The radio ad

Taping a radio commercial in support of Algonquin College's Centre for Construction Trades and Building Sciences.

Algonquin College, the regional community college for Eastern Ontario, invited me to tape a radio ad in support of the college's planned Centre for Construction Trades and Building Sciences -- designed to meet the need for skilled tradespeople within the industry. We've made it our policy in Ottawa Construction News to support this project, of course, so when college communication officer Andrew McKelvery asked if I would volunteer to tape an endorsement commercial, I hesitated, not.

Of course, the college -- with its radio and television technician and journalism programs -- has facilities on-site for this type of commercial production, but this initiative is definitely not a student project: The commercial where I am quoted, along with several others from community/industry leaders, will be broadcast on three Ottawa-area commercial radio stations in the next few weeks. (I'll post the actual radio tape once I have it.)

I learned a few things in the taping process. First, since this is not live radio, bits and pieces can be pasted together to create the whole, and fuzzy details can be corrected to create 'perfection'. Second, the whole thing is really not intimidating -- again, because you can fix anything not right, you don't need to stress out about the script. (McKelvery told me to smile as I talked -- it makes the thing sound more natural.)

Of course, from a marketing/branding perspective, this is an all-round win. I'm quite happy to effectively promote my publication while showing support for the college. And the college, in inviting me to the taping, encourages us to provide more publicity and support within our own publication for the project.

You can learn more about the Algonquin initiative by visiting http://www.algonquincollege.com/expansion/