Radio advertisement

A radio commercial (in the USA also called a spot by people in the business) is a form of advertising via the medium of radio. Airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for airing the commercials.

The first radio commercial is credited to WEAF, New York on August 28, 1922 for the Queensboro real estate corporation. The ten-minute live commercial was voiced by H.M. Blackwell, a representative of Queensboro. In radio's Golden Age, advertisers often sponsored entire programs or program segments, typically airing their commercials within. Today [in the USA, at least] sponsorship is comparatively rare, the selling of spots being the predominant practice. Radio commercials are usually sold in 10, 20, 30, 60 or 120 second increments.

When sponsoring a program, in the USA the 10 seconds or so in which the sponsorship is acknowledged before and/or after the program, is called a “billboard.” Often, the sponsor’s commercial will air immediately after the billboard.

While radio has the obvious limitation of being restricted to sound, proponents of radio advertising often cite this as an advantage, the "visual" portion being supplied by the listener's unbounded imagination. On his radio show in 1957, [cite web
url = http://filingcabinetofthedamned.blogspot.com/2005/04/lake-of-hot-chocolate-stan-freberg.html
title = Filing Cabinet of the Damned
author = Harvey Jerkwater [?]
date = 2005-04-20
accessdate = 2008-08-20
quote = The Stan Freberg Show (1957) experimented ... In an early episode of the series, Freberg demonstrated the advantage radio holds over television. He began a segment by draining Lake Michigan and filling it with hot chocolate. ] comedian and voice actor Stan Freberg demonstrated this point, using sound effects to dramatize the towing of a 10-ton maraschino cherry by the Royal Canadian Air Force, dropping it into a 700-ft. mountain of whipped cream floating in Lake Michigan (filled with hot chocolate), to the cheering of 25,000 extras. [cite web
url = http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/window/media/page/0,,868724-2008390,00.html
title = The Tip of the Freberg: The Stan Freberg Collection 1951-1998: Stretching the Imagination
accessdate = 2008-08-21
quote = (audio excerpt: Stretching the Imagination) ] The bit was later used by the USA's Radio Advertising Bureau to promote radio commercials' potential.

In practice, most radio commercials are not so imaginative.

With changes in the radio business and production technologies, the mode of commercial presentation has changed somewhat, too. A commercial read on the air by the station's personnel (disk jockey, announcer, host, etc.) is known as a "live read" or "straight read." In the USA, this form is still heard frequently, particularly on hosted shows, talk radio and in small markets. However, straight reads are often pre-recorded, for reasons of quality, diversity of talent, and automation. In the UK, 'live read' commercials are considered the lowest-quality form of radio advertising and are generally not used.

In contrast, a commercial may be "produced," by either the radio station or an independent company (such as the ad agency or a radio production company). The wide range of produced commercial formats include: straight read with sound effects and/or music, dialog ("double" or "triple," etc.), monolog (where the voice talent portrays a character, as opposed to an announcer), and jingle.

Jingles in radio commercials have become relatively rare. The reasons may include their higher cost, as well as shifts in popular culture. When used, the jingle is typically in the form of a "donut" with an instrumental portion in the middle for the announcer to read over, or a "tag" or "button" that ends the commercial.

Some radio commercials are in the form of personal endorsements. (They are cousin to ad-libbed commercials, which, being delivered from personal knowledge or a fact sheet, may convey the same personal impact as an endorsement although not necessarily constituting one (legal issues aside).) In the UK, personal endorsements by presenters broadcasting on the same station in live reads are illegal.

Radio is traditionally one of the most affordable advertising media for small retailers and other local businesses. A 60-second commercial is rarely sold at twice the price of a 30-second one. Most radio stations only charge 20-30% more for the longer spot.

In the USA, radio stations will often write and even produce commercials for local advertisers at little or no additional cost. Digital technology has improved this in-house capability somewhat, and also enables non-competing stations to easily exchange talent, thus increasing the diversity of voices available to local advertisers. However, the trend to consolidation of station ownership has made the staff producer's job a busier one, as he or she is likely to be producing for several stations, not just one or two. In the UK, with the formation of major radio companies in the 1990's, many stations began to cut costs by contracting much of their local and regional commercial production to independent companies.

When an advertising agency is involved, all but straight-read commercials are usually written and produced by the agency, and the station simply airs them. Radio commercials can be delivered to a network of radio stations directly from the recording studio or transmitted via satellite, internet or ISDN.

The radio industry's first certification program for commercial copywriters — the Certified Professional Commercial Copywriter — was created for the Radio Advertising Bureau by radio advertising guru Dan O'Day. [cite web
url = https://www.rabmarketing.com/rabstore/store_index.cfm?action=show&catid=19&prod_id=615000000&obj_group=54&do=detail&from=training
title = RAB Shop/Radio Advertising Bureau/Training Certification/CPCC
quote = RAB's Certified Professional Commercial Copywriter (CPCC) training and accreditation program was developed in cooperation with copywriting veteran Dan O'Day
accessdate = 2008-09-5]

References

External links

* [http://www.rab.com/ RAB - Radio Advertising Bureau]
* [http://www.danoday.com/ Dan O'Day: Creator of the radio industry's certification program for commercial copywriters]