Creative Services - Valuable?

[Rhythmon]

Creative Services - or Radio Production Directors - seem to be an unsung-hero type of job at a station. Do you agree?



The fact is, we are responsible for an enormous amout of content on any given day. Image is of ultimate importance - it needs to engage, entertain, and directly speak to a targeted demo. It becomes the 'voice' and the overall personality of the station. It's the station self promotion. Image has a large impact on the listener, and it is a challenge to do it effectively. Same thing for on-air promos. If done right, a good promo will increase attendance at an event, increase listener participation in a contest, and increase good-will toward a station. If Image and Branding can engage listeners, and inspire them to listen longer and more regularly, then numbers go up. Do you agree? Is this important?


And then there are spots, which is the second part of a Creative Services gig. It's difficult for an AE to sign on a new radio client, so when it happens, it is the Creative Services Directors responsibility to do it right. It needs to be a good, effective spot that makes doors swing and cash registers ring. If it's done poorly, the spot does not work, and that new client never buys radio again. If done well, that client becomes a repeater, which is great for everyone involved. A Creative Services director is expected to be an ad agency, demographic researcher, copywriter, voice actor and Sound Designer - all in one. It's a big package.


Production Directors have a large impact on the station revenue stream - directly (spots) and indirectly (image/branding/promos) Yet it seems to me that these jobs don't traditionally pay very well. I've always wondered why? Why are these positions not held in higher regard?

I think I'm preaching to the choir here. Yes, I am a Creative Services guy - you probably are too. Very good at what I do, I might add. I'm just looking for some insight, and hoping that you will be honest in your responses regarding the Creative Services Department at a radio station: Under-rated? Over-rated? Or just right.

PD's: Especially interested in your insight

Thanks!

 

[chadd]

AH, WHATTHEHELL-- IT'S THE END OF MY DAY ANYWAY.

So, here's the thing. Of course the pre-produced pieces are important to a radio station. Especially when deejock action is minimal and boring. Imaging is canned, guaranteed, say-the-slogan-right-every-time, maybe even entertaining kinda stuff. Sometimes it can be well written, well voiced... and even well produced, all in one. Lots of times notsomuch.

I recently had an email correspondence with some guy who's 19 and sounds like a freaking wizard. He was seeking my advice (or using that as a reason to get me to "ooh" and "ahhh" his earcandy-- doesn't really matter to me). I told him what I thought: You're creating what the industry is using right now-- you have a great arsenal of prod materials (sounded like a mix of frostbytes, groovetools, and tha breakz), and you know how to make them work for you. And while that's exactly what MOST programmers look for... be careful not to become just a good mimic.

We've got too many good mimics. There're a few "really good creative people", and a bunch of people ripping them off like we don't notice. But hey, bills get paid when you're the poor man's Eric Chase. If you can't get your personality into it-- if you're not great at performing with your studio (as I believe it is an instrument just like a guitar, drum or voice)-- you're ONLY gonna be a mimic, and fall into the majority of the American public who dreams about stardom but ends up living a normal life with 2.5 kids and a thrice-mortgaged house.

Since MOST producers fall into this good mimic category (hell, I'll even lop myself in if it makes ya feel better), I can only assume PD's and GM's an all those other letters have noticed and devalued a position that didn't even exist 15 years ago anyway.

Creative Services Imaging Production Director Supreme-- it's just a friggin' title. What are you doing to further your craft? You studying? Experimenting late into the night? What else are you doing to enhance your station? Hey, man, if the answer's "YES! ALL THAT! EVERYTHING!!" and you still don't get respect... well... welcome to work.

*internal dialogue* "Crap. Do I sound like a jerk?"

 

[stench]

Chadd. Some great points. And because it is just wrong to see a guy talk to himself on a message board I will chime in with two small copper pennies. World is changing. The wizardry of production, great creative imaging, audio cinematics is being perceived as white noize by the consumer. Too many details, in fact, the listener would be hard pressed to tell you what was just said in some of these "productions". They think they are interruptions to the music, "commercials for the radio station"...annoying and negative. Ouch.

