Do old people just not listen to the radio around here?

[Bongwater]

Someone once told me radio programming consultants were people whom you paid hard money to tell you things you already knew. Sometimes, that can be true. But in an industry where it's not particularly what but who you know, I'd be damned surprised if they didn't also bring contacts and connections too. That alone can be worth the fee if one is looking for specific people and things.

 

[Miss Tuned]

Someone once told me radio programming consultants were people whom you paid hard money to tell you things you already knew. Sometimes, that can be true. But in an industry where it's not particularly what but who you know, I'd be damned surprised if they didn't also bring contacts and connections too. That alone can be worth the fee if one is looking for specific people and things.

This is generally what consultancy is across industries - certainly in the industry where I work, they are not coming in to give radical new insights that we don't already know. What they are very good at is taking truths we already know and refining them, both into more concrete plans for future work, and into something more understandable and palatable to senior leadership when they want to know the rationale behind our decisions. Consultants know how to speak senior-manager-speak.

 

[DelmarvaDX]

Just an FYI: Nobody buys just one ad, because, as you say, it's a shot in the dark.

The way you maximize your chances of hitting the target is buy lots of ads. Each ad is cheap. At least local radio ads are cheap. If you work with an account exec, he puts together a schedule where your ad gets played maybe ten times a day, in different shows, at different points in the cluster, in order to create the most possible impressions. That ad gets heard by thousands of people and gets results.

Right, I understand...I've advertised on the radio before, among other venues. I attended an excellent program put on by the local newspaper years ago (and you think you have problems!) and it was all built around "top of the mind." It takes a TON of ads to get that result, more than my little business could really afford, especially in the Great Recession. I've been out of business for about 14 years...back then I was doing Google Adwords and seeing some return. More than what 10 $10 radio spots daily was getting me (and consider that at the time I personally wasn't making $100/day!)

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Another glaring disconnect -- a short in the assemblyline -- is the difference between what a polled or tested listener says they want and the answers they actually give.
But the attempts seem to be the most sensible. least expensive and available ways to do a study. There cannot be many ways to ask individuals -- we all are square pegs -- to help someone form a temporary thesis or tenet for their peace of mind. If I suggest 'I wish they'd play more Todd Rundgren' all I'd hear if I was lucky was 'Hello It's Me' for every six times I'd be treated to 'Bang On Me Drum All Day'.
No, I'm no rounder a peg -- probably more square than most of the great posters here. For one, I appear to be older. Two? I was music director and jock who enjoyed working and spinning music from four different formats. I can be called loco for being backwards by liking the pop music of the 90s more than the 80's. There was also a few years working at two of the previously mentioned Soft AC's in Philly when there were FOUR such stations going at it in the market. If I were an attorney I'd have to recuse myself if polled vis a vis my tastes and preferences. I'd be cheerfully talking to a wall and so would the interviewer.
To the question Miguelito posed: yes, I have faith that 55+ can be a winner. If handled right. But there are two many obstacles and analytics inundating the way -- just as there were back a few decades for a format older than Oldies.
At my age now, however, this former Beach Boy rebel surrounded by hordes of city Hoods gets sobered by the words of another neighborhood fellow who said he wanted to apply as head of the then-troubled Long Island Railroad. 'I don't know anything about running a railroad,' he said. 'But it's obvious they don't, either. And I'd work much cheaper.'

 

[gr8oldies]

Right, I understand...I've advertised on the radio before, among other venues. I attended an excellent program put on by the local newspaper years ago (and you think you have problems!) and it was all built around "top of the mind." It takes a TON of ads to get that result, more than my little business could really afford, especially in the Great Recession. I've been out of business for about 14 years...back then I was doing Google Adwords and seeing some return. More than what 10 $10 radio spots daily was getting me (and consider that at the time I personally wasn't making $100/day!)

I remember that Top of Mind Awareness newspaper seminar (in Ohio). At the radio station, we counterprogrammed it and even distributed flyers stating radio advertising was your best solution for Top of Mind Awareness. Somehow this organization was booked on our airwaves. They were pissed and canceled, but why did we want a guest extolling newspaper advertising on our airwaves in the first place?