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Rush Denies Per Inquiry Ads on his Show

S

skyeye

Hey, did you all see this on RadioDailyNews.com?

______________________________________
Call Rush Limbaugh a blowhard, say his politics is beyond the pale, that he's a right-wing wacko. He's OK with all that. But question his business model on which his enormously successful syndicated radio talk show is based and Limbaugh springs to his own defense. Last Wednesday's column featured comments by a former radio executive from West Chester, Pa., who was one of the first five station owners to air Limbaugh's afternoon show live. While many of the comments had some kernel of truth back in the 1980s, the column prompted Limbaugh to e-mail and then telephone me (read more - Ron Williams-Delaware News Journal)
________________________________________

Per Inquiry ads are ads stations place in unsold time slots. Advertisers don't pay an agreed rate. They pay stations so much for each call to the 800 number (per inquiry) the ad generates.

As they used to say on Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that." For Rush or any other talk show host to say his show does not run Per Inquiry spots is like (another Seinfeld reference) a guy saying he is "master of his own domain."

Talk radio does not have a lot of blue chip advertisers. The same ads seem to pop up on all the talk shows. A lot of these ads you hear only on talk shows and they sell stuff you can't buy in store. And most of them have a direct response 800 number.

Maybe Rush is different from most other hosts. He charges stations to carry his show and the others either give stations the show free (and get to run ads of their own in the show) or pay stations a fee to take the show (answering Sammy20002's syndication question down the page, "What gives?"). Maybe Rush's in a position now where he can do a cash business with advertisers but he's run Per Inquiry ads in the past, and stations continue to run Per Inquiry ads in his show. Looks like this article in a local paper in a medium market touched a nerve. It sure got Rush's attention in a hurry. I bet he contacted this newspaper writer even before he had his first pain pill of the day.
 
It would be astounding if Rush Limbaugh or any other successful nationally syndicated show were airing Per Inquiry Ads. There aren't even very many local radio stations airing per inquiry ads. The payout on the crappy products that P.I. companies are able to line up don't sell well and the payouts are miniscule.

Now as far as what spots the local affiliates run, there might well be P.I. ads in Rush's show. Some of the worst radio stations in America are badly run talk stations with no dedicated ad sales team. Instead, these are often sold as an afterthought by the FM sales teams. They are notoriously bad at this. I once worked for a talk station where management ended this arrangement, hired a staff that only worked the talk station and sales doubled with no increase in ratings. In many, many markets, talk stations get a majority of their revenue from local direct advertisers and not agencies. That's because they command higher rates from local advertisers and station management won't offer the low costs-per-rating-point agencies demand. Plus there is also the occasional no "controversial" content clause in some national ad contracts.

It's almost as if the writer didn't know the difference between a direct response radio ad and a per inquiry ad. All per inquiry ads are direct response, but not all direct response ads are per inquiry.<P ID="signature">______________
SD</P>
 
> It would be astounding if Rush Limbaugh or any other
> successful nationally syndicated show were airing Per
> Inquiry Ads. There aren't even very many local radio
> stations airing per inquiry ads. The payout on the crappy
> products that P.I. companies are able to line up don't sell
> well and the payouts are miniscule.

I remember those Cupid.com ads the entire TRN network ran a year or so ago, only to find out that they made about $400/month off the thing. Aired on Doyle, Bruce, and Humphries' weekday shows, and not just in the local cover... no wonder they're no long on.

I gotta run; Las Vegas is calling...
 
I really thought the Allen Brothers meat thing he did last Friday was a per inquiry ad.

It's funny that what was presented as shop talk patter, the Allen Brothers web site had a link already in place asking how you heard about them...Rush Limbuagh....Glenn Beck and some Chicago hosts.

Now if Rush wasn't advertising them, and PI, why was the web site already set up with his link?

