I wonder about certain commercials. I keep on hearing a commercial for one of the gambling websites. About 20 or 30 seconds for the site then the rest is disclaimers. I get the legal reason disclaimers but 30 seconds or more of digitally compressed speaking which would be in my opinion about 2 minutes if it was read where anyone could understand is a bit much. If I was a sponsor and my commercial aired next I would want a make good after 30 or more of "tune out radio."
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Tune out commercials
- Thread starter secondchoice
- Start date
And now you know why pharmaceutical ads will never be on the radio.
I say this all the time: The advertisers know all the negatives about the disclaimer. That's why they speed it up. There have even been studies about speeding up the disclaimer vs. running it in real time. All of this has been discussed by radio programmers, sales people, and advertisers. They all know. It's just the cost of doing business, and another reason why radio is hurting for money. If there was ANY other revenue stream, radio would gladly jump on it.
Radio stations also make a lot of money with political ads. If you listen to them, they're all negative, and trash up the sound of the station. For that reason, some music stations refuse to take any political ads. But as things continue to get tight, I expect to see more political ads showing up in music stations. Yes, it's bad, and yes there's no choice.
Sure there is......<click!>
I think the commercials are an important part of the programming of a radio station. The commercials make up close to 20% of the hour. But radio executives generally do not think that way.
The ads should respect the listener. Don't advertise scams, do advertise things that the listener might like to know about, and do it in a way that makes it sound like you and the advertiser have a clue.
But the worst for me are stale ads that run literally forever. One station I worked at years ago aired mostly direct response advertising after 8pm. One of the direct response ads was for a box set of "recently discovered in an attic in Liverpool" Beatles music. The same 60" ad probably had 5000 plays on our station over the course of several years. I never tried to find out if there was actually a trove of Beatles music discovered in the 90s.
One ad that bugs me today is "GetUpside", which is one of the top national advertisers for the last couple of years.
They advertise cash back on gasoline, which is fine. But the claim of the ad is "I've made about $200 cash back", with no time frame given. The rewards offered in my area appear to range from $0.05 to $0.08 per gallon of fuel. In my car, earning $200 cash back would require close to 125,000 miles, which is how much the typical American drives in 7 or 8 years.
The ads should respect the listener. Don't advertise scams, do advertise things that the listener might like to know about, and do it in a way that makes it sound like you and the advertiser have a clue.
But the worst for me are stale ads that run literally forever. One station I worked at years ago aired mostly direct response advertising after 8pm. One of the direct response ads was for a box set of "recently discovered in an attic in Liverpool" Beatles music. The same 60" ad probably had 5000 plays on our station over the course of several years. I never tried to find out if there was actually a trove of Beatles music discovered in the 90s.
One ad that bugs me today is "GetUpside", which is one of the top national advertisers for the last couple of years.
They advertise cash back on gasoline, which is fine. But the claim of the ad is "I've made about $200 cash back", with no time frame given. The rewards offered in my area appear to range from $0.05 to $0.08 per gallon of fuel. In my car, earning $200 cash back would require close to 125,000 miles, which is how much the typical American drives in 7 or 8 years.
I'm talking about the radio stations. The choice is take the money or go broke. You want to know why stations are letting go of veteran talent, and why they program the music the way they do? It's all because of advertisers.
Because when you sell commercials, you are selling time. That time is sold, and consequently belongs to the advertiser. If I sell my house to you, you're free to do anything you want to that house, including demolish it. Unless the advertiser does something illegal, that time belongs to them. That's how the contract is written. As I've said, every programmer I know wishes there was another way to pay for radio. Everything people hate about radio is directly attributable to the advertising. But they pay the bills.
Then your attorney can solve this in an hour.
You obviously have never sold spots. Let's say for the sake of discussion that "my attorney" changes the contract. So the advertiser sees the change, and takes his money across the street to the competition who does whatever the advertiser wants to make the sale. That's the environment in which we try to do business. I've been told that more competition is a good thing. This is an example where it's not.
The job of "Radio Executives", whether that's Bill running a small rural group of stations, or the CEO of iHeart, is to create a consistent stream of revenue that includes profit. Nobody who wants to keep their job is doing radio for fun, or like some personal jukebox. If you're paid to do a job, you do it the best you can. Otherwise, you'll be doing something else. Doesn't matter whether it's radio or selling tropical fish.
As BigA has mentioned several times; other than prohibited language or legal limitations, radio stations don't write and control what's on a spot. That's up to the advertiser or agency. If the advertiser writes a crappy spot, then they'll hear about it. Your particular taste in spots is individual and subjective.
They keep running the same spot because it's effective. Pretty simple.
