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enough ads take 2

S

Shredder

since I couldn't find the original post..

Does anyone think CBS FM is getting stupid with all the ads? I've noticed a dramatic shift since I started listening full time in March.

Now the studio is sponsored. Thankfully it's never mentioned. The news breaks are sponsored. The Traffic has double tags.
And now their new thing is not only Facebook ads in station pages, but ads on top of ads. they read one the other day that was some modern family, double promotion. They sponsored modern family and had a contest where the modern family people gave away another sponsor prize. it was so confusing even the DJ's didn't get it.

I guess the sales guys don't care that the station doesn't get a chance to breath and it sounds terrible. I understand that ads pay for the personalities we love. But things went by FINE as they where for decades. One or two ads done by the announcer per hour, and one tag by the traffic guy. all of a sudden in the last 4 years or so, people are just getting greedy and trying to cram in as many as they can, regardless as to how it sounds. and anyone who tells me otherwise must be a sales guy ;o)...

is it the same on other stations you listen too?
 
It's not just CBS-FM, of course, Shredder and Josh.
From a slight tangent off your ire :

Although I'm a casual Mets fan, I'm probably considered even more misguided for enjoying John Sterling's Yankees PBP. Evidently I'm in the vast minority in that regard.

Anyway, those broadcasts are crammed to the light stancheons with everything short of a season-ending injury sponsored by something or other.
Thing is, I consider Sterling's live reads to be well done. Waldman (and others) will throw away a read or a tag quite often. Sterling's salesmanship. to me, anyway, is above the norm, and makes those ludicrously oversold moments less irritating.

But the overall concept of the spot clusterfust is not limited to this country. Yesterday morning I was driving, still dark out, just before 6, and hearing a bunch of ads in a row on 690 AM. The spots just kept on coming. I went into a minimart for some coffee and smokes and when I got back in the car the station was STILL playing spots! I wanted to hear them ID at the top of the hour because I'm one of those odd DXer people.
Then I heard a mention of Montreal, plus another mention of a Canadian outfit. So that meant I was hearing 'the station formerly known as CBF', whatever their calls are now.
The barrage went on for so long that I was back home with my coffee and shut off the car without finding out what the station's FORMAT was.

Still, though : Is this marketing form of Nile Fever all over the globe? Irrespective of format or language?

And nowadays, with much of the over-produced and hackneyed music sounding the same, one has to sit through not just the avalanche of spots but maybe one or two formulaic songs after to realize what FORMAT the station is you've found. But that's another topic.
 
Radio is a business, not a charity. It costs money to pay people, and to keep the music you enjoy on the radio.

Rather than complain, you should take pride that someone wants to pay the money so you can enjoy your music for free. More advertising means your favorite station is healthy, and won't be flipping to some younger format any time soon. It would be far worse if the station had no advertising. A lot of these stations stream, and streaming on the internet is very expensive. Someone has to pay for all of that, and the advertisers are the ones who are doing it.

By the way, the commercial load at WCBS-FM is about the same as it was 20 years ago. They never did two ads an hour. In the meantime, costs have gone up, salaries have increased, someone has to pay for Scott Shannon, and there are some times of the day when advertisers aren't as interested in buying (such as overnights).
 
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Thumbs-Up on what TheBigA just posted. Some of you have now reached "middle age" or something beyond the youthful carefree days (folklore tells us that youth are carefree! Then why all the suicides?)

I get amused at some of the posts about what radio should be doing, what radio is doing wrong, what is killing radio as we know it.

You ain't seen nothing yet!!! If you are so fortunate to live well into the aging process (or if you are not-so-fortunate in case of people with bad health but they live on anyway) you will come to a time in life when you get very understanding or very blue over the fact that nobody can make a living owning radio or working radio that does what you want radio to do!

I realize that this is the day and age when it is fashionable for people of all ages to be grumpy.... or pretend they are grumpy. (Want an example? Look at politics today. He who can scorch the most earth with grumpiness wins elections!) Unless marketing geniuses figure out how to program to the elderly and figure out how to harvest income from the process, your future years as a listener and as a fan of radio may become miserable as all get out. (Look Mom. I said it without the four letter word! :cool: ) Yeah, Mom get's grumpy too.

