• 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

770 WABC Number 1 ?

TheBigA said:
WINS clearly appeals to older demos and clearly gets agency business. How else would they have billed $40 million last year?
Click to expand...
Theo ways. First, they run more commercial minutes an hour. Second, they do show well in 45-54.

Their rates are lower than the comparable music st actions due to older age lean, but they sell more minutes am hour.

Additionally, there are a number of accounts that want the foreground nature of all news, such as brokers, banks, etc.
TheBigA said:
WFAN also has an older demographic and gets agency business.
Click to expand...
WFAN gets most traditional agency buys based on its mem 25-54 showing. But it also gets considerable “sports marketing” money that only buys that format and which is more content focused than age dependent.
 
wadio said:
In this whole thread I've never said that all agencies ARE looking to older demos. I've said that some probably are and perhaps others SHOULD.
Click to expand...
Again, agencies just implement an advertiser’s marketing plan. Those accounts spend hundreds of millions a read on market research and they know what the characteristics of ther profitable consumers are.
wadio said:
I've noticed that, with a few exceptions, the posters on this board are pretty much locked into their views and not willing to even consider other opinions. It's "No, No, No, you're wrong!" Not "I disagree."
Click to expand...
That is because we are in radio, and are not even close to then marketing departments of advertisers that use agencies to implement their advertising plans.
wadio said:
The more often a single view is repeated, the more it becomes "the truth."
Click to expand...
Or, as in your citation of AI information, wrong information makes it seem that there is a different truth.
 
Last edited:
wadio said:
AI relies on numerous sources.
Click to expand...
However, “all those sources” does not include the marketing department of each of the agency accounts because that data is highly confidential.

Older consumers have long time brand preferences older consumers take lots more “impressions” to make a sale. Older consumers who buy luxury items often have been planning that for years and ads make no difference.

A percentage have high spendable income, but most live on very precise budgets.

And all those health and wellness products depend highly on video, as they use images to show happy outcomes while masking all the “can cause strokes and death” warnings. They don’t buy radio for that reason.

There are more reasons, but what you got from AI sins most from the total lack of how advertisers research their markets.
 
FWIW, I agree with most of you about the accuracy of AI and when I have the time I'll try to find some human-created articles about older demos.

But remember, it's 2025 -- not 1985. Don't you suppose business people are using AI? And that includes the newbies at ad agencies! It's easy to cling to what was but, for better or worse, time marches on.
 
Actually it didn't take long. There are plenty of articles but this one is pretty comprehensive:

www.thenathanielwitherell.org

Ageism in Advertising: Older Adults are Often Overlooked and Underserved | Nathaniel Witherell

We’ve been addressing the topic of ageism not just because we serve a mature audience, but because ageism is a form of discrimination, one that impacts
www.thenathanielwitherell.org www.thenathanielwitherell.org

Again, I'm not claiming that agencies don't ignore 55+, just that maybe they should keep an open mind.
 
TheBigA said:
How many 55+ formats do you want? Half of the dial is 55+. From where I sit, the real shortage is in formats that target 18-25.

People say young people don't use radio. Why should they? There's nothing for them. No hosts who represent them.
Click to expand...
And when those people die off with no replenishment…
 
TheBigA said:
How many 55+ formats do you want? Half of the dial is 55+. From where I sit, the real shortage is in formats that target 18-25.
Click to expand...
That's really a different subject. I was talking about the lack of interest on the part of agencies in targeting advertising at 55+. You bring up another reason why they SHOULD.

Here's another article:

giantpartners.com

Marketing to Seniors in 2024 - America's #1 Data Driven Marketing Agency

Make the most of your digital marketing budget to target seniors. Let us help you with your marketing to seniors campaign to better understand your target audience.
giantpartners.com giantpartners.com
 
wadio said:
That's really a different subject. I was talking about the lack of interest on the part of agencies in targeting advertising at 55+.
Click to expand...
That's already been discussed ad nauseam in this thread. I remember it being discussed when adult standards literally died off 20 years ago. It didn't matter that the format targeted a demographic that still has buying power, you couldn't make money off of it because it was so far removed from 25–54. So it went away.