Most spots after 7PM until 5AM are bonus or network/agency spots.
Again, none of this has to do with radio stations.
Wrong. The content that airs on radio stations has everything to do with radio stations.
If we can't agree on that, I don't think there's a further discussion to have.
The content they create has everything to do with radio stations.
The content that comes from outside sources does not.
Once again, when you sell time to someone, that time belongs to them. That's what they pay for.
If you can't understand that, there's nothing left to discuss.
Radio is not one thing. There are lots of people and areas of responsibility.
How many stations have you worked for that audition spots to make sure they're of a quality you would consider high?
We don't agree, because what you believe isn't the way the business works.
"I'm sorry Mr. Hot Tub Dealer, we can't accept your spot because you repeated the words 'hot tubs' more than once."
"I'm so sorry Ms. Car Dealership, we can't accept your spots because we already have three other car dealerships on the air this month."
Give me a break!
Last edited:
IIRC don't politicians get the best (cheapest) rate the station has sold in the last 3 or 6 months?
The commercial has to be played (revenue) but what about the next commercial? The listener has already quit playing attention. How long until her / his mind is paying attention again. Is one client causing another client ad's to be ineffective?
They can't.
If a station rejected an account for supposed scams, they could be sued. The cost of determining the validity of every account is greater than the buy in some cases.
And stations can't really do much to restrict copy and content unless the policy applies to every client in each category and could never be considered discriminatory.
Nothing tacitly illegal unless station wants to enter into litigation. There is a blurry line between lies and puffery.
But it is not a lie, is it? Restricting it would be discriminatory.
Some politicians in some races get Lowest Unit Rate based on what is charged during the legal time of the applicable campaign.
https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/political_programming_fact_sheet.pdf shows content, timeframe, usage requirement (the voice of the candidate, not PACs, for example) and so on.
I've said this many times. The advertisers know what they're buying. They know the studies. They see the minute by minute numbers and they can see what happens during breaks. We've tried all combinations, and this is what they prefer. If they'd rather a different approach, that's what we'd do because it's their money.
But the other thing to know is they don't buy one spot. They buy hundreds. So they may be the 6th spot in one cluster, or the 1st in the next. Meanwhile, listeners are tuning in and out. They might tune in just as your spot is airing. It's your job as an advertiser to hold the interest of those listeners so they hear your message. That's your job as an advertiser.
They might, but there are so many races with so many candidates and they each buy a lot of commercials in order to get the most impressions. Once again, nobody buys one spot. They buy lots, and politicians think they can change minds by repetition. If they say the same thing enough times, you might agree with them. So it's an additive effect that can mean a lot of money.
I made thousands with GetUpside in just a few days, but I wasn’t a typical user. They banned me because I was too good.
——————-
How I made $100 an hour standing at a gas station handing out $5 bills
I have this talent for spotting loopholes and taking advantage of them.
GetUpside is an app to get deals at gas stations. I heard an ad for it and downloaded it. Then entered promo codes to save 50 cents a gallon or more at certain gas stations. It was successful for me when I used it on a drive from Las Vegas to New Jersey. I figured out how to maximize my bonuses.
GetUpside is aggressively trying to grow its customer base so they’re losing money recruiting people. I hear commercials on many radio stations across the country for GetUpside.
One day in May 2021 I got an offer from GetUpside promising me $20 per referral an unlimited amount of times. That’s huge! I did the math and found that it’s still lucrative if I paid people $5 to sign up. I went to a busy gas station dressed up in a suit and as soon as someone pulled up to a pump, I recruited them. Had them download GetUpside and put my referral code in, then I pumped their gas like I was a New Jersey gas attendant. Then I watched them upload the receipt in front of me. Upon which, I gave them $5. I would profit $15 per referral. I could do this 5-10 times an hour.
Then I watched the referrals pour in. I profited over $3000 before GetUpside suspended my account only after a few days. I had another $5000 stuck in the account that I couldn’t get, oh well, I was happy with making more than $3000 profit in 4 days.
I practically camped out at the gas station, I was there all day and night except when I had to take care of other business that paid me more. The employees liked me being there because word spread that I was handing out money to people filling gas, and some spent it in the store. Not a problem, I made another account but it didn’t have this promotion. I killed it. In addition to the $20 per referral, they also added one cent per gallon off for every gallon my referrals filled. At one point I had so many cents off from the referrals filling up themselves that I’d be paid $12 a gallon to fill gas. I filled my tank, two gas cans, and other people’s gas tanks to max it out at the 50 gallon limit.
This promo has been dead, and because of people like me they probably won’t offer it again. They probably just expected me to tell a few friends, not sign up almost everyone who filled gas with a credit card at that gas station.
- Status