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Radio is one of the most extraordinary inventions of the Nineteenth Century. Although it was invented in 1879 by Marconi, the everyday, wide scale broadcasting of radio started later in the 1920?s. Radio is indubitably one of the mothers of invention because it paved ways for further inventions in the domain of communication.

It transmits its signals in free space through electromagnetic waves. The word ?Radio? stands for wireless. Though new technological innovations have left it far behind, its importance as a method of communication cannot be denied. Radio is thought to be the mother of all the other inventions in the province of communication.

TV and the Internet have left radio a long way behind in the race for communicational improvement. In spite of the fact that modern means of communication are used much more nowadays, none of the contemporary means of communication has replaced it.

In the starting of the Twentieth century, radio was in essence used to pass orders and important knowledge during war or emergencies. Later on, it was used to broadcast all kinds of programs too.

Radio has successfully served as an important way of transmitting programs ranging from news to drama, music, comedy and arts etc.

Radio offers access to limitless knowledge from around the world. Listening to a radio is much easier and less time consuming than watching TV or using any other form of communication. We do not have to put other items on hold whilst listening to a radio.

Radio can be listened to whilst driving, hiking or even lying on the bed with one?s eyes closed. It is one of the biggest benefits associated with listening to a radio. There is no harm in listening to a radio while driving because it does not distract your attention to a detrimental extent.

Radio is a cheaper way of serving adverts for businesses trying to market and sell their products or services. Clive Anderson writes in favour of radio and claims that the pictures suggested by radio are better than any other mode of communication. These pictures are not real pictures. He means the emotional touch.

Radio offers more emotional involvement. Radio transmissions on a home scale. Normally one or two hosts talk to their audience in such a manner that the program appears to be specially tailored to each listener.

Radio programs are classified on grounds of the taste of the audience and so a huge variety of programs are transmitted to cater for a huge populace. The audience feels an emotional relationship with the program makers.

Radio not merely saves time and money but also physical energy. Less attention is required to grasp audio knowledge than visual. Television, mobile, Wi-Fi, satellite navigation systems and Radar etc. are all the product of radio technology one in manner or another.

This old invention and its concepts are still in use and their importance can?t be disputed even in the contemporary era of technological advancement and innovation. Although only sound is produced by radio, it has a colossal impact on the minds of individuals because it has a colossal reach and people listen to it.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with Bose Radioss. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Bose Digital Radio.

Welcome to part two of ‘How To Get Free Radio Advertising’. In part one we investigate how to get in touch with the radio station manager and how to broach the subject of procuring free on-air radio advertising. If you have not yet read it, please look for ‘How To Get Free Radio Advertising – part 1′ on this site.

Doing it this way makes saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ very easy for the manager, because his only decisions are whether he trusts you and whether he can fit you in or not. If the manager agrees to give your suggestion his consideration, put all your material in a package with a covering letter repeating what you said on the phone, a photo of or a gratis copy of your product and your advertising copy.

Send it off or deliver it without delay. Include a stamped, self addressed envelope, if you want a written reply or your stuff returned.

If your proposal is rejected, send him a ‘thank you, maybe next time’ note and move on to the next name. If you are rejected frequently, maybe you ought to sweeten your offer a bit by increasing their percentage of the cut or raising the price of the product. You will have to do some research there too, if you do not get it right first time.

Doing business like this is traditionally done using the phone and the postal service, because radio managers are more often than not pushed for time. However, it would be possible to do all this over the Internet, except sending samples, of course, if the manager is comfortable with the Internet.

It always surprises me how many people there are out there in business who do not use the Internet very frequently because they do not understand much about it.

You could propose using the Internet for sending your stuff over but do not be pushy about it, because the manager might be too embarrassed to admit that he cannot use the Internet. It could also be faxed over, but faxes often come out looking shabby and that may damage your chances. If in doubt, just post it.