Imaging is so over the top today that it has become a parody of itself...just when you get good at something it disappears and no one wants it anymore. Look at voice over....if you cannot get rid of radio announcerisms, you won't work in voice over today because the market isn't looking for that.

Now is a great time to begin "re-invention" for radio imaging (even commercials)--to introduce a new style, something subtle, spartan, clever, read between the lines. Look at what CC is doing in some circles with product and brand integration. They are experimenting with blinks, five sec quickies, 15's whatever works to isolate the client and make their product special. We are in a cycle change. Personally I see short stories on the horizon, fractured audio tales, full character scripts that are amusing, interactive and entertaining---audio animation if you will.

The reality is that everything in the entertainment world is cyclical--fads and trends come and go, sometimes they come back. I think right now, real is in, soft sell is in, clever is in---in your face whizz bang big voice hard sell is out. Filtered alternative read is out, Jack smart-ass is out (already)...the audience is screaming enough already...lighten up, get real or I'm out of here.

So there...you got an opinion from a former PD, Production guy and DJ now Voice Over Talent.

Someone will come up with a unique sonic approach and it will catch and become popular, it will be widely imitated and have a life cycle until we reach the next level of the game and the process begins again. The question becomes what end of the curve are you going to be on?

No you don't sound like a jerky.

 

[BenTehelenbach]

Re Commercial Production: I've said this before...a production director who knows how to keep advertisers renewing is usually paid no better than one who only knows how to create things that sound cool on the radio. Too often, even in big markets, the annual salary for a group production director begins with a three (or less).

 

[Rhythmon]

Somewhat depressing - salary wise - when you consider this is our chosen profession. If I had known that this position had so little (moetary) value, I probably wouldn't be here today.

It has so much REAL value, though - and that's why it's frustrating - that the salary does not correspond to the amount of creativity and knowledge and skills that it takes to be a really good Creative Services Guy.

After all, we are a copywriter/sound designer/voice actor/producer/researcher all in one!

Our service is given away for free - buy some time on air, and you get a spot at no extra cost. That's a great deal for advertisers, and a reasonable way for a station to conduct business. But - again - the spot needs to WORK! If it doesn't, then why bother? In this case, all you've done is turn off an advertiser to radio FOREVER. "yeah - i tried radio once - it didn't work"

But if quality spots are produced - effective spots - this generates repeat customers. Brilliant.

So get someone in there who can make this type of spot - it's good for all involved. And pay him/her well!

Otherwise, why bother?

 

[stench]

Most Production guys have side businesses and that is part of their deal...they get to use the facilities to do their own thing after all the work is done. I knew a guy who had a gig in Chicago and he was raking in agency work and making a ton of money on top of his salary...and using "their" state of the art million dollar + Production facilities.

Most voice Over guys are doing very well on a national level, there's plenty of work, but you must have an agent if not two or three and it is VERY competitive...you have a leg up if you are residing in Chicago, NYC or L.A.

Radio is just sort of a stepping stone to get you to other bigger and better gigs. Making a living as a Creative Services guy for a radio station in a medium or even large market is a tough way to hoe the row.

Most companies will be contracting this work out in the future...or they will be restructuring so that two really good Creative Services people will handle multiple stations in a region. Don't think they have completely figured that out yet though. Freelance is the way to go.

 

[chadd]

Most Production guys have side businesses and that is part of their deal...

Most voice Over guys are doing very well on a national level, there's plenty of work, but you must have an agent if not two or three and it is VERY competitive...you have a leg up if you are residing in Chicago, NYC or L.A.

Dear Stench,

What?

I mean, I'm pretty sure I outta just shut my internet yapper & get over it... but I am stunned by your remarks (and I am wearing my lucky underwear!).

MOST production guys? MOST voice over guys? I think I get what you're out to convey, but you may wanna reconsider how you word stuff.

Making blanket statements like that craps all over your point because you have no way of knowing if these statements are true. (As a matter of opinion, I think they're way NOT true. It would be nice to believe that most prod/voice guys-- and gals-- are riding high, but it's just not in the cards for MOST.)

