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how much advertising-per-hour can a radio station do?!
- Thread starter sfwp
- Start date
sfwp said:
There is no legal limitation that I am aware of. 50 years ago the National Association of Broadcasters had is place... I forget the exact title.... something like "The Code Of Broadcast Ethics" which was an industry, voluntary code. Technically, it did not have the force of law. However, it had been sold to the advertising industry and to the regulatory mechanism as a good reason to NOT pass mandatory laws.
It spelled out how many minutes per time period MAXIMUM that could be allocated for paid advertising content. My memory is that broadcasters tended at renewal time (and that came every three years back then) reputable broadcasters answered a lot of the questions on the renewal form with: "We will abide by the NAB Code of Ethics." That became so common that the average broadcaster felt they were taking their life into their own hands if they wanted to challenge the limitations and try to create language to meet their own values and ideas. Thus, what was NOT law became DEFACTO law in practice.
To answer your question: There are a number of broadcasters still active TODAY who will tell you that they remember when "the legal maximum was 16 minutes per hour."
Today, that number is like people looking at speed limit signs along the side of the highway. "Daddy, I foreget.... is that the maximum speed allowed or the minimum speed allowed?"
Actually the limit was 18 minutes an hour, not 16.
Most stations back at the time set 18 minutes as the maximum in any hour but in smaller markets and especially 'seasonal' markets, they hung to the idea of 18 minutes per hour on average for the whole broadcast day. Seasonal communities such as the ones found in Colorado, for example, barely billed anything outside the tourist season so they sold everything they could while the 'gettin' was good'.
For example, at one station I worked, we likely averaged 16 minutes an hour over a week. It might be 12 minutes an hour on Monday but 24 minutes on Fridays. After 9 or 10pm you might have 1 commercial. Now, one election day I was on the board, I had 5 minutes of network news and only managed to play 4 songs an hour...a good 40+ minutes an hour of ads. It was on par for the stations across the river from us in Mexico.
There was WDDQ in Adel, Georgia that was all commercials 58-59 minutes an hour.
NOW there is no limit on advertising in an hour/day/week.
On a related point, Underwriting Announcements, or what non-commercial radio calls their very limited form of advertising (let's call it what it really is) has no "Official" limits but the FCC does say when a station exceeds 6 announcements per hour or those announcements exceed 30 seconds in length per announcement, it sort of sets off red flags.
Most stations back at the time set 18 minutes as the maximum in any hour but in smaller markets and especially 'seasonal' markets, they hung to the idea of 18 minutes per hour on average for the whole broadcast day. Seasonal communities such as the ones found in Colorado, for example, barely billed anything outside the tourist season so they sold everything they could while the 'gettin' was good'.
For example, at one station I worked, we likely averaged 16 minutes an hour over a week. It might be 12 minutes an hour on Monday but 24 minutes on Fridays. After 9 or 10pm you might have 1 commercial. Now, one election day I was on the board, I had 5 minutes of network news and only managed to play 4 songs an hour...a good 40+ minutes an hour of ads. It was on par for the stations across the river from us in Mexico.
There was WDDQ in Adel, Georgia that was all commercials 58-59 minutes an hour.
NOW there is no limit on advertising in an hour/day/week.
On a related point, Underwriting Announcements, or what non-commercial radio calls their very limited form of advertising (let's call it what it really is) has no "Official" limits but the FCC does say when a station exceeds 6 announcements per hour or those announcements exceed 30 seconds in length per announcement, it sort of sets off red flags.
The FCC at times seems to operate like the police department in a small county seat town.
There may not be a law on the books prohibiting driving around the square in second gear, but if you have a new "Hollywood Muffler" on your car and you drag Main Street or the Square in second gear so everyone can hear your new muffler, you can expect the local officer to take a good look at broken tail light lenses, license plate lights that are burned out, or your "California Rolling Stop" at the intersection.
You better have lots of merit badges on your sash (as the Boy Scouts would say) if you are going to push some unwritten standards with the FCC.
My favorite was working for Jerrell Shepherd in Moberly MO back in the Sixties. In that little square on the renewal form that asked: How many PSAs will you broadcast each week (or was it month?), his answer was ALWAYS ZERO.
He had the merit badges in place and with a good-natured chip-on-his-shoulder dared the FCC to challenge his style.
There may not be a law on the books prohibiting driving around the square in second gear, but if you have a new "Hollywood Muffler" on your car and you drag Main Street or the Square in second gear so everyone can hear your new muffler, you can expect the local officer to take a good look at broken tail light lenses, license plate lights that are burned out, or your "California Rolling Stop" at the intersection.
You better have lots of merit badges on your sash (as the Boy Scouts would say) if you are going to push some unwritten standards with the FCC.
