Corporate Radio rules the Central Valley. There is little locally owned radio anymore. Let see: In Sacramento, There is KSAC-1240 (Progressive Talk) and KJAY-1430 (Brokered), In Stockton, there is KSTN-1420 (Classic Hits And Sports with syndicated Mancow in the mornings) & 107.3 (Regional Mexican) and in Modesto there is KVIN-920 (Music Of Your Life) and KRVR-105.5 (Smooth Jazz). You might add KMPH-840 also, but they are not locally owned (based out of Fresno) but is not Corporate Owned.
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Is There A Place For Sinatra On Today's Sacramento Radio?
- Thread starter BTSF
- Start date
Madmansam.....
It is sad, isn't it?
Radio "Localism" is quickly receding into the same past-tense world Sinatra's music dwells {at least according to those radio consultants}...even with Clear Channel selling off stations {and cutting staffs left & right}, they just seem to transfer to other corporates....
Sacramento has long been considered a test market for products and services....I'm not knowledgeable enough about demographics, etc., to know why....and "retro-radio" would be a test product.
So...I'm still waiting for my ping pong balls to provide funding
It is sad, isn't it?
Radio "Localism" is quickly receding into the same past-tense world Sinatra's music dwells {at least according to those radio consultants}...even with Clear Channel selling off stations {and cutting staffs left & right}, they just seem to transfer to other corporates....
Sacramento has long been considered a test market for products and services....I'm not knowledgeable enough about demographics, etc., to know why....and "retro-radio" would be a test product.
So...I'm still waiting for my ping pong balls to provide funding
D
DeadAudicy
Guest
btsf, medium size markets like Sac are good tests because they are small enough to be relatively inexpensive ratewise, while being just big enough to gauge receptivity to your product. If a product or marketing approach fails in Sac, it's back to the drawing board and write off the smaller loss. If it succeeds, you fund a million+ dollar campaign in the bigger markets.
My humble advise would be to take a less experimental approach: work out realities and strategy on paper and take it to the bank, like any business. Know your market and know your marketing. Examples would include researching the demographics of the Sacramento metropolitan area. Get good hard numbers assessing how old who is, what they make, what they spend, how they use media. Extrap some valid assumptions on the more esoteric psychographics: tastes and sensibilities, music remembered from life defining moments. Graph and substantiate the numbers, show a team at the ready with a solid background in sales, programming, managing, and engineering. Banks and other funding sources crave entrepreneurs with a viable plan.
A good analysis of media usage trends helps your case as well: The ipod/net culture is eroding the traditional sense of demographic value to radio advertisers. It stands to reason that the shift is toward the older generation, not the younger, in terms of how advertisers will access returns vis a vis radio. But corporate radio is still trying to deliver to youth, even as youth exits the medium. 45+ does not embrace the ipod/net culture, continues to rely on radio even as they become less served by it. So why not focus on serving the very demo that continues to embrace the medium? In that sense the market for your idea is wide open...and if you tell your story right, so is the funding. Screw the ping pong balls...they are vapor.
My humble advise would be to take a less experimental approach: work out realities and strategy on paper and take it to the bank, like any business. Know your market and know your marketing. Examples would include researching the demographics of the Sacramento metropolitan area. Get good hard numbers assessing how old who is, what they make, what they spend, how they use media. Extrap some valid assumptions on the more esoteric psychographics: tastes and sensibilities, music remembered from life defining moments. Graph and substantiate the numbers, show a team at the ready with a solid background in sales, programming, managing, and engineering. Banks and other funding sources crave entrepreneurs with a viable plan.
A good analysis of media usage trends helps your case as well: The ipod/net culture is eroding the traditional sense of demographic value to radio advertisers. It stands to reason that the shift is toward the older generation, not the younger, in terms of how advertisers will access returns vis a vis radio. But corporate radio is still trying to deliver to youth, even as youth exits the medium. 45+ does not embrace the ipod/net culture, continues to rely on radio even as they become less served by it. So why not focus on serving the very demo that continues to embrace the medium? In that sense the market for your idea is wide open...and if you tell your story right, so is the funding. Screw the ping pong balls...they are vapor.
DeadAudicy....
Great point on radio audiences becoming older {I was laughed out of a certain public radio Station Manager's office once when I pointed this out in 2001...he said we have to find ways to reach teens...my blank stare was greeting by his own, 'cause he was serious}....
And your reasoning on why Sacramento has, for years, been a great test market sounds spot on.
However, I am one of the world's weakest business people.....I have a pretty good hunch I can program, but cooler heads would be in charge of the books....you sound like you're up for the challenge!
My bank is currently preoccupied with foreclosing on anything that doesn't move and writing off billions....
I do believe this: I think too much radio is too fast paced, too Energizer Bunny to even be understood....I want more info on what just played, maybe a bit of history or even {gasp!} some personnel.....the current idea that more than six words about an artist or song {unless they buy time or offer giveaways} is a lecture is, frankly, silly....and commercials, when put in 4, 5, or even longer spot blocks, are wasted....the sponsor's message isn't paid any attention, which defeats the entire purpose.
