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Brokered Air "Talent"

L

LocalRadio

Guest
Jerry Blavat has made a fortune buying his time. RJ is lucky if he's a footnote in the "Brokered Bible."
Has anyone else ever made some serious coin buying their time?
 
Anyone know anything about the new buyer of WHAT Philadelphia? See Radio and Records Online, Transactions, November 10th. $5 million, I believe, to one Kelly. Nothing yet in the FCC CDBS.
 
Over the years, I have known several Gospel and Hispanic show hosts who purchased time and sold the ads. No, they are not "famous" beyond their targeted audience. But several did this for their basic living income. And they survived better than some paid radio "professionals". Its all a matter of being well known in the ethnic community you want to reach and providing a product they want.
 
LocalRadio said:
Jerry Blavat has made a fortune buying his time. RJ is lucky if he's a footnote in the "Brokered Bible." Has anyone else ever made some serious coin buying their time?
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Here in Pittsburgh, we have three semi-secular radio stations in the market that make their revenue through time-brokered programs. Most of the hosts do shows that target an ethnic audience. One I'll use as an example is Sal Patitucci, who has been on the air for more than 40 years doing his shows at point, over two or more stations. He always sold his own airtime, and he always made money with it.

I've heard arguments from both sides concerning time-brokerage. My opinion is, time-brokered formatting has been the saving grace of many AM stations, especially daytimers. One of the stations in Pittsburgh is a perpetual daytimer and they've been doing time-brokered radio since the early 80's, when they dropped their music. They're a 1000 watt clear channel (one of the very few left) AM, with listeners as far away as western Maryland.

To add to that, if those hosting the programs must buy airtime and then resell it to recoup their costs, they'll care more about the content of their programming, since they'll be on the frontlines selling their product. They'll receive feedbacks from businesses telling them what they like or dislike about the programming. Then they'll adjust the content to make it more marketable (within reason).

Critics of time-brokerage claim that such programming is a waste of a valuable license. I don't agree with that. Every marketing class tells you that you succeed by fulfilling a need. Those who have emigrated to the U.S. legally and don't want to give up their culture 100 percent are consumers just like everybody else. Once they know you exist, they stay loyal to the program and its advertisers.
 
I think brokering time is fine. It made Blavat very successful.

I was just asking if anyone else in the Philadelphia area had ever made some decent money doing it. In my opinion, RJ is not one of them. But there may be others. I'm just asking.
 
kenhawk1160 said:
LocalRadio said:
Jerry Blavat has made a fortune buying his time. RJ is lucky if he's a footnote in the "Brokered Bible." Has anyone else ever made some serious coin buying their time?
Click to expand...

Here in Pittsburgh, we have three semi-secular radio stations in the market that make their revenue through time-brokered programs. Most of the hosts do shows that target an ethnic audience. One I'll use as an example is Sal Patitucci, who has been on the air for more than 40 years doing his shows at point, over two or more stations. He always sold his own airtime, and he always made money with it.

I've heard arguments from both sides concerning time-brokerage. My opinion is, time-brokered formatting has been the saving grace of many AM stations, especially daytimers. One of the stations in Pittsburgh is a perpetual daytimer and they've been doing time-brokered radio since the early 80's, when they dropped their music. They're a 1000 watt clear channel (one of the very few left) AM, with listeners as far away as western Maryland.

To add to that, if those hosting the programs must buy airtime and then resell it to recoup their costs, they'll care more about the content of their programming, since they'll be on the frontlines selling their product. They'll receive feedbacks from businesses telling them what they like or dislike about the programming. Then they'll adjust the content to make it more marketable (within reason).

Critics of time-brokerage claim that such programming is a waste of a valuable license. I don't agree with that. Every marketing class tells you that you succeed by fulfilling a need. Those who have emigrated to the U.S. legally and don't want to give up their culture 100 percent are consumers just like everybody else. Once they know you exist, they stay loyal to the program and its advertisers.
Click to expand...

FCC issues license to people to own a radio station to serve the public. Certainly Time Brokering is serving the public.
 
