Lowest KUBE ratings ever, in December PPM

[Kelly A]

A good example of a lack of forward union thinking is in the AFTRA contracts that cover ad agency audio production of commercials. They forced advertisers and their agencies to pay separately for streaming by radio stations in addition to the over the air usage.

So, the results are multiple: agencies tell stations "no stream". Stations do separate stopsets with non-AFTRA talent for the streams. As more advertisers look at digital, they record radio ads anywhere but union markets, so as time goes buy, fewer and fewer ads are done in union studios in unionized markets. More are done by voice talent using home studios.

The way around the local or regional spots potentially running out of market, is to geofence your stream. Of course, that option costs more money.

 

[dxsphere]

The way around the local or regional spots potentially running out of market, is to geofence your stream. Of course, that option costs more money.

iHeart has another way around - they essentially have local/regional ads overriding the ads heard on the iHeart station you're listening to. For example, if I listen to Alt 98.7 LA, when they go to commercial break, I hear ads from Spokane or Seattle instead, and this continues until Alt 98.7 goes back out of break.

 

[Kelly A]

iHeart has another way around - they essentially have local/regional ads overriding the ads heard on the iHeart station you're listening to. For example, if I listen to Alt 98.7 LA, when they go to commercial break, I hear ads from Spokane or Seattle instead, and this continues until Alt 98.7 goes back out of break.

Sure you can cover breaks on the stream. That's pretty common, but sometimes ugly when the break timings are different.

 

[CTListener]

Sure you can cover breaks on the stream. That's pretty common, but sometimes ugly when the break timings are different.

I sometimes listen to WWYZ, the iHeart country station back in my former home state, via the internet. I've noticed lately that the long breaks have been covered by two songs rather than ads or PSAs. There are a limited number of songs that fit exactly, apparently, because I've already heard Thomas Rhett's "Die a Happy Man" two times in the past three days. Clear Channel used to employ songs this way when they fed WSIX Nashville to XM for rebroadcast via satellite. This resulted in Brooks & Dunn's "How Long Gone" getting at least a dozen spins a day despite have been off the chart for years.

 

[dxsphere]

Sure you can cover breaks on the stream. That's pretty common, but sometimes ugly when the break timings are different.

iHeart seems to pull it off well from my experiences.

 

[davideduardo]

The way around the local or regional spots potentially running out of market, is to geofence your stream. Of course, that option costs more money.

The issue in what I described has nothing to do with the market area. It is about the union, AFTRA, wanting their members to be paid additional fees if their recorded commercials are run on digital streams in addition to a traditional AM or FM station. That applies to the local market and any market.

 

[davideduardo]

iHeart has another way around - they essentially have local/regional ads overriding the ads heard on the iHeart station you're listening to. For example, if I listen to Alt 98.7 LA, when they go to commercial break, I hear ads from Spokane or Seattle instead, and this continues until Alt 98.7 goes back out of break.

That is what most stations that have lots of agency ads do. They don't run the AM or FM commercial break on the stream because the orders for many/most agency spots say "do not stream" because the agency is not paying the talent they hire to do the ads the streaming fees.

However, as streams increase in usage in local markets, stations sacrifice improved ad rates because they can't run the commercials on their streams.

 

[Kento]

Why is the stunting still going on? It's been way to long it's getting old!!!!! Does iHeart even know what format they want to switch to?

 

[Ryan Williams]

Why is the stunting still going on? It's been way to long it's getting old!!!!! Does iHeart even know what format they want to switch to?

iHeart’s format wheel is so huge it takes a long time to come to a complete stop after a hard spin!

 

[semoochie]

But that's the way it always was. Record companies used to release records all the time whose sales didn't pay for the plastic, the covers, the promotion, or the distribution costs. They always were hedging bets on artists. Some of my favorite artists were net losses to record companies. The only people who bought the records were their fans. There may have been 50K nationwide, but it didn't pay for the production of the LPs or CDs.

The entire business model has changed, as we've discussed here a bunch of times. It's still changing. I think it's the end of what we used to call "mass" media. I think that as the internet model matures further, it's all just differing "content". Some content will be more popular than other content. But the competition already is massive, and I don't see that reducing. The days of news starts like Walter Cronkite, music stars like Elvis, big movie stars, big TV stars, big news writers (Woodward & Bernstein) or big anything, are slowly coming to a close.

They'll always be there. Fox still gets 3 million or so viewers a day. Walter Cronkite got 48 million. The trend appears to be that every medium gets smaller and smaller, but they still can make money if they're smart at it, if only because the population is still growing and people need media.

I don't know how it will affect radio on the local level. Maybe local streams and podcasts? Maybe radio becomes national in scope? Maybe it stays just as it is now, except it will all be delivered online?

When Walter Cronkite had 48 million viewers, the country was half the size it is now!

 

[davideduardo]

When Walter Cronkite had 48 million viewers, the country was half the size it is now!

And the average market had two or three TV stations, no cable and no independents.

Plus, most homes had one TV set, and when it was on, there were usually many viewers.

 

[boombox4]

And the average market had two or three TV stations, no cable and no independents.

Plus, most homes had one TV set, and when it was on, there were usually many viewers.

Yes, and all of these factors (150 million people vs. 340 million, big three networks instead of 6 or more, 2-3 newspapers per metro vs. maybe one at best (and a gazillion other news websites available everywhere) lends me to believe that we are exiting the era of "mass" media. It's still media, and each individual content channel has the potential to reach the world, but the pie is being sliced thinner and thinner.

 

[davideduardo]

Yes, and all of these factors (150 million people vs. 340 million, big three networks instead of 6 or more,

And every cable or OTT channel is the same as a network as they have access to huge percentages of American households.

2-3 newspapers per metro

But in that decade, newspapers were crashing with afternoon papers almost gone and multiple morning options consolidating or dying.

vs. maybe one at best (and a gazillion other news websites available everywhere) lends me to believe that we are exiting the era of "mass" media. It's still media, and each individual content channel has the potential to reach the world, but the pie is being sliced thinner and thinner.

By the early 70's, even radio had tripled in the number of viable stations per marked as FM became universally viable in every kind of market.

 

[Kelly A]

Why is the stunting still going on? It's been way to long it's getting old!!!!! Does iHeart even know what format they want to switch to?

Patience Weedhopper. Part of the idea with stunting, is to clear the decks.

 

[dxsphere]

If iHeart wants to 'clear the decks', why aren't they stunting with Barney Theme Song or something like that rather than something that might as well be a copy of KBKS with sweepers. If I were in Seattle now, I'd be the type to stick around rather than tune to 106.1 since they're playing full songs.

 

[bobdavcav]

Or they should spin the format wheel every few hours like they did in Boston several years ago, now that was an interesting stunt! As for streaming, I find the targeted adds a bit annoying. I'm listening to a station from a random market, I don't expect local adds. That being said, iHeart does do a good job of timing the breaks appropriately. For the most part so does Lotus Seattle, though at least on KNWN, the adds are quite a bit louder than the actual stream.

 

[Kelly A]

Or they should spin the format wheel every few hours like they did in Boston several years ago, now that was an interesting stunt!

Would you feel better about the process if they played Kokomo?

 

[fordranger797]

I think it’s time to move on from the Kokomo joke. Instead, I think we should focus on how KISW and KZOK would be better if they played “Turbo Lover” by Judas Priest more often.

 

[placebo1969]

Nah, they should play Beyond The Realms Of Death from the Stained Class album.

 

[The New Chico]

Hah! the only person bringing up Kokomo around here is the same one who is accusing the rest of us of living in the past. LOL