HAS STATION IMAGING JUMPED THE SHARK?

[jefflaurence]

Whew! Wild week here after the NAB..We lost 7 clients this month and 4 in the past week. Many of them long time stations, and some nearly only a few months old. Could be easy to get paranoid about this, but I am talking to other imaging voice people and they are reporting the same trend. A good number of programmers say it is because PPM no longer requires a lot of repeated liners, and there is no need for the same 20 or so canned produced sweepers "reminding" listeners what station they are hearing. Good point.

However..is it possible that some programmers are not freshining up the imaging and using it for more than "repeated sweepers"? Many of my most successful clients in solid PPM markets are keeping the imaging fresh, compelling and topical...and so are quite a few in non PPM markets. It seems, after going back and listening to some of the past work that many of the voice tracks for those stations are months and months old...rarely revised, never adjusted, and not overly creative. In that case I would have to agree that the station imaging is not doing the job for them, and could easily be cause for a tune-out..not that the produced pieces are lengthy enough for someone to hit another preset, but that they are stale, and enhance the stale vibe of the station in general.

Some of the PD's that had to call and release me are "taking the station in another direction" and that is certainly a fair and honest reason to switch signature voices..I feel bad for them that they have to make such calls..however in some cases they are telling me that because they are in a PPM world..that any local imaging is just no longer needed. Can you shed some light on this? Is this the new reality?

On the plus side..I was able to aquire two new clients just today in markets where I was dropped..so maybe it is just the universe telling me it's time to stay teachable, and grateful for my runconventional way to keep the lights on.

Any stations want a hard working voice guy? Let me know!

 

[Roger That]

Imaging jumped the shark a long time ago, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have value. The concept of having it is sound, but Radio, like most everything else on the air, has failed to evolve as its audience did. Stations need to learn how to put "creative" back into their creative services, and actually learn how to write. Hammering your station name or positioning statement is not creative.

In PPM, there isn't a need for constantly repeating a station name as "marketing" (never was, in spite of Radio bastardizing the concept as such). That said, there will always be value in creative, compelling content, whether voiced by jocks, listeners, or station VO talent.

 

[PirateJohnny]

While PPM makes it unnecessary for listeners to remember what station(s) they listen to for ratings purposes, what about non PPM listeners who want to tune in the station they heard yesterday and liked (PPM listeners for that matter, too)? A person has to manually tune in the station in the first place, and if you don't tell them what they're listening to now, how are they going to find you in the future?

 

[DrakeDonovan]

Just back from the Conclave in Minneapolis and there was session on Voice-over and Radio Imaging. The statistic shown was that when you factor out the music/talk content and commercials, the station imaging made up 34% of what listeners heard on a radio station. Also, topicality and localism were two atributes to successful radio in a ppm world. And if your talent is either syndicated or voicetracked, imaging does all the local and topical heavy lifting.

 

[ProducerGuy]

Stations are cutting expenses, and some of them think they can sound like crap and get away with it.

 

[Roger That]

While PPM makes it unnecessary for listeners to remember what station(s) they listen to for ratings purposes, what about non PPM listeners who want to tune in the station they heard yesterday and liked (PPM listeners for that matter, too)? A person has to manually tune in the station in the first place, and if you don't tell them what they're listening to now, how are they going to find you in the future?

When did I say that you should never say the station name? What I said was that simply saying the name over and over again doesn't constitute quality marketing. Compare a hip-hop station from the 90's, for example, with a station today in the same format. From an imaging perspective, little has changed.

 

[PirateJohnny]

While PPM makes it unnecessary for listeners to remember what station(s) they listen to for ratings purposes, what about non PPM listeners who want to tune in the station they heard yesterday and liked (PPM listeners for that matter, too)? A person has to manually tune in the station in the first place, and if you don't tell them what they're listening to now, how are they going to find you in the future?

When did I say that you should never say the station name? What I said was that simply saying the name over and over again doesn't constitute quality marketing. Compare a hip-hop station from the 90's, for example, with a station today in the same format. From an imaging perspective, little has changed.

OK, I was thinking "...if you rarely tell them what they're listening to..". I've grown up listening to stations that always IDed the station when the mic was open, or ran a jingle or sweeper between songs. Years ago a friend got a weekend gig on WLAC-AM in Nashville, back when it was a Top 40 power house. Dick Kent, the PD, wanted the first thing said when the mic was opened to be "15WLAC". Frequent station identification what I've grown accustomed to hearing. (No, not top-of-the-hour ID).

I had a short stint as PD once at a small Top 40 AM. I gave instructions to the DJs to "GIVE the information on the promo liner cards in your own style. They don't need to be read word for word, except for certain key phrases. Do it your way, but get all the information across." I felt that kept it more personal and less robot-like.

So, while I agree with your "hammering" statement, I believe a station should be identified often.

 

[chriscollins]

I am a PD of both a Top 40 and Urban station. I use my imaging from both my guys (Pat G. for Urban and Dr. Dave for CHR). I believe in imaging. I will say that as things have went on, I am starting to do a lot more 'floating' imaging, with very little production.

I use Production Vault on my CHR and it works very well for me. The branded intro's and jingles are a great compliment to the format.

I do firmly believe that 'heavily' produced imaging is on the decline and that simple, non fatiguing forms of imaging are becoming the thing to do. Just my opinion.