Just like 1 in 6 million people will be famous enough to be noted in a history book (see "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"), becoming a superstar in the radio world is just as unlikely. Even a moderate star. Hell, making the mortgage payment without a spouse in the medical field is a chief goal for plenty.

And agents... Lemme tell ya about agents. They're looking for a commission in a can. Just like record labels shop for bands with a pre-packaged hit/style, so do voice talent handlers. You won't get very far unless you've got some bizness already in your pocket. And I mean REAL bizness-- not voicing your local Toyota dealership's tv spot. I may or may not know this from experience. (go team piercevoice.com!!)

Most companies will be contracting this work out in the future...or they will be restructuring so that two really good Creative Services people will handle multiple stations in a region.

Now you're talking my language. You didn't think i'd stop without saying something NICE, dija?

Even the most control-freakiest of programmers're gonna come to a road fork one day. In this direction, a guranteed product that-- while coming from people out of your slapping range-- will be high-quality and consistent. In that direction, you might have to settle for who you can get.

(disclaimer read: This is, and I MEAN IT!, in NO way related to my former position in Sacramento. Go team mikey!!!)

 

[stench]

'Scuse me Mr. Chadd...I meant to say most production guys I know. Sorry my bad, beat me, whip me, pour tar over me, strangle me with leader tape (wait another lifetime) let me feel the pain. OK I'm over it.

Maybe semantics. The guys I know have accepted that "management" types have put the production director position at any station USA in the 30k and under range...it's a shame, it's an embarrassment, it's wrong but, it's reality in many situations (did you like that?....many?)...Good Creative Services talent is worth 60k+ on a bad day. So, the great ones either work for their own bad selves or they negotiate to be able to do as they please once all the garbage work is done, use the corporate facilities and finding value in other things aside from salary....let me guess...you don't work for a cluster of station(s) anymore....smart.

 

[VODood]

Chadd. Some great points. And because it is just wrong to see a guy talk to himself on a message board I will chime in with two small copper pennies. World is changing. The wizardry of production, great creative imaging, audio cinematics is being perceived as white noize by the consumer. Too many details, in fact, the listener would be hard pressed to tell you what was just said in some of these "productions". They think they are interruptions to the music, "commercials for the radio station"...annoying and negative. Ouch.

Imaging is so over the top today that it has become a parody of itself...just when you get good at something it disappears and no one wants it anymore. Look at voice over....if you cannot get rid of radio announcerisms, you won't work in voice over today because the market isn't looking for that.

Now is a great time to begin "re-invention" for radio imaging (even commercials)--to introduce a new style, something subtle, spartan, clever, read between the lines. Look at what CC is doing in some circles with product and brand integration. They are experimenting with blinks, five sec quickies, 15's whatever works to isolate the client and make their product special. We are in a cycle change. Personally I see short stories on the horizon, fractured audio tales, full character scripts that are amusing, interactive and entertaining---audio animation if you will.

The reality is that everything in the entertainment world is cyclical--fads and trends come and go, sometimes they come back. I think right now, real is in, soft sell is in, clever is in---in your face whizz bang big voice hard sell is out. Filtered alternative read is out, Jack smart-ass is out (already)...the audience is screaming enough already...lighten up, get real or I'm out of here.

So there...you got an opinion from a former PD, Production guy and DJ now Voice Over Talent.

Someone will come up with a unique sonic approach and it will catch and become popular, it will be widely imitated and have a life cycle until we reach the next level of the game and the process begins again. The question becomes what end of the curve are you going to be on?

No you don't sound like a jerky.

My .02cents? CC and their blink ads are horrible radio!!! Great radio, as we remember it, from the 70s, 80s and early 90s is theater of the mind, well produced radio. Not dry VO and 3 dead segs an hour. I hate that friggin' crap! Listeners will listen if it's ENTERTAINING. That doesn't mean less than :10sec of "DJ" chatter. What that means is better talent who KNOW what to say, when to say and how to tease properly. Most PD's these days don't even know good radio b/c some, depending on how long you've been at it, were "raised" in the business with liner cards and too much imaging.

