| Station formats and
Imaging Styles:
AC/AAA:
Adult Contemporary/Adult Album Alternative Voicing is up and
bright, beds and styles are high impact but not intrusive like
Rock or Mainstream.
ALTERNATIVE: Voice style is
hard driving direct "rocky" but the bed or production
style is more laid back and not so intrusive like Rock.
CHR: Contemporary Hit Radio
(formerly Top 40): Voice style is direct and hard driving. Beds
and production styles include dance rhythms, club mixes and techno
beats.
CHURBAN: A hybrid Radio
format which mixes CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio) with Urban (Hip
Hop, R&B, etc.) . Voice style is the same as CHR. Bed and
Production styles lean toward R&B hip -hop.
HURBAN: Hispanic Urban Mix -
A genre type Invented by Clear Channel in 2004 - before then it
was just Latino Urban. Voice style is the same as CHR. Bed and
Production styles lean toward R&B hip -hop with an Hispanic
flare.
MAINSTREAM: Voice style is
upbeat with some stutters and lots of vocal effect like enormous
deep voices and on -hold filters. Beds and styles are high impact
tense attention -getters.
NC: New Country. Voice is up
and bright with a country attitude. Beds and production styles
reflect rock-a-billy styles.
NARRATIVE: The true test of
the voice actor. This is dry voiced, involves character voicing
and the ability to act.
NEWS/TALK: A very corporate
style. The Voice is direct and professional with very few up and
down peaks or effects. The production style is corporate, serious.
ROCK: Voice style is hard
driving full of stutters echoes repeating phrases. Beds and
production styles are hot and high energy full heavy impact tense
sound effects.
SOFT AC: Voice style is
smooth and flowing. Beds and production are very light and low
impact.
OTR: Old Time Radio: Voice is
cheery and bright! Beds and Production reflect 50s commercials.
DRY VOICED/READ: Absolutely
no production effects or music other than clean voice. You may
request echoes, flangers, reverb, other filters and stutters.
COLD READ: Voice Talent reads
the copy unrehearsed the first time they see it. Not considered a
voicing style but is often a method used by creative directors to
determine talent's experience.
Other Terminology:
Air check:
Recorded copy of a broadcast, either digitally or on magnetic
tape. Some stations will expect live air checks - those are
auditions.
Bed: A production element, usually instrumental
music, but occasionally a continuous sound effect (like wind, for
example) that is used as background for a commercial, promotional
announcement, etc. A pre made bed is a bed that is used over and
over again applying different voice over copy and talent.
Back sell: Refers to
the DJ technique where the deejay announces the title and/or
artist of the song just played.
Brown Noise: Noise that's created from inconsistent
annoying background sounds like a fan, jet flying over, cars
passing by. Brown is short for - Brownian motion - Noise showing a
random walk behavior, as in Brownian motion. It has a frequency
spectrum. It's very difficult to edit out unlike white noise.
Bumper: A pre -recorded audio element consisting
of voice over and music or effects that acts as a transition
between elements like two songs. Bumpers are quick - usually 10
seconds or under.
Bumper Sting: Bumpers which provide high humor
for the purpose grabbing attention in a shocking but humorous
fashion.
Call Sign/Letters: The official, legal name of a Radio
station. For example: WABC or WTRX-FM
Cans: Industry term for Headphones. Experienced
jocks will still call them cans although it's not a common term
anymore. Most people call them phones now.
Copy: Written material such as a commercial, a
promotional announcement, a public service announcement or any
other worded information that will be read by Voice Talent. Many
people still learning the biz will call this a script. Scripts are
not copy.
Dead Air: The biggest mistake in radio - complete
silence. The
De-Esser or D'Ser: Is either mixing hardware or
mixing software which is used to eliminate over pronounced S's
that have a tendency to crackle the mic.
Donut/Doughnut: Yes an essential food source for
DJs but also terminology meaning to surround another message.
Typically it's formula is content - sound bed - content. There's
jingle donuts and voice donuts. Another voice, other than the
beginning and end voice talks in the middle of the donut.
Drops: Sound bites lifted from movies, TV and
other sources.
Image: Anything that creates a station image - sweeper,
liner, bumper, call letters, jingle.. etc..
Imaging: Imaging is a general term for the type
of sweepers or promos you produce. Imaging is how you position a
Radio station within the marketplace. Imaging defines the station
as a product so that the listener (consumer) knows what he/she
will get when tuning in.
