imagingradio » General

Scott Larson — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:17:05 +0000

So I’m reading a blog on blog content and what to write about when suddenly I get this amazing revelation, that I’ll write a blog about that article that implores me to deliver relevant content about a certain topic, trend, social media strategy blah blah blah, when really all I want to blog about is why this stupid coffee machine keeps overflowing or why one of my co-workers uses about an entire roll of toilet paper to wipe or maybe why these commuters insist on going from 75 to 0 because they see a cop on the side of the road with its lightbar blinking.. see,, it’s all about the content and if you chose to read this far well then I’ve blogged about blogging enough and you should probably go back to work now.

Are they gone?,,,, ok good listen, if you want to know the truth, I’m writing this to practice my typing skills in case you know a punk college kid needs help typing their thesis on swine stench and it’s effect on other barn animals, or social media in the city and why texting and walking is bad on a busy street. The blog is such a cool tool, mainly because I can type stuff here and maybe you’ll read it and send it to someone else who’ll get a chuckle from it, or say “wow this dudes a head case” .. in any case IF you made it this far, you’ll know this a blog entry about blogging and why you should blog.. TWEETS: @SethMcFarland is the coolest voice actor on the planet… giggity

Fruit Cake and New Years

Scott Larson — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:05:58 +0000

Aahh, the Christmas Season, full of hope, promise and cholesterol ladden cookies, cakes and various other sundries of mega proportions. I love the holiday season. It gives me great pleasure to see family, friends and then there are the co-workers with their Secret Santa cliques, the enormous mounds of pastry, chocolate, sugar plum goodness that befalls all of us.
Fondly I have looked upon the ubiquitous fruit cake abominations as door stop material, but this year I decided I’d give it a go and try a piece of that wondrous goodness a co-worker had brought in, thinking in the back of my mind that this person had made it themselves, I was wrong to think that a grown up human being could make something by hand that looked so beautiful, wrapped in the glorious cellophane wrapping but yet still have that haunting smell of death (AKA:whatever those green things that are embedded deep in the recess of the wondercake) could make me gag.
New Years day will be upon us in a matter of days and we’ll all jump on the Resolution Band Wagon. Here are mine for 2012.. See if these resonate with you as well.
1. Communicate better with my spouse
2. Lose some more weight
3. See #1
4. Get more freelance voice over opportunities and learn to market my talents as a producer
5. See #1
6. Find a way to not work 7/365 so I can spend more time teaching my son how to be better than me in everything, advice given by my dad, that I didn’t follow and hope that my son doesn’t make the same mistakes I did.
7. Find more opportunities to kiss my wife when she least expects it
8. See #1
9. Find more opportunities to increase my wealth, whether its a better job, an opportunity within the organization I am currently with or something that hasn’t hit me in the face yet (because seriously I’m not seeing the ones God has been trying to give me)
and finally
10. See #1

BlogTweet

Scott Larson — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:56:21 +0000

I started writing this blog a few years ago about my career, my job and what I develop in the audio production industry and radio/television. However it’s not and has not ever gotten any followers, comments or trackbacks. I can only surmise that my marketing efforts have not been the most stellar and I should probably try a different approach

I would love the opportunity to do talk radio but I don’t think I’m articulate enough to convey my thoughts, opinions and insights to listeners without stumbling over my thoughts, I’m just not quick witted enough to do so. But I can convey the words and thoughts to paper and if I need to edit I can , that’s the beauty of a blog.

I have been following lots of folks on Twitter (@slarson) and I generally follow people who make me laugh, there are some extremely graphic and very funny people in the world, their humor is dry, x-rated mostly and very non PC but it makes me laugh at myself and allows my brain to try an think like theirs. I also follow several political and news feeds to keep me in the loop. In the coming weeks I’ll be blogging about what interests me “this” week and commenting on the world, the people I meet and how I CAN make a difference in 2012. Join me won’t you?

The Battle of EQ

Scott Larson — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:51:29 +0000

I had the opportunity to listen to a couple of stations out west (well west of my location anyway) In Rapid City South Dakota actually, and I’m sorry I can’t recall the calls/frequency right now but what I can recall is the poor audio quality of a majority of the commercials and imaging I heard on this particular station. The muddy, almost internet quality (old internet, not 4G) out of phase and tinny! This can mean only a couple of things.

The Production director either didn’t care and they simply just slam stuff on the air because of they have to, or something is really wrong with their outboard processing. The music sounded crisp, clean, full and rich. But, when they went to break it was like listening to AM Radio through a tin can. Surely the production folks can hear that in their studios when dubbing or producing can’t they?

If you are not creating, producing the best possible product for your clients then your clients will soon be on you competition and a For Sale sign goes in the stations window. If you’re trying to get that “sound” that you heard in LA or NY you probably don’t have near the gear these pros do and you’re trying to do something that you probably shouldn’t.

If your engineer is as awesome as most , he’s tweaked the processing on the Optimod to sound as best as it possibly can without losing the integrity of the signal (THE most important part of your radio station). Your job in production is to make the imaging, promos and commercials sound just like the music, seamless and the absolute best quality audio you can produce. If the dub you get from the agency is bad, SEND IT BACK and ask for a better quality version of it. Make your station as listenable as you can and your listeners will keep you tuned in 24/7!

Where is the “Gotcha?”

Scott Larson — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:47:28 +0000

I recently heard a spot on Dan O’Day’s blog from Market #2 and it was quite possibly the worst spot I’ve heard in from a Major in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I work in in a Top 50 market and I’ve heard worse. But when does the “gotcha” kick in? In order for commercials to work the call to action has to be immediate right?

Asking a question to start the mind working towards selling you the clients product is first and for-most. If you don’t get me in the first two sentences to continue listening to the pitch, I’m gone or mentally tuning your message out or punching the pre-set to another station.

