PSA question

[photog]

I have a question. I am only a fan and not a pro. I have noticed ( I think) more PSA's on during daytime hours during the week on KPRC. It seemed like they used to mainly run on the weekends, but now seem to run more during the week. I was wondering if it was becasue the time wasn't sold or if they just put them there. How does a station pick the times they run the PSA's? Are they required to run so many a week? Thanks

 

[mrtexmex2007]

what is PSA???

 

[kendro]

Public Service Announcement.
Also a blood test all men over 40 should discuss with their doctor.

 

[stan]

PSA is Public Service Announcement.

I know that KLVI runs the same PSA at the same time of day in the morning when I'm getting ready for work. Like clockwork, the Prophet spits out the same old PSA I've heard tons of times already. I'll probably keel over if they every change it to something else.

 

[CW]

Public Service Announcement.
Also a blood test all men over 40 should discuss with their doctor.

Also Pre Sunrise Authority for daytime only AMs

and its time for me to go see my doctor again for my personal PSA...

 

[Kevinc]

This time of year is known for lower spot loads on most stations so they are probably filling in gaps in network programming using recorded PSAs.

 

[adguy]

Kevinc is right on. Up until usually the 2nd or 3rd week in January you will see a marked increase in PSA's because advertisers usually go into hiatus from about the 2nd or 3rd week in Dec for about a month.

I always guage PSA's as the inability of stations' sales staffs to sell and market. With low spot demand good stations always take care of their good advertisers with freebies for a couple of weeks. That way stations don't necessarily expose their sales weakness and can covet good will with its best customers. It's also a great way to guage how cheap or expensive stations are in the spot arena. It's very easy to detect which stations are in trouble by how many M-F daytime PSA's they carry. KGOW 1560 for example is so wide open that they create their own humorous PSA's to supplement the regular PSA's they carry. You hear more on KPRC because they are gradually running out of traditional advertisers with their horrible sinking ratings ship called the "Mojo" format.

It's always fun to read behind the on-air activity.

 

[SPOTS FOR DOTS]

AD GUY is half right. PSAs have a two fold purpose, they fill unsold inventory and they are part of license's responsibility to serve in the public interest. The amount of inventory that is filled with PSAs, reflects MARKET conditions and not sales department strengths. As for KGOW, it seems that most of what they run is nothing but smack on former employer (KILT) for morning show and management people. One of these days, the guys at KGOW need to redefine what their radio station is all about and OH, maybe get around to selling some spots.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

Once upon a time, the FCC required that 7% of a week's programming was to be directed back to the community in the form of PSAs and those early Sunday morning blocks of local interviews and/or syndicated talk. As a former public service director in a couple of other, admittedly-smaller markets, I can tell you that a lot more went into it than merely filling in the slots where spots didn't sell; in fact, I worked closely with our traffic (spot, not cars) lady so she'd make sure to schedule them in, and we'd both go over the spot logs at reconciliation. Detailed, and I mean, detailed logs had to be kept of which public or non-profit organizations were served, how many reads their PSA got per week, and what time (down to the minute) they were read or ran on cart. Jocks used to have to initial and date the backs of the live cards so they were properly rotated and could be reconciled with the compliance guy who would come to the station every quarter. I don't know if news people still have to keep the same sort of documentation, but I had to collect every news story read on-air and all the paper sources and file them in order for my compliance guy, along with the public service stuff. The compliance guy was, I think, subcontracted by our company, although I don't know if he was part of a larger company that provided the service to stations or just working for himself. He had long hair and wore sandals. Since deregulation, I guess the notion of requiring stations to serve the public trust is a thing of the past.

I still nearly fainted when I read "What's a PSA?" from someone in the media business. Wow.

It used to be funny when you'd hear a random block of three or four PSAs in a row, letting you know that somebody was scrambling to get their song que'd up because their attention lapsed at a crucial moment.

 

[adguy]

AD GUY is half right. PSAs have a two fold purpose, they fill unsold inventory and they are part of license's responsibility to serve in the public interest. The amount of inventory that is filled with PSAs, reflects MARKET conditions and not sales department strengths. As for KGOW, it seems that most of what they run is nothing but smack on former employer (KILT) for morning show and management people. One of these days, the guys at KGOW need to redefine what their radio station is all about and OH, maybe get around to selling some spots.

Actually Ad Guy is correct. Yes I am fully aware of the licensee's public interest requirements. I was intimately involved in the process for many years. PSA's can and do reflect market conditions for the well run stations that properly manage their inventory. But, for the most part there are fewer and fewer of these types of operations as stations are constantly dumbing down their management teams with too young and inexperienced personnel. There are more poorly run operations that fail dreadfully in the sales departments leaving these stations woefully under performing, thus leaving them open in times where market conditions may be tight at the best run stations. I can identify those stations quite easily by just listening to how many PSA's run in an hour during M-F daytime hours. I really don't have the time to do this excersise regularly, but you would be surprised how many stations fail to sell their inventory properly. And KGOW is the perfect example of unsold inventory run amuck. Granted they are still in their infancy phase, but by the supposed sales experience of the GM Richard Topper, you would think they would be more sold now than they are. Even if you have to sell those spots for under $50 to get some advertiser sampling, it's better to the bottom line than their humorous, but costly PSA's. Again, where's the experience? They are not alone. If you look at the operations of all 60 odd stations in the Houston market I'll bet you'll find half that don't have a handle or understanding of their sales inventory and how it relates to the efficiencey of their overall income stream.

