How much is too much?

[SamuelsA]

I work for a "chain" or "network" of commercial stations... the GM/GSM at one of our stations (not the one where I'm located) tends to go "all out" when he receives info about a community event. He will usually demand most, if not all of the following, on top of the standard no-charge listing on our website - and it'll all be gratis - money out the window, as far as I'm concerned:

-confirmed placement in hourly "events update" on-air
-news coverage on-air and online
-jock talk at least once per shift
-morning show interview(s) with the event organizer/spokesperson
-60-second spots
-"mini remote" with the station vehicle on-site at the event

He's given all or most of the above to everything from the local summer festival to the Hick's Corners Women's Institute card party... and yes, there has been a morning show interview and news coverage about said card party. (I kid you not!) Also, he and his salespeople go so far as to submit events' details themselves on the website if somebody phones or e-mails or visits the station to tell us about the event(s)... possibly thinking that submitting an event under a station employee's name will guarantee on-air and online exposure of the event. Our PD and our stations' owners have no problem with all this, but a few of us don't agree with this one station's "bending over backwards", especially when the company's head honcho is constantly pushing the sales staff to sell like crazy. I'd be okay with the GM/GSM doing all this if they a) sold sponsorships for all this community stuff, or b) made a significant effort to upsell these organizations and get them to spend at least some money. Our other stations aren't as heavy or "all out" on giving away airtime... they do maybe one or two of the above in addition to the website listing and that's it. In short, how much "giving back" is too much? What's the most you'll give (as far as airtime etc.) to a so-called community organization?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

What is the cliche that shows up in discussion forums.... including this one? "It depends".

Times have changed since I was in the business and I am amazed at how stations today deal with all the issues you raised. If the General Manager of that station has in his mind a plan that makes sense, and he/she can convey that concept to the staff, and the sales people can convey it to the buyers of advertising, then you may have a winner on your hands.

A number of years ago I worked for a station OWNER/manager who had this vision much like what you described. About five or six years after I left the station, I went to an NAB meeting where he was a featured speaker, explaining how he built the highest billing station in a market his size in the whole country.

He is deceased. His family has sold the stations. They looked at the changing market place and I guess they could not see how to accomplish today something equal to what dad did back then.... or something even more grandiose.

I hope it can be done in this day and age. I hope one of these days you will be able to say: that GM was right and I am now a member of his tribe. The reason I hope that: it will mean that it is still possible to do radio with direction and purpose.

As I scan across the dial today, I find a lot of radio that seems to lack the genes for direction and purpose.

 

[whit979]

What is the cliche that shows up in discussion forums.... including this one? "It depends".

Times have changed since I was in the business and I am amazed at how stations today deal with all the issues you raised. If the General Manager of that station has in his mind a plan that makes sense, and he/she can convey that concept to the staff, and the sales people can convey it to the buyers of advertising, then you may have a winner on your hands.

A number of years ago I worked for a station OWNER/manager who had this vision much like what you described. About five or six years after I left the station, I went to an NAB meeting where he was a featured speaker, explaining how he built the highest billing station in a market his size in the whole country.

He is deceased. His family has sold the stations. They looked at the changing market place and I guess they could not see how to accomplish today something equal to what dad did back then.... or something even more grandiose.

I hope it can be done in this day and age. I hope one of these days you will be able to say: that GM was right and I am now a member of his tribe. The reason I hope that: it will mean that it is still possible to do radio with direction and purpose.

As I scan across the dial today, I find a lot of radio that seems to lack the genes for direction and purpose.

This is spot-on commentary. Some of the community-related PSA freebies are not fun to do and certainly can sound "hokey," but it gets people to listen. For a lot of people, giving their organization/cause some free time will make them perceive your station as the community station and will keep them around as listeners. Of course, the "card party" (what exactly is a "card party," anyway?) might not be worthy of an all-out megapromotion, but showing them some love on the website and some other on-air promotion isn't necessarily bad.

Here's the other thing: the market itself determines the newsworthiness of these PSAs. Would you pull out all the stops for a card party in Atlanta? Almost certainly not. In a 10,000-person town? Unless there's better things to do in town, I'd say it's worth some free air time.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Chuckle, chuckle. Card Party!

We're probably talking about a small town. Maybe a Southern small town.

You obviously are not up-to-speed on adult social life in small American towns for the last 200 years.

(at least that part of adult social life which can be openly talked about and printed in the paper.)

 

[TVradioguru]

Unfortunately GM's and GSM's have set the bar pretty low by giving away or comp-ing on the station a station website. Now advertisers or locals looking for promotion of their community event, whatever, have come to expect a free ride on the station website IF they buy a flight on the station. Of course the station website becomes a easy dumping ground for local PSA placement rather than tying up on-air inventory. In the end the value of the website is driven to practically nothing because that becomes the value.

In the 90's when this practice began, I guess who would have predicted that having an on-line presence would have actual value. For local radio and TV, now it has zilch.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

With few exceptions, is there any evidence radio has the faintest idea what to do with a website?

 

[whit979]

With few exceptions, is there any evidence radio has the faintest idea what to do with a website?

It doesn't, and that could be a topic for a whole other thread. The Web is the future -- heck, it's the present, and radio has no idea how to establish a real presence there.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

The Web is the future -- heck, it's the present, and radio has no idea how to establish a real presence there.

For some parallel thinking: AM radio is not identical to FM radio. The technology has differences. The audience has perception differences. The industry has had a struggle trying to come to terms with what you can do with an A.M. station and what you can do with an F.M. station.

I just had a phone conversation with my adult daughter who works in a profession where having fully equipped cell phones with full broad-band coverage is essential. Thus, when she travels and when she hunkers down in her cubicle and "draws the drapes shut" she has access to treating her iPhone as though it were her chairside or bedside radio. She is the poster-child for your statement that "the web is the present".

In my case the cellphone is my emergency box. Trying to steer my budget toward a "burn rate" that does not have me outliving my money in retirement years, I am the poster-child for those who would say: "No, I use the Internet for some things, but it is not my radio-identical tool."

So the broadcast industry is for now still having to do some targeting of the transmitter for one purpose, and targeting their on-line presence for other purposes. And that may true for as long as the government continues to license the use of transmitters. Today's conversation is: "Does the broadcast industry demonstrate that they know how to related these two concepts so that they support each other, and benefit each other?"

***Draw the Drapes Shut: She and I recently had a rambling conversation on the differing cultures in different companies. When you have a deadline to meet, when you have a task that does not work well if you have interruptions, what signal is used in your company as a sign that "my door is shut, my drapes are closed, and my phone ringer is off" when you live in what Dilbert calls a fabric covered box?