The 10th Annual International Radio Creative and Production Summit is taking place this weekend (August 19th and 20th) in Los Angeles. As I’ve written previously, I didn’t attend the first one in 1996; but I’ve been to every one since.
I considered trying to live blog the event, but decided not to because I attend these events to learn and didn’t want to be distracted with the blogging. So, here are some thoughts and comments from the first day’s events.
Everyone who comes to a Summit more than once is called a “Repeat Offender.” I fit in what I call the category of habitual offender, along with two other guys who’ve also both attended nine times. Dick Terhune of Captain Mercury Productions and Steve Cummings, who teaches audio production at the University of Southern California. And I mention this only because we have a Thursday evening “Repeat Offender Only” closed door event each year before the main summit gets under way.
Here are a couple of thoughts from that session last night:
1. There are a lot of people working in radio production, especially at local radio stations, who are getting very burned out. One way to combat the burn out is to pick one’s battles more carefully.
2. Even bad commercials can work better than no commercials at all; usually not as well as good ads, but not always. Sometimes we have to divorce ourselves from the way we feel about a particular commerical and, if it’s successful, let it be.
3. Sometimes we’re victims of our own success. We can’t see what could be better, because we’re already doing OK and don’t want to risk trying something different. As a result, we never see that the “something different” might be much better than our current situation.
4. Remember to ask for something in return when someone asks for a favor. It might be an endorsement comment or something similar.
5. Submit articles to various journals and trade publications. When you’re in print, to at least some people, you’re automatically an expert.
Two book recommendations – Winning through Intimidation by Robert Ringer. Jump Start Your Brain – Doug Hall.