Some Good News

[wsbzjazzkat]

With the recent news about another smooth jazz radio station "biting the dust" -- I thought some positive news would be fitting. WSBZ Radio The Seabreeze had a great turnout at our recent 2012 Seabreeze Jazz Festival held April 18-22nd in Panama City Beach. A total of 25,000 attended from 34 states and 6 countries. Great performances from Dave Koz, Brian Culbertson, Trombone Shorty, Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, Down to the Bone, Nick Colionne, and more. This shows fans still embrace this format, and will pay $$ to travel and support it....regardless of what the "consultants" say. The local county Tourist Development Council has figured the economic impact of this event is close to $14.2 million to the local area. In addition, we are getting feedback that several of the smooth jazz attendees even bought condos and real estate while they were here in the area --another boost to the economy and indicator that this audience does have spending power! It's hard to believe, with this type of turnout, that WSBZ is now just one of a handful of radio stations left promoting this music on FM in the USA.

Here's a good photo of the audience:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...22609012.79994.154810284561838&type=3&theater

Plus...here's a cool video tour of the festival crowd by comedian/host Alonzo Bodden showing how large the attendance was:

http://youtu.be/LGXtMa6C34o

 

[Tibbs4]

YEAH! Way to go MARK! You are a true rock star and should be American Broadcaster of the Decade for all you have done and gone through. Long live your ideas, mindset and integrity. Proud to call you a friend.

 

[crainbebo]

Great job WSBZ!! Now if KOAZ could get a concert festival, and have one of these PDs revive smooth jazz on FM in EVERY metropolitan market in the US. New York, LA [without the Smooth AC crap], Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, San Diego [KIFM is BS now], Phoenix, etc.

-crainbebo

 

[Nock]

Tibbs

You lost?

Nock

 

[AC Tones]

Congrats, Mark! Great to hear. I know it has to be a ton of work, but gratifying I'm sure. At this point, I can only do what I can from my basement. But ONE day, God willing... 8). Peace.

 

[Groove1670]

Excellent! It is great to see a local broadcaster create a successful event. Hats off to you and your staff. I hear your station in Gulf Shores during tropo. It sounds great.

 

[Jazz_Kat]

That's great news Mark. 8) Awesome, keep up the great work!

 

[amfmxm]

Seabreeze is a terrific radio station, and y'all have tons of admirers--me included. Keep up the great work!

amfmxm/RNR

 

[wsbzjazzkat]

Thanks everybody for the great words and support! Hope you guys can make if out to the festival next year! I think the key to stay "alive" on the FM band with smooth jazz these days is to grow and extend your brand....and build up that non-traditional revenue. Smooth Jazz is all about "lifestyle" and not numbers. Though smaller is size, the listeners still make up for it in discretionary income. We saw this with fans buying BMW's right off of the festival site and $5000 pieces of art. Online is definitely where a lot of listening is going, but I do feel people need and appreciate the importance of a local connection to the music. Here is our link to listen online.

http://socialstreamingplayer.crystalmedianetworks.com/radio/wsbz

Thanks again!

Mark Carter
WSBZ Radio
The Seabreeze
Smooth Jazz 106.3
Destin, FL

 

[davideduardo]

Great job WSBZ!! Now if KOAZ could get a concert festival, and have one of these PDs revive smooth jazz on FM in EVERY metropolitan market in the US. New York, LA [without the Smooth AC crap], Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, San Diego [KIFM is BS now], Phoenix, etc.

What works in Destin, FL, will not work in any of the markets you mention.

That's because, at market size 200, less than 15% of the market revenue comes from national / regional agency business and almost all the billings of lower rated stations comes from local direct business (WSBZ is 17th in 25-54).

The station did a great promotion, and certainly is to be complimented for generating non-traditional revenue for a station that is otherwise pretty much of a rimshot in a small market. That indicates quite competent management, something not found at all stations in that size market. While most station management is moaning about the economy, these folks went and did a concert outside their coverage area and obviously did a bang-up job; most managers and stations would not dare take that kind of risk and most group owners would cringe at the costs, talent fees and insurance issues. Good for them! That's what smaller market radio should be about.

But the markets you mention are all top 15 markets, and depend heavily on agency business; agency business depends on having really good 25-54 numbers, something smooth jazz was not producing in recent years.

 

[DoubleC]

Here it looks like KOAZ high TSL (Only place for that Music) But Small Cume and we do sound Great with lots of folks glad we are here But the problem to over come is the small cume which leads to not much response to advertisers who eventually pull their ads How do you over come that Oh great radio people

 

[crainbebo]

DoubleC, when will you guys have a playlist? There's many great songs I've been looking for the song and artist.

-crainbebo

 

[wsbzjazzkat]

