Understanding Radio Commercial Production

Have a look at the Radio Advertising Bureau Website www.rab.co.uk

Task: This time you have a choice of two tasks.

1. Imagine you are creating a professional radio commercial for a local business. Write a pitch, using the headings below, explaining the production process. You must include the costs for each individual section and a grand total. Your client has no idea how the radio advertising industry works, so you must include a section on...

• budget
• music royalties
• voice-over artists
• scheduling and billing
• production facilities that you are using
• roles and responsibilities of people working in your team
• music beds and stings and idents
  

Very useful website to help you set out your pitch........

2. Produce a radio programme, or speech package, which covers the main issues surrounding commercial production. You might include...

• interviews with people working in the industry
• an expert, which may be fictitious on music royalties or a professional voice-over etc...
  
• A quiz, where people ring in to guess the sonic brand trigger, or to guess the emotion associated with a music bed.

Be as inventive as possible, as long as you cover the main issues.

Budget
How much money does the client have to spend on this commercial?
You need to consider studio hire, 'talent' fees, royalty fees, agency costs etc...
The cost of broadcasting the commercial is negotiated by local sales teams and national/ regional agencies. The scheduling of when the advert is to be broadcast will have an affect on the costs.

Music Royalties

How Music Royalties Work.

If you plan on using music produced by somebody else you need to obtain permission as the composition is covered by copyright.

There are 4 categories for copyright licences and related royalties:

Mechanical: permission to reproduce, royalties paid to artist, writer and publisher based on numbers sold.

Performance: blanket licence giving permission to broadcast / perform live, royalties paid to artist, writer and publisher when song is played or performed.

Print: royalties paid to writer and publisher based on sales of sheet music.

In Radio commercial production you need a Synchronization licence which allows songs/music to be reproduced in a television program, film, video, radio and commercials as background music.


Take a look at the following websites for further details on copyright of music:

British Music Rights
Alliance Against IP Theft (AAIPT)
British Copyright Council
British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association (BLACA)
Copyright Licensing in Schools
Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society and Performing Right Society Alliance (MCPS-PRS Alliance)



Voice over artist fees
Fees for Voice over artists vary depending on whether the voice is of a celebrity, the amount of skill and experience and the type of voice over session. Voice over artists in the UK are usually paid by the hour , known as a 'Basic Session Fee'

Other factors include where and when the recording will be broadcast, the medium to be broadcast in and audience reach. With this in mind, artists are entitled to a 'usage fee' (sometimes known as a repeat fee). In exchange for certain limited rights to the use of their voice, a 'buy-out' fee will be paid (a form of royalty).

A buy-out is an agreement where the voice receives an additional fixed fee in return for releasing the rights to his or her voice. For example, if a celebrity records a voice for a toy (IE Buzz Light Year) they will be paid the BSF and a buy out in return for the rights to use that recording in perpetuity.

To work out the appropriate fee for Voice Over artistes use this fee calculator:
http://www.usefee.tv/ and have a glance at the UK Guide to Payments PDF.


For further information regarding rates and jargon have a look at the websites of the following voice over agencies: VoiceFinder and Broadcast-Support.


Approval of script
Scripts may need re-drafting several times to meet the needs of the client. It will also need checking that it doesn't break any of the codes set out in the advertising codes regarding claims that may have been made and facts that may have been stated.

Traffic (Scheduling & Billing)
When the commercial is to be broadcast affects how much it would cost. For example - if you were to broadcast an advert during 'drive time' (effectively the prime time of radio) where the audience figures are higher, it would cost more than if it were to be broadcast during a 'graveyard' slot where there would be a lower audience figure.

Production Facilities
A professional production house would possibly consist of the following:

A studio with:

Mac G5, equipped with Pro-Tools
DigiDesign D-Command Pro-Tools interface
Prima LT Codec
PC, running Adobe Audition

Voice Booth
4 Audio Technica AT4033 Condenser Mics (for broadcast PR sessions)
1 Neumann TLM 103 Microphone (for voicework)

(Broadcast Studio)
Sonifex S2 Broadcast Mixer
ProntoNet codec
Telephone Balance Unit
Neumann BCM 104 Microphone
PC, running Adobe Audition

Tannoy 05A active monitors, Beyer DT770 headphones and 500Gb back-up portable hard-drives.


Roles
Many of the roles of producing radio commercials are the same as TV commercial production or radio broadcasting with a few more specific roles including:

Account Executive: looks after the clients.
Creative director: In charge of creative ideas.
Script Writer: Writes the script for the commercial.
Casting Director: Auditions the voice actors and casts the appropriate voices.
Studio Manager: Is in charge of the recording studio.
Sound engineer/recording engineer: operates the sound recording equipment.
Editor: Responsible for putting together the voice recordings, music beds, sound fx and creating the advert.


Music Beds
Does the client want music to be playing in the background /underneath the dialogue? If so what:

Live music recorded with the speech.
Library music -often copyright free
Production music, - via CD (again often copyright free) or created 'in house' or on software such as Garage band.

Think about the style and arrangement of the music, eg Pastiche, (have a look at the styles stated above in the (Understanding Radio Commercials blog).

Are you going to be using and Jingles or Stings (short blasts of music that identify the product/company - similar to a TV Ident) in the commercial?

Stings and Idents

Sonic Triggers: noises that are associated with a particular Brand, See below for a popular example.

For more examples of sonic triggers, have a look at the Aerials Foundation website.