Radio Formats

Question 1

There are 8 radio formats name them.

Answer 1

Radio Advertisements, Jingles, Intro’s and Outro’s (Donuts), Sweepers, Bumpers, Stingers, Drops, Promo’s

Question 2

What kind of idea is radio advertisement based on?

Answer 2

Creating an audio-only environment and placing the listener inside of it.

Question 3

What is a jingle?

Answer 3

a short piece of music that contains a slogan or a product name, meant to be extremely memorable, uses rhymes, melodic structure, and repetition.

Question 4

What is an intro and an outro?

Answer 4

The signature to your product.

Question 5

What is a sweeper?

Answer 5

Can either be voice or voice over music or sound effects that bridge 2 elements of a show, can also be used as station ID’s or intros to different segments. Longer than a bumper, 10 - 20 seconds in length.

Question 6

What is a bumper?

Answer 6

A pre recorded piece usually consisting of voice over and music that acts as a transition, they usually about 5 - 10 seconds.

Question 7

What is a stinger?

Answer 7

When you listen to a dj and he says something then plays a fast piece of music or a sound effect to emphasise what was said. usually 1-3 seconds.

Question 8

What is a drop?

Answer 8

Sound bites lifted from movies, radio, tv or albums. either emphasis or stinger. no set length.

Question 9

What is a promo?

Answer 9

A recording audio or video, distributed for free, usually to promo a recording that’ll be commercially available.

Question 10

What’s a campaign?

Answer 10

A specific course of action designed to advertise a company, cause or product that employs an international and coordinated series of marketing tools in order to reach the target audience.

Question 11

What is lufs?

Answer 11

Loudness units full scale, it is the unit used to express loudness levels on an absolute scale, relative to DBfs (Full scale).

Question 12

Whats the lufs target level?

Answer 12

tv broadcast target LUFS level = -23 LUFS +/- 1dB tolerance

Question 13

What does EBU R128 recommend?

Answer 13

1. that the Programme Loudness Level shall be normalised to a Target Level of - 23.0 LUFS. The permitted deviation from the Target Level shall generally not exceed ±1.0 LU for programmes where an exact normalisation to Target Level is not achievable practically (for example, live programmes);
2. that the audio signal shall generally be measured in its entirety, without emphasis on specific elements such as voice, music or sound effects;
3. that the measurement shall be made with a loudness meter compliant with both ITU-R BS.1770 and EBU Tech Doc 3341 [4];
4. that this measurement shall include a gating method as specified in ITU-R BS.1770 (summarised in EBU Technical Document 3341); (Threshold set to - 70dB)
5. hat Loudness Range shall be measured with a meter compliant with EBU Tech Doc 3342 [5];
6. that the Maximum Permitted True Peak Level of a programme during production shall be -1 dBTP (dB True Peak), measured with a meter compliant with both ITU-R BS.1770 and EBU Tech Doc 3341.

Question 14

what’s a bed?

Answer 14

Typically a melody-less musical sequence composed or mixed to hold under narration and other dialogue, such as interviews, voices overs and narrations.

Question 15

what does Big and Bold mean?

Answer 15

Producer-speak for “I want my music to sound exactly like every other radio commercial I’ve ever heard.”
Translation: Rip off the greats!

Question 16

what are Cut down’s?

Answer 16

There are many production techniques involved in creating radio-advertising campaigns. “Cut down’s” or 15-30 second edits of 45 or 60 second commercials can provide extra mileage from a commercial without re recording the voice artists. It would be in the best interest of a producer to arrange an advertisement so that cut downs can easily

Question 17

Whats a budget?

Answer 17

The “thing” that there is never enough of for music. For Example, “we’ve spent a million rand on the commercial spot. Can you write the music for R500? That’s all that’s left in the budget.

Question 18

Whats a bumper?

Answer 18

Short musical sequence used on radio and TV when going to and/or returning from a commercial break. See Also Stinger.

Question 19

What does it mean to buyout royalty free?

Answer 19

Typical of music for commercial spots, this is selling your music outright for one fee with no royalties. You essentially give up your copyright to the music in a “pay once, use forever” method.

Question 20

What does it mean to copy?

Answer 20

Advertising slang for the words – Dialogue and voice (VO) – in a commercial spot. Y’know those pesky voices that always seem to drown out your music.

Question 21

Whats a cue?

Answer 21

Signifies a specific musical sequence or part thereof. For example, the music used during a love scene would be referred to as “love scene cue”.

Question 22

Whats a donut?

Answer 22

A jingle where there is a hole in the middle for the voice-over announcer. The jingle may start with lyrics, go to instrumental only in the middle , and return with the full lyrics (Or slogan company name) at the end.

Question 23

Whats a full sing?

Answer 23

The incredibly rare jingle form that contains both music and lyrics for the entire sequence.

Question 24

Whats a Knock-0ff (AKA sound alike)?

Answer 24

Agency speak for “write something to sound exactly like fill-in-the-blank, but not so close that we get sued”. Also see lawsuit.

Question 25

WHATS A NEEDLE DROP?

Answer 25

Paying for library music only when you actually use it. The payment amount depends on the intended use.

Question 26

What are points?

Answer 26

The method of paying composers part of the profits (1% = 1 point) from the project they work on. This may be a percentage of sales or some other formula.

Question 27

Whats a rough cut?

Answer 27

An initial draft, or work-in-progress, of a media project. Composers often use this to start the composition process.

Question 28

What are royalties?

Answer 28

Getting ongoing income for your music above and beyond the initial fee. There are mechanical synchronization, and performance royalties available for composers.

Question 29

Whats a spot?

Answer 29

Slang for radio or TV commercial.

Question 30

What are stems?

Answer 30

provide a group of component, grouped sub-mixes, called stems, which the re-recording mixer uses to balance and remix your music during the final mix. Eight tracks is the standard for delivering music stems, but this varies by project. For example, typical stems may include a stereo “special” track (e.g. strings/orchestra, ethnic instruments, etc.) While you don’t give the re-recording mixer complete control over the multi-track, they can use these compiled stems to adjust the main components as needed. For example, it is easy for them to bridge the drum volume up or down without affecting the other music elements.

Question 31

What is source music?

Answer 31

Previously composed or recorded music used to evoke a time period or lacale. For example, using Russian folk music as the basis for a score. Also refers to the use of licensed popular songs for a show or commercial.

Question 32

Whats a tag?

Answer 32

The final instance of music, sung or instrumental, placed at the end of a commercial spot. This is often the slogan or client name, e.g. McDonalds “I’m loving it”

Question 33

Whats a temp track?

Answer 33

The music that clients often place into projects before hiring a composer.. If the client is married to the temp tracks, your composing life will be difficult unless you

Question 34

Whats the main idea of standardised technical specs?

Answer 34

The main reasons for standardizing broadcast technical specifications are to provide for a uniform minimum level of audio quality. These standards include reference to maximum level or “Peak level”, average level (Known as RMS of LUFS) and Frequency response or “frequency range”.