What Is Your Logline?

In the film industry, a logline is one or two sentences that explain the movie’s plot. To get the attention of producers, screenwriters must devise clear, concise, and captivating loglines.

You’ll get the idea from this well-known movie:

Back to the Future: “A young man is transported to the past, where he must reunite his parents before he and his future cease to exist.”

Think of a logline as a brief synopsis of the plot. Before we get to radio and podcast shows, let’s look at Google’s logline: “Google organizes the world’s information and makes it universally accessible and useful.”

Radio Show Loglines

Radio and podcast shows without a logline tend to lack focus making it difficult for the audience to connect with the show.

To concisely describe your show’s plot, loglines must highlight your show’s best content and relatable characters, ideally both. Danni and Country Cory at Max 98.1 Memphis devised a logline incorporating both…

“A cheap-ass dad and a smart-ass mom lampoon life in Memphis and the world.”

Taglines and Slogans

Slogans and taglines are derivatives of loglines. Taglines are typically witty, brief marketing lines to get the audience’s attention. They don’t necessarily highlight key components or the essence of the show. The Breakfast Club illustrates this point with the tagline, “The world’s most dangerous morning show.”

Slogans are a condensed version of the logline or the show’s plot. Bert Weiss host of The Bert Show told me, “When our show started, I was inspired by Wrangler Jean's simple and succinct slogan, Real. Comfortable. Jeans. Out of it came…

The Bert Show: Real. Funny.

The show continues to use this slogan today because it succinctly tells listeners what the show is about. Bert was ahead of the curve since real and funny are THE two most appealing characteristics of music station morning shows today.

Crafting a Logline

All shows need an internal logline to serve as an overarching. Additionally, you can condense loglines to a slogan and use them in on-air imaging and external marketing.

Start constructing your show's logline by answering these questions:

• What is your show’s purpose or mission? In the latest issue of Entrepreneur, Jimmy Fallon discusses how his mission and purpose is to “make people happy.”
• How do you want listeners to feel: uplifted, safe, incited?
• What are one or two content images you want your audience to remember?
• What is the essence of your show’s characters?