Commercial programming on non-commercial stations and vice-versa

[TheBigA]

LPFM stations should be allowed to sell commercial time, which reasonably could provide a medium for "mom and pop" small businesses that would not be able to afford larger, wider-coverage media.

Right now would be the absolute worst time in history to allow more media to go commercial. Ad rates have already been driven down by the internet, selling at about 10% of typical on-air prices. Because ad rates are so low, commercial radio has no money for staff. To put non-commercial in the same position would be detrimental to the public interest. Non-commercial stations, with their combination of membership dollars, government funding, and corporate grants, have a lot better foundation for providing programming aimed at serving the public.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

^ Not to mention newspapers, where revenue has fallen 51% in aggregate from the 2006 peak, with a decline every single quarter since September of that year.

 

[Ai4i]

Now is never the worst time, rather it is always the best time.
Are we forgetting that consumers are not supposed to serve producers in the best way possible, but the other way around. As a listener, I always want greater variety and it is not the governments job to protect lobbyists with deep pockets.

 

[TheBigA]

Now is never the worst time, rather it is always the best time.
Are we forgetting that consumers are not supposed to serve producers in the best way possible, but the other way around. As a listener, I always want greater variety and it is not the governments job to protect lobbyists with deep pockets.

Doesn't matter. There's not enough ad money in the market to support thousands of new radio stations. Public broadcasting doesn't have lobbyists with deep pockets. And radio companies can't provide greater variety for comsumers without more money. Commercial radio has failed to provide that variety because there's not enough advertising money to pay for it. Put thousands more radio stations under the same rules and pressure, and quality for consumers will get even worse.

 

[TheBigA]

Story today in RadioInk shows that even with corporate sponsorships in public radio, advertising is down, and that leads to losses in funding for programming:

http://www.radioink.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.current.org/2012/11/sponsor-churn-ebb-in-digital-cut-into-nprs-bottom-line/

Without new money, the program Planet Money will be canceled. So changing non-commercial stations into commercial ones will not improve program quality for consumers.

Replacing membership dollars with advertising money will mean less programming for people who don't fit advertiser demographics. That means no more programming for people over 55, no more classical music, no more cultural programming, and parents will have to cope with advertising in children's shows. This country doesn't need more media that bows to the whim of corporations and advertisers. Public radio survives on the support from its members, and we need to have access to that choice in this country.

 

[uncamark]

Story today in RadioInk shows that even with corporate sponsorships in public radio, advertising is down, and that leads to losses in funding for programming:

http://www.radioink.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.current.org/2012/11/sponsor-churn-ebb-in-digital-cut-into-nprs-bottom-line/

Without new money, the program Planet Money will be canceled. So changing non-commercial stations into commercial ones will not improve program quality for consumers.

Replacing membership dollars with advertising money will mean less programming for people who don't fit advertiser demographics. That means no more programming for people over 55, no more classical music, no more cultural programming, and parents will have to cope with advertising in children's shows. This country doesn't need more media that bows to the whim of corporations and advertisers. Public radio survives on the support from its members, and we need to have access to that choice in this country.

In the UK, even with advertising allowed for up to 50% of funding, their version of community radio (which in some cases is more mainstream than what we call "community radio" in the U.S.) is having its problems, with a good number of stations turning back their licenses. Surprisingly, the more "community-ish" community stations like Resonance FM in London and SoundArt Radio in Devon, who are 100% listener/grant-supported iwth no ads, are the ones that are hanging in there--and they're the ones with the more obscure and obtuse programming than a lot of UK community stations.

 

[Ai4i]

This is a little off topic, but I wonder how listener support for NPR and classical stations compare with that for christian pop stations which might have a lot of listeners in some places, but certainly less well educated and more blue collar types.

 

[TheBigA]

This is a little off topic, but I wonder how listener support for NPR and classical stations compare with that for christian pop stations which might have a lot of listeners in some places, but certainly less well educated and more blue collar types.

A friend of mine runs a local non-com CCM station, and he gets more membership dollars than a typical non-com NPR station. But he's offering salvation. That's a lot better than a tote bag! I tell him he's cheating.