WABC has a format with a different ecosystem for advertising and an owner willing to sink money into it if he had/has to. It's an anomaly in that sense.
 
wadio said:
That's really a different subject. I was talking about the lack of interest on the part of agencies in targeting advertising at 55+. You bring up another reason why they SHOULD.
Click to expand...

As I have pointed out, there's NO lack of interest. Most of the advertising you hear is for 55+

Who do you think buys all the medical products being advertised? Teens and twenties?? This is why they don't listen.

Sure you can find a lot of articles written by boomers bemoaning the lack of radio for them. They're wrong.
 
Public radio programs to 55+. They can't run advertising. They just had their federal funding cut. That will affect what they do on radio and TV.

Most of the stations that play music for 55+ were supported by CPB funding. Stations such as WFUV and WBGO.

When Brian Wilson died, the stations that did tributes were mainly public radio stations.

Will 55+ people support public radio now that the government has pulled the plug?
 
wadio said:
Again, I'm not claiming that agencies don't ignore 55+, just that maybe they should keep an open mind.
Click to expand...
Again, it is not ad agencies that establish the marketing plans of advertisers… it’s the advertiser’s own marketing department. Radio stations… even big groups… have little direct contact with agency clients. Traditionally it has been considered unethical to “jump the agency” and go directly to their clients.
 
wadio said:
That's really a different subject. I was talking about the lack of interest on the part of agencies in targeting advertising at 55+. You bring up another reason why they SHOULD.

Here's another article:

giantpartners.com

Marketing to Seniors in 2024 - America's #1 Data Driven Marketing Agency

Make the most of your digital marketing budget to target seniors. Let us help you with your marketing to seniors campaign to better understand your target audience.
giantpartners.com giantpartners.com
Click to expand...
Note that all the recommended media is visual. One of the biggest reasons there is little senior targeted advertising on radio is that many account categories depend on significant visual presentation to make their point.
 
davideduardo said:
Again, it is not ad agencies that establish the marketing plans of advertisers… it’s the advertiser’s own marketing department. Radio stations… even big groups… have little direct contact with agency clients. Traditionally it has been considered unethical to “jump the agency” and go directly to their clients.
Click to expand...
Good point. I should have used a broader term like "marketers."
 
TheBigA said:
With regards to WABC, the "marketers" don't care about demographics. Old people vote too. Their interest is to provide the funding so the ideology continues to be heard.
Click to expand...
Good point on ideology, BigA. Remember Cats is a "NY Liberal Democrat Republican." There are more of those in NY and across America than all the polls and studies can figure out. They don't fit one mold, but they get steered/assigned into finite categories based upon who is paying for the information.

What is actually amazing is that given the number of news/talk/sports options on the dial (especially WINS on AM and FM) that WABC has the numbers. There are still an amazing amount of potential listeners in Market #1 that will be around for another decade plus.
 
TheBigA said:
With regards to WABC, the "marketers" don't care about demographics. Old people vote too. Their interest is to provide the funding so the ideology continues to be heard.
Click to expand...
By "marketers" in this discussion we are talking about advertisers and their agencies. That has nothing to do with voting or ideology.
 
davideduardo said:
By "marketers" in this discussion we are talking about advertisers and their agencies. That has nothing to do with voting or ideology.
Click to expand...
I "think" BigA is saying that agencies are not buying WABC and any advertising/air time is purchased by "marketers" than will possibly see a local benefit. That could be in Cats two dozen plus stores, running for office or just helping a friend spread his influence out to his core group.
 
davideduardo said:
By "marketers" in this discussion we are talking about advertisers and their agencies. That has nothing to do with voting or ideology.
Click to expand...

The group that connects these particular advertisers with conservative radio has everything to do with voting and ideology. It's why they exist.

If you listen to their ads, they are speaking directly to conservatives who support certain views and politicians. It's part of the pitch.
 


Back
Top Bottom