Back in the early to mid 1970s I can remember radio commercials on 1340 WALL, WGNY 1220, 1260 WBNR & WSPK, etc. were very entertaining, funny, and creative. Not only was this true for the national radio commercials but all the local radio commercials as well. Anyone know what happen and why this can be done today ?
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Radio Commercials we like...
- Thread starter davefrmn2019
- Start date
I agree that what you said is accurate. I remember commercials from all the stations you mentioned. We need to return to entertaining commercials today, especially if you're running 8 minute stop sets. That's far too long for interesting commercials, but the crap that you hear back to back even in major markets is terrible. Local stuff by local guys who seem to be on the air "because I love it" really suck. I can tell you that most local stations had an actual copy writer who created an entertaining commercial concept. Next it went to a radio person who could actually read for 30 or 60 seconds without aid of putting two lines together at a time on a computer. Effects and music were added and the local sponsor actually saw results from the campaign. At WGNY, Cam Thompson the GM was responsible for many campaigns. I remember the "White Ka-night" who let people know that Kahn real estate was spelled with a K and not a C. Luna bread had spots that let you know "everything tastes better with Luna bread:. After a lot of examples of things that wet well there would be something like "sardines and onions" followed by "Every----Almost everything tastes better with Luna bread" They were cleaver and were talked about locally. Today when you have so few actual employees, and you pay them 12 bucks an hour, you get the crap that we hear on the air each day which would never taste good with Luna bread. It also probably fails at making an impact on listeners, is never talked about at the water cooler and draws no one to the client who paid for it. I do agree with everything you said about local advertising.
The fact is the client buying the time is in control of commercial content. Stations are hurting financially and just have to take the most cost effective way. Hiring great copywriting talent and having multiple voices to work with are likely a thing of the past.
KLBJ FM in Austin had a great creative department at one point. I was early in my radio career and listened to them specifically for the commercials. They were funny and 'just that good'. Certainly as a salesperson I know you can walk in some great messages listeners want to hear that the client loves. So, part of the problem is a good creative department that can do spec spots.
These days in many spots the salesperson has to write the spot and the availability of talent restricts. I'd love to do my Bubba Bug spot for a pest control place (Bubba is the meanest, oneriest bug this side of the Pecos and nobody knows just what kind of bug he his but the other exterminators are shaking in their boots) or Slap your grandma for a restaurant (did barbecue so good you'll wanna slap your grandma...whack...quit hittin' me dagnabit concluding with the restaurant's lawyer warning slapping grandmothers is void and prohibited by law and how Joe's Barbecue is not responsible for you slapping your grandma...fading with made saying 'ooh that's good' and grandma saying 'don't you dare). Unfortunately multi-voice spots that take some work aren't an option for me.
KLBJ FM in Austin had a great creative department at one point. I was early in my radio career and listened to them specifically for the commercials. They were funny and 'just that good'. Certainly as a salesperson I know you can walk in some great messages listeners want to hear that the client loves. So, part of the problem is a good creative department that can do spec spots.
These days in many spots the salesperson has to write the spot and the availability of talent restricts. I'd love to do my Bubba Bug spot for a pest control place (Bubba is the meanest, oneriest bug this side of the Pecos and nobody knows just what kind of bug he his but the other exterminators are shaking in their boots) or Slap your grandma for a restaurant (did barbecue so good you'll wanna slap your grandma...whack...quit hittin' me dagnabit concluding with the restaurant's lawyer warning slapping grandmothers is void and prohibited by law and how Joe's Barbecue is not responsible for you slapping your grandma...fading with made saying 'ooh that's good' and grandma saying 'don't you dare). Unfortunately multi-voice spots that take some work aren't an option for me.
Quite true. But again, poorly read copy with no entertainment value in the middle of a seemingly month long stop set does no good for the client or the station. An entertaining commercial which draws attention and gets a client's point across will help both the client and the station. Radio today is the most boring waste of electricity I can think of. I have a thousand sources for music so I don't need radio for that. I get news from a similar number of sources so I don't have to wade through commercials on radio for that. Radio had better find a way to be entertaining or soon there will be no radio. A client who gives you a grocery list of prices and products is not helping themselves. They probably don't know any better. A station which can provide a quality spot making a real impression with be more meaningful for the client and be a better bang for the buck.
I don't believe the analogy that "we can't afford copywriters or talent" is valid. If I go into Firestone for tires, I expect that they'll find a way to balance and install them on the car. I don't care if they have trouble finding affordable help. I don't care if the manager has to do the work himself. I only care about buying a quality product. How you provide that product is your concern, not mine. If you can't afford to do that you won't have any customer base left in time.
I know quality costs money, and perhaps when a few hundred more stations belly up and go off the air, the remaining few will have a larger chunk of audience and enough money to invest in something worth listening to for broadcast. Lacking a product worth listening to, perhaps they'll just continue to "entertain" fewer and fewer people until there is no longer a reason for auto manufacturers to install AM or FM in cars.
As someone whos worked in small markets my entire career, @b-turner
is exactly correct. He's one of the few small market people I know who truly truly understand sales/programming/on air very well. If I was running a small town station in the south, and needed a combined sales/on air person, id wanna hire him in an instant.