IMO CC's Less is More approach to imaging is a disgrace. And it's permeating the rest of the business. Frost and Chase didn't get to where they are by doing Less is More. John Frost did mini dramas - That were entertaining and informed at the same time. I still have some KROQ Calendar promos from RAP circa 1995 b/c their sheer brillance. They're also 60sec promos. A "no no" these days to those who think listeners hear white noize. It's white noize if it's not entertainment; ie well written and produced. Not just radio slogans and zips and zaps.

My buddy, and former boss, at WMMS who now is the Creative Director for all of Sirius told me two years ago that the Imaging Director position, that came about in the mid 90s, was going by the wayside and folded back into the Prod Director position. I certainly see that happening. Before the Imaging Director gig came to be, a Prod Director did spots AND imaging. Then Imaging became a specialized field. Now with further consolidation, and increased debt load, save for the Top 20 it's all being folded back into one position. This I know b/c in Raleigh from 00-04 I was fortunate enough in mkt 43 to just image two stations and NO commercial prod. These days... that's not happening. Plus if the market is small enough.... outside the Top 100, the prod director might also have to VT or do an airshift on top of everything else.

Top 25 markets Prod/Imaging is good for $50k plus.

I'm in market 87 now as a PD and Creative. I'm far above the 30k price point. But our cluster does really well. That's another thing to consider. I made more in Raleigh (43) than I did in Cleveland (24). Stations ROI was better in Raleigh. All about the budgets.

 

[KrashB]

If your feeling undervalued, and underappreciated in your current situation, you should know there is a way out right now.

Krash Creative Solutions is on the lookout for a radio imaging wunderkind. Pay for this gig is stellar, far beyond what you all have reported here, and the job is fun. You would work on only the finest equipment, in brand new state of the art studios. Did I mention there were no sales people?

Of course at this pay range, we are only looking for the best of the best. Someone who can consistently hit home runs for our clients. Check us out here: http://www.krashcreativesolutions.com

And if you have questions, feel free to ask [email protected] ... We'll keep your info completely confidential.

Thanks,

Krash

Krash Creative Solutions

 

[bobbybooey]

IMO CC's Less is More approach to imaging is a disgrace. And it's permeating the rest of the business. Frost and Chase didn't get to where they are by doing Less is More. John Frost did mini dramas - That were entertaining and informed at the same time. I still have some KROQ Calendar promos from RAP circa 1995 b/c their sheer brillance. They're also 60sec promos. A "no no" these days to those who think listeners hear white noize. It's white noize if it's not entertainment; ie well written and produced. Not just radio slogans and zips and zaps.

But you wanna know the (depressing) truth? Remember how when Frost left KROQ and all the prod peeps were wondering "what are they gonna do now?"... the station's ratings I believe are actually higher now than they were during his tenure there. Now I realize this is for a variety of reasons, but obviously the average listener's listening isn't really affected by the presense of such "entertainment". Since radio is largely a background medium, a lot of the "sheer brilliance" obscured the message because there was too much extraneous content to sift through. I've got a stash of Frost's old stuff too, and while I'll occasionally pull them out for inspiration, I realize they mean a lot more to me than they did to the intended audience.

 

[Rhythmon]

[/quote]

But you wanna know the (depressing) truth? Remember how when Frost left KROQ and all the prod peeps were wondering "what are they gonna do now?"... the station's ratings I believe are actually higher now than they were during his tenure there. Now I realize this is for a variety of reasons, but obviously the average listener's listening isn't really affected by the presense of such "entertainment". Since radio is largely a background medium, a lot of the "sheer brilliance" obscured the message because there was too much extraneous content to sift through. I've got a stash of Frost's old stuff too, and while I'll occasionally pull them out for inspiration, I realize they mean a lot more to me than they did to the intended audience.
[/quote]

Radio used to be an appointment medium. In other words, people tuned in at specific times to hear specific programming. It is still - to a certain extent - but nothing like it used to be. The advent of Television changed that.

