In my last article, we left off at Radio Commandment number 4 Thou Shalt Pick The Right Music Bed.

If you're going to produce a radio spot that has the most bang for the buck, you have to make sure that every word "sits" comfortably on the music bed (background music). You can record the announcer first and try to match the music, but it's a lot smoother when you pick the right music from the get-go.

What I typically do is run a few different tracks as I read the spot over in my head. What I'm looking for is a music bed that flows and a matching cadence in the read.

I want to make sure that if I'm pitching a limited time colossal sale that the music is exciting with a strong beat and essential music "posts" (where certain words get pushed by a musical punch or stop).

When I find the sound that I'm looking for, I then begin to re-write the spot making sure that I take advantage of the various musical modulations, punches and "holes" (silence) where each key word is as impactful as possible.

In my last article "Local Advertising - The Biggest Mistakes" we took a look at the major media available for local advertisers to market their products. To follow up, I'd like to discuss the many uses of Radio. Sort of the 10 Commandments Of Radio Advertising. This will take up several pages, for sure, so I'll start by asking the most obvious radio questions.

Q: How do I know if radio will work for me & why should I use radio?

A: I usually have gotten these questions when a client is afraid & can't stomach the idea of paying for an Advertisement that they can't physically hold on to. In other words, they think that if they can't SEE their Ad, then no one else can. They seem to have a hard time believing that a disembodied radio voice can move people to buy their product.

Yes, it's probably true that most advertisers get their feet wet with print advertising. Your typical print advertiser will place an Ad in a local weekly or daily newspaper and bingo, the next day - traffic. The results can be quite immediate.

If you're a typical small business, you've probably been approached by at least several different radio station sales representatives. In most cases, he or she comes armed with all the latest rating information demonstrating, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that his or her station is number one among just the kind of people who would buy your products or services. She or he will also probably stress how inexpensive radio advertising is vs. TV or even newspaper ads.

Yes, radio spots are cheaper that TV ads and often even cheaper than newspaper ads. But there area few things you need to think about before you sign that radio advertising contract. First, is yours the kind of business that can really profit from radio advertising? Radio commercials are very ethereal. Once the 30 or 60 second spot is over, there is nothing physical for your customers to hang on to. You have to depend on their ability to remember your message long enough to take some action, i.e., either call you or come to your place of business. This means you have to have a very strong and compelling advertising message. This could be a special, and I do mean special, sales event, or some other special promotion.

Most TV commercials you see, radio commercials you hear, training films, and more use the voice of a professional announcer. In the media industry, these much sought after voice pros are called Voice Over Talent.

A fine voice over talent can give you a warm, friendly read that not only entices prospects to take an interest in you, but effectively urges them to buy. A good voice can accentuate just the right words, stress the right phrases, and literally create an emotion in the listener.

In the past, many producers both large and small avoided working with top voice over talents because (1) they were hard to contact, (2) took weeks to finish the job, and (3) were very expensive.

The usual method was to contact an advertising or talent agency who set up a session with the voice over talent. Not only could this take days, weeks, or even months for some top talents -- the fee could range from several hundred to thousands of dollars and more.