Crush David Archuleta Power Intro: Making The Most Out of Song Intros

Here are facts about power intros:

• Power intros have a “very” short shelf life
• They are effective if used in the right way
• Power intros are not only for intros

Let us face it. Not every radio producer is a big fan of power intros. Not only are they expensive to produce (since production requires tremendous resources like sound bites, SFX, audio clips), it’s also time-consuming. Although you can grab a variety of audio clips on the web anytime, a painstaking production that airs in little time is not worth it.

Power Intro feat Crush by David Archuleta 758k

Download Sample 1 758k | Download Sample 2 285k

Power Intro without station details 285k

However, you can make the most out of your power intros. You do not have to spend dollars on expensive packages just to get the right audio clip or sound bite for your power intro. If you are movie fanatic, your solutions lie just right there in your DVD rack.

Grab some titles, pop it in your computer’s DVD-ROM and play some memorable scenes in that movie. Remember those famous lines that made those movies popular? You can use them in your power intro production. Who does not remember the movie Jerry Maguire when one mentions the phrase “you complete me”?

Try to avoid cliche and overused movie liners though. Terminator 1’s “asta la vista baby” has been abused in radio production for years now. Try something new and unique. In fact, you can use some liners in recent movies. This gives your production a fresher appeal.

There are however, some liners that do not age. Some of these sound like the following:

1. Ladies and gentlemen…
2. May I have your attention
3. Are you ready?
4. Let’s go
5. What is your name?
6. This is … (adjective here)
7. Please give it up for

These liners are great to insert before the station name. You can also grab liners that can be used as fillers in a production. These can be exclamation phrases, exaggerated lines or simply a word that denotes a feeling like the ff:

1. Oh my God!
2. That is really a monster
3. Are you serious?
4. I love you!
5. You make me hot!

Movies are not the only resources where you can grab some liners. You can get them from old recordings of TV shows, and commercials. Building your library of movie liners may take some time though, but you get the idea, it’s a less expensive option. Here is a list of websites that host movie liners.

Also, you can use a part of the song as a sound bite for the power intro. Above, you canhear a sample power intro for Hot FM which features David Archuleta’s new hit single Crush. We took a line that goes “all i think about is…” and inserted it before the station name. So in the example it sounds like “all i think about is Hot FM”.

Now, how can you make the most out of a “perishable” power intro? Actually, all of your station’s imaging stuff should be “perishable”. Otherwise, your station will sound dull running on the same IDs you had 5 years ago. I know a lot of radio stations whose IDs and jingles date back to the Stone Age.

Power intros are specially different. They are only as hot as the first few weeks of a hit song’s premiere airplay. After 2 to 3 weeks, listeners will start asking for the original version, the ones without your power intro on it. If you insist on playing the power intro on that song, your listeners could get annoyed. Putting your station name on their favorite song is also a form of music spamming (new term).

So, the first rule in using power intros is to use them while the song is in the introduction phase, this is like between the first and third week of the song’s initial rotation. For example, if you are about to introduce David Archuleta’s Crush to your audience through your weekly countdown show, then you air the version with the power intro in it. If that is the first time that your market will listen to that song, they will unconsciously register into their minds that your station’s identification on the power intro is part of the song itself. Get the idea? First, second, third play, they will get used to the power intro until they will start singing your station name at the start of the song. Sound’s great.

Hey, but after a few weeks, like I said, the power intros will start to sound annoying. However, you can still make use of the power intro but this time as a standalone ID. Yes, you can pull out the intro part only, fade out the tail and use it to transition from a spotbreak or even to another hit song. This way, your production will never go to waste.

So, there you have it. You do not have to spend so much in production that will only run for a few days. Be resourceful, look around you. And extend the shelf life of your power intros, use them as standalone IDs.

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Disclaimer: The power intro samples are for demonstration purposes only.
Credits: Hot FM Philippines, Hot FM Jingle by JAM Creative Productions Dallas, Crush by David Archuleta Jive Records.