The Magic of Sound…Even in FM
It’s about accessing your “George Martin gene.”
George, of course, is best known as the producer of the Beatles. But what inspired me most wasn’t just the hits—it was his cliché-proof work ethic. Trained in classical music, he helped four lads from Liverpool reinvent the sound of pop music with unbelievable taste, vision, and quality. Backwards tapes. Mellotrons. Every groove held something revolutionary.
His production saved us twice. First in 1964 from a life of Bobby production—slick and pretty, but not earth-changing. Then in 1967 from Tommy James production—nothing against Tommy, but it wasn’t exactly challenging.
Listen again: the timeless strings on Eleanor Rigby. Backwards vocals on Rain. The sound paintings on I Am the Walrus. The final piano chord on A Day in the Life. The trippy fog of Blue Jay Way.
George—with help from a few other creative guys—changed sound. He took brilliant songs and propelled them higher. No barriers. No clichés. Always fresh. He used the whole universe of sound, not just drums, bass, guitar, and keys. The songs the Beatles wrote? Yeah, those helped. But how those songs hit your speakers—through inventive production and thinking—that’s what changed everything.
Imagine if media production had that same vision.
Most production is done by the book. Can you picture the Beatles working by the book? That piano crash at the end of A Day in the Life would’ve been cut because some record company bozo said it was too weird for Top 40. The same way a modern program director might kill an inventive piece because it “clouds the imaging statement.”
And no—this isn’t some old guy reminiscing. Ask any gifted artist in 2026 about George Martin’s inventiveness, and you’ll find complete reverence. This is timeless. The approach to sound is evergreen.
So here’s the truth: engaging that George Martin gene—the one hiding somewhere in every producer—is what we must do to fulfill sonic potential. Media production can be genius. Clear. Fresh. New. Never-before-heard.
I can’t stress this enough.
Open your minds so we can open the ears of America. Free yourself from everything you’ve ever heard on radio or TV. I’m not kidding. I’m trying to impress the importance of this. If we fail to make the sonic magic our minds are capable of, we blow it. When we do make it? Look out. The trick is making it consistently.
The magic is sonics.
Production. Imaging. Whatever you call it—it’s the magic between the shows and songs. It creates excitement. Enhances a mood. It gives anyone a radically new sound that, like a George Martin production, lifts everything to a higher level.
The trick? Re-invention. (AFDI!)
We don’t want to evolve the production sound. We want to completely re-invent it.
Production must be a trademark. A sound you can hear a mile away and know who it is. Sound that transports listeners—whether to Main Street or Alpha Centauri. That won’t happen unless we re-invent media sound. Don’t underestimate the critical importance of this.
Production is theater.
The tools:
- Accents: Magic. British, Asian, Russian, Jamaican, African—real ones. Use them. Chicken shits stick with traditional “been there, heard that” radio voices. Don’t be a chicken shit.
- The Walrus Factor: Go listen to “I Am the Walrus” on headphones. Worth the exercise.
- Sampled instruments: Bagpipes. Harps. Yes—even on rock stations. Exotic sound works.
- Modified sound: Backwards, sped up, etc.
- Song bits (especially out of format)
- Orchestral, new age, and electronic recordings – a goldmine
- Scanners, shortwave radios
- Radio drama: Westerns, detective, sci-fi. Loaded with camp and brilliant sound effects.
- Nature: The power of a thunderstorm recording is magic. On rock, country, anywhere.
- Endings: A Day in the Life was cool. You’re next.
- Morse code: Why not?
Most important: activate your George Martin gene.
Do not get locked into what you think your sound parameters are. Open up. Use the whole world of sound.
Yes, you need a sonic point of view for your station or format. But there’s no reason cartoon soundtracks can’t appear on smooth jazz—okay, that’s a reach, but you never know. Or harps on metal formats. Go tell Metallica or Led Zeppelin you can’t use strings. (They did.)
No barriers. Rewrite the playbook. Think in stereo.
Here’s the hard truth: film and commercials do sound creativity better than radio or TV. Radio and TV have de-evolved. Dumbed down. Cliché. Infected by cheesy production libraries. Dated. Sheep-like inventiveness.
It is our responsibility to bring sonic brilliance back to media.
It starts with thinking beyond. Do not use current radio or TV production as a model. Forget it totally. Lose it. Blow it up. Start from scratch.
The goal is to completely change the sound—not simply evolve or update. Pretend it’s 1921 and radio/TV production has never been done before. OK? Great. Now go.
Ambient. Big. Quirky. Funny. Campy. Intense. Sick. Dreamy.
You’re not a radio producer. You’re a media artist.
Set your creative meter to George Martin mode. Eno mode. Sound-driven filmmaker mode. Think like a music producer, not a media producer.
Voices: Accents. Reality. The age of “the big voice” is dead. Female. Hick. Whispers. Aged (like John Lee Hooker, rest in peace). Real (street people). Stars. Anything but “radio/TV”—the same old voices.
You don’t have production rooms. You have sound labs.
The more background a format or station is, the more you must rely on a heavily repeated audio signature. Sound occurs everywhere. Sonic density.
Your audio signature is your signature.
The important thing is to go there. Where’s “there”? Heck if I know. It’s up to people to re-invent “there.” That’s how revolutionary media is made.
