Brokered time

[ajhenderson]

Looks like more brokered time coming, with KNEW apparently adding an hour or two after Savage during the week in the near future.

And on the same topic, didn't one Mr. Pappas come here and say he had no plans to run infomercials in "key dayparts" on 860? Apparently he's changed his mind, with Roex and the capital Gold group now filling out the midmorning schedule. Not that I wouldn't take those shows on the flailing KTRB, but I would have done it to begin with.

Oh, and when is 1550 going brokered money talk? Ah, the sounds of the AM dial in San Francisco... Vietnamese, Mandarian, and mortgage hucksters.

 

[DavidKaye]

This could be a very good thing. Now everybody who wants to be a talkshow host or DJ can do so. Just pony up the money. Hey, when you think of it, this isn't such a bad idea. If your program idea is really good and you can get enough people to believe in what you're doing, you can make out okay. Dr. Gene Scott did, after all.

And it's not just for the marginal folks, either. Remember that CNET bought time on KNEW for a year to try to launch their CNET Radio network. It was a very listenable format, too. I'm still in contact with Desmond Crisis. He thinks the world of the CNET folks who brought the thing to fruition. And they had advertisers, too; not enough advertisers before the plug was pulled, but they were making some headway.

So, brokered stations could be a godsend to people wishing to try out new things.

 

[blackhole]

Oh, and when is 1550 going brokered money talk?

They always have been!! They've been doing pay per play crap pretty much ever since the country simulcast was dumped in??? the late 90's sometime.

 

[ajhenderson]

I'm aware 1550 has always done some brokered stuff and served as a dumping ground for Imus, Leykis, Leykis again, and other shows CBS/WW1 wanted to clear (or in Carolla's case, had to clear) in SF.

David, I'm not saying brokered is bad. It makes me a lot of money. But with 1450 and 1550 available to whore out all day, why does KNEW need to join the fray? And, yes, some people make money off doing decent brokered shows that actually have some content... unfortunately, 95% of people have no sales ability whatsoever, so that leaves the 5% who do to buy the time and make money off of it. Except those of us that can sell would rather make much more money selling than hosting radio shows on taxi frequencies.

 

[DavidKaye]

David, I'm not saying brokered is bad. It makes me a lot of money. But with 1450 and 1550 available to whore out all day, why does KNEW need to join the fray?

Because Clear Channel doesn't own 1450 or 1550. Brokered time is the future of AM radio, like it or not. This is not conjecture; it's a trend that began over 2 decades ago when the bulk of radio listening shifted to FM. I see AM radio going to mostly infomercials the same way that on-air TV has gone. It's the dichotomy of the marketplace: The people willing to spend money are subscribing to high-end cable/sat TV offerings like HBO and Showtime on the TV side and Sirius and XM on the radio side. The people who listen/watch for free will be getting lower and lower quality content as time goes on. Few advertisers will be willing to pay for their ears/eyes because who wants to advertise to an audience made up of cheapos?

I find the same thing with my alternate career booking live music shows. I no longer book bluegrass music at clubs because bluegrass folks will buy the cheapest thing they can get and nurse it for 3 hours. No club owner wants that kind of cheapo customer. Well, few advertisers are going to want the cheapo listener, either.

I can foresee a time when stations such as KGO and KQED-FM go to a subscription model.

 

[ajhenderson]

I understand your point and am not trying to argue, but there is still some viability on AM. Is most of the AM dial in each market a wasteland? Yes. (Unless of course you live in NY, LA, SF, etc. and speak one of the languages with its own AM station(s)). But SF is the best major market for AM talk and Savage is a top attraction in PMD. I can certainly see why they'd say far fewer people listen from 7-9pm, but there comes a time when it becomes a slippery slope. If you want to whore time, go all the way. Once you start, it's hard to stop, and pretty soon you'll be like KTRB with Roex on in the midday. If that's what KNEW wants to do, then God bless them. If they kept the morning show and Savage, they could cume a lot less and still get $1,500 or so an hour for much of the day. But I don't think that's what they want to do, because outside of Louisville, Tampa, and West Palm, CC doesn't run full-scale brokered talkers.