The approaches radio stations take to production and imaging run a wide gamut. Sometimes the production is so robust and creative it’s almost an additional air personality, while other stations treat that part of their product like an afterthought. On a larger scale, some companies are moving away from using humans as station voices, while other companies have committed to being “guaranteed human.”
It’s safe to say Jake Kaplan, who currently runs his own freelance voiceover and production company, has seen and been a part of all the possible permutations when it comes to station production. He was kind enough to share his wisdom about the state of audio imaging, starting with a reminder of the role it can play — helping stations connect with listeners.
“I feel that especially on the radio we’re trying to be more human and connect with people. I constantly see that as a theme on (BarrettMedia.com),” Kaplan says. “If it’s all about creating a human experience, and you exclusively use an AI voice I think listeners are going to see through it. I think that there’s something subconsciously that people are going to pick up. It’s losing that human touch.”
Kaplan believes that the human element is what makes the medium stand out. “Radio is a community, and I think people are really striving for community when there’s so much fake stuff out there,” he says. “Look at TikTok and how people are addicted to it. That’s community, that’s people talking to each other and reacting to it. I think the more we can lean into that on the radio, the better.”
From KROQ to Freelance
Kaplan surely knows how to connect with people through imaging. His experience includes production and voiceover work at a number of major-market stations, including Rock KISW/Seattle, Alternative WHFS/Washington D.C., Adult Hits KCBS (93.1 Jack-FM), Top 40 KAMP (97.1 AMP Radio) and Alternative KROQ/Los Angeles. When AMP Radio changed format, he was elevated to Head of Sound, Imaging and Sound Design at Audacy before getting caught up in a reduction in force.
Since then, he’s focused on his own business. “I was bummed when my time at Audacy ended even though I understand why they got rid of that position,” says Kaplan. “But I picked up my freelance business, and it’s actually worked out great. And Audacy is still one of my biggest clients.”
Check In With Your Voice Talent
Asked what he would suggest for stations today that want to improve their imaging efforts, he starts with a human connection of a different kind. “It’s good to check in with your voiceover talent. You don’t see them every day. They’re often on the other side of the country,” Kaplan says. “But I think I can speak for the imaging and voiceover community here, we really care about our radio stations. We may be sitting in a closet somewhere in a weird part of the world, but we want to be a part of the radio station.”
And much like a lot of air talent, Kaplan says input can be hard to come by for voice talent. “If you feel comfortable, give them some feedback like, this promo came out this way, or why don’t you try this kind of read? Or share information about what’s going on with the station and the company and ask if they have any ideas. Because we do really live and breathe what’s happening at the radio station and love to be a part of it.”
Master the Basics, Then Break the Rules
For the people actually doing the production, he shares a lot of best practices that revolve around mastering the basics. “It starts with the old-fashioned rule of creating a picture for the listener. Keeping that in mind is a useful tool and it helps create that human element.”
While he preaches brevity and focus, he believes there is also a time to break the rules. “Keeping things short is super important. Word efficiency matters because we live in a social media, 3-second clip, TikTok world. And that’s not just 15-year-olds, I’m talking about. It’s 45-year-olds too. We all have a short attention spans so, it’s important to get that message out there and get the attention.”
To Kaplan, that means using correct grammar and being cognizant of not repeating the same phrase. “Sometimes I will see a piece of copy where ‘enter to win’ is repeated five or six times. Either you don’t need to say it that many times or you should say it a couple different ways.”
But sometimes, Kaplan feels it’s worth going a little longer in a produced piece. “The question is whether the message is something that’s worth breaking some of the rules for. Is the concert good enough? Is the contest exciting enough? Is the joke funny enough to break some of the time-honored practices of brevity?”
AI as a Tool, Not a Voice
And despite not being a fan of solely using AI as a station voice, he does believe that, as a tool, it has a lot of applications that production people shouldn’t be afraid of. “AI is super controversial, but what business isn’t using it? I think that if you’re in production or even just in radio, you have to embrace certain aspects of AI. It’s a tool every business is using, and it saves a lot of time when we all are stretched thin.”
Kaplan believes there is a difference between allowing AI to write all of a station’s imaging and using it to expand upon your creativity. “Never be the guy that has AI write a promo for you because it will not be right,” he says. “But at the same time, if you are trying to come up with thirty sweepers I think it’s great to throw that at AI and see what it produces. Because what I’ve found is that it has opened up parts of my mind that I didn’t think I had. I’ll think ‘yes, that angle opens up a bunch of other things’ and that’s not a bad thing when you’re stretched for time.”
Just a Little Accent
AI has also been great at stretching his ability to incorporate multiple unique voices into production. At Audacy, he had a network of people across the company who could voice small pieces for him. Now it’s just him. “I use a lot of voice cloning. Like if I’m doing something and I need a female accent voice, I’ll take my voice, and have it synthesized to a woman and my god, it does sound pretty damn cool. Or if I need a deep male voice because I don’t have that kind of read, I’ll do that. But I don’t use it to do the whole promo, it’s just a little accent here and there.”
But assisted by technology or not, Kaplan always circles back to his original premise of striving to connect with the audience. “Use the tools to do more with less time. But remember that we’re human, and we’re all about creating connections with people. We should always think about the fact that there’s somebody on the other end of those speakers and you might make their day. Like, how great is that?”
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