Here in the Hartford Market, A DJ named Oscar Nieves bought 4 or 5 hours every Saturday afternoon on WBIS AM 1120 in Bristol, CT 1KW Day/500 watts nite. In November 1993 he began LMAing the station 24/7 moved the station to a Hispanic Commmunity and changed calls to WPRX. Flash forward to 1998 or 1999 and he along with a business partner bought the staiton out right for $750,000. A couple years ago they LMA'd it to another Hispanic Company, who ran it into the ground, but after only a few months they took control of the station again and it's once again successful.

Others weren't so lucky. An Outfit called El Principe Communications leased 12 hours on Saturdays and Sundays on WMMW AM 1470 in Meriden, CT 2.5 KW Day/Night. Not long after they bought the station. In 1998 El Principe was bankrupt and sold the station to Buckley Broadcasting, who turned the station into the 4th station in their AM Adult Standards Network (now talk).

In 1999 El Principe was back. They LMA'd WNTY 990 in Southington, CT 24/7 (which was supposed to be 2.5 KW Day/80 watts at night). Not long after they began LMAing the station they got busted for running the station at 2.5KW from 6AM-12AM. I don't know how much money they made monthly, but they had quite a few sponsors. Then in May 2000 they stopped paying for the air time and other bills. The owner took them to court and in September 2000 they were ordered off the air for good and forced to pay back rent, back bills, and the owners lawyers fees. From what I read in the papers that was a huge mess. And a game of cat & mouse. The owner of the station and El Principe taking turns locking each other out of the station. During the eviction court hearings El Principe used the lame "ADD Radio (the owner of the station) wants us to pay them rent for the air time, but they cut power to the building causing us to lose our only source of income."

So in Connecticut - 1 successful run and 2 failed runs.
 
TheLaffer said:
FCC issues license to people to own a radio station to serve the public. Certainly Time Brokering is serving the public.
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Exactly. Many say it isn't, but it is. When you serve a very small minority with ethnic or Catholic programming, as is in the Pittsburgh case (WEDO-AM), you're superserving that smaller audience, but you're still making money doing it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
 
LocalRadio said:
Jerry Blavat has made a fortune buying his time. RJ is lucky if he's a footnote in the "Brokered Bible."
Has anyone else ever made some serious coin buying their time?
Click to expand...

Probably not at Blavat's level, but I'd imagine that Barry Reisman and Jay Lamont have done well for themselves over the years. The key with Blavat and Lamont was that exposure from radio built name recognition that carried over into other endeavors.
 
Probably not at Blavat's level, but I'd imagine that Barry Reisman and Jay Lamont have done well for themselves over the years. The key with Blavat and Lamont was that exposure from radio built name recognition that carried over into other endeavors.
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Excellent examples and points.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have brokered time on both television and radio in the past. In all but one of those cases, the efforts were purely business endeavors. Several of those endeavors were moderately successful. Others were disasters.

While I obviously don't claim to speak for Jerry Blavat, it's my understanding his radio programs are first and foremost promotional vehicles for his appearances. The radio shows by themselves may be "loss leaders" for all I know; they may not make (or, they may even lose) money. But they do contribute to the overall Geator "franchise", which obviously is very valuable.

Another example MAY BE Bob Pantano on WOGL. I don't know what the exact arrangement is, but I get the impression he is more of an independent businessman than a WOGL staff member. I hear a different set of advertisers too, and I get the feeling WOGL has little input as to what records Pantano plays. If that's a brokered show, it without doubt would be one of the most successful ones in the history of Philadelphia radio.

RJ, by his own admission, rarely does hops and has nothing to promote. There is little if any "RJ franchise". So why does he keep brokering time on tertiary radio and television stations? I can only think of one answer; it consists of one three-letter word (which begins and ends with a vowel).
 
George Brusstar said:
I can only think of one answer; it consists of one three-letter word (which begins and ends with a vowel).
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ALE?
 
ALE?
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No, though that would probably be a motivating incentive for me.

Besides, it couldn't be ale. Remember what RJ said a few weeks back on his brokered talk show:
"Beer drinkers [are] the lowest of the low."
 
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