FAME FX for free or the Battle of THE Imaging…

who has influenced your work as a producer and why?  are there any people outside of radio that influence your production work?

Everyone and no one. I pull ideas from everywhere. TV, movies, radio stations, other production companies. But at the same time I don’t really dig into what they are doing. I don’t want to hear my competition’s products in full. Too much and I’ll find them influencing me too much. They’re my competition for a reason. I have to beat them, not become them.

what are your 3 favorite plugins and why?

Tough question to answer. I’m creating more music now than tweaking vocals for promos and sweepers but my go-to tried and true plugs are the Nexus Re/FX, Goliath, and the SSL E-Channel

what do you think are the keys to being a successful producer and what advice would you give to someone who wants to move beyond radio production to doing other things like jingle production or just music production in general?

Learn music. Learn music. Learn music. The majority of today’s best producers have some form of musical knowledge. Having a knowledge of music can help you beatmix pop songs, sure, but having a knowledge of time signature, keys, chords, et cetera will help you understand how records are made and will help you form a better sweeper to place in between the records. I remember back in the late ’90s/early ’00s when alternative imaging was all static noise and beeps between every phrase. I never understood that. It had no melody, no rhythm or flow. These days, there is no excuse to not know music. YouTube is your friend.

Thanks again for accepting my “invitation”. I’am the first but not the only who will enjoy reading all of your answers !

Feel free to add screenshot, any useful explanation, comments, anything you want… at any time.

So here we go…

1a) What thrilled you the most at the time of being the creative director of KROQ ?

I went from Anchorage, Alaska to Los Angeles.  So, everything about being in Los Angeles and at KROQ thrilled me.  Also, at that time,  there was no such thing as an imaging guy…  There was the ‘Production Guy.’  Maybe there was,  I dunno. But nowhere I’d been or seen or knew of at the time had an Imaging guy.  I kinda grew into imaging as it dawned on us how important imaging may become.   It thrilled me to be in what we thought was uncharted territory.  No definition existed.  So I guess the biggest thrill was trying to figure out how far we could go,  and what kind of things we could put on the radio that we’d never heard before.

1b) What do you love about being the master behind Frostbytes ?

The same exact feeling.  Frostbytes was the first of what became a long line of  ONLINE imaging services.  The first that could be updated daily… to reflect the day’s events.   President goofed?  We had a bit for the morning show online.   Anna Nicole Smith married a 90 year old?  We had sweepers to drop in.  Again, it felt like uncharted territory in 2001.  To this day,  I also love the infinite possibilities every day  brings.  That, and being my own boss. Which, simultaneously, also sucks.

2) Who or what influenced you ? (As a beginner and Today)

First,  my dad.  Jack Frost.  He was doin’ radio sketches and morning shows and Programming stations in Anchorage, Alaska as I was growing up.  Second,  Tom Sandman…  imaging guru in the 80s at WBCN Boston.  Bootlegs of his song parodies even made it up to Anchorage regularly.  He, and the vocal stylings of BCN’s Billy West (also of Ren and Stimpy fame).  Nowadays,  countless producers and programmers, for countless reasons.   Eric Chase,  Will Morgan, Kelly Doherty,  and programming gods like Michael Martin (CBS Radio West Coast VP now in San Fran.) for meeting ever-changing demands of the radio market…  and still finding room for the creative.

3) What was your greatest moment(s) or achievement(s) in your career ?

Getting hired straight to KROQ LA from Nowhere USA.  That was huge for me.  Winning the Rick Carroll Radio Innovator of the Year award 1996… one year after (or before) Howard Stern… can’t remember which.   Before that,  in Alaska at KWHL FM,  one year I won every radio category other than PSAs  (like, 8 awards total), in some Alaskan Broadcaster Awards thing.  That sticks with me cuz,  I kept getting called… going up for the trophy… sitting down… getting called again… and again… and again…  people all over the room were audibly groaning and flashing me the stink eye.  I’ll never forget that.    But every time my daughter, who’s 4,  says something funny on purpose,  that’s also a great moment.

4) Talking Plugins… What are your top 3 favourite and why ?

Dunno.  That changes constantly… so I’ll just throw some out that I like right now:

Melodyne Studio.   It’s awesome.  Don’t need to midi to ‘Autotune’ that vocal and music.  Super deep, but also super easy to use from the start.

Antares Autotune EVO.   I like getting a ‘Daft Punk’ sound with that one.

Native Instruments Guitar Rig.  Any version.  I just love the variety of ‘crunch’ it offers.  I like a lot of crunch.  Always.

5) What is the key to be a successful imaging guy ?

Don’t be afraid to do new stuff.   Find new, novel, and shorter ways to still do creative things.  Don’t be afraid to ‘borrow’ ideas or styles.  In the borrowing of tried and true tactics,  you will develop your own style or styles.  Start somewhere,  master something,  branch out from there.   You should be as versatile as possible eventually.  Whatever is needed,  comedy, boom-pow production,  sincerity,  cleverness,  you will need to do a pretty good job of it.  That way,  formats can crumble,  Program Directors, Djs, GMs can come and go,  even owners can change…  but if you can do the next format’s needs pretty well,  you may be one of the few that weathers the storm and makes the jump to the next incarnation of the station.

Extra question

6) In your opinion, what are the mistakes that imaging producer often does ? (When you listen do other producer beginner or not, and you hear something wrong) Hope you understand my question.

Timing and delivery.  Make sure there’s room or space for everything in your piece.  Don’t clutter it with too much stuff.    That’s the delivery part.  In this new and supershort radio world,  don’t be afraid to cut copy.  Chances are the copy was written and approved and wordy.  Shorten and delete superfluous stuff. If you can, take out anything said twice. If you have a promo about concerts in the area, and then at the end you re-iterate with “GET ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND CONCERT INFO AT 98-7 FM.COM”,  shorten it to “Want More? 98-7FM.COM,”  or  “CONCERTS?  98-7FM.COM.”

You’d be surprised what you can leave out.   “98-7 has yer tickets to see NIRVANA… Sold Out, Saturday February 22^nd at the Lake Castaic Amphitheatre.”  WHY NOT JUST “98-7 has yer tickets to see NIRVANA.”  I mean, it’s sold out… They don’t need to sell any more tickets.  So,  the venue’s not important, AND the date’s not important.  Why put the date?… so people can check their schedule to see if they can go? So they can see if they should try to win, and therefore, see if they should even pay attention to the announcement?  Any time where you CAN leave it out, DATE and VENUE should be left out.

Well, that’s it ! I hope it was not too complicated ? Thanks again John. I really appreciate the time that you took to answer my questions.

I’ll keep you inform about the interview.

Have a great one John

Andrew Choinière