I don't want to believe that people are not interested in hearing really compelling 'theater of the mind' audio. But perhaps it's true. However, I've had great success - increased TSL, better listener participation, better station sponsored function attendence - using really clever, dramatic or comedic, high quality mini-productions. Again, if they are quality, they will work. If you build it, they will come. Some of my promos are :60 in length! A progressive PD realizes that this is a commercial for the station, and it works.

But you're right, bobbybooey - it's mostly a background medium. So here's my next question. What the next big 'audio' thing. You Tube took the web by storm - where are the really cool, compelling audio-only sites?

Let's start one up, eh? I've got some examples of just fun pieces of audio that are intended for nothing more than the purpose of entertaining. But alas, nowhere to post! Do people care? Would they like to hear these things? Would they pay a monthly fee to have acces to 15-30 minutes of really clever audio pieces every week or month?

Wanna hear some of these pieces? Email me: [email protected]

I believe the art-of-audio is not dead - it is compelling and effective, and will have a new surge. Who's with me?

Or not ....

 

[robnokshus06]

My 02-cents...

First off, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. That being said, the responsibility of getting management to recognize the value of your contribution rests entirely with yourself. One of the hardest lessons for me to learn in this business was self promotion. Are you constantly sending your GM, PD or whomever your latest and greatest productions? I do it now and it's nice to walk past the GM's office and hear him blasting "The greatest commercial ever" or whatever it is that I have sent him.

Do you collect complimentary emails from sales/clients? I do. I keep them in a file for use when it comes time to pitch for more dough.

Do you actively help sales do it's job? Create demo compilations for sales to give to clients? Meet with clients to assist with their campaigns? Hold seminars for sales? I could go on but the point is to be pro-active in asserting your value to the radio station. It's up to YOU to create your own value.

I am also in agreement with those here who say that most of these services will be outsourced in the near future. HOORAY! Les Moonves is on record as saying that CBS Radio is moving away from being a content company and moving into the "audience business," whatever that means. Those with an entrepreneurial spirit stand to succeed in the future by providing what the broadcasting companies no longer wish to supply, content.

To that end, Krash is a prime example of someone who has made today's current broadcast situation work for him. (You'd have received a package from me long ago Krash if only you weren't in SC! Thanks for all of your help in SF all those years ago!)

Radio is changing and change means opportunity. In my mind there is probably more opportunity for a talented producer now than ever before, if you're willing to move with the changes.

 

[Rhythmon]

Excellent advice Rob

We must evolve and adapt in order to stay relevant. If not, then we deserve to wither on the vine.

I'm in talks for a new Image Production Position right now, actually. Any 'up-front' negotiating advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers and thanks!

 

[DeadAudicy]

All have made good points. Regadomg station imaging, I tend to think it is judged by listeners and management as sub entertainment at best, and no matter how great, can only be valued thus. Like lovely Christmas decorations in December, sure they sets the mood, they're sparkly and colorful, but everyone has em up, and after all it isn't about the decorations, it's about the presents. Music is the present (or host, or traffic&weather, as the case may be). If you are powerful enough to make the imaging the main attraction and be uber prolific, then you can better write your ticket (considering RobNok's brilliant advice re negotiating), but it is still a hard sell convincing corporate that imaging is necessary to revenue.

Commercial prod is another matter. Bucks are paid to anyone who can make themselves indispensible to a manager's bonuses. As has been stated, you need to keep in their faces about it. Every time you make a spot that closes a deal, or precipitates an annual, or turns around a dying account, get a testamant to it in writing from the AE, including the $$ brought to the station(s). Send a copy to GSMs and GMs, and save the pile of them for end of year review, scheduled by you.

Here's the thing. If you cannot raise the overall station rev enough to be recognized month in and month out, you will not get ahead, and should consider a supplimental career in VO, or maybe just not be in production anymore...unless you're fine with the typical salaries paid to the typical prods. If you can raise the income dynamic, and you are able to make your value known and remembered, and you still can't get your worth, then move on to a place where you can. You are a money making power tool. Document proof, and you'll find plenty of willing users.

 

[uppendowndadial]

Ha.
I was set to bring in a $12,000 account to the station. All the AE had to do was go sign 'em up. I still got the boot. ...and the account left with me