PSAs—Bore or Boon?
by Lena Lonigro
Are PSAs a dreaded subject at your station? The need to support your community
with information about its arts activities can seem to disrupt the flow
of your programming, and many stations have found it difficult to develop
effective yet non-intrusive techniques for handling PSAs on the air. Would
it be helpful to consider that accessible live performances in the
community are a desirable
extension of listening to music on the radio?
These subjects were on my mind last February at the New Orleans conference,
and I found the opportunity to have some informal discussions with station
representatives about the way PSAs were handled at their stations.
Michael Krall, program director at WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, explained
WBHM’s organized process.
Basic information is typed into a computer template—three or four per page
of two to three sentences each, with a tag to call the station for more
information. “People would call us anyway asking for the phone number,”
Krall said. “This reduces on-air clutter.” One copy of the form goes to
the studio for announcers, and another one remains at the receptionist’s
desk so that the person answering the phone will have the information at
hand for callers. Krall added, “The arts community appreciates the publicity.”
At WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the arts community is well supported on
the air also. A comprehensive live music calendar that sometimes takes
10 minutes is read each weekday at 11:30 a.m. Dave Barber, host of a jazz
program at WYSO, said “It’s surprising how many poorly written PSAs arrive.
Better organization of basic information would be helpful.”
The situation is different at WOSU in Columbus because the FM, AM, and
TV stations are combined under the same roof. Music director Beverley Ervine
said, “FM’s first duty is to get all daily sponsors and underwriter mentions
made. The FM hosts make other arts announcements from PSAs as time allows.
FM does limit its PSA support to the arts that fit that format.”
At my station, WDPR-WDPG in Dayton, we have recently committed to supporting
the arts community in a bigger way than we have in the past. About a year
ago our Citizens Advisory Board established six categories of public service
announcements to support the arts in our community: general education,
services to special populations, enhancement of downtown Dayton, fine and
performing arts education programs, multi-cultural services, and promotion
of the greater Miami Valley.
This year we expanded our support with a special September project that
focuses on the beginning of the performing arts season. During August,
interviews with representatives of the major arts organizations were taped
to be aired at noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in September. A
community arts calendar was included in the September program guide, and
free copies were made available at newsstands. It’s the first time we’ve
done anything this focused on the season.
The added support was prompted by information from last fall’s listener
survey, which indicated our members not only enjoy listening to classical
music on our station, but they also are interested in all the arts. Thirty-six
percent of the respondents said they like the information we present about
community cultural events, and 12 percent said they would like to have
more than just the twice-per-day, two-to-three minute calendars presented
at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. and would like to hear the calendar events at noon
also.
Perhaps the major difficulty in integrating “disruptive” PSAs into programming
is the mindset that develops because of the amount of time spent on sorting
through the flood of PSAs received, discarding those that don’t fit the
format and editing or rewriting those that are poorly written. Here are
some tips:
1. Think
of PSAs as an integral link to the arts organizations in your community.
2. Ask
announcers to think of ways to integrate short announcements into their
programs.
3. When
possible make the PSA relevant to what you are playing and saying about
the music.
4. Establish
simple guidelines for the PSA format that fit your station’s needs, and
make the list available to the organizations you support.
It should be an easy task to convince the public relations/marketing representative
of an arts organization that the best way to get their PSA on the air is
to make it easier for the station. If your station wants timed announcements
from arts organizations, request 10- 20- and 30-second announcements, each
on a separate page, with a one-page news release that can be scanned quickly
by the designated person at your station. This package is excellent, for
example, for announcements about an important art exhibition. The 30-second
announcement can be dated to coincide with the opening; the 20-second text
can be used after the opening reception for a short time; and the 10-second
announcement can be aired during the remaining period until the exhibition
closes. The news release offers additional information useful for questions
in an on-air interview, if one is being done for that event.
Another alternative would be to request a one-page-only news release with
the “who-what-when-where” and phone number in the first paragraph for ease
in extracting the basic information for a PSA.
PSAs will be boring if one thinks of them that way. Announcing PSAs and
integrating them into your programming can make your station an integral
link to your arts community. Listening to great music and witnessing live
performance go hand in hand. The organizations that bring music and fine
arts to the many individual communities between the east and west coasts
are providing a wonderful service, and public radio can do a great deal
to support these arts events.
Lena Lenigro is an afternoon
host and PSA editor at WDPR-WDPG in Dayton, Ohio. She welcomes your comments
about PSAs on the AMPPR Listserv or at lenal@dpr.org
|