The problem is PPM (ratings) doesn't measure "passion" ...just exposure. Smooth Jazz is successful when the listener's passion is tapped into to motivate action in the advertising--creating results. So low cume may not be the problem. Think of which would be a better scenario for the advertiser: 1000 people in the store with little to no money to spend or 100 people ready to spend and passionate about doing it? Take a look at the quality of your commercial production. Ask "what are you asking the listener to do" in each message. Are the messages compelling? Are the commercials tailored to appeal the same smooth jazz audience...or are they like so many of the cookie-cutter spots that simply are meaningless on the radio? And practice the fine art of "cherry-picking" the right type of advertisers that help embellish this smooth jazz lifestyle (i.e. a local BMW or Porshe dealer, fine jewelry, the best restaurants). When you have the best advertisers airing on the station, you set the bar creating a perception for not just the listener/potential customer but other advertisers. Everyone wants to come to the dinner table when the fine china is set out (instead of the paper plates) Protect your airwaves as "gatekeeper" by setting the standards on the commercial production quality...and content. Most advertising agencies are too lazy to produce a "smooth jazz" version of their screaming car dealer ads--so be prepared to be assertive with agencies on why you have the knowledge to make your station work for their client. This may involve rewriting and reproducing some of their production...but if you put crap on the air--your clients will get crap for results. Make it feel like being on your station is an "exclusive club" -- where only the best retailers, shops, and businesses are invited to "present" their product/services to your smaller but highly niched-focused group of affluent listeners. Then...delivery on the commercial writing and production to complete the equation. I have heard so many smooth jazz radio stations bite the dust by letting the group "cluster sell them" with the screaming car dealer ads, tattoo parlors, and tacky PI ads ("Are you going bankrupt? Are you without a job? Want to own your own computer for no credit check? Then call now?). It's all about relating to the listener's connection to the smooth jazz music: i.e. LIFESTYLE. Results can be created without PPM and without ratings. Remember...smooth jazz listeners have "passion", and passion is a great sales tool if harnessed correctly.

 

[Tim]

Niche formats like NAC/SJ rarely do well enough in 25-54 adults to get much ad agency dollars or national business. That means the sales staff has to hit the streets and sell the format to local advertisers. That's work...and that also means salespeople have to call on mostly locally-owned businesses who are still quite uneasy about this 4-year-recession in the US, and hesitant to take chances, as logical as doing so might seem.

 

[wsbzjazzkat]

I agree....that you will have to ask the sales department to do something they may not be used to doing: work...and not wait by the phone for the next agency to place their order. In my market (Market #200), most agency buys only buy 2 to 3 stations deep. We have 44 listenable FM signals in the market (when you combine Class C FMs coming in from close markets like Pensacola, Mobile, Panama City, Dothan, and Tallahassee). The chances are, no matter how good you program or how much power your transmitter has --it's gonna be a crap shoot no matter how you look at it. The question is: why bother fighting the ability to be #2 or #3 or #4 in a over-saturated radio market as the 7th rock station or 9th country station when you station's sales department could go Local/Direct and have more control over LOCAL AD DOLLARS not controlled by the fickle advertising agencies (typically ran by 20 year old media buyers who themselves gave up on radio years ago, yet still control major radio buys)? Local/Direct may be a smaller piece of the pie, but it could be YOUR pie. Small to medium size businesses still make up a large amount of retail sales in this country, and many of these owners are a lot more savvy than you give them credit for. A recession could be the best thing for some businesses, weeding out the competition. Things change..doors open. Big corporate radio (and the mentality) turns many of small to medium size businesses off, ratings or not...opening the door for smaller independent radio stations more tuned into their individual communities' needs, to make a favorable impression on them. The market is there, buy yes, it's more work. But it's achievable.

 

[davideduardo]

I agree....that you will have to ask the sales department to do something they may not be used to doing: work...and not wait by the phone for the next agency to place their order.

Agency sales takes a different skill set than direct selling, but it is not easy.

Since agency sales requires satisfying a number of price vs. delivery goals, trust and a relationship with agency people is critical. Since most buys do not go very deep, being on the buy requires more than just meeting the metrics... the ability to create value added, promotions or new media extensions is often needed. A seller who can juggle the rate issues and create a winning tie breaker for a station is a very skilled, hard working person.

I've worked about 30 years of my career managing sales in agency intensive markets, and I never got an agency buy that did not require a lot of work and effort... and one of the stations where I was in charge of sales did virtually 100% of its business with agencies.

And sitting around waiting for the phone will get you a) no business and b) fired.

 

[davideduardo]

The problem is PPM (ratings) doesn't ... and (hundreds of words later)... passion is a great sales tool if harnessed correctly.

paragraph
n noun a distinct section of a piece of writing, indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering.

 

[DoubleC]

Problem Here The local Directs say they Do NOT have the Money To Advertise
Wait you want sales people to Know their client and Their Audience? They don't even take the time to Know their own Station. I can't count om Fingers and toes How many times a Sales person has said Oh Kool does the fab 4 at 4 How long have we done that oh 4 years. I to this day do not understand why some sales people do not take the time to Know Their station and The Audience and later say how come they did not get a response

 

[wsbzjazzkat]

Getting and keeping great sales talent is and continues to be a huge problem for radio in both small and large markets. The people who were really stellar in radio sales years ago I feel saw the writing on the wall with both the ownership consolidation, and the economy --and simply opted out of radio sales altogether. Many tell me they felt expendable by the corporate nature local radio has turned to. (Cumulus has what's known as "The Firing Squad" --the black SUV's that show up unannounced at different markets handing out pink slips) I know several of Clear Channel's previous top performers who went into completely different fields after feeling disenfranchised by the changes. Many of the number crunching done to get some of the agency buys in sales really is a totally different type of sales job than working to create results for a local or regional advertiser who has different needs and objectives that an agency. Both have their place in generating revenue. And where are the graduates from Broadcasting schools and colleges who wanted to get into this field? We used to get calls and resumes from excited, energetic students who wanted a ground floor opportunity in broadcasting. Those days seem gone as well.

 

[retrodells]

106.3 The Seabreeze has been a very consistent Smooth Jazz format outlet since the mid 90's and it is still very yight and a great station! Kudo's to them!