Creative copy writing is key to providing not only commercials that are ear catching but also WORK!. How many times have your potential advertisers said “Radio Doesn’t work for Me”.. too many times I’m sure. If you’re not writing creative copy that moves the call to action FIRST (not last) then you’re missing the proverbial boat

If you have not mastered the art of creative copy writing, take a class at your local community college, use the intertubes for research, but please, please please stay away from cliche’s like “conveniently located at” and phone numbers that your listeners will never ever remember unless it’s matched with a phrase Call 1 555 BIGBUCK now!. Write commercials the way you speak and you’ll get a better response, a client that will continue to advertise becase RADIO WORKS! Gotcha

Lost an old friend today

Scott Larson — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:44:53 +0000

The last broadcast of my parent station KUDL ceased to breathe today, after 34 years on the FM dial, it merged with another frequency at 99.7 and became KZPT The Point. Change brings many things to the hallways at this complex, it means that 34 years of broadcast excellence came to pass and through the halls of the broadcast complex a gentle sob could be heard, tears of an emotional journey that I am proud to be a part of, countless promotions, millions of dollars in prize money, tshirts and lipbalm given away.. and thats just the stuff.

How about all the people who cracked the mic at 1340 KUDL AM in the early years, or the 25 years that Dan Hurst, Glo Goodwin and Darcie Blake and Marcy Caldwell spent here, lets not forget Katfish Kris Kelly, or Chuck Hayes, Alene Martin, Roger Carson, Dina Michaels, Sheral Collins, Valarie Knight, Jim Byrd, Jim Moore, Paul Worstell, and yes yours truly. I’m sure there are a lot that I’ve left out, but The Grand Dame of Kansas City Radio met its maker today, perhaps the heritage call letters will resurface somewhere west of the Mississippi again to grace the airwaves of earthbound radio, I can only hope I’m here to hear it happen again

Creating Great Commercials

Scott Larson — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:15:24 +0000

I had the opportunity this week to hear and read some great commercial copy written by account execs that “almost” get it. It was well thought out up to the point where it made fun of “a higher power” sort of a tongue in cheek look at creation in the biblical sense. I hope I said that in a way that got you thinking.

It did get you thinking right? Sure it did, because you don’t want to offend anyone, especially in the times we live in now and especially if you live where I do in the Bible Belt.

Writing commercial copy for radio (and even tv) is even more difficult now than in years past due to our current political climate. You can be creative, but be aware of whom you’re relating the copy to, if it makes you think,, “hmmmm” well then you should probably re-work the script.

Do you write like you talk?, so many times I’ve heard (and read) “located at”, I mean seriously people, do YOU talk like that? Write copy the way you speak to other people and you’ll be more effective. Just my opinion mind you, love to know what you think

Rethinking Thinking

Scott Larson — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:17:52 +0000

Ok, so I’ve been super slammed busy with production, imaging, trying to get my first programming gig and I’ve just been thinking too much about it all. I really shouldn’t be worrying about anything but how to get my 2 year old potty trained. I have a job that I love am super passionate about and a wife and son that love me. So what am I worried about? Career and how I can make even more money and climb the ladder to success… aren’t we all worried about that? 41 million Americans are on food stamps. How depressing is that! I am so lucky and blessed to be able to have a full time job, and 2 part time jobs , what am I bitching about.. I’ll just shut my pie hole and be thankful to God that I am blessed with a wonderful family, jobs that pay some bills and keep some food on the table. I’ll worry about climbing the corporate ladder some other time

Remergence of Fun Radio

Scott Larson — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:53:08 +0000

I have had the opportunity to listen to some great internet radio lately, most notably 107.3 out of Liverpool England, their “presenters” work 2 hour shifts and there are a lot of them, which brings me to this: Are they volunteers, paid an immensely meager salary or is it because even though the pay is meager, they are passionate about their product, their sound and radio in general? I would speculate that it’s the latter, the music is new, the imaging a little over the top (but who am I to complain about it I love it) and the talent is genuinely happy and passionate about their station.

I find it as refreshing as I did in 1988 when I fell in love with this business we call radio, as a programming ( I really really want to be someday soon) student, I have hopes that someday American radio will take notice of great stations like the aforementioned and take note. It’s all about the passion, the drive and the ambition of our young personalities that will make radio as fun as it was in the past, only now we’ll add social networking, some diggs, tweets, faceplants and a host of other marketing tools to develop our specific brands into fun radio again. Don’t you agree?

New Year, New Challenges

Scott Larson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:55:33 +0000

Well it’s almost a done deal, the year is almost over. What challenges lie ahead for our industry, our branding, our attitudes. Personally, I believe that the new year will bring more business to the broadcasting industry as a whole. With new digital technologies that seem to morph daily, the challenges terrestrial radio faces will be how to keep and maintain P1 and P2 listeners in a PPM world. How will you maintain your stations relate-ability?. Finding new ways to brand your stations image is by far the biggest challenge I see coming in 2010.

On the other end of my stick is the production end, finding new creative audio design in a venue that has heard it all before, is there something new I missed, is there a new effect, a new mix, a new or better way to produce?. I am going to start to expand my skill sets by learning Pro-Tools and other audio platforms so that my skill sets match everyone else’.

I would love to see programmers (myself included) develop their radio brands and retro fit them to really, really look at personality driven radio again. Music intensive radio is fine, but I fondly look back at why I got into radio in the first place and I miss that personality driven, whacked out fun zoo formatting. Radio can be fun again.. I know it can, we just need to take the neckties off and stop looking at the bottom line so much and look at why our listeners LISTEN in the first place. Just my thoughts, what are yours?