Jingle: Produced programming element which is
usually produced by professional studio singers who sing DJ names
or station positioning phrases. While not as popular today, some
US oldies stations still prefer this style of imaging. Some
stations will refer to sweepers as jingles however it is not the
correct industry term to use for sweeper.
Liner: A written imaging phrase, sentence or
sentences that are repeated over an intro of a record or during a
break between songs and spots. Usually, Liners stand by themselves
and are meant to communicate concise imaging.
Lead in/Lead out: A few seconds of silence at the
beginning and end of voice work which allows for proper
cross-fading. Typically they'll be about 1 to 2 seconds of
silence.
Logo: Not a common term but is slang that's being
used more and more with internet radio stations to mean the radio
slogan. It's not encouraged to keep using this term.
Mic: Simply it means microphone.
Montage/Music Montage: Typically voicing in
between snippets of songs to create a promo for a particular
event. Montages are only encouraged for promotions since they can
be long (30 - 90 seconds) and bring a listener out of their music
enjoyment. A common mistake is for stations to use montages as
part of their imaging. Listeners already know what the music is
about, there is no need to remind them in your imaging unless
you're using it to promote a station event. A lot of stations are
using this as well for DJ show introductions. These should be kept
under 30 seconds to keep the listeners tuned in.
Nail It: To say the copy perfectly the way the
client or director intended.
Pitch: This is somewhat like singing where you
find the pitch - the correct note. Pitch to voice actors means
whether their voice should become higher or lower as they speak
much like a singer changing octaves. More successful voice actors
can do a variety of pitch levels changing the age and enthusiasm
level in their voice.
Production Element: Any audio element such as music, sound effect,
audio effect (reverb, echo, etc.) used in creating a final audio
mix.
Pop: Yes a
refreshing beverage but also it is to make a definite Popping
sound in the mic usually when saying the letter P. "Popping
your P's".. Getting yourself a pop filter to attach to
the front of your mic usually solves this problem but more often
than not is setting the mic to the proper angle.
Promo: An announcement which promotes an upcoming
event, promotes a specific element of the station, a show, or a
DJ. Today is also a common term among web casters to mean
commercial.
PSA: Public Service Announcement like a
commercial to get tested regularly for HIV.
Ramp: An instrumental beginning leading up to the vocals or
the voice. A DJ will often talk during the ramp portion of a song.
Rumble: An unwanted occurrence creating a low disturbing
dominant sound louder than the voice - this can be caused by
speaking too closely to the mic, shaking the mic, breathing across
the mic, popping your P's, air conditioning vents or fans pointed
at the mic.. etc.. Mic rumbles are very hard to remove if captured
in a recording. It's always advised that the mic is positioned
properly on a firm surface or mounted from the ceiling and the
studio is completely sound proof. Bass rumbles on the other hand
are caused by having the bass volume up way too high while
recording. Many females will do this to have more suductive
sounding voice - however over-doing the bass will cause a rumble
and also more often than not causes the voice to sound distored
and slurred or washed out.
Script: A book or pages of lines that a voice actor will
say. Unlike Copy, a script is the correct term when speaking of
narration jobs or film parts.
Slogan: The catch phrase for a radio station, product or
service like Microsoft's - Where do you want to go today?
Slate: A device used to mark the beginning of a
new segment/scene etc.. A bookmark for editing later. Some voice
artists will use bell tones while others will use timer slates.
Soundbite: A snippet of audio usually culled from an interview and
used in conjunction with a news story. Length may vary, but in
general, soundbites are anywhere from :05 to :15 seconds. But,
this is not a firm standard.
Spot: Another word for a commercial.
Stinger: A sound effect or musical effect that punctuates a
punch line or emphasizes a thought. This is not a sweeper, it is a
production element.
Stop Set: The place where commercials are played
during a typical broadcast hour.
Sweeper: Usually a recorded element (dry voice or voice
over music or sound effects) that bridges two songs together. It's
purpose is to create a transition from commercials back to music.
A sweeper is unlike a bumper in that the music and style may be in
direct contrast to the elements which come before and after.
Common length is 20 seconds. Any longer and it's referred to as a
promo.
Take: Each time a
voice actor records a particular copy or portion of script. There
are one take wonders - but it's not common nor encouraged. If a
voice actor is settling for their first take every time - they're
not really trying to be their best. To the contrary, if the voice
actor always uses many takes to nail it after a cold read - they
need more practice. The less of the directors time you take up,
the more jobs you'll get.
White Noise: Noise in the background that sounds
like static at a consistent level or an electrical hum from
equipment not being grounded properly - the formal definition:
Acoustical or electrical noise of which the intensity is the same
at all frequencies within a given band. |
