$400 to $500 spots in New Hampshire?

[radiotony]

Hi all, Happy New Year!

Quick question: Are any of your stations in New Hampshire billing $400 to $500 per spot in drive time for non-candidate political ads?

There is a political group out of California trying to solicit donations from their site claiming this. I emailed one of the contacts offering to do a little legwork for the group and he said that is the price some of the media buyers in the state are quoting.

I can see WBZ getting this price but not the big FMs in New Hampshire. I wonder if some of the buyers are trying to rip political groups off. I would be interested to hearing from radio people about this if they know whether or not the prices are actually that high. If you want to remain anonymous, no problem.

Please email me at [email protected].

 

[MassMusicMan]

Rip political groups off? It's called "market value." If you're lucky enough to hold a license in New Hampshire, what's the problem with charging 4 or 5 bills for a spot? I don't see what the problem is here. Radio stations are laying people off left and right. Good for these stations for making money by increasing revenue instead of dumping salaries.

 

[nhradiochild]

Here's an expansion question...

Are temporarily inflated rates during a political season illegal, just so long as the station charges the same rate for all new contracts?

And would they do such a thing?

 

[radiotony]

I didn't say "radio stations ripping off political groups" ... I said "buyer" as in media buyers claiming that spots are $400 to $500 bucks because they know the political groups are desperate to get their messages on that air. But, having said that, if a radio station is charging a political group $500 for a spot but the local hardware store $30, yeah, that would be a ripoff and probably not legal. Having said that, I don't know if anyone is actually doing this. I'm just asking the question.

Rip political groups off? It's called "market value." If you're lucky enough to hold a license in New Hampshire, what's the problem with charging 4 or 5 bills for a spot? I don't see what the problem is here. Radio stations are laying people off left and right. Good for these stations for making money by increasing revenue instead of dumping salaries.

 

[MassMusicMan]

If the local political groups' revenue/ad budget in relation to the hardware store's budget is proportional to the 500/30 ratio, it's completely fair.

 

[nhradiochild]

LOL. Rate card on a bell curve.

 

[NO DAG]

I said "buyer" as in media buyers claiming that spots are $400 to $500 bucks because they know the political groups are desperate to get their messages on that air.

Nice little agency commission there... If a buyer is ponying up that much per commercial, at least they know the commecial should clear at the times the buyer wants.. Though it appears that the buying agency's client is getting taken advantage of a bit..

 

[nhradiochild]

Mustering up my best farmer's voice:

I see up on da headline rotata-thingy up theyah that this story gets sum attintion. Wonder if we'll see any out-of-townas up in these hyah parts? 8)

In the meantime, if this were to actually become a key story nationally, how many local radio stations who might potentially benefit from increased ad revenue shy away from it. Or, how many that see this think they're getting ripped off and file some sort injunction or something like that?

SAY!!! Where's Adbuyer or Mediabuyer? What's their response?