GOOD TIMES Magazine on CBS FM Flip

[davideduardo]

If FM oldies - and music FM as well - are doing so well, why is there talk of bringing TALK RADIO to FM to save the FM dial?

There is no such talk inside the industry.

What is true is this:

Most markets have very few if any AMs that fully cover the market, day and night. Some, like Washington, DC, have none.

AMs, for a variety of reasons, have little appeal to persons under 45, and even in 45-54, the appeal is somewhat limited.

AMs sound bad compared to FM.

News & Talk stations on AM are slowly shrinking in under-55 listeners as those who still tolerate AM age.

Advertisers, for the most part, do not want over-55's.

Traditional news / talk (Limbaugh, Hannity, Dr. Laura, etc) picks up lots of 35-54 if on an FM which the format does not get if on an AM.

There are many full coverage FMs in every market... and at any time, at least one willing to go from a low rated music format to talk.

New news talk FMs that challenge established AM talkers win in 25-54 very quickly... inside of 2 years.

News and talk on an FM in a market with twelve to twenty FMs does not "save the band" but, rather, adds to the variety on FM and makes a format viable for the sales demos.

 

[KevinFodor]

And, David to add to your comment:

We live in a day and age when there's an entire generation of Americans who, frankly, don't know that AM radio exists, nor have ever listened to an AM radio station. And the number of people you can put in that catagory is growing everyday.

All the more reason to migrate talk programming to FM. When we did it in Dayton here recently, the overall demo of the Newstalk audience got younger. As people in their 30's (and even a few 20 somethings), began to find some of the talk programming entertaining and the station informative with 24 hour local weather, traffic and newsprogramming. Add to it, the fact that we increased the signal reach of the Newstalk format, since our AM signal, if you're lucky, covers at night, our home county and parts of 2 or 3 others. With the FM, we fill in the holes and add about 5 more counties to our coverage, allowing us to make the station more regional in scope.

It's not about "saving" FM, it's about "enhancing" what you can get on FM.

 

[Don62]

I was the PD of an oldies station that was in a college town. We were top 3 adults 25-54 (and #1 adults 25-54 for 2 of the 5 rating periods that I worked there). We lost 50 cents on the dollar, because the perception of the advertising community there was that our station was "too old". Believe me, it was the most frustrating experience of my life. To have the freaking #1 station adults 25-54 and have advertisers ignoring it. I kept giving my salespeople literature about the benefits of advertising to the boomers. All they did was keep coming back to me asking, "The agency wants to know when are we going to start playing the 70's and 80's?"

Don't think that's possible? I was also the PD of the first "all 80's" station in America. Small station. Weak signal. A low powered Class A with a tower 12 miles north of the northern beltway in the city. Massive competition. And little in the way of promotional budgets. We still took 4 million dollars in ad money out of the market in about two and half years, despite the fact that we were, normally, around #12 in the market 12 plus. Why?
The demos were attractive to the advertisers.
I rest my case.

The fact that ignorant 20-something ad buyers could care less about anyone with a touch of grey ( who is Lennon anyway ?? ) that have a stranglehold on how radio stations are programmed should cause alarms to go off.

The Baby Boomers who are soon to retire, by all news accounts I've read, are expected to be one of the biggest consumer buying groups ever. Yet radio, held hostage to narrow ad-men, will likely ignore the group and miss out as it has often done in the past.

This isn't something a lowly PD in a medium market could handle.

The truth is the industry needs to make structural changes or it won't survive long-term.

Or will have to be content with far fewer listeners since the IPOD generation could care less about terrestrial radio and the older listeners aren't served.

 

[davideduardo]

The fact that ignorant 20-something ad buyers could care less about anyone with a touch of grey ( who is Lennon anyway ?? ) that have a stranglehold on how radio stations are programmed should cause alarms to go off.

Buy demographics (the age range a radio campaign targets) are not set by the media buyer. They are set by the client, often based on extensive research on where the best retrun on the ad investment occurs; older consumers are not found, routinely, to produce a good ROI.

The Baby Boomers who are soon to retire, by all news accounts I've read, are expected to be one of the biggest consumer buying groups ever. Yet radio, held hostage to narrow ad-men, will likely ignore the group and miss out as it has often done in the past.

Again, the agency generally does not determine the age targets. Whether boomers are consumers of consequence or not is not the issue. The issue is how much advertising money has to be spent to get them to spend, particularly if they have existing brand loyalties. The general determinations are that it is too costly to advertise on radio to get a profit on each sale among 55+ consumers.

If there is no profit on the sale, then there is no reason to advertise against this group.

This isn't something a lowly PD in a medium market could handle.

PDs have nothing to do with advertiser marketing decisions. If there is no revenue in a certain demo, the station owners and managers will not be interested in formats that can not generate billings.

The truth is the industry needs to make structural changes or it won't survive long-term.

Radio stations can not change the ROI on advertising to older consumers.

Or will have to be content with far fewer listeners since the IPOD generation could care less about terrestrial radio and the older listeners aren't served.

I suppose that is why 96% of teens and 18-24's use radio, per the People Meter market ratings?



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[Bob E. Nelson]

[...] the agency generally does not determine the age targets. Whether boomers are consumers of consequence or not is not the issue. The issue is how much advertising money has to be spent to get them to spend, particularly if they have existing brand loyalties. The general determinations are that it is too costly to advertise on radio to get a profit on each sale among 55+ consumers.

If there is no profit on the sale, then there is no reason to advertise against this group.

The above and many of the threads concerning CBS-FM deal with age-defined advertising buys.

Are there also buying patterns that specify certain ethnic groups?

 

[davideduardo]

Are there also buying patterns that specify certain ethnic groups?

Certainly. You might see a buy for 25-44 Assimilated Hispanic Females, for example.

 

[lalumia]

more on CBS FM in the new issue;
http://goodtimesmag.com/rhythmtracking.html