[RFU] Re: [rfu-automation] PSA length

[Marti Wilkinson]

When I did ad insertion for Cable Televsion the commercials needed to come
in at a precise time. Otherwise the system was set up to cut off the spots.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was dealing with commercials where the
audio came from radio ads. For whatever reason it seemed like Radio Stations
never considered keeping spots to a specific time length. The standard
defaults for spot lengths in many software insertion programs are :15 :30 or
:60 and the default length for commercial breaks can range from :60 to 1:20.
I'm not familiar with the programming software for WRFU but I would check
it's settings and make absolutely sure that PSA announcements stick to time
limits.

My suggestion for a :30 spot would be to default to 29.5 seconds of audio
and that may help with cut off.

On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Noel L. Vivar <nlvivar at gmail.com> wrote:

> To be brief, I'm not sure.
>
> I think PSAs usually come in 30 seconds to 1 minute. Actually, I think
> that there are a stack of CDs in the station studio that have recorded
> PSAs on there from organizations like the Ad Council, FDA, etc.
>
> Actually, now that you mention it, I do remember that some PSAs on the
> automation do get cut off. I'm not sure why. I would hypothesize that
> it may be due to over-zealous overlap of the track playing and the
> next track to minimize dead air. I would also think that it's not a
> function of PSA length, but a function of ZaraRadio's settings, but
> I'm not sure. I'm not sure how ZaraRadio queues the next track.
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 1:18 PM, Stephen Fonzo <fonzo.stephen at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > There has been more interest in written and recorded PSAs lately, and I
> have
> > two simple questions so I know how to answer these request on behalf of
> > WRFU/IMC Production:
> >
> > What is the ideal length for recorded PSAs?
> > If I need to record a PSA that is longer than 30 seconds, is it alright
> to
> > set it in automation to play at full length?
> >
> > When listening to the station, I have heard PSAs and station IDs
> > (especially) get cut off by songs running in the automation, and I would
> > like to avoid that.
> >
> > Stephen Fonzo
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > rfu-automation at lists.chambana.net
> > http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/rfu-automation
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Noel L. Vivar
> 505 E. Clark St., Apt. 24
> Champaign, IL 61820-4420
> 630.740.5775
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