Infomercials on a music station

[MarcB]

In June I was on vacation in the Philly market (Thursday-Saturday) and discovered a station I enjoyed called Classix 107.9 (WPPZ/Pennsauken). They're owned by Urban One and play R&B from the 70s and 80s. Imagine my surprise when I tuned in early on Saturday Morning and hearing the same infomercials I have heard on low-rated talk stations such as WABC, WOR, WDRC, WLS, etc. At first I thought I was picking up another station on 107.9 via troppo or skip, but the following Saturday when I went to listen to Classix 107.9 on the Tune-In app I heard the same infomercials.

How common is it for music stations to be running these infomercials?

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

In June I was on vacation in the Philly market (Thursday-Saturday) and discovered a station I enjoyed called Classix 107.9 (WPPZ/Pennsauken). They're owned by Urban One and play R&B from the 70s and 80s. Imagine my surprise when I tuned in early on Saturday Morning and hearing the same infomercials I have heard on low-rated talk stations such as WABC, WOR, WDRC, WLS, etc. At first I thought I was picking up another station on 107.9 via troppo or skip, but the following Saturday when I went to listen to Classix 107.9 on the Tune-In app I heard the same infomercials.

How common is it for music stations to be running these infomercials?

Most likely late nights or weekend mornings when audience size is low though I know KOIT-FM in San Francisco has religious and public affairs programming around the 5-7am timeframe on Sunday Mornings but its usually an AC station for the rest of the week though.

 

[b-turner]

Virtually every station has public affairs early Sunday morning. The FCC requires stations to do some public affairs programming. The deal is the FCC makes you do it but the audience could care less. The result the programs are buried in the times the fewest listeners are tuned in: early Sunday morning

Infomercials are a different animal. I'd say it is unusual. It's sort of a cardinal sin to chase off your audience by doing something different than the audience expects. If I had to guess, it would seem tome the format is not real successful or the the station is simply a placeholder where whatever money it can produce is great.

 

[kevtronics]

WPPZ is also advertising "My Philly Lawyer" in the text data on their HD Radio signal.

 

[anotherguyTN]

When they had a CCM format (When they had music) KSUD (Now KQPN) AM 730 in West Memphis, AR Was bad about interrupting what were normally blocks of music with infomercials and preachers, a lot of who were the dollar a holler type. But that was in the 90's. Now they're an odd mix of dollar a holler preachers, sports talk, and nuts like Alex Jones, simulcasting with WMQM AM 1600, who has been a dollar a holler station for decades.

 

[TheBigA]

If I had to guess, it would seem tome the format is not real successful or the the station is simply a placeholder where whatever money it can produce is great.

I thought the same thing, but they get good 6+ numbers. The demos could be terrible though, and if that's the case, they're in the same boat as an AM talk station. Or they could simply find it a tough format to sell.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Very surprising for a major operator (Urban One in this case) to run infomercials.

 

[davideduardo]

Very surprising for a major operator (Urban One in this case) to run infomercials.

It’s a very old demo format while agency ethnic buys are generally 18-49. And weekends sells nearly nothing.

Added later to expand: In 18-49, the station averages 20th in the market, but 15th in 12+. So much of the audience is 55 and over.

 

[EricStein]

Very surprising for a major operator (Urban One in this case) to run infomercials.

KOOL-FM in Phoenix (when it was owned by CBS) aired the "Purity Products" infomercials in the 5am Saturday/Sunday time slots. So it's not uncommon for major group music stations to run them.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

In June I was on vacation in the Philly market (Thursday-Saturday) and discovered a station I enjoyed called Classix 107.9 (WPPZ/Pennsauken). They're owned by Urban One and play R&B from the 70s and 80s. Imagine my surprise when I tuned in early on Saturday Morning and hearing the same infomercials I have heard on low-rated talk stations such as WABC, WOR, WDRC, WLS, etc. At first I thought I was picking up another station on 107.9 via troppo or skip, but the following Saturday when I went to listen to Classix 107.9 on the Tune-In app I heard the same infomercials.

How common is it for music stations to be running these infomercials?

1am-6am weekends is when the infomercials are airing on a music station.

 

[firepoint525]

1am-6am weekends is when the infomercials are airing on a music station.

Infomercial advertisers swoop down on unsold airtime like vultures, and then they complain to the stations when there is no response to their infomercials. (Happened to a station that I used to work for.) Maybe they should have asked themselves WHY the airtime was unsold!

 

[MarcB]

Infomercial advertisers swoop down on unsold airtime like vultures, and then they complain to the stations when there is no response to their infomercials. (Happened to a station that I used to work for.) Maybe they should have asked themselves WHY the airtime was unsold!

I know at one station the GM sold the infomercial producers the 12AM-6AM timeslots, but charged them the rate they would pay if they were buying time during the day. During the day they had a decent signal at 2,500 watts, but at night their signal dropped to less than 100 watts.

 

[MarcB]

I noticed something else. Classix 107.9 has quite a few commercial-free blocks. You don't suppose Urban One is running the infomercials on Saturday/Sunday mornings to subsidize the commercial-free blocks, do you?

 

[MarcB]

It’s a very old demo format while agency ethnic buys are generally 18-49. And weekends sells nearly nothing.

Added later to expand: In 18-49, the station averages 20th in the market, but 15th in 12+. So much of the audience is 55 and over.

Dyana Williams the afternoon DJ on Classix 107.9 is 65 years old.

Lady B who is their Midday DJ has been on nearly every Urban Station in Philly going back to '79 including WHAT 1340, Power 99, and even Classix 107.9's in-market sister station 100.3 when they were known as "Old School 100.3". She's also a hip-hop recording artist.

 

[Groove1670]

One of the companies mentioned solicits stations via email. We tried them many years ago and after one airing they cancelled. It took us 3 months to get our money. I guess many stations write it off and don't make the effort to collect. They expected results after one airing and it doesn't work that way. Our market is flooded with these so called ads (longform and sixty second ads). Most of the companies run them on a so called PI (per inquiry) plan where they pay a station if they get a call or sell a product.

We stay away from them. We run one company overnights and weekends to fill a one sixty second avail in a empty stopset. We get a very small return.

I hear 24 format stations load up mandatory stopsets with a bunch of them (that is why I despise 24 hour formats), but it makes for a great tuneout factor for those stations. I say keep running them. Along with network inventory you have a cluttered station.