If you get a green light to your application, be ready to react quickly, so always have your stuff bundled up and ready to go. Never give them time to forget who you are or ‘go off the boil’.

You will need to have written your advertisements first, but how long should they be? This is a tricky one, so ask the manager in your initial conversation, whether they have an advertising policy or predilection for the length of slots.

It could be thirty seconds a slot or sixty seconds (a double slot). Once you know, you can write your adverts: two different adverts for each length of slot.

If you want to be totally pre-prepared, you could compose two fifteen second, two thirty second and two sixty second ads before you even phone anyone. And do not forget to read them back aloud several times to check them for length. Try procuring a couple of friends to read them back to you too.

The radio station will require you to sign a contract and you should have a simple contract drawn up too detailing your payment policy, returns policy, dispatch policy, et cetera, et cetera.

In summation, your P.I. Advertising Package should contain the following: 1. a cover letter 2. a sample or product literature 3. two thirty second and two sixty second adverts 4. your P.I. advertising contract 5. a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

In conclusion, I want to offer a couple of bits of advice. Whilst you are writing your commercials, try to incorporate a catchphrase of some sort so that you can use it in your off-air advertising to remind people that your product has been advertised on-air. Spend a lot of time composing your advert: radio station managers are busy, professional people and they cannot afford to waste valuable air time on non-earners.

If your item sells and makes money for them, you will be welcome back, otherwise you will be ignored. Put a few ads in the paper and fliers through the doors to pre-warm people to your up-and-coming radio advertising campaign.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a range of topics, but is now involved with Bose radio alarm clocks. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Bose Digital Radio.

Most business owners recognize that advertising is essential to their business. However, despite knowing this, most business owners detest advertising because it is dreadfully expensive. The problem is that if you do not advertise, only your friends and neighbours will ever get to know of you.

For instance, in our average sized town of 65,000 people, there are thirty-eight pages of builders in the Yellow Pages; each page has two columns and each column lists forty to fifty names on it.

These small businesses dream of TV and radio advertising like the big companies, but it is just too costly or at least they think that it is. Colossal companies such as Coca Cola and MacDonald’s expend hundreds of millions of dollars on radio and TV advertising, but small business have other, smaller opportunities to advertise locally.

One of these cheaper, sometimes even free, methods of advertising on the radio is ‘per inquiry’ or PI Advertising. This is a type of radio advertising that is very beneficial to the advertiser, because advertisers only pay for every inquiry about their advert. It is a little like Google’s ‘pay per click’ or ‘PPC’ advertising on web sites.

First of all, you will require a list of all the radio stations in the area that you are interested in. You can get hold of a list of licensed radio stations at your local library or they can get one in for you.

Then copy out the names of all the stations in your target area. It is usually best to begin with your own area and fan out from there, but if you have a precise target audience, you will have to some research first.

Next you should look through your list of radio stations and mark the ones that are of interest. For example, if you are selling skateboards, it is probably not worth advertising on a Classical FM music station.

The next step is to get in touch with the manager of the station or maybe the Advertising Director. Explain your plan to that person in detail. it could go something along the lines of:

“I have a product that research has indicated will sell well in your catchment district if it is advertised on your radio. However, I want to do a test run before committing to any long term advertising plan”.

“I will do all the writing of the commercial and I will do all the book-keeping. I will send the product out and I will deal with any issues and returns quickly and efficiently”.

“You will derive xx% of every sale we make. You take the phone numbers of the inquiries, pass them on to me and I will regard every name you give me as a sale for you. The product I want to sell is a xxxxxxxx, which retails at $xx plus $1 postage and packing”.

This concludes ‘How To Get Free Radio Advertising – part 1′, in the second part, we will be looking at how to secure your free, on-air, radio advertising campaign. Please look for part two on this web site.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of subjects, but is currently concerned with Bose Radioss. If you would like to kcurrently more, please visit our website at Bose Digital Radio.