Want to strengthen your station’s brand? Stations use liners to create an image and sell their qualities. What does your imaging say about you? Does it merely sell station features, or are listening benefits promoted? There is a trend toward producing imaging that promotes your local identity and features listeners endorsing the station. This will help imaging sound awesome and memorable.
Station imaging should be updated weekly like a current-based music station’s playlist to keep the station sounding fresh and “live.” Replace repetitive and dull imaging that sounds like “audio wallpaper.” Don’t allow an over-dependence on the station voice repeating the positioning statement and the station brand name, often using the same pacing. Spruce it up! Don’t let your liners sound mundane.
Liners need creativity and humor. Depending on your format, liners should exhibit a contemporary attitude, be entertaining with fun copy and humor, and be self-deprecating. The “smart ass” humor more appropriate for male-targeted rock stations can poke fun at general lifestyle, work, recreation, pop culture, jocks, and the station… but not the music! Mix the station voice with listener voices, artist voices, song clips, local celebrities, and clips from TV shows and movies. This originality helps engage the audience.
Make an emotional connection with your copy. Numbers, statistics, generic words, or lists do not create a verbal picture. The most effective car commercials are those where you visualize driving the car through beautiful scenery, and not hear a list of the car’s features.
Review the imaging copy and “cinematics.” Ensure the voice imaging enhances the station’s presentation to your target audience and reinforces the desired positioning. Coach your voice actor to deliver your station’s brand distinctively.
Consider these ways to improve your imaging:
Make your brand name unique and sell it often on-air and off (website, stream, app, signage, merchandising, etc.).
- Effectively promote your position and how your brand different from your competitors. Sell your brand’s qualities to your target listener – entertaining morning show, music quality (variety), music quantity (fewer commercials).
- Take advantage of the power of frequency. Never give up an opportunity to brand the station name. Eliminate cold segues between songs, and don’t go into stopsets without your brand name. If you play the same music as your competitor, your imaging and personalities will set you apart.
- Utilize all the resources for imaging. Beyond a station voice, use various sources – audio clips of listeners, celebrities, and local leaders, and clips from comedians, TV and movie clips, and music clips – to enhance the imaging and humor.
- Write entertaining imaging copy beyond the basic station’s brand and positioning statement. Humor and entertaining copy cut through the clutter and are memorable, like Progressive and Geico insurance TV ads.
- Frequently refresh your imaging. People will tune out uninteresting, repetitive messages. Newness works in getting resonance. Update your imaging weekly like a current music playlist. Add in a few new ones and rest a few old ones.
- Edit your imaging. Dealing with an average attention span of under eight seconds, you want to get to the meat of your imaging message in the opening lines.
- Don’t overuse imaging in music sweeps. Rotate the produced imaging with the talent’s voice. Avoid quarter hours of all station imaging.
Pic designed by dmytros9 for Envato Elements.
John Lund is President of the Lund Media Group, a radio programming consulting firm with specialists in all mainstream radio formats. Did you find this article useful? You can leave a comment below or email John at John@Lundradio.com.