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Do radio stations do live radio giveaways anymore

kevtronics said:
If all businesses ignored "outliers", then Baskin-Robbins would only have three flavors of ice cream.

Sooner or later, radio stations will have to start listening to outliers, if the group of "inliners" who are listening to them continues to shrink.
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Ah, another typically negative post "proving" that outliers are the future of radio.

Rather than repeat my usual response about consensus listening (because I know it will fall on deaf ears in this case), let me give you a spin on that based on your opinion. There is no way to create consensus among a bunch of outliers who all have their own mutually exclusive definition of what a perfect radio station is. What will please some of them will alienate the rest of them. And outliers -- as our friend the Chimp has illustrated in this thread -- won't sit through the stuff that alienates him just to get to the stuff that doesn't. And his fellow outliers won't sit through anything he likes if they don't also like it.

Your suggestion is a recipe for disaster, and would result in an even lower total potential audience than what we do now. And I will also suggest that this advice from my earlier post applies:
Lance will eventually reach his breaking point with that kind of constant negativity without positive suggestions being included.
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K.M. Richards said:
And outliers -- as our friend the Chimp has illustrated in this thread -- won't sit through the stuff that alienates him just to get to the stuff that doesn't.
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Right. I turned to the station playing tock and roll and doo-wop until the show was over. I wasn't interested in the stuff being sold, but that's not to say I wouldn't listen to some stuff being sold if they would mix in some country songs here and there. But I've been told this is what works.
 
Coincidentally, I jumped to another thread from here, to one of my posts that has gotten a lot of "likes".

And this portion of that post fits the argument taking place here:
Why we program "consensus favorites" and not a lot of deeper cuts in order to hold on to what audience isn't using an app on their phone or Alexa instead of tuning in.

To those wannabes, I will say again (for about the 1,264th time) that radio is not in the entertainment business. We are in the advertising business, and those ads which you uniformly detest are what allows you to tune in and listen without a monthly subscription charged to your Visa or Mastercard. The programming is deliberately designed to attract and hold the highest amount of audience possible, to make the station more attractive as a promotional vehicle for the local businesses.
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Your "program for the outliers" concept would result in ad revenue that was so low, it would be more cost-effective to turn off the transmitter and surrender the license.

No thank you, thank you please.
 
kevtronics said:
If all businesses ignored "outliers", then Baskin-Robbins would only have three flavors of ice cream.

Sooner or later, radio stations will have to start listening to outliers, if the group of "inliners" who are listening to them continues to shrink.
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No, no they dont. In general, most radio stations are targetting a specific audience.

Im not the target for a station like KIMN 100.3.. nor should they pay me much attention if i were to suggest programming ideas.

There are outliers.. the studio Im sitting in right now is one of them.. but we are very rare and the exception. We still have a target audience but we get people outside of that.. but outside the target, its a bonus

I just sold advertising last week (not something i normally do)... to a client who bought our AC/Variety signal based upon its target audience.

vchimpanzee said:
Right. I turned to the station playing tock and roll and doo-wop until the show was over. I wasn't interested in the stuff being sold, but that's not to say I wouldn't listen to some stuff being sold if they would mix in some country songs here and there. But I've been told this is what works.
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The fact youre listening to a station paying rock n roll and doo wop right there says youre an outlier..and its probbaly older rock n roll.

Doowop has been dead as a commercial viable format for 20 to 30 years
 
vchimpanzee said:
But I've been told this is what works.
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I think you would be well served to remember that next time you get in the mood to rant. We really are trying to counter misinformation, misconceptions, and especially misunderstanding of how the business has to work in order to stay in business.

I have been in radio for over a half-century, and my first PD gig was only five years into my career. I am fortunate to have the God-given instinct to do this, but I have seen how the industry has had to change to adapt to all the online competition we have for audience. (I remember thinking what a potential threat to radio the Sony Walkman was in its day ... what we face now is exponentially greater.)

So I am not unsympathetic to your feelings. The difference is that I have continually adapted to the changing reality, and by doing so, I'm still here programming radio stations, and making a decent amount of money doing so (I'm actually pretty well off for someone who just turned 70). The other difference is that I don't whine in public about it, and I am always available to educate those who don't have my 50+ years of experience to see why what happened, happened.
 
K.M. Richards said:
So I am not unsympathetic to your feelings. The difference is that I have continually adapted to the changing reality, and by doing so, I'm still here programming radio stations, and making a decent amount of money doing so (I'm actually pretty well off for someone who just turned 70). The other difference is that I don't whine in public about it, and I am always available to educate those who don't have my 50+ years of experience to see why what happened, happened.
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And this is what I need to hear, but I also need to rant.

