STATION-PRODUCED EDDIE’S RADIO

To sell more airtime, radio stations quite often offer free sound design as part of the deal. It tends to be a low-budget, zero-effort affair, so scripts have to be simple-simple — written with minimal sound design and voice acting. Anything too complicated inevitably goes sideways.

Eddie’s Men’s Wear, 30-second brand radio: HANDSOME

[DIRECTION]  MAN has a perfectly flat, deadpan delivery. VOICE OVER (VO) is a sultry vixen. SFX is a jazz-blues, walking-bass riff playing up and under, throughout.

[SFX]  Bass riff

[MAN]  I’m not this handsome in person. I sound handsome because I’m wearing an exquisite suit from Eddie’s Men’s Wear.

Quite frankly, I’m a gravy-slurping couch potato who’s never missed a meal in his life, and, let me assure you, I let it all hang out.

The guys at Eddie’s, however, through the magic of modern tailoring, they make it all go away.

So — hey. If they can do this for me, think what they can do for you.

[SFX]  bass riff comes to a satisfying conclusion

[DIRECTION]  Three separate signoffs, to run in rotation:

[VO #1]  Eddie’s Men’s Wear — beyond the material. Fifty-four fifty, Calgary Trail.

[VO #2]  Eddie’s Men’s Wear — beyond the material. Seven eight zero, four three three, one triple-three.

[VO #3]  Eddie’s Men’s Wear — beyond the material. Eddie’s Men’s Wear dot com, all one word, no apostrophe.

CITY OF LEDUC CAMPAIGN RADIO

One spot from a set of five, all delivering the exact same words in the exact same order — a mnemonic device, as old as storytelling.

They ran along with a direct mail campaign and a dedicated website. Transit and web ads acted as support media.

City of Leduc, 30-second radio: TESTIFY

[DIRECTION] We’re in amongst the crowd at a demonstration. The ORATOR, who sounds like Martin Luther King Jr., is speechifying into the microphone. His amplified voice echoes off the building fronts.

[SFX] Feedback from the public address system. The crowd pressing in, holding its collective breath, reacting to the words.

[ORATOR] There is a place — I’ve seen it! Brothers and sisters, for the same money, you can live in a nicer house, on a better lot, in a finer neighbourhood, in a more liveable city!

[SFX] Crowd noise.

[ORATOR] The air is cleaner and the streets safer, and everything you need is nearby. It’s all there, people, less than fifteen minutes from downtown.

[SFX] More crowd noise.

[ORATOR] The dream is alive and it’s living in Leduc! See for yourself at Build with us Leduc dot com.

ALBERTA COLLEGE OF PHARMACISTS CAMPAIGN RADIO

This is one of a set of three that ran hot on the heels of a change in provincial government regulations, allowing pharmacists greater autonomy. The objectives were: first, to tell people what pharmacists could now do for them and, second, introduce the ACP, which was a largely unknown entity.

Alberta College of Pharmacists 30-second radio: BIG PILL

[DIRECTION]  WOMAN sounds stressed out. Voice over (VO) sounds friendly and trustworthy. SFX: Muzak throughout.

[SFX]  Muzak plays. Entrance bells tinkle. Scuffed footsteps and the sound of something big and heavy, like cinder blocks, being dragged over a tile floor.

[WOMAN]  My son was prescribed pills…

[SFX]  She grunts, lifting them up and lunking them down, one after the other, onto the counter — crushing weights: one, two.

[WOMAN]  [Out of breath] He’s having trouble swallowing them.

[VO]  Talk to your pharmacist. If there’s ever a problem with your presciption, they can re-dispense it in an easier-to-use form. And, when appropriate, they can independently refill and prescribe mediication.

They’re regulated by the Alberta College of Pharmacists, so, you can be sure you’re getting safe, effective and appropriate care.

[SFX]  Muzak comes to a satisfying conclusion.