Obviously a large audience is nice, but it also depends on how well the listeners connect the host or DJ with the product or service that is being offered. Having worked with both Doug and Lynn Cullen, in my opinion it was something that Cullen did a bit better than Doug, and was one of the reasons her show was the last to be removed from 1360, even in its last days that show remained profitable for the station because the listeners would connect the sponsors and the host's endorsement (Little's Shoes, A Pleasant Present, Dr Stiles come to mind off the top of my head) and the listeners would then patronize those businesses.
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Doug Hoerth
- Thread starter PittsburghKid
- Start date
Boss Radio said:
You've just made an arguement AGAINST radio advertising.
I can recall driving from Oakland to Glassport to take advantage of the specials at the Glassport Shop N' Save when they were a sponsor of Prime Sports 1360. Got me a big can of coffee for $4.20.
Actually, devoted fans DO often buy the sponsorships in the manner you speak. I know NASCAR likes to tell their potential sponsors that they have 74 percent fan loyalty. In other words, if you are a Jeff Gordon fan, you WILL buy Dupont products. Little E's following will drink Budweiser.
Other sports weren't as high and probably because they didn't push their sponsors in your face the way NASCAR does (I see a similiarity to how Howard Stern pitches his sponsors), but I used to go out of my way to make my mom buy Kahn's hot dogs because they were the "Official Hot Dog of the Pittsburgh Pirates."
NASCAR and Major League Baseball are pretty mainstream, but I think the same philosophy holds true here, just on a smaller scale.
I mean, if I ran the Italian grocery store on Bates and McKee, I think I would definitely want to sponsor weekend ethnic shows on AM that played Italian music. I think I'd get tremendous bang for my buck.
I'll translate that to Hoerth. Studeford's records on East Ohio. Would have been the perfect sponsor. Beneficial to both.
I realize smaller audience means smaller scale sponsors. But they also would be rather devoted.
Stedeford's doesn't buy radio advertising because it can't afford to.
At 16 minutes of advertising per hour, times 3 hours, times two spots per minute, all you have to do is find 95 more of those who want to advertise every single day at top rates (ethnic radio is known as "a dollar a holler" and for good reason) and you've got something.
And your record store there is probably not going to commit to a schedule costing them $100 a night for 250 nights a year.
And your record store there is probably not going to commit to a schedule costing them $100 a night for 250 nights a year.
RickStarr said:
Well put, Rick. Just about every record store I did business with had to go into collection. Every half-baked jock who claimed to have a following usually bought his records at a certain store and gave them little plugs here and there...until they got caught, were warned repeatedly not to do it, and ultimately got fired. Then they came knocking on my door wanting a gig, telling me that the record store would sponsor them. Well, I would phone the record store, and guess what...uh, no.
I always thought the thing about sales was that you fit the needs of your customers.
So in the case of the aforementioned mom and pop businesses, they would buy on mom and pop shows, not major stations in drive time.
I thought we were talking about Doug Hoerth, whose Sunday oldies show on AM 1320 seemed pretty mom and pop to me.
If I'm wrong here, why? Help me out.
So in the case of the aforementioned mom and pop businesses, they would buy on mom and pop shows, not major stations in drive time.
I thought we were talking about Doug Hoerth, whose Sunday oldies show on AM 1320 seemed pretty mom and pop to me.
If I'm wrong here, why? Help me out.
Pratte4Life said:
You're right, I think we're in an "apples and oranges" comparison. What you're talking about is fine for small station, small market. 1250 with the talk format didn't see itself as either of those, thus it could be considered to have not been successful.
Renda with 1360 is a small fish in a big pond, content to run even WSHH like a little rimshot station...he doesn't even subscribe to Arbitron anymore (for all we know, WSHH might have been #2 behind 3WS in the holiday book). So on his terms Lynn Cullen even doing a little business, or Bogut and Cardille keeping Rohrich Cadillac on the air at WJAS, is enough.
Makes sense. Thanks! Glad we're now all on the same page.
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FreddyE1977
Guest
Pratte4Life said:
Just pulled out my Webster's Unabridged Dictionary and looked up the definition of "masochist".
Yep, that was it.
Why would you say that? Grocery store has good specials in the next town over, why not?
If you believe that taking advantage of the specials advertised in a radio ad is masochism, I can't help you.
If you believe that taking advantage of the specials advertised in a radio ad is masochism, I can't help you.
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FreddyE1977
Guest
Oakland is the 3rd. most heavily congested traffic area in Pennsylvania. Then you have to go through the
Squirrel Hill Tunnels, to arrive in the Mon Valley which is not exactly an infrastructure-rich environment.
Granted Bethel Park to Natrona Heights would be worse.
Squirrel Hill Tunnels, to arrive in the Mon Valley which is not exactly an infrastructure-rich environment.
Granted Bethel Park to Natrona Heights would be worse.
Time your trip there won't be any traffic.
Gas then was cheap (maybe about $1.00 a gallon) and so one had more of an ability to see the community as a metro area back then. And I worked in radio, so you know I had to stretch out every dollar.
Time? In my commute I listened to the radio. What do you think I would have done if I was sitting at home?
I just don't understand this. I show an example where radio advertising worked. I show an example where I came away from radio advertising as a very satisfied customer. I took the opportunity to engage in a passion of mine.
If exploring the community I love and engaging in one of my passions is masochism, then I guess I'm guilty as charged.
But I do feel sorry for the person who would define what I did as masochism.
