytimer.
The real end of your job is apt to be something that never crossed your worried mind, like a sudden format change to Jammin’ Oldies at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Say one thing every day that scares your GM.

Prep.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s headphones.
Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Edit.

Don’t waste your time on Arbitrends.
Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind.
The book is long, and in the end,
it’s only one month.

Remember the awards you receive.
Forget the complaint calls.
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old airchecks.
Throw away your old memos.

Backtime.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what format you want to work in.
The most interesting jocks I know didn’t know at 22 what station they wanted to work for.
Some unemployed 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Drink plenty of Jolt.

Be kind to your ears, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll do mornings,
maybe you won’t.
Maybe you’ll have good ratings,
maybe you won’t.
Maybe you’ll be washed up at 40,
or maybe you’ll be at Z-100 on your 75th anniversary.
Whatever you do,
don’t congratulate yourself too much,
or berate yourself either.
Your ratings are half chance.
So are Randy Michaels’.

Enjoy your microphone.
Use it every way you can.
Don’t be afraid of it,
or what management tells you to do with it.
It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever use.

Hit the post.
Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own car.

Read the format clocks,
even if you don’t follow them.
Do NOT read Inside Radio,
it will ONLY MAKE YOU ORNERY.

Get to know Corporate.
You never know when your GM will be gone for good.
Be nice to your engineers.
They’re your best link to the transmitter, and the people most likely to be there at 3AM in the future.

Understand that radio stations come and go, but for the precious few, you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps with your contacts, because the older you get, the more you need favors from the PDs who hired you when you were young.

Do Modern Rock once,
but leave before it makes you hard.
Do A/C once,
but leave before it makes you soft.

Aircheck.

Accept certain inalienable truths:
station prices will rise,
owners will be frugal,
you AND your material will get older.
And when you do, you’ll fantasize that
station prices were reasonable,
owners were generous,
and stations respected their listeners.

Respect YOUR listeners.

Don’t expect anyone else to run the board for you.
Maybe you’ll have a hard drive,
maybe you’ll have a long record,
but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your voice,
or by the time you’re 40, you’ll sound like Moe Preskell.

Be careful which indie’s advice you buy, but be patient with the assistant who supplies it.

Advice is a form of nostalgia.
Dispensing it is like pulling a Seventies hit off the shelf, sampling it, getting Puff Daddy to produce it, and putting it back in rotation until it burns out.
This is also known as CONSULTING.

But trust me on the call letters.