I affirm Jon David's comments. Successful radio is not just programming or sales or administration but all of these things in a perfect mix. In many ways it is the chicken and egg syndrome. You must have the chicken with the egg or vice versa. Without sales, programming cannot succeed and without programming sales cannot succeed. Both require good administration to keep things running smooth and keeping both programming and sales from controlling the other.
I was lucky. I got to experience radio in programming and in sales (marketing). The experience taught me just how crucial both are to the other's overall success. This applies to both commercial and non-commercial radio. Some will say entirely listener supported stations do not apply to this but I argue they do. It was good communication and marketing that preceeded the donation from listeners.
As a side note, I think radio has done a poor job making advertising a part of programming to the audience. We see the commercial as the entity that, so to speak, is the door bell ringing while you're in the middle of doing something. Movies, with product placement, seem to have found a way to injecting advertising in 'programming' (the script) without making it an entirely different entity. I realize that's a pipe dream of mine as it requires going so far outside the box to execute but perhaps we need to think of minute ways we can move toward incorporating the commercial into programming in a way that it is effective but not alien to the format. There was one jock I knew that used a character voice and his character who told stories about his everyday life always incorporated a commercial within the segment. The commercial was well into the bit and you were out of the commercial without hardly knowing you heard one. I thought that was ptretty clever (one was about a rancher friend who was going to a specific lumber story to buy some saw horses 'cause they do eat much')
I was lucky. I got to experience radio in programming and in sales (marketing). The experience taught me just how crucial both are to the other's overall success. This applies to both commercial and non-commercial radio. Some will say entirely listener supported stations do not apply to this but I argue they do. It was good communication and marketing that preceeded the donation from listeners.
As a side note, I think radio has done a poor job making advertising a part of programming to the audience. We see the commercial as the entity that, so to speak, is the door bell ringing while you're in the middle of doing something. Movies, with product placement, seem to have found a way to injecting advertising in 'programming' (the script) without making it an entirely different entity. I realize that's a pipe dream of mine as it requires going so far outside the box to execute but perhaps we need to think of minute ways we can move toward incorporating the commercial into programming in a way that it is effective but not alien to the format. There was one jock I knew that used a character voice and his character who told stories about his everyday life always incorporated a commercial within the segment. The commercial was well into the bit and you were out of the commercial without hardly knowing you heard one. I thought that was ptretty clever (one was about a rancher friend who was going to a specific lumber story to buy some saw horses 'cause they do eat much')