Gas then was cheap (maybe about $1.00 a gallon) and so one had more of an ability to see the community as a metro area back then. And I worked in radio, so you know I had to stretch out every dollar.
Time? In my commute I listened to the radio. What do you think I would have done if I was sitting at home?
I just don't understand this. I show an example where radio advertising worked. I show an example where I came away from radio advertising as a very satisfied customer. I took the opportunity to engage in a passion of mine.
If exploring the community I love and engaging in one of my passions is masochism, then I guess I'm guilty as charged.
But I do feel sorry for the person who would define what I did as masochism.
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FreddyE1977
Guest
"...Now Playing at a Theater Near You. And even a few far away from you!" ;D
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FreddyE1977
Guest
Pratte4Life said:
It was just a Pittsburgh traffic joke. Nothing personal!
Oh, that's fine. Thanks!
But really I don't think Pittsburgh traffic is nearly as bad as some places I've been- Philadelphia, DC-Baltimore metro, NYC, Boston, etc.
Of course, those are larger cities.
But really I don't think Pittsburgh traffic is nearly as bad as some places I've been- Philadelphia, DC-Baltimore metro, NYC, Boston, etc.
Of course, those are larger cities.
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FreddyE1977
Guest
I'm married to a Motor City gal who after more years than I care to recount still cannot
handle driving around here. Up there you just point yourself in the desired direction and
stomp the accelerator. Here you get down in a valley and you can't even tell what direction
you're headed in. We are all basically following the path a drop of water chose to take
hundreds of millions of years ago.
handle driving around here. Up there you just point yourself in the desired direction and
stomp the accelerator. Here you get down in a valley and you can't even tell what direction
you're headed in. We are all basically following the path a drop of water chose to take
hundreds of millions of years ago.
Been a while since I last dropped in on this thread. I couldn't help but marvel how a topic on Doug Hoerth could have morphed into COMPARITIVE TRAFFIC ANALYSIS 101. But, who am I to talk. Other R/D members have rightly indicted as the worst of all offenders for changing saddles in the middle of a horse race so, that being said (my wife hates that expression)...
I have navigated my own share of miles driving in and around Greater Pittsburgh. While I would stop short (I know, bad pun) of calling it the most congested traffic I've ever navigated, Pittsburgh motorists have always had a tough go. My last road trip to The Steele City was in 1995, but relatives of mine in Penn Hills, McKeesport and Export report it's gotten even worse since then. Until '95, my biggest complaint was road construction, and I mean exit-to-exit cone zones.
One other character unique to cities like Pittsburgh is its terrain; steep hills and lots of curves. Road engineering must be pretty challenging there thanks to those two quirks of nature. I remember Rt 22 being largely exempt of road curves, but hopelessly prone toward volume overload, thanks to 50-plus years of suburban sprawl and pop-up strip malls. My favorite drive used to be Universal Road. As a child, Universal appealed to me as the scenic route. Not anymore. Much of what was once 2 & 4-lane Sunday driving has since expanded to 6-lanes of 24/7 madness.
My grandfather farmed much of what is now North Bessemer. My propensity for nostalgia kicked in on that final visit in '95, so I drove over to see how the old homestead looks "today". The shock nearly killed me. Stores, congestion, and even the scent of auto polution, a distant cry from yesteryear's eminent fragrance of freshly mined coal in transport along the railroad tracks on the other side of the bluff.
Grandpa's last farm was just outside Butler. Don't even get me started on the Butler I found in '95--- stores, congestion and, maybe not so much auto stench as much as eye pollution, like all of those fast food eateries.
Pittsburgh's majestic hills and the curvey roads servicing them are still around, but it's rural character is forever gone. I miss them days...
I have navigated my own share of miles driving in and around Greater Pittsburgh. While I would stop short (I know, bad pun) of calling it the most congested traffic I've ever navigated, Pittsburgh motorists have always had a tough go. My last road trip to The Steele City was in 1995, but relatives of mine in Penn Hills, McKeesport and Export report it's gotten even worse since then. Until '95, my biggest complaint was road construction, and I mean exit-to-exit cone zones.
One other character unique to cities like Pittsburgh is its terrain; steep hills and lots of curves. Road engineering must be pretty challenging there thanks to those two quirks of nature. I remember Rt 22 being largely exempt of road curves, but hopelessly prone toward volume overload, thanks to 50-plus years of suburban sprawl and pop-up strip malls. My favorite drive used to be Universal Road. As a child, Universal appealed to me as the scenic route. Not anymore. Much of what was once 2 & 4-lane Sunday driving has since expanded to 6-lanes of 24/7 madness.
My grandfather farmed much of what is now North Bessemer. My propensity for nostalgia kicked in on that final visit in '95, so I drove over to see how the old homestead looks "today". The shock nearly killed me. Stores, congestion, and even the scent of auto polution, a distant cry from yesteryear's eminent fragrance of freshly mined coal in transport along the railroad tracks on the other side of the bluff.
Grandpa's last farm was just outside Butler. Don't even get me started on the Butler I found in '95--- stores, congestion and, maybe not so much auto stench as much as eye pollution, like all of those fast food eateries.
Pittsburgh's majestic hills and the curvey roads servicing them are still around, but it's rural character is forever gone. I miss them days...
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
Conversations taking strange and unexpected turns.
I rather suspect Uncle Dougie would have liked it!
I rather suspect Uncle Dougie would have liked it!
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