Not long ago I threw out some basic guidelines for creating radio spots, and since then I’ve found this entertaining tutorial on the subject AdLand. The useful advice is in the chapter 3, while the entertaining faux advice is up top, where the authors prove they have done some serious time with the medium.

One of my net friends in the advertising business asked me about making radio spots the other day, and it gave me the opportunity to sort through some of the things I think I’ve learned from my days of writing and producing them. These observations might seem obvious to some, but if you listen to enough radio spots, apparently they aren’t that obvious. I’ll put a few of my orphan scripts at the end because they contain examples. Better yet, have a listen to spots deemed good enough by judges to earn actual money at the Mercury Awards. First, you should know I’m a fan of the medium for all the reasons you’ve heard before — theater of the mind, affordability, freedom to set the scene in any time or place or to anthropomorphize anything from objects to personality traits. Some of the following might apply beyond radio spot production to TV or industrial V/O, dialogue directing, podcasting, etc. [Read more →]