Other than a decent 4-book average, what causes advertisers to "take a chance" on something new? I assume it may be the opportunity to get spot frequency at a real decent rate since a new format/concept can't go out with an aggressive rate card? Also do new concepts tend to launch with local advertisers while the national ones shy away until the track record falls in place?
Reason I ask is on the Canada boards I see people flocking to the license application opportunities by suggesting (in about 70% of the cases) that the new license would best serve the community with .... "an AC format". On the KLSY thread (below) the usual suspects have been rounded up (Rock, AC/1, AC/2, etc.) as opportunities rather than offering something new which is more responsive to the real audience challenges that exist today.
I am just curious when some of the main formats are showing slugging following, folks might start considering "new ideas" as a place to look to solve the challenges instead of trying to figure out which of the existing solutions (already in place in most cases on a competitor) will be the holy grail?
If people are abandoning a format on a national basis I'd think the thing to do would be to look at the habits of WHY they are abandoning (rather than just grunting things like "satellite" and "i-Pod" as a knee-jerk explanation). Local radio has so many competitive advantages, but those advantages don't seem to be part of the mix when going after a stuggling situation. Jack = no air talent and trying to win exclusively with music depth (though the depth becomes familiar after awhile so it backfires). Most music stations = pull back on everything non-musical and try to get in there by offering same music product with 12-15 minute stopsets as a bonus to offset the fact the service is "free". News/Talk = expensive to run so let's go with national shows off the bird. Am I sharing Larry's pantry -- or do some of these things kind of fly in the face of common sense?
I know there have been some experiments (mostly Infinity) with new ideas but, like the new TV shows, if they don't perform in 18.5 minutes they get yanked because they aren't profitable. Our audiences don't HOVER over all the signals and look for tweaks and jump to react to a new jingle package or an added song. Habits take a long time...which is why some of the stations that have bad books now and then don't collapse -- much of the core stays with the station out of habit.
Perhaps it's the willingness to change ownership that tugs at some of this. Can't launch a station format on-the-cheap and have it take off in 3-4 weeks? Sell the hummer!! Let that whole thing become someone else's problem! Maybe it's more attractive to make a revenue stream from the investment CD's than the music ones.
Reason I ask is on the Canada boards I see people flocking to the license application opportunities by suggesting (in about 70% of the cases) that the new license would best serve the community with .... "an AC format". On the KLSY thread (below) the usual suspects have been rounded up (Rock, AC/1, AC/2, etc.) as opportunities rather than offering something new which is more responsive to the real audience challenges that exist today.
I am just curious when some of the main formats are showing slugging following, folks might start considering "new ideas" as a place to look to solve the challenges instead of trying to figure out which of the existing solutions (already in place in most cases on a competitor) will be the holy grail?
If people are abandoning a format on a national basis I'd think the thing to do would be to look at the habits of WHY they are abandoning (rather than just grunting things like "satellite" and "i-Pod" as a knee-jerk explanation). Local radio has so many competitive advantages, but those advantages don't seem to be part of the mix when going after a stuggling situation. Jack = no air talent and trying to win exclusively with music depth (though the depth becomes familiar after awhile so it backfires). Most music stations = pull back on everything non-musical and try to get in there by offering same music product with 12-15 minute stopsets as a bonus to offset the fact the service is "free". News/Talk = expensive to run so let's go with national shows off the bird. Am I sharing Larry's pantry -- or do some of these things kind of fly in the face of common sense?
I know there have been some experiments (mostly Infinity) with new ideas but, like the new TV shows, if they don't perform in 18.5 minutes they get yanked because they aren't profitable. Our audiences don't HOVER over all the signals and look for tweaks and jump to react to a new jingle package or an added song. Habits take a long time...which is why some of the stations that have bad books now and then don't collapse -- much of the core stays with the station out of habit.
Perhaps it's the willingness to change ownership that tugs at some of this. Can't launch a station format on-the-cheap and have it take off in 3-4 weeks? Sell the hummer!! Let that whole thing become someone else's problem! Maybe it's more attractive to make a revenue stream from the investment CD's than the music ones.