Short blocks are greater values to the client...and to the listener....I think Clear Channel was right on it a few years back when they cut some excess spots out of each hour {I was there when they initiated it, and it did sound much improved.}.
Back briefly to that station manager....while he was chewing various portions of my anatomy off for several reasons, in the background, a NPR program was finishing...so I said, "Let's take a break here...I want to hear this." I, for one, listened as "Fresh Air" began...and I asked the SM, "Who's underwriting this?" {The underwriting had just aired.} He couldn't answer. It was raced through to get that one more paid spot in...and the whole message was rendered useless...but that lesson never was learned.
And, yes....I realize I left your excellent business advice in the dust a few paragraphs before....told you I had no business sense!
Great point on radio audiences becoming older {I was laughed out of a certain public radio Station Manager's office once when I pointed this out in 2001...he said we have to find ways to reach teens...my blank stare was greeting by his own, 'cause he was serious}....
And your reasoning on why Sacramento has, for years, been a great test market sounds spot on.
However, I am one of the world's weakest business people.....I have a pretty good hunch I can program, but cooler heads would be in charge of the books....you sound like you're up for the challenge!
My bank is currently preoccupied with foreclosing on anything that doesn't move and writing off billions....
I do believe this: I think too much radio is too fast paced, too Energizer Bunny to even be understood....I want more info on what just played, maybe a bit of history or even {gasp!} some personnel.....the current idea that more than six words about an artist or song {unless they buy time or offer giveaways} is a lecture is, frankly, silly....and commercials, when put in 4, 5, or even longer spot blocks, are wasted....the sponsor's message isn't paid any attention, which defeats the entire purpose.
Short blocks are greater values to the client...and to the listener....I think Clear Channel was right on it a few years back when they cut some excess spots out of each hour {I was there when they initiated it, and it did sound much improved.}.
Back briefly to that station manager....while he was chewing various portions of my anatomy off for several reasons, in the background, a NPR program was finishing...so I said, "Let's take a break here...I want to hear this." I, for one, listened as "Fresh Air" began...and I asked the SM, "Who's underwriting this?" {The underwriting had just aired.} He couldn't answer. It was raced through to get that one more paid spot in...and the whole message was rendered useless...but that lesson never was learned.
And, yes....I realize I left your excellent business advice in the dust a few paragraphs before....told you I had no business sense!
As a new poster to this board, let me vote on the original question: Yes! There should be a place for Sinatra's kind of music. Quality shines through, in classical to classic rock.
D
DeadAudicy
Guest
Great thread on this subject on the SF board discussing KTRB. The thread morphs into the pros, cons, myths, and realities of broadcasting Standards type formats, starting around page 2.
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,90766.0.html
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,90766.0.html
DA.....
"If we take the demo down to 45+, they're not dying, not bed ridden, not pining for the fjords or their dead favorites. They do, though, (ripped from a random Timeless Classics format station website):
Own 77% of all financial assets in America
Purchase 43% of all new domestic cars and 48% of all luxury cars
Spend more money on travel and recreation than any other group
Spend more on health and personal care items than any other group and purchase more over-the-counter medicines (watch those robots, old folks)
Purchase 30% of all spa memberships
Spend more per-capita in the grocery store than any other age group (I'll give you the habit prone on that one, Oak...)
Eat out an average of three times per week
Gamble more than any other age group
Spend more on quality children's clothing for their grandchildren than the parents do
Show a higher concern for quality over cost
Are 20% who control 80% of all deposits in financial institutions
Control more than half the country's discretionary income
Are the lion's share of today's trust and retirement plan market
Harder to sell? Hey...life's a fight. If there is a hole that big in a market that flush, can nothing really be done to fill it?"
My God, Man.....You backed up my entire economic theory! Thanks....gotta go buy some more lottery tix.....
"If we take the demo down to 45+, they're not dying, not bed ridden, not pining for the fjords or their dead favorites. They do, though, (ripped from a random Timeless Classics format station website):
Own 77% of all financial assets in America
Purchase 43% of all new domestic cars and 48% of all luxury cars
Spend more money on travel and recreation than any other group
Spend more on health and personal care items than any other group and purchase more over-the-counter medicines (watch those robots, old folks)
Purchase 30% of all spa memberships
Spend more per-capita in the grocery store than any other age group (I'll give you the habit prone on that one, Oak...)
Eat out an average of three times per week
Gamble more than any other age group
Spend more on quality children's clothing for their grandchildren than the parents do
Show a higher concern for quality over cost
Are 20% who control 80% of all deposits in financial institutions
Control more than half the country's discretionary income
Are the lion's share of today's trust and retirement plan market
Harder to sell? Hey...life's a fight. If there is a hole that big in a market that flush, can nothing really be done to fill it?"
My God, Man.....You backed up my entire economic theory! Thanks....gotta go buy some more lottery tix.....
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