I could say the same thing for the CA lottery... might not win too often still, but at least I'd occasionally get something back!
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- Thread starter CassChopper96
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I could say the same thing for the CA lottery... might not win too often still, but at least I'd occasionally get something back!
When I was a station owner, I sort of reacted the same way. My stations were my kids, and it was like insulting a father. And smaller station owners can be that way as it is a tough career with one's whole life savings at risk.
I'm not excusing, just explaining.
Yes, older listeners are hard to sell for agency accounts such as chain stores and restaurants and other such accounts. That's because agency campaigns are designed with the most productive demos in mind. 55+ is generally not one of them.
And corporate group sales departments are not set up to do a different kind of local sales. And today, with much production not even done in the home market, they don't do very good local small account copy either. Buddy fills a void, and there is apparently enough money in that space for him to build a good business. But remember, the business is Buddy, not a radio station. Most owners and managers can't do what he does.
So Buddy gives service to the smaller account, the local account, the agency account that buys by logic, not by pure numbers. It ain't easy, and it takes a really good seller. And that means one who can accept rejection because even at a #1 station you get more rejections... lots more... than buys.
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Sure. There aren't a lot of them. Not enough to staff 16,000 radio stations. When someone comes along who really knows how to sell, there comes a time when they don't want to work for someone else anymore. They want to own their own station where they're in charge. That's what happened here. But this is the exception, not the rule. As Buddy says, you can buy your own station and do for AAA what Buddy has done for oldies. That's what radio needs, but the people who are passionate about programming don't have any money, and the people who have a lot of money don't want to spend any of it on radio.
Older consumers have several qualities that make selling to them different.
First, they have more brand loyalty or brand preference. That means they "have been using 'Stiff & Grungy" toilet paper for 30 years" and they won't try anything different because S&G is an old friend. The older people get, the firmer that most traditions are. And many seniors, after retirement, don't risk money on the unknown as their finances are restricted.
Second, many products are not designed for seniors. Scented products don't smell like traditional ones, and seniors don't always like them. Same with colors, sizes, packaging, etc.
Third, seniors are usually empty nesters and don't buy as much. If you think of why beer brands buy only men and often only sports, you can see why targeting the biggest consumers is a general practice; whey spend to reach a woman who drinks one beer to be sociable when the hubby pours down a coupla' six packs in a weekend. Same goes when consumption is analyzed for seniors... advertisers want to swim in the bigger pool.
Fourth, some seniors are on very limited income, so they don't do any impulse or experimental buying at all. And some are aged to the extent of not being interested in new "stuff" of any kind.
I did not say that. It is hard to do AAA formats because the rock base is shrinking. If you look at the Every-10-Year studies by Edison (I hope they have one for 2020) you see that rock is really shrinking as the mood and ethnicity of America change. The AAA format is dying because of declining numbers of rock partisans and in younger demos due to fragmentation of tastes where the format can not be broad enough to get decent ratings.
Remember that radio revenues are off, in inflation adjusted dollars, by over 60% since 2005. Some is due to new media, some is due to the 2008-09 recession and some is due to advertisers who just don't want to use "old media" so that they can be seen as up to date.
Radio is not a "build it and they will come" proposition, and it has not been for nearly as long as I have been in radio. It is "build what advertisers want and make it as good as or better than most and then work hard and you can sell some spots".
In many countries of the world radio is healthier than in the US because long ago they created national "stations" using many, many transmitters, repeaters and frequencies but with a single origination point and their nation's best talent. It is efficient, listeners love it and that is why in so many places radio is better off than in the US as there is a good enough profit to sustain great programming.
Before the pandemic, I had begun work on a new national Top 40 in Bolivia. They were going to start with 37 main transmitters linked by satellite and with a plan to add low power units in many more smaller towns later. They would have one studio in the largest city, and some sales offices in three major cities and that was it... but they wanted to be live 24/7 because the economic model would sustain it.
Somehow, US broadcasters did not get the memo...
