I noticed in the last year stations have been using bogus studio locations and transmitter sites. WRFF says broadcasting from Meeley furniture studios, WOGL from the Kerbeck studios, WBEN broadcasting from atop center city and so many other stations using this ploy. Why is this, is it legal, it happens in other markets also.
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stations using bogus studios/transmitters
- Thread starter Gunsmoke
- Start date
It's called selling naming rights. It's like the Wells Fargo Arena or the Citizen's Bank Park. Of course its legal. Do you want them to give latitude and longitude? Back in the 40s, there was the Make Believe Ballroom.
You'd prefer them to say "lovely Bala Cynwyd?" "On the banks of the Schuylkill River" Within spitting distance of the blue route? I mean really.
They are not "fake" locations. Stations sell (as BigA said) naming rights to the studio, and incorporate that into the legal ID or elsewhere in the programming. So if Geico buys WZZZ's studio naming right, the station says "from the Geico Studio... WZZZ Yourtown" in its ID.
It's called a "sponsorship". When a station says "the Yankees broadcasts are brought to you by Citibank" nobody thinks that Citibank owns the team, or pays the players. They are just a lead sponsor and have "credit" rights.
Bogus? Really?
And the whole Yankees radio network, as John Sterling reminds listeners before every commercial break, is "powered by Jeep!" Not only is that physically impossible -- Jeep isn't in the electricity generation business -- but neither Sterling nor anyone else involved with Yankees broadcasts is even required to drive a Jeep. Bogus! Bogus!
Another shocker: The exact same arena broadcast booth can be the "Smith Toyota broadcast booth" for the tenant hockey team's broadcast in the afternoon and the "Jones Subaru broadcast booth" for the basketball team's broadcast the same night! Bogus! Bogus! Bogus!
Prior to the late 1960s or so, many TV stations' newscasts were sponsored, with the sponsor's logo displayed somewhere on the news desk, weather map, etc.
One early example at the network level was the first iteration of what later became the NBC Nightly News: Camel News Caravan (1949-56), with John Cameron Swayze anchoring. Nobody thought that Camel cigarettes owned NBC or paid Swayze to read the news.
Do you mean to tell me the “Mealy’s jam cam” on KYW’s traffic reports isn’t actually at one of their furniture stores?
My bubble has been shattered.
My bubble has been shattered.
The naming of studios, programming segments and the sort has been happening for years. Advertisers realize keeping their name out there is crucial amidst stiff competition because the first company you think of when you need the product or service they sell is usually the one that gets that customer. It goes way beyond radio. Think professional sports. Being in the southern states, it's the AT&T stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play. The Houston Rockets at the Compaq Center and then the Astros at Minute Maid Park. I hear all of this listening to sports updates from the Gallery Furniture Sports Desk. If I recall correctly, the owner of Gallery Furniture owned a big chunk of the Houston Rockets.
So that's how iHeart and Cumulus can get out of debt? Naming rights? LOL.
But did Gallery Furniture actually sell the broadcaster the physical desk?
You can't sell $20 billion in naming rights. LOL It's just an add-on you give some of your bigger clients.
Sometimes these naming rights things go too far. For years goes back to when they were an Oldies Station owned by Buckley Radio WDRC-FM in Hartford hosted a radiothon to raise money for the Connecticut Children's Medical Center. That has continued after they were sold to Connoisseur Media and flipped to Classic Rock. Anyway when I tuned in to the radiothon this past summer I was disgusted. They sold naming rights for the radiothon and for the phone banks. Depending on which hour it was determined which sponsor's name aired. "This is the 102.9 The Whale XYZ Electrical Contractor's Connecticut Children's Medical Center Radiothon." And Let's find out what's happening at the "Stephen GMC-Toyota-Cadillac Phone Bank."
The question for 2018 of course is will WDRC-FM continue to do the radiothon now that they have been sold to local owners (Full Power Radio)?
The question for 2018 of course is will WDRC-FM continue to do the radiothon now that they have been sold to local owners (Full Power Radio)?
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