Selling Out

[Element9]

Well, radio is doing it again, forcing listeners to find alternative means of audio entertainment. It's really not radio's fault. It's been a dreadful year. Medium and even major market revenue is pacing lower than last year. There are shareholders to please and there's debt to be serviced. So why not swallow every political buy like a glutton, why leave money on the table, why not drop your pants, bend over and grab your ankles and "adjust" the rate to get the buy?

Why not, indeed.

In the last three weeks, I've heard eight, nine, ten minute commercial breaks on just about every radio station in Buffalo. It cuts across formats, from news-talk and country to a-c and classic rock. Even Jack, which boasts shorter breaks, is loaded to the gunwales. Talk about forcing the listeners away from not only their favorite radio station, but away from radio in general, as they plug in their iPods, mp3 players, CD's and as one 42 year old woman remarked "my favorite tapes!" Once they leave, it's tough to bring them back.

In six months, the trades and boards will be full of articles and posts bemoaning the shrinking TSL, the falling cume and 18-34's aversion to the medium.

Nice job radio, you've done it again... same as it ever was.

-9-

 

[SirRoxalot]

Just one clarification. Broadcasters ARE obligated to take every political advertisement from a candidate, and at the lowest regular rate for a particular daypart. Politicos may pay higher rates for special placement.

Broadcasters ARE NOT required to just add the political ads on top of their regular schedules, which brings us those marathon stopsets. Of course, that would require prior planning with other advertisers...

 

[Radknowski]

Good points on the previous posts from Rox and 9. From what I've been able to hear, it seems the political commercials make up about a third to half of all the commercials in the breaks. One of my friends in the business tells me that not all political commercials are "bottom of the card" as some campaigns are paying for "first in break placement." Seems this would help if there are eight commercials in a break.

Another reason there are so many political commercials is the involvement of PAC (Political Action Committees) and advocacy commercials which are separate from those commercials paid for by the individual candidates. Listen to the disclaimers. I cannot recall hearing as many PAC commercials on the radio ever before. Obviously, the key race is the Reynolds-Davis race for the 26th Congressional district in the House of Representatives, where the parties have taken off the gloves.

To the best of my knowledge, the lowest rate on the card rule does not necessarily apply to PACs.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, Msrs. Savage and Smith.[/Mike]

 

[SirRoxalot]

Traffic Jammed

To get back to E-9's point, radio stations are reaping profits, but hemorrhaging listeners. You could do your entire commute in Buffalo during some of the stopsets running on 97-Rock. There has to be a better way to spread out the revenue, especially for long-term clients. How hard is it to sell a long-term client on the idea that their money might be better spent during the two weeks after the election, instead of being buried among the mud-slinging political ads and PAC attacks?

If TV can do it, so can radio. Stopsets that run 10 minutes or LONGER render radio stations unlistenable, and are undefensible in light of the current challenges from other entertainment sources.

 

[SpareChange]

Re: Traffic Jammed

To get back to E-9's point, radio stations are reaping profits, but hemorrhaging listeners. You could do your entire commute in Buffalo during some of the stopsets running on 97-Rock. Stopsets that run 10 minutes or LONGER render radio stations unlistenable, and are undefensible in light of the current challenges from other entertainment sources.

Exactly what happened to me last week driving around town. 97 Rock was on the car radio playing something I liked, then went into a commercial break. After the third commercial, I scanned to 97.7 which was playing a song I listened to. After another song on 97-7, I scanned back to 96-9 which was STILL playing commercials. So that was one and a half songs on 97-7. Then I scanned to Jack and listened for about five minutes, until I reached my destination. When I got in my car after shopping, the radio was on Jack which I listened to on the way home until they went into a commercial break and I went back to 97 Rock. About that time, I arrived home.

I'm more patient listening to the radio than my kids and my wife. My kids will hit the button, when the jock starts talking, that is when they're not on another planet listening to their iPods. My wife at least listens to the jocks and a few commercials before she punches around the dial. She uses the pre-sets when punching out, I prefer the "scan" function. When we've really had our fill, we resort to CDs.