Glossary of radio terms

Ad-Lib - 30 or 60 seconds long, an ad-lib is an announcer-read promotion of an advertiser's product from bullet points supplied by a client.

Affidavit - is a computer-generated print out of commercials played in a contract. It will give the exact times a commercial played and is available to advertisers on request.

Average Audience - is the average of the number of listeners in each quarter hour slot, divided by the number of quarter hour slots within the time frame. This gives a figure which approximates the number of listeners who can be expected to be listening to any station designated within a specified time frame.

Average Time Spent Listening - is a measure of the average amount of time anyone within a specific target audience could be expected to listen to any (or all) radio station(s) over a specified time period (measured in hours and minutes).

Bed - the music or sound effects that play under the client's message in a commercial. A jingle bed is the most common.

Bonus Spots - are free spots given to an advertiser when space is available. Bonus spots will appear on the schedule but they are pre-emptible and hence can be moved when there is no free space available.

Contract Confirmation - After a schedule is signed and entered into the radio station's scheduling system an advertiser will be given a computer generated contract confirmation. This is proof that the schedule has been entered into the system and will play as per the agreed schedule.

Creative Material - any piece of audio (commercial).

Credit - the audio equivalent of logo placement. Credits are a client mention in association with a programme feature. For example with a weather forecast, a particular show or in a sports story. A credit is either a solus client name or the client name and a short positioning statement.

Cumulative Audience - is sometimes referred to as a station's reach and it is quite literally the number (in 000s) of different listeners in a target group reached by a station over a specified time period.

Day part - is a set amount of time within which an ad can play. The day is usually broken into the following day parts - Breakfast 6am-9am, Morning 9am-12pm, Afternoon 12pm - 4pm, Drive 4pm-7pm, Evenings 7pm-12am, Midnight to Dawn 12am-6am. Each day part may be priced differently dependent upon the audience it attracts and the demand for that day part. Dependent upon the station and the day of the week these day parts may vary in time slightly.

Donut - a jingle package or branding package with singing at the beginning and end and a gap in the middle that can be "filled" with different pieces of information while the donut itself remains the same.

Exclusive Audience - is the measure of people within the specified audience who listen to only one station in the selected daypart. They are the loyal listeners within the specified audience and time selected.

Frequency - is the measure of how many times an audience will hear a commercial within a given campaign.

Jingle - a sung commercial. A jingle package refers to the various versions made to accommodate an advertiser's requirements. In any one jingle package there is likely to be a full-sung 30 and 60 second version, plus donuts of various lengths, which can be filled with information relating to client events.

Live Cross - when the announcer crosses over to a promotions person or sometimes an advertiser so they can then talk about an event they are at.

Phone-Out - an announcer phones a client and discusses aspects of the client's business.

Reach - see Cumulative Audience.

Reach and Frequency - is the measurement used to judge the potential performance of a campaign. It indicates the potential number of people that will be hear the commercial and the number of times that they will expect to hear it.

Schedule - is a proposed contract showing airtime to be booked. The schedule will show the number of spots to fall within each day part and on which stations. The signing of the schedule forms a contract between the radio station and the advertiser.

Station Share - is the share of the commercial radio listening market that each station has of the total commercial radio listening done over a specified time by a specified target group.

Top & Tail - to 'top and tail' commercials is to have one commercial play at the start of a commercial break and a second to play at the end of the break. The commercials can vary in length to each other. Top and Tailing is an effective way to reiterate the message to listeners.

Trailer - is a promotional announcement done by the radio station. The trailer may include a client credit when the client is involved in the promotional event.