I was just reading about where you get all your money.

It's because I'm not well off that I can't take advantage of all the options. But when I first came here to complain years ago, I only had radio. I have the Internet which makes anything possible. But putting the Internet in my car isn't a simple thing for me. I'm also not good at dealing with all this tech stuff.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
The fact youre listening to a station paying rock n roll and doo wop right there says youre an outlier..and its probbaly older rock n roll.

Doowop has been dead as a commercial viable format for 20 to 30 years
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They seem to do well with advertising, but the more contemporary classic hits FM that shows up in the 12-plus numbers is surely propping it up. The man owns several stations and plays what he wants.
 
vchimpanzee said:
. I'm also not good at dealing with all this tech stuff.
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ASK US... theres many here that if you ask how to do something and will listen and follow advice, we're glad to share. alot of us have the knowledge and real life tried it expierience.

I've done all kinds of things, kludged all kinds of things together over the years personally and professionally
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
ASK US... theres many here that if you ask how to do something and will listen and follow advice, we're glad to share. alot of us have the knowledge and real life tried it expierience.

I've done all kinds of things, kludged all kinds of things together over the years personally and professionally
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I do ask, here, and on another site. Sometimes the solution is too expensive for me to try.

Anyway, I think it's time to get back on topic. I know this topic didn't start out being about swap shops.
 
Swap Shop can be a huge deal for listeners and advertisers. We do a 30 minute version with people also calling in birhdays and aniversaries. I've been sold out for just over a year. I have a waiting list.

A friend of mine was at a station where thy did 9:30 to 10 and 3:30 to 4. There's a Texas station running Swap Shop 9 to 11 Mon.-Sat.
 
b-turner said:
We do a 30 minute version with people also calling in birhdays and aniversaries. I've been sold out for just over a year. I have a waiting list.
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Fantastic to hear!!
 
b-turner said:
Swap Shop can be a huge deal for listeners and advertisers. We do a 30 minute version with people also calling in birhdays and aniversaries. I've been sold out for just over a year. I have a waiting list.

A friend of mine was at a station where thy did 9:30 to 10 and 3:30 to 4. There's a Texas station running Swap Shop 9 to 11 Mon.-Sat.
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These can be a good thing. I've heard it on a number of stations. My opinion is that people would get tired of it after a half hour, but somehow it works for the stations in NC that are doing the hour-long version.
 
vchimpanzee said:
These can be a good thing. I've heard it on a number of stations. My opinion is that people would get tired of it after a half hour, but somehow it works for the stations in NC that are doing the hour-long version.
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what youre forgetting is it can be as much as it is buy sell and trade, depending on the station. some stations just go right through the calls, one after another lickity split.. others its buy sell trade but its also a chat
......
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
what youre forgetting is it can be as much as it is buy sell and trade, depending on the station. some stations just go right through the calls, one after another lickity split.. others its buy sell trade but its also a chat
......
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I could enjoy the chat if it wasn't too long. I haven't really listened to it long enough to see how they do it.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I haven't really listened to it long enough to see how they do it.
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So, let me see if I am interpreting that correctly ... you took all this space in the thread to complain about a program that is apparently doing well for the station in question (else they wouldn't be still airing it, and for two hours a day at that), without even listening to it long enough to form an entire opinion of it?
 
kevtronics said:
Yet the Variety Hits (Bob / Jack / "we play whatever we feel like") format has lasted 20+ years so far, at least paying lip service to doing just that.
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Anyone who thinks Adult/Variety Hits formatted stations don't do research to create a consensus favorites playlist targeted at their demo has paid more than just lip service to the positioning statement.

Those stations are not targeted at -- nor is their audience comprised of -- outliers. It's all marketing.
 
vw86 said:
That website gave me a headache
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I wasn't going to look, but your comment made it necessary.

Holy crap, what a mess. I particularly noted that two of the sidebar ads promote weekly programs by state elected officials "starting January 2025".

The schedule for the local team whose games they apparently broadcast hasn't been updated since 2022.

The video stream is "unavailable". The podcasts are repeats of paid infomercials from a single advertiser.

They use the radio-locator map (which appears to be outdated) on their page aimed at potential advertisers, squeezed it down to near-illegibility, and then claiming by their "map legend" underneath as the translator going out farther than the AM.
 
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K.M. Richards said:
Anyone who thinks Adult/Variety Hits formatted stations don't do research to create a consensus favorites playlist targeted at their demo has paid more than just lip service to the positioning statement.

Those stations are not targeted at -- nor is their audience comprised of -- outliers. It's all marketing.
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98.7 Simon in Greensboro NC is frequently number one or close to it.
 


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