My favorite was working for Jerrell Shepherd in Moberly MO back in the Sixties. In that little square on the renewal form that asked: How many PSAs will you broadcast each week (or was it month?), his answer was ALWAYS ZERO.
He had the merit badges in place and with a good-natured chip-on-his-shoulder dared the FCC to challenge his style.
Before the FCC dropped the programming requirements, I had to adjust our percentages down for a station I was managing in a county of 3,000 people. We had no network news because we couldn't afford it and no teletype for the same reason (back 30 years ago this stuff came by phone at hundreds of dollars a month back then. My owner had us down for 25% news which was absurd (10% other, 5% Public Affairs). AM stations had to do 8% non-entertainment programming, so I dropped us to 15% total (7% News; 7% Other & 1% Public Affairs). The point: One of the questions was what percentage is devoted to advertising? This was a weekly average like the other percentages (I left ours at 10%). They asked how many public service announcements you promised to air each week. We promised 70.
So, in essence, the FCC restricted the amount of advertising because if that percentage was too high in the FCC's eyes, your renewal might be in question. As long as you weren't too much over the average, you were okay. Likely most stations listed 30%.
So, in essence, the FCC restricted the amount of advertising because if that percentage was too high in the FCC's eyes, your renewal might be in question. As long as you weren't too much over the average, you were okay. Likely most stations listed 30%.
Rodeo Goat Cowboy replied: "There is no legal limitation that I am aware of"
------------------------------------------------
So there is no limit?
No wonder it is driving me crazy. I listen to this station and the amount of advertising they run is driving me crazy.
However, they play a certain type of format and there are no alternative choices really. LOL. This is a small town.
Do you think I should send the station manager an email complaining? Even worse, they run the same ads over and over for months
at-a-time.
Not many people listen to the station. If I stopped, they would probably be able to tell!
------------------------------------------------
So there is no limit?
No wonder it is driving me crazy. I listen to this station and the amount of advertising they run is driving me crazy.
However, they play a certain type of format and there are no alternative choices really. LOL. This is a small town.
Do you think I should send the station manager an email complaining? Even worse, they run the same ads over and over for months
at-a-time.
Not many people listen to the station. If I stopped, they would probably be able to tell!
How do you know how many people are listening? What type of format are they running?
------------------------------------------------
So there is no limit?
No wonder it is driving me crazy. I listen to this station and the amount of advertising they run is driving me crazy.
However, they play a certain type of format and there are no alternative choices really. LOL. This is a small town.
Do you think I should send the station manager an email complaining? Even worse, they run the same ads over and over for months
at-a-time.
Not many people listen to the station. If I stopped, they would probably be able to tell!
[/quote]
------------------------------------------------
So there is no limit?
No wonder it is driving me crazy. I listen to this station and the amount of advertising they run is driving me crazy.
However, they play a certain type of format and there are no alternative choices really. LOL. This is a small town.
Do you think I should send the station manager an email complaining? Even worse, they run the same ads over and over for months
at-a-time.
Not many people listen to the station. If I stopped, they would probably be able to tell!
[/quote]
sfwp said:
Hey, sfwp, I just sent you a PM (Personal Message). I don't know if you have learned your way around Radio-Info all that well yet, but you will see a menu bar that (among other things) say MY MESSAGES. It should have a (1) at the end right now telling you that my message is in there standing on one foot and then the other, waiting for you to view it.
No limit on advertising anymore. At one point a Houston Country station was running 40%-45% commercials.
WDDQ in Adel. GA (92.1 I think) was running about 57-58 minutes an hour as an all advertising station. A trivia question, its answer and the weather seemed to pop up every half hour when I listened.
At one point in Eagle Pass we could only squeeze in about 8 songs an hour plus 5 minutes on news.
I see your post Guy. Hope all is well at your end!
Bill
WDDQ in Adel. GA (92.1 I think) was running about 57-58 minutes an hour as an all advertising station. A trivia question, its answer and the weather seemed to pop up every half hour when I listened.
At one point in Eagle Pass we could only squeeze in about 8 songs an hour plus 5 minutes on news.
I see your post Guy. Hope all is well at your end!
Bill
I'm not going to say much about the station, because I don't want to make any enemies here in my town.
I just get tired of hearing the commercials repeated over and over and over and over and.......... Plus, the station
may be owned by a company that also owns a station that my relatives do business with, so I don't want the station to take my complaint [size=10pt][size=20pt]
personally.
I just get tired of hearing the commercials repeated over and over and over and over and.......... Plus, the station
may be owned by a company that also owns a station that my relatives do business with, so I don't want the station to take my complaint [size=10pt][size=20pt]
personally.
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