I was in a top 10 market managing an AM daytimer high on the dial. I was one of 72 stations. I knew my choices were very limited.
When I got there we were selling time to ministries as a Christian station. We were billing about $6,000 a month as the newest Christian station of 5 in the market and with the second worst coverage.
Nobody wanted time on Saturday so we got calls from mostly ethnic groups. We were essentially public access radio for a fee for groups that had no radio voice. We had Polish, Vietnamese, Urdu, a couple of non-Christian religious programs (think gurus), and more. A local ministry even approached us for the extended hours in summer to broadcast the Bible in Spanish produced as a dramatized Radio Theater presentation with free broadcast rights. His plea was simple: we need 5,000 to send $5 a month every month for this to continue. I think we hit 1,000 by September (this could work).
We had infomercials. A local fellow wound up buying about 10 hours a week. Our city had sections where shoppers flocked for, say, antiques. He literally walked a few blocks with digital recording equipment visiting shopkeepers. For a fee you got 4 minutes as an interview/conversation about your shop and it played with others right on your block. It aired 2 per week as a 60 minute show. The results were amazing.
We had a Texas Wine and Dining Show featuring interviews with wineries and chefs about their restaurants. That one should have been syndicated.
The interesting one was once the ministries dropped from weekdays a guy wanted afternoon drive. In about 6 weeks he rounded up an assortment of people as advertisers and weekly guests. Naturally you had real estate and financial advice. You had attorneys, specialty doctors, auto mechanics, gardening expert and many more. Each advertiser got an hour a week to field calls from listeners. Honestly we had vey few calls so like many, you had call 'plants' that set the parameters of the subject and set the direction of the show. Listeners that couldn't call were invited to email. We did bogus calls with these emails to stimulate more calls when it got slow. The auto mechanic went to iHeart and is syndicated today.
Yes we had a few bad eggs. There was an ethnic program where the jock said X person was seen drinking and people should avoid doing business with him. HE barely uttered that before he had his show cut, cancelled and ushered our of the station. There was the guy so set on one-upping his competitor that when his competitor had a Bollywood movie co-star showing up, this guy claimed to have the star and free photos for all that show up. He had no contact with the actor or location where this was to have happened nor was he there at the appointed time. It was all made up. Once we learned this he was cancelled. And there was the guy selling commercials and not airing them. He obviously wasn't doing much of this because we cancelled him for non-payment.
Brokered time has a reputation of being the lowlife form of radio. It really is quite the opposite. You'll meet many dedicated people from various nations and cultures sincerely wanted to provide a source of communication for their community, especially those fluent only in the native tongue. They tend to be very pro-American and will even tell you they could never buy radio time to produce their own program in their home country.
It is true we will take the money waved in our face if we are losing cash every month. It is true we don't care how many listen to the station because we don't control the programming. It is true we might broadcast a program that is not in agreement with general thinking at this point. If it starts to hurt our other programmers we might cancel it. Generally if the programmer doesn't do anything illegal, we're okay with them.
Most clients fail in under 8 weeks. Most hate sales and will sell just enough to cover expenses only to find one or two advertisers don't continue past month one, Then it is a mad scramble to find money and within a couple of weeks they can't pay. We required first and last week when signing a contract. Payment due on Monday or first broadcast of week. 3 late payments and cancellation or rate hike because contract is null and void. Let them get behind, they'll never catch up.
My rates were $165 an hour. Depending on number of hours, as low as $100 or even $80 if buying say, 30 hours a week, say 9 to 3 Mon. - Fri. This was through the 1990s and until we began leasing the upgraded signal as a LMA
When I got there we were selling time to ministries as a Christian station. We were billing about $6,000 a month as the newest Christian station of 5 in the market and with the second worst coverage.
Nobody wanted time on Saturday so we got calls from mostly ethnic groups. We were essentially public access radio for a fee for groups that had no radio voice. We had Polish, Vietnamese, Urdu, a couple of non-Christian religious programs (think gurus), and more. A local ministry even approached us for the extended hours in summer to broadcast the Bible in Spanish produced as a dramatized Radio Theater presentation with free broadcast rights. His plea was simple: we need 5,000 to send $5 a month every month for this to continue. I think we hit 1,000 by September (this could work).
We had infomercials. A local fellow wound up buying about 10 hours a week. Our city had sections where shoppers flocked for, say, antiques. He literally walked a few blocks with digital recording equipment visiting shopkeepers. For a fee you got 4 minutes as an interview/conversation about your shop and it played with others right on your block. It aired 2 per week as a 60 minute show. The results were amazing.
We had a Texas Wine and Dining Show featuring interviews with wineries and chefs about their restaurants. That one should have been syndicated.
The interesting one was once the ministries dropped from weekdays a guy wanted afternoon drive. In about 6 weeks he rounded up an assortment of people as advertisers and weekly guests. Naturally you had real estate and financial advice. You had attorneys, specialty doctors, auto mechanics, gardening expert and many more. Each advertiser got an hour a week to field calls from listeners. Honestly we had vey few calls so like many, you had call 'plants' that set the parameters of the subject and set the direction of the show. Listeners that couldn't call were invited to email. We did bogus calls with these emails to stimulate more calls when it got slow. The auto mechanic went to iHeart and is syndicated today.
Yes we had a few bad eggs. There was an ethnic program where the jock said X person was seen drinking and people should avoid doing business with him. HE barely uttered that before he had his show cut, cancelled and ushered our of the station. There was the guy so set on one-upping his competitor that when his competitor had a Bollywood movie co-star showing up, this guy claimed to have the star and free photos for all that show up. He had no contact with the actor or location where this was to have happened nor was he there at the appointed time. It was all made up. Once we learned this he was cancelled. And there was the guy selling commercials and not airing them. He obviously wasn't doing much of this because we cancelled him for non-payment.
Brokered time has a reputation of being the lowlife form of radio. It really is quite the opposite. You'll meet many dedicated people from various nations and cultures sincerely wanted to provide a source of communication for their community, especially those fluent only in the native tongue. They tend to be very pro-American and will even tell you they could never buy radio time to produce their own program in their home country.
It is true we will take the money waved in our face if we are losing cash every month. It is true we don't care how many listen to the station because we don't control the programming. It is true we might broadcast a program that is not in agreement with general thinking at this point. If it starts to hurt our other programmers we might cancel it. Generally if the programmer doesn't do anything illegal, we're okay with them.
Most clients fail in under 8 weeks. Most hate sales and will sell just enough to cover expenses only to find one or two advertisers don't continue past month one, Then it is a mad scramble to find money and within a couple of weeks they can't pay. We required first and last week when signing a contract. Payment due on Monday or first broadcast of week. 3 late payments and cancellation or rate hike because contract is null and void. Let them get behind, they'll never catch up.
My rates were $165 an hour. Depending on number of hours, as low as $100 or even $80 if buying say, 30 hours a week, say 9 to 3 Mon. - Fri. This was through the 1990s and until we began leasing the upgraded signal as a LMA
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