Listener abuse

[jetman71]

Happened to tune in Stern this morning (which is something that I don't normally do since Howard's tenure on "over-the-air" broadcast radio has been a blemish...more in the past then recent) on WBCN as I was headed in to Boston and cracked up laughing at a 10-12 unit stop set of commercials. Does the programming team at BCN truly think that their listeners will tolerate that kind of abuse? Or is this radio station so driven by revenue that Management/Sales is running all over programming? C'mon, the average radio station listener will not sit through more then three very well produced spots before they'll punch out.

Reminds me of the 70's when programming a radio station meant actually programming the sound and features of what "aired" on a stations as opposed to the gimmicks that are used today to where it appears that programming spends more time then needed trying to convince a station's listeners into thinking that they are hearing something that their not....lot of smoke and mirrors and then we wonder why would anyone go to satellite radio.

Let's get real and back to actually programming good sounding radio stations that actually serve a targeted audience and produces results for advertisers...it's really not that difficult to accomplish as long as there are true radio pros as part of the management team.

Just my opinion...in the meantime, Happy Holidays to all my comrades in the biz and may this Christmas be Merry for you and your family and friends!

 

[morescrapple]

> Happened to tune in Stern this morning (which is something
> that I don't normally do since Howard's tenure on
> "over-the-air" broadcast radio has been a blemish...more in
> the past then recent) on WBCN as I was headed in to Boston
> and cracked up laughing at a 10-12 unit stop set of
> commercials.
how'd you like to be the client whose ad runs 12TH in the stopset??? WASTE OF $$$$

 

[HHH]

> > Happened to tune in Stern this morning (which is something
>
> > that I don't normally do since Howard's tenure on
> > "over-the-air" broadcast radio has been a blemish...more
> in
> > the past then recent) on WBCN as I was headed in to Boston
>
> > and cracked up laughing at a 10-12 unit stop set of
> > commercials.
> how'd you like to be the client whose ad runs 12TH in the
> stopset??? WASTE OF $$$$
>


It think that the strategy is to run up a big Time Spent Listening segement, then PRESUME the audience is going to go away during the big long stop set (to get the news on 'BZ or sports on 'EEI or something). Then they will come back and run up another big long stretch. Only a bunion-head would advertize in anything but the first position. <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by HHH on 12/15/05 03:24 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[jetman71]

Exactly my thought on the 1st spot out in their stop set. I am sure that they are tagging a "premium" on cluster placement. The reality of what they and many other stations get away with when a very large portion of their ad revenue is generated off of ratings, is that the business being placed by other then the "mom and pop" businesses of the world (ie: agency buyers and regional radio clients) is that they never "hear" the end product to discover that their ads are being "buried" in a sea of spot clutter.

Sadly the result is that "radio" gets a black-eye when any particular radio ad campaign flops if an advertiser doesn't have the dough to buy four or deeper into a market to acquire true listener demo penetration. All the while, the station(s) that beat their listeners up (the listeners that actually weather through more then three to four ads in a stopset) run off to the bank laughing all the way (hey...that has a Christmas kinda ring to it...LOL).

When will the majority of media buyers and the powers to be that "invest" in using radio advertising get past using ratings to base nearly all their decisions on which stations to use? Heck, that's a whole 'nother topic on how Arbitron in particular has fallen so far behind the times in generating ratings data....that I'll save for another day.

HO HO HO to all !

PS….maybe radio listeners should start “ratting out” directly to advertisers when they hear a particular radio stations burying an advertisers ads in the middle or end of a stopset of more then 5 spots…..just an idea that would help boost the credibility of those stations that don’t abuse the intelligence of their listeners.




> > > Happened to tune in Stern this morning (which is something that I don't
> > > normally do since Howard's tenure on "over-the-air" broadcast radio has
> > > been a blemish...more in the past then recent) on WBCN as I was headed in > > > to Boston and cracked up laughing at a 10-12 unit stop set of
> > > commercials.


> > how'd you like to be the client whose ad runs 12TH in the
> > stopset??? WASTE OF $$$$
> >
>
>
> It think that the strategy is to run up a big Time Spent
> Listening segement, then PRESUME the audience is going to go
> away during the big long stop set (to get the news on 'BZ or
> sports on 'EEI or something). Then they will come back and
> run up another big long stretch. Only a bunion-head would
> advertize in anything but the first position.
>

 

[NotoriousN-I-K]

> Happened to tune in Stern this morning (which is something
> that I don't normally do since Howard's tenure on
> "over-the-air" broadcast radio has been a blemish...more in
> the past then recent) on WBCN as I was headed in to Boston
> and cracked up laughing at a 10-12 unit stop set of
> commercials. Does the programming team at BCN truly think
> that their listeners will tolerate that kind of abuse? Or
> is this radio station so driven by revenue that
> Management/Sales is running all over programming? C'mon,
> the average radio station listener will not sit through more
> then three very well produced spots before they'll punch
> out.
>
> Reminds me of the 70's when programming a radio station
> meant actually programming the sound and features of what
> "aired" on a stations as opposed to the gimmicks that are
> used today to where it appears that programming spends more
> time then needed trying to convince a station's listeners
> into thinking that they are hearing something that their
> not....lot of smoke and mirrors and then we wonder why would
> anyone go to satellite radio.
>
> Let's get real and back to actually programming good
> sounding radio stations that actually serve a targeted
> audience and produces results for advertisers...it's really
> not that difficult to accomplish as long as there are true
> radio pros as part of the management team.
>
> Just my opinion...in the meantime, Happy Holidays to all my
> comrades in the biz and may this Christmas be Merry for you
> and your family and friends!
>

You know the odd thing is that I thought it was that way at all of Stern's affilliate stations until I moved to New York and actually started working at Krock the flagship station. You would be shocked at how much shorter his spot breaks are here, amazed, they are nowhere near as long as at some stations, specifially bcn. It shows that they are actually selling the show like crazy but they really are insanely heavy on his spot load.

 

[LegendsGuy]

It's this kind of listener abuse that makes XM, AOL Radio, Yahoo's Launch and various other sattelite and online broadcasts more appealing than terrestrial radio. The question is are most listeners willing to pay 5-10 dollars a month to do away with heavy spotloads? However, they can never match the local content...but local content is becomming more difficult to find these days as well.