Ray D. Oh said:
This battle has been fought before but I am one of those who thinks cancellations drive listenership. I know we are trying to drive people to our websites and that is valuable but most of radio still makes the majority of it's revenue (98%) on what goes on the air. We want people to listen. If they bring up my website I want them to listen to my air stream. That's why I am still a believer in not posting cancellations on the website and, instead, driving listeners to listen to the radio. No matter what people say...at this point....what comes off the radio dial is STILL our main business and source of revenue. We must continue to drive people there. True the website may be easier for some people but we should protect our air. If not, then why not open websites that do nothing but cancellations, school closings, etc and take another reason for people to listen to the radio away? We are shooting ourselves in the foot!
Right on... I agree with this poster completely. There has to be a happy medium somewhere. I do believe a stations web site should be a big part of the program, the potential for interaction for the listener and the possible collection of demographic data for the sales staff is amazing. I kind of like the idea for a code thing, listen for the access code ect, but one of the thoughts that enters my mind is this: If everything goes bad, weather, national emergency, whatever, what does one instinctively turn to? A radio....... A radio, flashlight, candles, right? Well that kind of sounds like a romantic evening at home while the kids are sleeping at a friends house! Or an erotic encounter in the basement of Z97! But anyway... (my throat clears)
If there is a bad storm, power goes out, whatever everyone young and old is already programmed to grab a radio. It is everyones link to "the outside world" if everything else is out ya know? So after decades of instilling this in people we go and try to break that link? A careful balance of live talent, voice tracking, website interaction, and "local" flavor will be essential in the coming years of we are to maintain this hidden or unspoken trust people instinctively have for these signals. 28 year old mom does not want to hear a voice tracked intro to a song at 6am when she wants to know if her kids are going to be getting on the bus or if she will have to bring them to day care or if she will be having to call-in to work because they are all closed, am I right here?
I guess the answer for the Z still eludes me, they do cover quite a bit of territory, it does eat up quite a bit of air-time. I think a little redesign is in order. A sales and air staff meeting perhaps! A creative meeting to come up with a happy medium. What about a 10 second intro or a couple lines in a school closing promo that talks about not calling in to check for your school. Give the listener some instruction and "teach" them how to do this with us. At the same time letting them know that when things get bad they can still turn to us for "service".
What the Z and WJJR just did is teach me to put a bookmark of their closings page right next to the one I have for the WX and VT road conditions. Unless the power goes out I really don't need to listen for my school now! AND there is no ads on there so it loads real quick!! Nice!
