Constructing a station promo

During my radio career, I can’t remember when I began to help with the station imaging for the KATT. For those new to the blog, the KATT is OKC’s heritage rock station. The station signed on September 1976. I spent nearly fifteen years on air at the station. Working overnights, weekends, holidays, weekdays and any other time they let me on. Chris Baker, program director of the KATT, asked me if I would be interested in helping and eventually replacing Lump (AKA Jay Lynch, AKA The @Balcitybatman) in the imaging department. I accepted, and from there, I continued to produce hundreds of promos for the KATT. 

Station imaging consists of the produced audio pieces of the broadcast day that you may hear with the zaps, pings and sound effects with the “station voice.” Usually, one voice of the station and the promos play before and after commercial breaks. Male or female. Sometimes both. The KATT previously used two male voices for imaging, Al Murdoch and David Lee Imaging. I chose and hired Al Murdoch during my tenure at the station to act as the utility voice. His monthly copy was nearly double that of David’s, but David’s voice was much more in demand. The KATT currently uses dual voices for its imaging. A guy named Adam and a girl named Wendy bring more light and youthfulness to the station. Here’s how it works. They receive a copy, usually written by the PD or you. You send the script in an email, and they read it in their studio. They send back that dry audio (just the voice), and production can start. 

However, getting to this point takes some planning and organization.
When I began, Lump ushered me into a studio with a set of effects in a folder on the computer, dry VO and minimal direction. He told me you must dive in and try different things within the workspace. Trial by fire, but I picked up my flow and style this way. Here are some simple tips for creating your station promo that you may parlay into your radio advertisement creation.

note this is a short description of my workflow in limited detail. It isn’t for everyone, but possibly a beginner. You may find some things here that help you out or not. The DAW I use is Adobe Audition. I’m a user from way back.

Creative Juices

Get your idea from sales or your PD (program director). Often, the promo producer will need to rewrite the script to fit with the station’s identity and the voice talent’s abilities. Keep in mind your public and personas. The station will have its own demographic. As you construct and write the text, keep what the station calls the P1 (priority 1) in mind—paying attention to their likes and dislikes in their language. What’s the best way to talk to them? Usually, it will come from another agency or the client. The script, more often than not, is written in a very advertising way. It’s also a must to incorporate the sound of your voice talent and how it fits into the script.

These guys had pipes of rust, whiskey and 80 packs of cigarettes—voices of the gods.

Most voice talent operate on a contractual basis, only reading a certain amount per month per contract. It’s the best policy to hold off immediately sending over your copy to the talent until you have received enough copy to validate the request. Firing up the mic every other day for your station isn’t their priority. Once you get your copy together, it’s time to write the copy in a readable broadcast format. In all honesty, it is not as complicated as it sounds. Often, the talent will request copy in a particular manner. Pay mind to this as they may have a method and preference. Here is the method I used with the talent I worked with. Remember, be creative with your writing. The voice talent will bring your words to life if you coach them beforehand on the style or approach you have in mind. They are the talent. Let them talent.

Example

///ROCK 100 POINT FIVE THE KATT///OKLAHOMA’S PURE ROCK STATION///K-A-T-T F-M///OKLAHOMA CITY///ROCK ONE HUNDERED POINT FIVE///THE KATT///

Dry VO: It’s Go-Time

I compare the arrival of the dry voice work in my email box to go-time. It’s time to take elements and music with the vocal work to create an idea or a message delivery system.

I keep all of my elements, like libraries, well organized. I work with Creme Machine, Rock Splat and other various libraries. When I receive updates, I immediately manage each download. Then, the updates arrived via snail mail and on a CD. It was very time-consuming but paid off, saving time while I produced the piece because I could find certain elements. Now, downloadable updates are the norm.

Before manipulating the promo to my liking, I take the dry audio and clean it up with FFT Filters, EQs and compression. Isolating the vocal track and processing it makes it stand out from all the other elements in the piece. I often manipulate the pitch and speed of the vocal to add some nuance, but sometimes, when the vocal is pitched too low or sped up too fast, it becomes indiscernible.

Begin with an FX or SFX (or not)

My theory, which seems to be industry standard, is to start building with a sound effect element at the start of the promo to grab the listener’s attention. It also gives a good, explosive segway from the DJ talking to the promo. Like a puzzle, I chop out the voice work as in the script. Where the hash marks are in the script is where I place an effect.
Sometimes, I manipulate the vocal track with an audio effect or stutter the audio to add excitement or attention. It is an art piece. Sometimes, it comes together, and other times, you need to start over. Be creative!
I try to abstain from adding the music, which could be from the particular band the promo may be for. For example, at KATTfest, many bands would show up and play all day, more times than not, in one-hundred-degree heat. But, for this promo, I would choose music from the band and use it. The libraries you decide to go with will offer music beds in 60, 30, and 15-second beds. These are generic and a part of your subscription. There can be some cool stuff in there. I use the short beds, often tempo changing or genre under parts of the script that I want to bring attention to. It is helpful when you are aiming for a specific timed promo. If you can do it in thirty seconds, you achieve Zen, total consciousness.

Adding MX

You can build in the music while you build the promo or wait until the end of the voicework and sound effects are in place. My preference is to create it all at the same time. Always keep in mind that the message of the promo should come across as clear and listenable. Remember that the voice doesn’t become muddled, or you choose an effect over the volume of what the talent is saying.

Once your promo is together, I suggest running through the Normalizer. Check out Ian Stewart’s article on Izotope.com about normalization. It helped me understand why I need to normalize or not for different mediums. Then, I run it through the Mastering presets and process it through the Multiband Compressor. It seems to melt the whole thing into a shimmery-sounding production. I compress it more with the Tube Compressor preset ‘radio leveler.’ Then, I adjust the levels of the final product.

note if I decide to speed the promo up for time purposes (which is not much, only slight speed changes before it sounds rough), I do it before I run the Normalizer.

The Final Product

There it is, the final product. It sounds excellent, but remember you have sat and toiled with this for a minute. Will others understand the attitude or tone of the piece? Will the message you created from scratch resonate with listeners? The answer will come from your PD immediately, and your campaign moment will arrive. Or, the account executive will give the thumbs up, and all is right in the world. Or, on the contrary, you got a date wrong, they got a date wrong, the address is missing, or they do not like it. Back to the studio, you walk. Dejected and flushed with despair. But fear not. You are learning, and those things will appear far in your rearview mirror if you stay in the DAW environment and keep playing with different filters and presets. They will lead you to create more of your sounds and ideas for production in the future. I experienced it all and more. In conclusion, I hope that some of my workflows will help someone struggling to get their first audio message to their audience as creative and sonically soothing as possible.

References

Stewart, I. (2023, May 23). What is audio normalization?. iZotope. https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/audio-normalization.html