 

[kendro]

Given the explosion of (other than radio) media over the last 10 to 15 years, does anyone feel PSA spots actually give the public anything they were intended to provide?
In other words, are they now moot and useless to the listening public?

 

[Kevinc]

I believe there are some really well produced entertaining PSAs that serve a purpose...and there are many live reads that are actually in the PSA category that are useful.. we used to have to log when we did a weather bulletin as a PSA (live) or whenever we made mention of a local event that was tied to a charity...that was considered a PSA... And of course the "don't drink and drive" mentions were public service announcements too. SO yes some are useful, but there are many other avenues for them these days than ever before.

think before you drink.... oops I got carried away with the topic I guess.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

I think the key is localism. Even though those public service shows aired in dead hours (5-6 am Sunday, as I recall), there were many times when I arrived at the station to find a stack of messages from listeners wanting the contact info from the organization interviewed. These days, I suppose it's easy enough to Google the information you want, but with a local host interviewing local organizations, it gives people some insight and perhaps some impetus to get involved. I'm thinking specifically of a representative from a battered womens' shelter that I interviewed, and how amazed I was to realize there are a lot of women awake at 5 am on Sunday mornings. Yes, I really do think we affected peoples' lives with that one. Other examples that stand out in my mind were the interviews I did with Navy Relief, which also brought in a ton of calls, a local chapter of Vietnam vets whose main goal was to assist other vets in getting medical and addiction treatment, and a pre-Christmas, er, holiday interview with the Salvation Army about where the money goes when you drop your change into the little red buckets (a lot of folks wanted to volunteer). There was also a bit of a controversy when a representative from the local YMCA chapter opined that he thought Ritalin was an excuse for lazy parenting; I called back each and every p*ssed-off listener who left a message and eventually ended up doing another show with a local childrens' hospital in order to address ADD (it wasn't yet called ADHD) and the types of medications which were available and helpful to children with those conditions. Actually, that second interview got almost as many calls as the first one, from parents wanting to know how to find that doctor and get their kids a scrip. Kinda weird.

Again, hearing local talent speak to community representatives from these organizations can do a lot more to spark interest in those organizations than no publicity at all. I think people do like to help local causes, and sometimes you may reach someone who needs those services badly, or has a relative or friend who needs them. You always hope, anyway.

As for the carted and live-read PSAs, yeah, everybody knows driving drunk can get you and other innocents killed or maimed, and nobody wants to be lectured, but I do think they benefit the community on the whole. We always kept the Call-A-Cab PSAs in the studio during the big drinking holidays, like New Year's Eve, and people did call for that info---okay, sometimes they called the next July when the service was no longer being offered. Sigh.

There are a lot of people (some on this very board) who say that terrestrial radio is rapidly becoming something used largely by those who cannot afford alternatives. If someone is unable to afford an iPod or satellite radio, they may not have Google or the Internet handy, either. Those people are in the same boat as they've ever been in, relying upon the information sources they can get for free, and they still need to be served. In fact, more so now than ever.

Let me ask you something on a semi-related vein: do you think reading Amber Alerts really helps? Even if you come to the conclusion that it doesn't, could you ignore an Amber Alert on the air and feel good about yourself later? If the answer is "no," congratulations. You still care enough about your community to spend a couple of seconds doing anything in your power to help. That means you haven't yet sold your humanity. That's a good thing.

 

[kendro]

I feel that Amber Alerts and similar PSA efforts are critical and should be further directed through legislation. I feel that non-English based listenership stations should be required to dedicate a larger percentage of their airtime to PSA related activities.
Then again, I don't care about station financials either.

 

[TheRadioJudge]

I thought PSA's were only used as filler spots. I guess each station is different. Oh and whomever asked WHAT IS A PSA? Wow, I really hope that was a joke. And if it was not you should be in some 200 plus market instead of one of the largest in the country. No disrespect, just calling it as I see it.

 

[purpledevil]

Judge, he's not in radio. He is a listener that honestly did not know what a PSA was.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

I feel that Amber Alerts and similar PSA efforts are critical and should be further directed through legislation. I feel that non-English based listenership stations should be required to dedicate a larger percentage of their airtime to PSA related activities.
Then again, I don't care about station financials either.

Good point, Kendro. I know I've mentioned this before, but after Hurricane Katrina, Saigon Houston Radio (900 AM KREH) did an amazing job of assembling evacuees, arranging host families, and directing families to the Hong Kong City Mall instead of the Astrodome. There were some 55,000 Vietnamese people in the hardest-hit areas. 20,000 of them came to Houston. Another 10,000 went to Dallas. The Vietnamese community quickly assembled aid, donations, and shelter for those who listened to Little Saigon Radio for emergency information. Within a few days, while confusion still reigned at the Astrodome and the George R. Brown, the Vietnamese children of evacuees were organized and back in schools, families were reunited, and lists of the missing were distributed. Some of those folks have either moved back to New Orleans or moved on to other cities; others now call themselves Houstonians. I wonder what some of those listeners would say of the idea that programming for the public interest is not profitable?




P.S. Whew! That's a relief, purpledevil. I clutched my heart like Redd Foxx when I read that. "Elizabeth...it's the big one!"

 

[purpledevil]

Remind me to not say hello to you the next time we are both at Dan Electro's. ;D

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

By all means, do. PM me and tell me what other name I know you by! ;D