Every great movie has a great soundtrack. Any radio station or podcast should be no different. It gives you an identity and helps you stand out.
It shocks and frustrates me to no end that I consistently hear so many radio stations and podcasts that have stale imaging…or worse yet, NO IMAGING AT ALL. I don’t understand it.
There are so many radio stations that just pick music beds for show opens, updates and promos that might sound good on their own but aren’t tied together in any way.
There are a plethora of podcasts that have NO opening to them. No sounders, no staging, no music, no sound-effects, nothing but a voice.
In a crowded (and growing) audio landscape, how the hell do brands expect to stand out operating this way?
FAILING TO IMAGE YOUR STATION IS DONE AT YOUR OWN PERIL
I recall once when I was interviewing for a PD job. It was with a high-profile brand in a very high-profile city. As part of the process, I spent a week listening to the station and then spoke to the GM on the phone to give him my observations.
One of the first things that stood out to me was the imaging…and just how bad it was. None of the music beds sounded similar enough to tie everything together. The music itself sounded stale as if it had been the same material running on the station for the last 20 years. Overall, it just didn’t present itself as big and bold as this brand truly was.
That being said, I wanted to couch my observations on the matter in a way that wouldn’t make me sound like a jerk. This particular GM had been running this station for a while and I didn’t want to come in hot by calling his baby “ugly as hell”.
I began by being tactful.
“So, in terms of the imaging, I was kind of surprised that…”
Before I could even finish that sentence, the GM groaned loudly and interjected.
“Yea, I’ve been screaming for new sonic imaging, stagers and sounders for over a year. It never happened.” He then went on to talk about his frustration over how stale the station sounded and why THAT was a key reason as to the former PD’s demise.
I grinned and felt validated. But it also drove home a very important point.
If you don’t image your audio brand correctly, you do it at your own peril.
LEARN TO BECOME A CONDUCTOR
One particular station I took over truly was a “fixer-upper”. One of the first things I knew I had to change was the imaging. It was practically non-existent.
So, I took about two months, and worked with an outside vendor to develop a full station imaging package. It truly was one of the most painstaking things that I’ve ever had to go through. The questions I kept asking myself were multifold:
“Does this reflect the market?”
“Does this reflect the format?”
“Does this reflect our personalities?”
“Will it be easy for listeners to recall?”
“Does this make us stand out?”
You would have thought that we were putting together The Beatles’ White Album. The full package required a slew of takes and re-cuts. Just when we thought we had what we wanted, I would want to go back and add something new. I felt like J.K. Simmons in the movie Whiplash. I’d listen to something, shake my head out of frustration and send it back to the vendor. I’m certain that the musicians that were working on the project had a picture of my face attached to a dartboard in their studio after a short amount of time. Eventually though, I felt that we had what we needed, and the project was finished.
Naturally, everyone in the building pushed back. Every host had an open that they wanted. I basically told them that those days were over.
After about a month or so of grumbling, something amazing happened…it caught on. Salespeople would be humming the station imaging while walking through the hallways. Hosts and producers would be signing the jingle going into commercial breaks. We finally had a SOUNDTRACK. We had an identity that we didn’t have before and it helped us stand out in a very crowded and challenging spoken word radio market.
I knew we had a hit when I stopped by a station event at a bar and heard patrons humming and singing our imaging.
“Mission accomplished,” I thought.
LEARN FROM THE BEST OF THE BEST
1010 WINS has been the all-news gold standard for the better part of the last fifty years. It’s also the ultimate utility brand. Every hour is about volume. Stories come at you fast and copy tends to be brief so they can live up to their long-held mantra “You give us twenty-two minutes and we’ll give you the world.”
What always struck me about 1010 WINS is how GOOD they’re imaged. I found this amazing video from 2017 that gave listeners a peek behind the curtain as to how they set up their top-of-the-hour news.
Seriously, how good was THAT? Anchors at 1010 WINS aren’t reading the news, they’re
CONDUCTING it like one would a symphony:
HEADLINE 1- BOOM (tempo picks up)
HEADLINE 2- BOOM (tempo picks up)
HEADLINE 3- BOOM (tempo picks up)
WEATHER- BOOM (tempo slows down)
TRAFFIC- BOOM (tempo picks back up)
Not only is the sound big and bold, but as longtime morning anchor Lee Harris said, “Instead of me having to match the music, the music matches me…” Those interjected stingers hold your attention as you move from one headline to another.
Look, not every news station is like 1010 WINS. But there are four tenants they really hit on that EVERY radio station and audio brand should take heed of:
1. It matches the identity of the station
2. It matches the identity of the market and/or target audience
3. It holds your attention
4. It makes you stand out.
“IMITATION ISN’T THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY, MOCKERY IS.”
Gregg Giannotti, now the morning co-host at WFAN in New York, was my morning show host at 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh. I’ve always maintained that Gregg is, by far, one of the most entertaining and creative talents I’ve ever worked with, in ANY format.
Anyway, Gregg hated our station jingle package. One day, he had enough and decided to make it a bit on his show.
“Hey,” he said to me during a commercial break as he poked his head in my office.
“Hey, Gregg,” I responded.
“Be listening at the top of the hour,” he said with a fiendish grin.
“Uhhhh, ok,” I replied pensively.
Whenever I got this kind of warning shot, I knew that I’d likely have something that was brilliant, but something I may have to answer for in the GM’s office.
Gregg, along with his producer, Ben Livingston, and our production director Steve Wilson, had managed to create a BEATBOXED version of our station jingle, BRILLIANTLY. What’s better, they were going to make our loveable (yet often surly) anchor, Jim Colony, do his update during their creation.
The result was hilarity. I was doubled over laughing in my office while listening to Jim try and get through his update. Finally, I heard Jim laugh, bang his hand on the studio desk, and say in resignation,
I called my friend and colleague Jim Graci, (who was PD at News Talk 1020 KDKA-AM at the time and now programs both KDKA-AM and 93.7 The Fan), into my office.
“Jimmy, you GOTTA listen to this,” I said as I replayed the cut from the morning show for him.
Graci fell backwards onto my couch in laughter and had a hard time catching his breath until I pushed the pause button on my computer.
Remembering that a few people in building might not share our same senses of humor, I asked, “Jimmy, what do I say for people that might be pissed off at this?”
“Here’s what you tell ‘em, Ryan,” Graci said while collecting himself. “You tell them that imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery. Mockery is.”
