Pitching To Radio Producers

October 4, 2005

FOR RADIO GET TO THE POINT

By George McQuade

West Coast Bureau Chief

O'Dwyer Publications, NY

"Leave your fancy logos and flowery graphics

out of your e-mail pitches because less is more,"

said David Lawrence, host of Dave Lawrence

Show/Online Tonight., to a radio show panel

at the September meeting of the Entertainment

Publicists Professional Society in Los Angeles.

The session focused on how to

effectively pitch guest bookers,

hosts and producers.

"Less is more in pitches,"

Radio Host David Lawrence.

His program is a mix of technology and

pop culture and draws an audience of

1.8 million per quarter hour.

"The infrastructure – as we know it –

is changing, so your pitches are going

to be changing as well," said Lawrence.

"Some of your clients who are entertainers

are also becoming producers and distributors.

As for pitches, keep them short and

a paragraph in the body of the e-mail.

If we want more, we'll call you." He

can be reached through his

producer Lili Von Schtupp

at:lili@onlinetonight.net.

Or call 818-563-3123.

"Bullet points are great and I've got a lot to say

in one minute," said Ross Crystal, entertainment

reporter, KFWB-AM, the No. 1 all news station

in the City of Angels.

AP Correspondent

Natalie Windsor

Natalie Windsor, an Associated Press correspondent,

spoke of her symbiotic relationship with publicists.

"If we both do our jobs well it is a win-win. You get

fabulous access and I get terrific stories."

Windsor is interested in country music, television,

movies and non-fiction books. She prefers to be

contacted by mail at: nwindsor@ap.org.

"If you call me at the L.A. bureau and I'm on deadline,

cutting up tape or working a story you are an

interruption," Windsor said. "E-mail is great, because

I can open an e-mail at 2:00 a.m. in my nightgown

at home. You need to put more 'who' in the subject

line, not just 'possible interview' or some kind of tie

into current events. The secret to the universe is

making it as easy as possible."

Terri West,
exec. producer,

"McIntyre in the Morning"
KABC Radio 710 AM
1,500 e-mails a day

Terri West, executive producer of "McIntyre in the

Morning" on KABC, gets 1,500 e-mails a day of

which 20 percent are spam. "If I don't know who

you are, I have to put you in a 'don't know who

you are category file' and retrieve your message

when I get a chance. You might get deleted from

my inbox if your message in the subject lines is

not clear. You really need to know who I am, find

out about my show, know the issues we cover and

listen to our program. Hurricane Katrina is a big

issue and there are lots of angles you could pitch

to our show."

West books guests, reviews press releases and

submissions, and she assists in the technical

production of the show. McIntire is a student of

American history and a jazz nut, actually, "just a

nut," said West. The program features current

news, weather, traffic and sports updates as well

as discussion of events and issues important to

Southern California. The program is online at

www.kabc.com. West is reachable at

terri.m.west@abc.com.

The panelists agreed that a little research

goes a long way.

Ross Crystal, KFWB Radio

At KFWB, Crystal can do two or three stories in a

one-minute timeframe that goes across the country.

While Windsor might does a 30-second story at the

top or bottom of the hour for one of the AP network

stations. But, in longer formats such as

"McIntyre in the Morning" and the "David Lawrence

Show/Online Tonight" the format interviews could

go from 15 minutes to 30 or even one hour.

"Your pitch should be eight characters or less in

the subject line and above the fold in the e-mail

body like Outlook Express. No attachments and

no need to send flower paragraphs, plain text

email will do fine and make your pitch relevant,"

said David Lawrence.

"Your job is not to get big Bacon's media list and

blast news releases throughout the country. I

need someone who is willing to come into my

studio and be part of my pod cast afterwards,

and we need someone who crosses the gulch

between entertainment and digital lifestyles.

Your job is to find out why my needs are

different from others on this panel," said Lawrence.