Producing Your myFMcast™ Ads

How to get an ad produced?
It can be daunting. You have decided that you want to advertise on the radio using myFMcast™. You know that myFMcast™ can put you on the air without high recurring costs. The only thing that is left is getting a professional, high standard radio commercial written and produced?

MyFMcast™ production
Normally a radio station will be able to help, and for three to five hundred dollars and produce a quality radio commercial. If the station charges you less than that which aspect of your commercial are they cutting corners on? The commercial production rate should include the scripting by a trained copywriter, licensing for the music and sound effects, voice over narration, for a ready to broadcast radio advertisement.

We offer everything you may want and expect, music, sounds, voice narration. Again we have all of the resources and every one of our myFMcast™ units is priced including a 30 second ready to transmit production.

Using a Production House
Another alternative is to use your own production facility. With so many small radio stations and studios opening, the future of production companies looks promising. Some of them may only have three or four full time staff and cannot afford to employ writers and producers for their smaller local clients. This is where production houses can offer a service. However the quality can vary from the very good to the downright dreadful. Some disadvantages to this system include the fact that some production houses do not use experienced writers, the writers are often completely isolated from the client with no contact. This is not true in every case and there are some very good out of house production houses producing some excellent work. Also there are some people who, because the price of technology has come down so much, are producing commercials in their bedrooms on their home P.C.s, without even a rudimentary grasp of the principles of radio advertising. The key here is to ask for the qualifications and experience of the writer. Ask for a copy of their CV and samples of their work. Ask to meet them, to talk to them and ideally for them to visit your business.

Producing Your Own Commercial
Some clients that we have worked with in the past have told us that they have friends who can help produce their radio commercials in their home studios. This is usually fine until they realize what goes on behind the scenes to getting a radio quality commercial produced and ready to be broadcasted.

The script writing offered by myFMcast™ is free on the basis that we produce the commercial. If you want to get it produced elsewhere you will be charged the same price for the myFMcast™ unit as we produced the commercial. The copyright of the script remains the property of myFMcast™, and it can only be broadcasted from your myFMcast™ unit. If you play it or broadcasted elsewhere you run the risk of copyright infringement and being sued.

Voicing Your Own Commercial
It is myFMcast™ policy of not allowing our clients to voice their own commercials, and you will understand why when you hear the quality of our commercials. The professional voices used are very skilled at talking to time, talking clearly, not sounding like they are reading, ringing out the main copy points. They are also skilled at getting it right after just a couple of takes. If you have little or no experience it will take you a long time in the studio and time is money. At the end of it you may end up with a radio commercial that you may not want to broadcast. Perhaps you could voice just a couple of lines? Perhaps there is someone who could be your "voice" or perhaps rather than use your voice you could develop a character. There are a handful of clients who voice their myFMcast™ commercials very successfully, but for every one that does there are a couple of dozen that sound dreadful on air and don't do themselves any favors. The real question is why do you want to voice your own commercial? Is it because you want your friends to hear you on the radio or is there a good, solid business reason. If there is, communicate it to us and see what we come up with.

Writing your own commercial
Writing radio commercials is great fun. That's one of the reasons why we include a 30 second spot with every myFMcast™ unit. We also enjoy the challenge of putting together an advertisement that will communicate directly to the myFMcast™ listeners about our clients business. But if you are about to attempt to write your own radio commercial there are a few things to keep in mind.

• Is your ad legal?
• Is the music used on it legal?
• Are the sounds used on it legal?
• Is it exactly the right length?

Make sure that it is CLEARLY written. You may have a great idea that makes a fantastic commercial, but do not be offended if your message does not get the response you expected. The writing process often involves blind alleys, for every script you write there could be 3 or 4 that never make it to the recording stage.