Want to make a fortune? learn how to market "Media for The Grumpy". You know.... something to replace Limbaugh whenever his "Sell By Date" expires.
 
The word "greedy" comes up a lot. What do you call someone who enjoys a service for free, expects heritage live and local hosts, and then complains about the people footing the bill?
 
I've noticed that KOOL-FM has begun the long stop sets on its HD2 service now. For a long time they did no ads but now it appears they are going the same way as their main signal. <click!>
 
Good points, Goat and Big A.

Radio is still free.

I remember when tuned to WMID 1340 Atlantic City one afternoon, and idly counting the songs they played. The first half hour they played three songs. The rest was spots, and promos, and news, and jingles, and lost dogs, and more spots.
(None of the dogs was called 'Spot', by the way)

The second half hour, WMID played * two * songs.

WMID was in its seasonal feeding frenzy, vis-a-vis the tourism.

The year was 1964.

So I'm used to the commercials. If I'm 'complaining', then I've been a subdued grump for the better part of five decades. I know that commercials pay the bills for the free music and entertainment ; I worked radio for 26 years. I know that the business is not some altruistic hobby for station owners. Please don't insult what's left of my intelligence.

My complaint has been the lemminglike manner by which every music station has fallen in step with a concept that guarantees tuneout. The old axiom was that people (normal people, not radio people) used to listen for 20 minutes to a music station. But Good Lord: if 8 or so minutes of that commute is comprised of soundalike commercials back-to-back, there goes the tuning button nowadays -- automatically.

And the agencies who buy time for their :30 second business card -- only to find it submerged to, like eighth in the cluster? -- cannot be achieving what they paid to get.

The concept is here to stay, obviously. I was only asking how worldwide this system was. Is it worse in, say, Paris, or Rangoon, or Bonn ?
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
And the agencies who buy time for their :30 second business card -- only to find it submerged to, like eighth in the cluster? -- cannot be achieving what they paid to get.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind they don't just buy one spot. If they buy just one spot and it's 8th in a cluster, you may be right.

Location in the cluster is sometimes part of the basis for the price.
 
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Steve Green NEPA said:
So I'm used to the commercials. If I'm 'complaining', then I've been a subdued grump for the better part of five decades. I know that commercials pay the bills for the free music and entertainment ; I worked radio for 26 years. I know that the business is not some altruistic hobby for station owners. Please don't insult what's left of my intelligence.

My complaint has been the lemminglike manner by which every music station has fallen in step with a concept that guarantees tuneout. The old axiom was that people (normal people, not radio people) used to listen for 20 minutes to a music station. But Good Lord: if 8 or so minutes of that commute is comprised of soundalike commercials back-to-back, there goes the tuning button nowadays -- automatically.
Click to expand...

I've been a subdued grump for 15 years at least. Now I'm letting it all out cause I just don't care anymore ;o).


that's part of the point. for me, I listen for the talk, because you can either hear the songs anywhere on the dial, or later in the day. in scotts case, I feel like the ads are creeping in to the reduced show time he seems to have compared to when he started. when the modern family tag is being billed as a show segment, that's two minutes of talk I missed out on due to a sponsor. You can hear the music all day. you can only hear scott from 6-10.



Now get off my lawn you youngin's ;o)..I've got letters to the editor to write!
 
Shredder said:
in scotts case, I feel like the ads are creeping in to the reduced show time he seems to have compared to when he started.
Click to expand...

Think of it this way: More ads mean more people are listening. All helps justify his salary. At one point, Howard had 20 minute stop sets.
 
TheBigA said:
Think of it this way: More ads mean more people are listening. All helps justify his salary. At one point, Howard had 20 minute stop sets.
Click to expand...

I would think it's just the opposite. More ads means less air time, means more people flipping for alternatives..
 
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