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NAB: out of touch?

W

wadio

A couple of weeks ago the National Association of Broadcasters began running a PSA telling listeners to, " ... wash your hands, cough into your sleeve, etc. etc. bla bla bla." A couple of months ago this information would have constituted a legitimate public service but, c'mon tell us something we don't already know!

If the NAB wants radio to be perceived as appealing to an informed, engaged, vibrant audience, then it seems to me a stale message like that is exactly the wrong way to do it. It sounds like aging medium is being presided over by an aging and out of touch trade organization.
 
wadio said:
A couple of weeks ago the National Association of Broadcasters began running a PSA
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The PSAs were done in co-operation with the Ad Council. In fact I think they were the ones who produced the spots. The NAB just assisted in distribution.

Having worked with the Ad Council myself, they're not always the first to offer fresh or revised copy.

BTW I see the NAB campaign was supposed to end last week. So if you're still hearing them, it's not because of the NAB.
 
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TheBigA said:
The PSAs were done in co-operation with the Ad Council. In fact I think they were the ones who produced the spots. The NAB just assisted in distribution.

Having worked with the Ad Council myself, they're not always the first to offer fresh or revised copy.

BTW I see the NAB campaign was supposed to end last week. So if you're still hearing them, it's not because of the NAB.
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Then my apologies to the NAB. I heard the spot just this morning - that's what prompted my post.

But don't get me started on the Ad Council! They're the ones who developed spots saying you should go ahead and adopt a child - it doesn't matter if you're a jerk!

The Ad Council spots are a playground for allegedly "creative" people to waste 50 seconds of a 60-second spot with an allegedly creative preamble that most people would "get" in 10 seconds. Maybe the NAB should re-evaluate its relationship with the Ad Council. It doesn't help the credibility of radio, IMO.
 
It seems the Ad Council is about the only entity out there creating PSAs for radio. The last time I updated my PSA cuts at work, it was hard to find anything fresh. I've had all I can handle of a Fairy Godmother telling me kids need booster seats, or Drew Brees and Bugs Bunny telling kids to get out and play every day, Doc.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
It seems the Ad Council is about the only entity out there creating PSAs for radio. The last time I updated my PSA cuts at work, it was hard to find anything fresh. I've had all I can handle of a Fairy Godmother telling me kids need booster seats, or Drew Brees and Bugs Bunny telling kids to get out and play every day, Doc.
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Then you should be looking at local service organizations for PSA material and write them. Most / Many of the ad council PSAs sound like someone at an agency was told by their boss to do a free PSA creative and they did it resentfully and with no creativity.
 
I heard the PSA again this morning but now it's tagged with, "Brought to you by the National Association of Broadcasters and this station." No mention of the Ad Council. Interesting.
 
wadio said:
I heard the PSA again this morning but now it's tagged with, "Brought to you by the National Association of Broadcasters and this station." No mention of the Ad Council. Interesting.
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As I said, the kill date was April 10. It's a station problem.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
It seems the Ad Council is about the only entity out there creating PSAs for radio. The last time I updated my PSA cuts at work, it was hard to find anything fresh. I've had all I can handle of a Fairy Godmother telling me kids need booster seats, or Drew Brees and Bugs Bunny telling kids to get out and play every day, Doc.
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Those two PSAs have been around for at least 10 years if not more.
The 'fish with no water' asthma PSA has been around for probably 20 years. I STILL see it on TV! I guess it's been effective through a whole generation.
 
FYI The NAB is putting together new PSAs for radio & TV:

The NEW Coronavirus Response Toolkit is an online resource to help radio and TV stations accurately cover the pandemic and prepare for the impact on their staff, community and businesses. The resource offers downloadable radio and TV PSAs as well as station operation resources and editorial guidelines to help journalists combat misinformation and provide accurate and timely coverage of the virus. ( from nab.org)
 
crainbebo said:
Those two PSAs have been around for at least 10 years if not more.
The 'fish with no water' asthma PSA has been around for probably 20 years. I STILL see it on TV! I guess it's been effective through a whole generation.
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It's actually, "a fifsh wit no wader!"

Another favorite of mine is the kid who says "Wooahh!!" when he sees a redwood tree in the forest ... and again when he sees an LED lightbulb in the hardware store. Same kid, same cut.
 
Wow, I was expecting to see a completely different line of reasoning in the opening post when I clicked on this thread!

Is the NAB out of touch? YES, they 10000% are. It is a lobbyist organization for the mega broadcasters.