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Not only that, but the music itself lacks the push it requires to get the attention of today's media-overloaded listeners. Anyone who wants to make a record can do it, and they dn't need a label or a studio. So we have millions of new songs hitting the internet, and no way to sort through all of them.
A bit testy, Robert --- and rather vulgar. So sorry to have upset you.
The theme (so-to-speak) here that "seniors" don't buy stuff... or as much stuff... or certain stuff is - IMO - hard to buy into. Seniors buy. And they buy a lot! They buy travel... and all kinds of travel... some quite costly. They buy for grandchildren. They buy wine. They buy walk-in tubs. Seniors buy recreational vehicles. They buy fruits & vegetables, and OTC nutritional supplements. Seniors buy snowplow/landscape services. I could go on. Seniors buy a lot. And they buy a lot of products/services that non-seniors don't buy... or don't buy as much. Seniors buy a lot of "new" products... and they buy from just about anyone at anytime... local, national, big, small. Today's senior is hardly the senior of 10 - 20 - 30 - ++ years ago. but, I agree, today's senior it less likely to be a fall-for-sales/marketing sucker than non-seniors... so the 'easy sale' to seniors is hard to come by.
Which is why ad agencies and their clients prefer to fish where the fish are more likely to bite.
Very likely. But that is a far cry from claiming that seniors don't buy stuff -- or as much stuff.
You completely misunderstood the issue. It's not IF seniors buy stuff, but WHY seniors buy stuff. What is the motivating factor? What gets them to buy? THAT is the issue.
Seems Entercom Buffalo has or at least had this figured out pretty well with WBEN billing ahead of the pack. Should be interesting to see what happens after the recent upheaval, with a few key sellers having departed.
Which is what makes all the speculation in this thread concerning Entercom, the 107.7 signal and Buddy that much more interesting. *If* Entercom needs to raise cash and save expenses is this the chance Buddy is waiting for? Will it be Hank 107.7?
Wait! Nevins is going to 107.7?
WBEN has been on a slow decline for a decade in revenue over the last 10 years. Adding in inflation (about 18% over the decade) WBEN is off by about 25% over that period. However, this is fairly close to a parallel with the market itself, which is off from, for example, $52 million in 2014 to $44 million in 2020.
The leader, of course, is WYRK
More job losses at WGR and Entercom
After 25 years at WGR, Paul Hamilton is permanently gone. He had been on furlough. Also Rosemarie Paternostro in promotion has been shown the door after 6 years at Entercom. How much more can they cut?
Buffalo news article:https://buffalonews.com/2020/06/23/wgrs-paul-hamilton-released-by-entercom/
After 25 years at WGR, Paul Hamilton is permanently gone. He had been on furlough. Also Rosemarie Paternostro in promotion has been shown the door after 6 years at Entercom. How much more can they cut?
Buffalo news article:https://buffalonews.com/2020/06/23/wgrs-paul-hamilton-released-by-entercom/
Hmmmmm. Dang. i thought - in the post to which I responded - someone stated "...seniors are usually empty nesters and don't buy as much." But if that's not there, then OK.
Yes, they "don't buy as much." That's not saying they don't buy anything. They buy, but not in great quantity, and they buy different kinds of things.
But as I said, that's not the issue. It's what motivates them to buy. If advertising isn't a motivation, or if advertising is an annoyance, then why should one advertise to seniors? Or if radio advertising isn't as cost-efficient as other forms, then why advertise on the radio? Understand?
Having said all that, Buddy has shown that he can put a platform together that's appealing to seniors and certain local advertisers who want to reach those seniors. It works for him. That's great. Not everybody is able to do that.
It's always possible to cut some more sinew & bone. The buzzards won't bother to pick over the carcass, though.
Without Sports, you can probably live without a reporter. Without events, you don't need a Promotions person. The Pandemic accelerated the spiral...
Of course. And WYRK will aggressively and directly protect its position on all fronts, make no mistake about that.
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