From: Georgeann Herbert
Date: 05/28/2003
Re: AOL for Broadband
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A Unique Partnership
Recently, AOL and Infinity Broadcasting reached an agreement on what may be the single largest radio marketing campaign in history. The deal includes some traditional advertising, but most of the deal depends on individual stations creating interest and opportunities to use AOL for broadband service to help support their programming.
As the content people, you are being asked to shoulder a higher degree of responsibility for delivering mentions for this client than ever before. These mentions will not be logged until you log them. There will be no fixed copy. You are being asked to use AOL for broadband every day while you are on the air and make reference to the interesting content you find there.
What We Are Required TO DO
Beginning this week - six times every day - two in AM Drive, two in Midday, and once in PM Drive and once in Evening - we need to work a mention of AOL for Broadband into our programming. These should be short mentions that refer to the content you're finding on AOL for Broadband. These mentions run all seven days of the week - including Saturday and Sunday.
Today, May 28th, you might talk about the video of Sir Edmund Hillary that's available through AOL, talking about his climb up Mount Everest 50 years ago today. You might also tell people that there’s exclusive information about the serial killer arrested in Atlanta for the murders in Louisiana. Or, you might refer people to AOL for Broadband for video highlights of last nights NBA and NHL games, or the player stealing home during last night's Tigers game.
AOL also has a lot of popular content things to talk about - and is especially strong in music and television. It's a natural place to refer people for the latest reality television hype, or if Eminem releases a new album.
Eventually, we'll get a daily "tip sheet" from AOL to point us to interesting content.
At the end of each week, we need to send back to AOL three examples of ways we talked about them during the week. We will need airchecks. Rob Davidek is responsible for making sure this happens, but he's likely to ask the producers and editors to help.
Once you make a mention on the air, please note it on the log.
Your AOL Access
We are setting up individual accounts for each of the regular anchors and the weekday producers and editors on AOL. You will receive individual sign-on information.
Your individual sign-on can be used outside the building, but with a BIG WARNING. If you are using a dial-up connection to use your WWJ-AOL account, you could be preventing as many as seven other people from signing on!
For now, we are NOT installing AOL on all the newsroom computers - only on the ones that we think have a reasonable chance of not crashing on the software.
On some computers, you may see your user name listed in the dropdown menu. If not, click on “Guest” and then you can use your username and password on that system.
Guidelines and Policies
1. Mentions only need to be :05-:10 seconds long. They are supposed to be worked into programming – such as tagging an Everest Anniversary story with – “Sir Edmund Hillary is worried about the future of Mount Everest, 50 years after he reached the summit. You can check out his exclusive video interview on AOL for Broadband.”
2. From time to time, you will get information about exclusive chat’s, events, live concerts, and other things taking place on AOL for Broadband. You can always promote these events as an alternative to a news hook.
3. Make sure you log all AOL for Broadband mentions.
4. While AOL would LOVE us to be “evangelists” for their product, do stay close to your comfort zone when it comes to promoting material. Don’t do anything that makes you feel queasy from an ethical standpoint.
5. AOL’s content provider is CNN. They do not have a relationship with CBS. We should be clear to describe things as “AOL for Broadband” content, not as CNN video.
6. If the content comes from MLB, the NHL, CNN, or third party sources, we are NOT permitted to use the audio on our air. If the content is “AOL for Broadband EXCLUSIVE”, however, we can run short excerpts on the air – with credit.
Here’s an example. Toby Keith, the country star, is scheduled to appear at the Ford 100th celebration in June at Dearborn. Toby Keith has been interviewed on AOL for Broadband. It would be appropriate to pull that audio and use it – with credit – on WWJ’s air.
This will be an evolving relationship. Please keep an open mind and let’s find things that are truly interesting and useful for our listeners.
If there’s something you wish we COULD do, let me, Pam, or Rob know. AOL has offered to develop new content and things to do on-line in response to our requests.