They want mega broadcasters to have as much AM & FM spectrum space as possible, tried to financially destroy satellite radio by attempting to block the Sirius XM merger, advocated for horrendous Hybrid Digital technology on the AM band, waged little to no effort to prevent the disaster known as the 2009 DTV transition (where many OTA only viewers were left without their favorite programming due to underpowered DTV signals), and they do not seem very interested in promoting AM/FM receiver standards, either.
 
MarkW said:
Is the NAB out of touch? YES, they 10000% are. It is a lobbyist organization for the mega broadcasters.
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Are you a member? If you were an active member, you might think differently. If you attended their conventions as I do, if you interact with them, you might have a different view. Are big broadcasters active? Sure. But the NAB's entire push about the music royalty comes from small owners. The big owners don't care about paying music royalties, and see it as the cost of doing business. In fact iHeart pays a label and artist royalty voluntarily. But the small single station owners are the ones who have kept that issue in the forefront, along with quite a few others. The truth is the NAB represents its membership, just as NARAS and other groups represent their membership. They promote what their members want. If you're not a member, then you really can't complain.
 
TheBigA said:
Are you a member? If you were an active member, you might think differently. If you attended their conventions as I do, if you interact with them, you might have a different view. Are big broadcasters active? Sure. But the NAB's entire push about the music royalty comes from small owners. The big owners don't care about paying music royalties, and see it as the cost of doing business. In fact iHeart pays a label and artist royalty voluntarily. But the small single station owners are the ones who have kept that issue in the forefront, along with quite a few others. The truth is the NAB represents its membership, just as NARAS and other groups represent their membership. They promote what their members want. If you're not a member, then you really can't complain.
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Add in that smaller owners benefit from initiatives to reduce the paperwork, eliminations of obsolete rules and requirements and the like. Small owners don't use expensive FCC attorneys in DC for a lot of filings, and it takes time away from serving clients.

The NAB has also been very active in opposing states that wanted to put a sales tax on advertising sales; they coordinated with state associations to defeat all of those attempts. Again, the most affected would be small stations where they have a hard time getting a good rate to begin with.
 
MarkW said:
They want mega broadcasters to have as much AM & FM spectrum space as possible, tried to financially destroy satellite radio by attempting to block the Sirius XM merger, advocated for horrendous Hybrid Digital technology on the AM band, waged little to no effort to prevent the disaster known as the 2009 DTV transition (where many OTA only viewers were left without their favorite programming due to underpowered DTV signals), and they do not seem very interested in promoting AM/FM receiver standards, either.
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Consolidation was the effect of the FCC's "if it fits on the dial we will grant it" policy which culminated in the Docket 80-90 ruling that allowed small markets that could barely sustain one or two stations to get 5 or 6 or more.

The NAB and everyone else found that in the early 90's only about 50% of stations made money. The only solution was consolidation.

The DTV transition was a world wide initiative, with the US not being particularly early, either. Most viewers wanted high definition... they had started getting it with earlier video content, but TV was still old, low res and analog. That was not the NAB's doing, but the industry had to keep up with what most viewers wanted.

The FCC kept out of most radio issues, such as never requiring FM on radios. They tried to skirt the AM stereo matter and ended up making a bad decision way too late. Not the NAB's fault.

And so on.

I was involved at a high management level with a top 10 group. There was not much NAB stuff that we could use because we had internal FCC attorneys, our own lobbyist consultants and the like. It was the smaller stations that got the most help in those areas.
 
MarkW said:
Wow, I was expecting to see a completely different line of reasoning in the opening post when I clicked on this thread!

Is the NAB out of touch? YES, they 10000% are. It is a lobbyist organization for the mega broadcasters.

They want mega broadcasters to have as much AM & FM spectrum space as possible, tried to financially destroy satellite radio by attempting to block the Sirius XM merger, advocated for horrendous Hybrid Digital technology on the AM band, waged little to no effort to prevent the disaster known as the 2009 DTV transition (where many OTA only viewers were left without their favorite programming due to underpowered DTV signals), and they do not seem very interested in promoting AM/FM receiver standards, either.
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Are they any more 'out of touch' than the American Banking Association, Mark? I'd argue that organization, which your business is a member of seeks to retain banking practices that are far less conducive to the common good than what broadcasters offer. The NAB advocates for its members. Did you expect them to react differently to a medium like Satellite Radio which threatened the revenue for its members? I can agree with you that they should be more proactive in revitalizing the AM band. Advocacy may be limited by trying to balance the need to keep stations compatible with existing receivers and no real consensus among its membership though.
 
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