Writing is writing, and from that standpoint, there really is no incredible breakthrough in commercial writing technology or skills. However, a number of practices are becoming increasingly common that do take commercial production to the next level.

Many stations or group of stations set aside a studio for "creative" production. In this case, creative refers to the creation of custom sound effects, music, or signature musical sounds. This studio likely is equipped with a digital audio workstation, a large library of music loops, a keyboard, a couple of guitars, and a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) synthesizer. The production person who uses the studio generally will have a musical background, or in a larger market, there may be a composer/musician on the station staff. Such a studio is used for creating custom music and creating signature commercial music sounds for clients. Music services are a powerful selling tool for the station if the client knows they are going to be getting something no one else has. The studio also can serve the station creating unique backgrounds for station sweepers.

Another area that has really opened up is using voices from other markets within your company to provide greater vocal variety in the commercials the production person creates. Just as with actors, some announcers are great at a particular type of commercial. There are announcers that make their entire living doing only car commercials, banks, or a particular type of read. By pooling announcer resources, the client gets a better product. With the many different technologies for getting digital audio from point A to point B, where the voice is located, is immaterial. In this respect, local radio is becoming decentralized.

Technically, the one thing that continues to grow in popularity is the "studio-in-a-box." Literally, every piece of equipment you need to produce a quality commercial is contained in the control board/digital audio workstation/CD burner, etc. These are truly a studio-in-a-box, and they can be located anywhere to create commercial product.