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Brokered business upgrade

J

johnbasalla

In these hard economic times, having a healthy revenue stream is tougher and tougher to maintain. Thinking out of the box for a moment,
how successful might it be for the major corporations who own 3 or 4 stations in a large or major market to take one of their properties and turn it into a total or heavily brokered programming operation? Thus you'd have an operation with a different revenue generating stream that might weather certain downturns better then others. Are there enough people/groups out there to buy half-hour or hour blocks?
In Canton Ohio they have a TV station that runs almost 24/7 infomercials. Brokered programming radio outlets are often the fringe signal, or weak AM's. How much more successful would the brokered programming be, for both the buyer and seller, if it was on a full power, major or large market covering FM station?
 
Not very profitable. Many of these programs are per-inquiry, or pay a percentage of donations (religious) received from the station's zip.

And, of course, such programming almost guarantees a bad book.
 
One would go into brokered programming understanding that their ratings would be in the toilet. Generating revenue based on ratings wouldn't be part of the equation. The TV station that runs non-stop informercials couldn't care less about its ratings. The business model is different. The question is, would this be a profitable business model for a major full-power station or two? Based on TomT's comment, no. Are there enough non-religious clients out there that have something to say and the money to buy the time slots to say it?
 
I'd expect that the trend this year will be profitable content will migrate from AM to FM, and the AM will be used for brokered broadcasting. If they can't sell the frequency first.
 
John,

Speaking as someone who ran a similar model for an absentee owner, I can tell you that it should
be viewed as a last-ditch effort. Use only if you have no other options.

The problem is that you can probably sell an initial round of programming..but with no ratings, they
won't get response, and they will begin cancelling right and left. Once you begin looking for replacement
programs it gets harder because these agencies do look at the response your station is pulling.

And for the revenue? Maybe $10k a month on a good month. $4k when they start cancelling.


The Christian brokered model works in a similar fashion. The audience, once/if it gets established, is a little more loyal.

I've been down this road before with an owner who was sure he was going to make a fortune. In reality, the payroll checks bounced.
 
It depends on the market. In Chicago, there are several AMs with fairly marginal facilities that do very well with brokered programming, but it's local programming... mostly foreign language. Some of the programs have been on for decades.

Up until a few years ago, 50kw 720/KDWN in Las Vegas was essentially a time-brokered station. They had several local talk programs a day, but more time was devoted to brokered talk shows, from financial and legal advice, to a psychic, to gardening, plus quite a bit of sports handicapping since this was Vegas. And the station's talk shows had frequent "guests" who were actually paying for the time to promote their businesses. KDWN ran very few spots, so apparently the brokered shows were enough to keep it afloat. They had some of the half-hour infomercials, too.

I understand on some sports stations, the local shows are brokered with the hosts buying the time and selling the spots. Some stations even broker high school football play by play. I know of a station years ago that sold a guy three hours every night for his "swap shop" program which was loaded with spots he sold.

KLAV/1230 in Las Vegas is all time-brokered, mostly talk with a few foreign language programs. And even a few music programs, I remember a few years ago hearing a black gospel show, sponsored by a local tailor who hosted the show. They at one time had a weekly show for cabbies and even one for strippers. Of course, most of these shows don't last long when the person buying the time can't find enough sponsors. But there always seems to be someone else willing to buy the time. KLAV has even run ads in a shopper: "You can have your own talk show on KLAV."

KSHP/1400 in Las Vegas "Kay-Shop" takes a somewhat different approach. They have a few hours a day of time-brokered horse racing programming (people bet on horse races in Vegas), and maybe a few other time-brokered talk shows. But AM & PM drive, plus Saturday and Sunday morning, they have the Kay-Shop Shopping Show where they sell to callers certificates for restaurants, car washes, you name it. The rest of the day (unsold time) is the Sports By-line network.

Of course KSHP and KLAV have no ratings and are mostly likely run on shoestrings, but they apparently are making enough to stay on the air.
 
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