The Rules Of Bad Radio

The RAB's Radio Mercury Awards are back with a $100,000 cash prize as well as $10,000 and $5,000 awards for great creative use of the audio medium, so that kind of dough alone is worth clicking their website. However, the Radio Mercury folks got pretty creative themselves this year, providing a list of rules you need to break each and every time you open a microphone:

• Rule #1: Don’t attract the listener’s attention. [Ever heard a radio commercial that didn’t command your attention? Make sure your spot doesn’t have the same effect on listeners.]

• Rule #2: Fail to paint a picture. [Radio is a visual medium. Your words create a mental image that inspires and motivates listeners to act. Words are powerful – choose them carefully.]

• Rule #3: Be so clever or creative you forget to sell. [A good commercial isn’t one that just makes people laugh; it motivates them to act. Make your message clear. Don’t bury it in a clever idea.]

• Rule #4: Use cliché-ridden copy. [Commercial clichés are trite and empty and don’t communicate anything to listeners. Find a way to say it fresher. It’s worth it.]
  
  
• Rule #5: Write way too much copy. [Read your copy out loud at a normal conversational pace and time yourself. If it takes you seventy-five seconds to read it, what makes you think your talent can do a good job with the same copy in just sixty seconds?]