> Hey, did you all see this on RadioDailyNews.com?
>
> ______________________________________
> Call Rush Limbaugh a blowhard, say his politics is beyond
> the pale, that he's a right-wing wacko. He's OK with all
> that. But question his business model on which his
> enormously successful syndicated radio talk show is based
> and Limbaugh springs to his own defense. Last Wednesday's
> column featured comments by a former radio executive from
> West Chester, Pa., who was one of the first five station
> owners to air Limbaugh's afternoon show live. While many of
> the comments had some kernel of truth back in the 1980s, the
> column prompted Limbaugh to e-mail and then telephone me
> (read more - Ron Williams-Delaware News Journal)
> ________________________________________
>
> Per Inquiry ads are ads stations place in unsold time slots.
> Advertisers don't pay an agreed rate. They pay stations so
> much for each call to the 800 number (per inquiry) the ad
> generates.
>
> As they used to say on Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything
> wrong with that." For Rush or any other talk show host to
> say his show does not run Per Inquiry spots is like (another
> Seinfeld reference) a guy saying he is "master of his own
> domain."
>
> Talk radio does not have a lot of blue chip advertisers.
> The same ads seem to pop up on all the talk shows. A lot of
> these ads you hear only on talk shows and they sell stuff
> you can't buy in store. And most of them have a direct
> response 800 number.
>
> Maybe Rush is different from most other hosts. He charges
> stations to carry his show and the others either give
> stations the show free (and get to run ads of their own in
> the show) or pay stations a fee to take the show (answering
> Sammy20002's syndication question down the page, "What
> gives?"). Maybe Rush's in a position now where he can do a
> cash business with advertisers but he's run Per Inquiry ads
> in the past, and stations continue to run Per Inquiry ads in
> his show. Looks like this article in a local paper in a
> medium market touched a nerve. It sure got Rush's attention
> in a hurry. I bet he contacted this newspaper writer even
> before he had his first pain pill of the day.
>
 
> I really thought the Allen Brothers meat thing he did last
> Friday was a per inquiry ad.
>

The way to tell if it's a PI ad is if it has a different phone number (or box number if they're doing it through the mail) on each program. That's how they track where the response came from in order to pay a commission to the show.

If it's run locally, they use a phone number and zip code. Each station in a market running the ad (or informercial) will have a unique number, but those numbers will be used in numerous markets.

Rush has run direct response ads since the beginning (remember "The Conservative Chronicle"?) But that doesn't mean they're necessarily per inquiry.

> It's funny that what was presented as shop talk patter, the
> Allen Brothers web site had a link already in place asking
> how you heard about them...Rush Limbuagh....Glenn Beck and
> some Chicago hosts.
>
> Now if Rush wasn't advertising them, and PI, why was the web
> site already set up with his link?

Lots of web sites have "where did you hear about us" sections... actually, that probably indicates it wasn't PI. If it were, people who heard about it on Rush's show would have called the special phone number or gone to the special web site. They would already know where the respondant heard the ad and wouldn't have to ask.
 
> The way to tell if it's a PI ad is if it has a different phone number (or box > number if they're doing it through the mail) on each program. That's how they > track where the response came from in order to pay a commission to the show.

You are partly right. Different phone numbers means they are tracking results but that doesn't mean an ad is P.I. Even if they are paying per spot, they still need to track results to find out if the station is worth purchasing again.

Our stations don't accept any P.I. Advertising but we do have direct response advertisers. The sales staff hates them because the client calls up and whines and threatens to cancel if the response doesn't pick up.<P ID="signature">______________
SD</P>
 
> I really thought the Allen Brothers meat thing he did last
> Friday was a per inquiry ad.

It wasn't a P.I. What I heard was a long-winded story about the sponsor. I'm pretty sure that's part of the sales package. If so, they will only get that once. I heard the same thing for Zicam when they were a new advertiser and then never again.<P ID="signature">______________
SD</P>
 
I may be all washed up, but the promotion was only to the general web site that had the "where did you hear about us link". That link could be entirely for internal tracking or it could have been for measuring the response to calculate the cost based on inquiries.

Really, there isn't much difference between per inquiry and direct response, especially is it is measured in some way. Plus, Premiere could call PI something different and Rush could use that "tweak" to deny Per Inquiry since it seems to have a negative connotation. Sort of like the difference between janitor and sanitary engineer.

> > I really thought the Allen Brothers meat thing he did last
>
> > Friday was a per inquiry ad.
> >
>
> The way to tell if it's a PI ad is if it has a different
> phone number (or box number if they're doing it through the
> mail) on each program. That's how they track where the
> response came from in order to pay a commission to the show.
>
>
> If it's run locally, they use a phone number and zip code.
> Each station in a market running the ad (or informercial)
> will have a unique number, but those numbers will be used in
> numerous markets.
>
> Rush has run direct response ads since the beginning
> (remember "The Conservative Chronicle"?) But that doesn't
> mean they're necessarily per inquiry.
>
> > It's funny that what was presented as shop talk patter,
> the
> > Allen Brothers web site had a link already in place asking
>
> > how you heard about them...Rush Limbuagh....Glenn Beck and
>
> > some Chicago hosts.
> >
> > Now if Rush wasn't advertising them, and PI, why was the
> web
> > site already set up with his link?
>
> Lots of web sites have "where did you hear about us"
> sections... actually, that probably indicates it wasn't PI.
> If it were, people who heard about it on Rush's show would
> have called the special phone number or gone to the special
> web site. They would already know where the respondant
> heard the ad and wouldn't have to ask.
>
 
> Really, there isn't much difference between per inquiry and direct response,
> especially is it is measured in some way.