It's a combination of affordability and what the client wants, @Hyrum
I think part of the reason for the change is listener and client preferences change. Back in the 60s and 70s, it was all about big, balls deep voices on air.. now, thats very off putting. Now, listeners want to feel like the person on air is someone they could relate to, have a beer with, etc
Selling especially in small and medium markets... is done on a relationship basis by the sales people with the clients .. and then the talent sells it in the ad. I've done ads that are the complete opposite of what you describe you love and we need more of... and the clients loved them.
Why? I spoke from a point of knowledge and personal relationship with/of the client and product. I have done personal testimonials for a restaurant and ISP.... very warm, very laidback softsell.. and by golly it worked.
Big markets still have copy writers in many cases, but few medium and almost no small markets do.
If you want several hundred stations to go off air, that means even more people will go out of work. If more stations go off air, some will pick up the slack in terms of advertising and talent and money, but it wont recover the way you think it will.
What you didn't have back in the days you describe is digital advertising...targetted advertising through web searches, targetted ads on social media (telling facebook to display only to women in these zip codes.. or anyone 24-42 in this area code).
Some businesses advertise solely on social media because its less expensive and thats all theyre looking at. Some have their own facebook page and think preaching to the choir, reaching their friends is good enough.
And let me tell you, trying to convince small town business owners otherwise is near impossible sometimes despite having sales people whove been in the area for 20-30 years! (I've worked at several small market stations with VETERAN sales staff who still struggled to combat the digital advertising... and were talking veterans who work and live in their hometown area)
The other point is: the client says I want this. If you come back at them and say it won't work, they get ticked off and spend their money elsewhere. I guide lots of clients on spots but there are a good number where it's their way or the highway and they're the least entertaining of them all. So, do you walk away from money, burn bridges and create bad PR via that client by saying you have to do it this way? If you choose that, I'll buy your station before you go bankrupt. Simply put you can't tell the person with the money how they're going to spend it...that's their choice. And that's raw reality from a guy that was inside a good 30 businesses yesterday.
When I worked in NW PA, we had a client whos 60 second ads were for their farm n home type store thats locally owned. It was CRAMMED full I had to speed read. I complained to the sales person all the time, but they said they already cut it back.
The ad was a hodge podge of stuff that had nothing to do with each other and by the time you got to the end, the listener forgot what was at the beginning. I told the sales person, id rather produce 3 easy breezy 30s then one crammed full 60.
She said "thats what the client wants and ive tried to convince them otherwise"
The client has been buying on the station for years if not a decade or more...... quite regularly too.
What do you do? You grumble, produce as the client wants and move on.
All valid points from all who wrote. That still doesn't change the fact that radio and it's ads suck. Until and unless the entire package is entertaining, people will continue to find alternatives. As far as other media, that is true too, yet it doesn't change the fact that although the advertising dollar pie is smaller, no listener gives a damn. They want something entertaining to listen to and if commercials are 20 minutes of most hours, they need to sound better in order to get people to listen to the long stop sets.
Regarding the sponsors who give you 78 seconds worth of crat to cram into a 60, I get that too. My point is that it does no one any good, the sponsor, the listener or the radio station. I understand that most would broadcast crap because economically they need the bucks. What I've been hearing from everyone is "yeah, they want this and we don't have people to make it better so the listeners are going to have to live with today's new radio". But they don't and we can see by the numbers that they are not. As I said earlier, we'd better find a way to make radio entertaining or we need to save a few bucks on electricity and turn off the transmitters. We can deny forever but facts are facts and what is being broadcast simply isn't working.
Regarding the sponsors who give you 78 seconds worth of crat to cram into a 60, I get that too. My point is that it does no one any good, the sponsor, the listener or the radio station. I understand that most would broadcast crap because economically they need the bucks. What I've been hearing from everyone is "yeah, they want this and we don't have people to make it better so the listeners are going to have to live with today's new radio". But they don't and we can see by the numbers that they are not. As I said earlier, we'd better find a way to make radio entertaining or we need to save a few bucks on electricity and turn off the transmitters. We can deny forever but facts are facts and what is being broadcast simply isn't working.
WEll, if the sponsor is happy ansd theyve been buying for years.. it must work at some level for them.
I currently work for a few different radio stations in different states and I can tell you radio is still king with the stations im involved in, for multiple reasons.
Sure. But it doesn't change the fact that radio is loosing audience because most people don't enjoy it. We know the economics and we know that a certain amount of crap has to be accepted to make the station financially viable. You must also agree that there is a reason fewer and fewer people listen to local radio. Especially in markets where there is a major market, the local stations are embarrassing. (Not that the majors are all that good) I don't have the answers but if we continue what is happening and audience continues to go away there may be no one left to turn off the lights and the transmitter at the end of the day. What do they say about those who do the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different?
Some statiolns suck, youre right.. but streaming, commercial free pandora and spotify with playlists you can customer and similar stuff also reasons radio suffers.
We write our own spots here, run about 12-14 an hour and have 25% of the 18-35 and 35+ in my market and are raising rates because results clients get can justify the increase. Commercials are not what makes the station. It's just one of the elements. It still boils down to when the client buys they rule what their message says and that goes for all advertising, not just radio. I could talk TV ads and how awful some are but they keep playing and playing so they must be working or you wouldn't hear them.
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