NPR News and Cultural Arts
  for the Central Valley

Producing Your Message
Creating an effective on-air spot is easy with the help of FM89's production staff. As an additional service to our underwriters, we provide copywriting assistance and technical advice. On-air spots are produced and recorded by the station's on-air talent.

Deserving of Credit
Your on-air message should be consistent with the tone, character and style of the program and station on which it airs. According to the Federal Communications Commission, an on-air credit must be used to identify, but not promote the program's funder.

Creating an FM89 Spot
A spot may be up to 10 seconds long. Again, as a practical matter, a simple message is most effective. A standard opening such as "Support for this program comes from..." will lead off your spot.

What to include:

• description of your company
• identification of location
• identification of up to three products
• web address or phone number

What to avoid:

• comparatives - "nobody does it better"
• inducements to buy - "Buy one, get one free"
• superlatives - "the world's greatest"
• calls to action - "come in today"
• street addresses

Frequently Asked Questions
What is an effective message?
Public radio listeners like simple messages. They resist fluff and do not want to be "sold."

How often can I change my message?
We can actually update your message monthly if that is your need. All we need is timely notification so that the update can be included in our production calendar.

How can I cover different aspects of my business in a single message?
We can run more than one message as part of your total on-air package. Therefore, you may wish to craft several different messages to rotate weekly.

Credit Examples
These are some examples of messages heard on FM89:

"...Dumont Printing Company, celebrating 50 years of serving the central valley providing full-service printing, in support of music programming."

"...the San Joaquin Valley employees of Chevron, committed to promoting educational programming for the valley."

"...Miles, Sears and Eanni, Attorneys at Law, specializing in Plaintiff's Civil Litigation for over 42 years."

Please note that the complete underwriting guidelines are available from your FM89 Corporate Marketing Representative