Public Service Announcements are offered to non-profit entities within our coverage areas that wish to promote their event or organization via 15- or 30-second announcements on one or more RadioAlabama stations and online listings with our station websites.
Requests for business entities or business-based events cannot be considered PSA material.
While stations typically air PSAs at no charge, many end up in the wastebasket because they are hard to read, are missing basic information, or are sent without sufficient lead time. We’ll give you a few pointers, followed by a simple form which can be filled out and submitted to us.
Guidelines:
1) Include All Necessary Information: While this may seem like a simple thing, you would be surprised at the number of PSAs we receive which do not have a date for the event. They’ll say “tonight,” for example, but we can’t be certain of which night “tonight” is being referenced. Include who is invited to attend, the date and hours of the event, the place where it will be held, the type of event, why it is taking place, and a contact number for both the public and the media. Keep it short. Long, full-page PSAs are rarely read due to time constraints.
2) Identify Yourself or Your Organization: You should always identify yourself or organization clearly somewhere in your PSA. In many cases, this is evident from the information — however, if is not, you should add it.
3) Include Pronunciations: Many PSAs are skipped because names or places mentioned in them cannot be easily pronounced. Rather than sound illiterate or out-of-touch, announcers will often toss a PSA that does not include a phonetic pronunciation for easily confused proper names. Smith is Smith, but Smithe could be SMITH, SMYTH of SMITHEE. Without a guide, you’ll either have a mispronounced name in your PSA when it’s read on-the-air, or it won’t get on at all. The proper way to show pronunciation is — Smithe (pron: SMYTH).
4) Release Date: Timing is everything. If you send us a PSA far in advance of an event, it may get lost. If you send it two days beforehand, chances are it will be too late to include it. A good rule of thumb is to send your PSA request 10 days in advance.
5) Cost of Broadcast: As a general rule, we are happy to broadcast, at no charge, meeting and event notices for civic and non-profit groups. However, if you purchase advertising in other media, we cannot air your announcements free of charge. Basically, if you pay to promote an event in the paper or elsewhere, don’t ask us then to run it free. We’re a business, too.
6) Time of Broadcast: All PSAs are broadcast subject to time availability. We can’t guarantee a PSA will be broadcast a specific number of times or at any specific time.
7) Paid PSAs: Free PSAs are only for non-profit organizations and their events. If you want more control over the rotation and exposure of your message or event and wish to purchase regular commercial airtime, you may contact our sales team. We offer discounted rates for qualified non-profit organizations.
A limited number of slots are made available for PSAs, but we do our best to ensure all eligible PSAs are aired.