Not much difference? How about like night and day? Per Inquiry means exactly that. The advertiser pays nothing for the ad, only for each response (usually purchase) to the ad.

Direct Response means only that the advertiser is measuring the effectiveness of the ad by the responses (purchases) but pays for the spot regardless of the number of responses. If there is insufficient response, the advertiser cancels and quits buying ads, but is still on the hook to pay for the ads that ran.

Why would someone pay for Direct Response when Per Inquiry is available? Two reasons: It's generally NOT available. Why would a station sales manager mess around with piddling P.I. deals when a station can make a lot more money selling at 50% of the normal rate and preempt it if sold out? Also, running P.I. means that if you are on even a halfway decent station, you won't get much, if anything, Monday through Friday between 6am and 7pm.

If you are a P.I. customer and you are on a station with decent ratings and your P.I. ad airs at good times, then that sales staff SUCKS. Usually bad sales staffs sell for bad radio stations so it's not easy to find such a deal.<P ID="signature">______________
SD</P>
 
> > The way to tell if it's a PI ad is if it has a different
> phone number (or box > number if they're doing it through
> the mail) on each program. That's how they > track where
> the response came from in order to pay a commission to the
> show.
>
> You are partly right. Different phone numbers means they are
> tracking results but that doesn't mean an ad is P.I. Even if
> they are paying per spot, they still need to track results
> to find out if the station is worth purchasing again.
>
> Our stations don't accept any P.I. Advertising but we do
> have direct response advertisers. The sales staff hates them
> because the client calls up and whines and threatens to
> cancel if the response doesn't pick up.
>
Yes, I tried to keep it simple in my answer. If all the ads use the same number, than it certainly isn't PI. I rather doubt anything on Limbaugh is PI, although there could be some during local breaks.

Our experience with PI is they're not worth messing with. Even if the advertiser is honest, you don't get much. And they may not be honest... we ran one a few years ago... we didn't get paid much so we pulled the spots. Those same little checks kept coming for quite a few months after the ads stopped, so they obviously weren't actually paying the commission just some much smaller amount hoping we'd keep running their ads.

Even if the PI spots generate some revenue, if you figured it out per spot, they're getting the spots for very little, which isn't fair to the advertisers who pay the regular rate.
 
> Yes, I tried to keep it simple in my answer. If all the ads use the same
> number, than it certainly isn't PI.

You are right, but just to clarify further, if they have DIFFERENT numbers, that's not evidence that it IS P.I. As I said previously, even if the advertiser pays for every spot, he will still want to track the response rate to know if he should keep buying a particular station or network.<P ID="signature">______________
SD</P>
 
> Even if the PI spots generate some revenue, if you figured
> it out per spot, they're getting the spots for very little,
> which isn't fair to the advertisers who pay the regular
> rate.

Perhaps, but on most airlines, people pay vastly different rates due to a number of factors, like how far in advance they booked and so on. Same thing in radio. BTW, seems with newer services like Bid4Spots, the PI is less necessary as fire sale inventory can be disposed of at guaranteed rates set by the station.
 
CC very sensitive on Per Inquiry Issue

Now Rush's local affiliate manager has written a letter to the editor of the local paper which said Rush runs Per Inquiry spots:

---------------------
Radio advertisers see value of Limbaugh and Hannity

There are plenty of national advertisers on the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity radio programs, like Quicken Loans, Hawthorn Suites, Select Comfort Beds, General Steel, Lumber Liquidators and Priceline.com. The Limbaugh program does not accept "per inquiry" advertisers.

I doubt the Candlelight Dance Club will qualify The News Journal for the Advertising Hall of Fame, either, but clearly that client perceives value in its advertising and The News Journal is more than happy to accept their money.

No radio program can be an engineered event. Programs are successes because they are popular with audiences and provide value for advertisers. On both counts, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are smashing successes.

In the future, I suggest columnist Ron Williams spend an extra five minutes on the phone to get information from someone actually in the business.

Bob Walton, Operations manager, Clear Channel Radio, Claymont

----------------

He say the "Limbaugh program does not accept "per inquiry" advertisers." He does not say his station does not accept Per Inquiry ads for Rush's local avails.
 
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