Sweet humility....

[boogiecheck]

Boogie, are you stamping your feet in a tantrum when you shout same, same, same? For the record, South Central no longer owns television stations and hasn't for some time. Jr., as you call him, wanted to focus on radio and not be distracted by TV. The radio group continues to prosper here in Knoxville as well as in Nashville and Evansville. Just because the company was smart enough to embrace the digital reality, doesn't mean they took their eyes off of radio. They just grew more eyes!

Then why do their "radio" sales force only sell website development and Google search boosting anytime they call on clients? I've heard from countless clients that this is the case. They've stopped being a "broadcasting" company and have transformed into an internet company.

 

[controlboard1]

Local Radio is almost dead. Just talk to the general public maybe one or two out of ten people actually ever listen to a local station anymore. Why do you think so many small market stations are going dark. The end is near!

 

[Tennessee Cowboy]

Local Radio is almost dead. Just talk to the general public maybe one or two out of ten people actually ever listen to a local station anymore. Why do you think so many small market stations are going dark. The end is near!

Cable is killing TV. Internet is killing radio and newspaper. Satellite is killing cable. Nekkid people on porn sites are killing marriages. The Anti-Christ is coming.

The paper will go before anything. It costs more to print 2,000 copies of a newspaper than it costs to run a small radio station for a few days. TV news is expensive enough to program locally, so expect that to go next. Radio is the least expensive to produce and distribute. Expect it to go last, when nobody cares what's happening locally.

Then again, who needs satellite radio when you have an iPod? I believe there are still places where one can download Howard Stern talking about how little time it would take for him to have relations with some porn star.

 

[knoxside]

Alert! Journal "Broadcast" Group sees what South Central Media is doing in digital and plans on exploiting their weakness by starting their own digital division. Soon Journal's ""radio" sales force will only sell website development and Google search boosting anytime they call on clients?" Apparently, "They've stopped being a "broadcasting" company and have transformed into an internet company."

 

[boogiecheck]

Alert! Journal "Broadcast" Group sees what South Central Media is doing in digital and plans on exploiting their weakness by starting their own digital division. Soon Journal's ""radio" sales force will only sell website development and Google search boosting anytime they call on clients?" Apparently, "They've stopped being a "broadcasting" company and have transformed into an internet company."

Journal isn't a broadcasting company. They're a publishing company with broadcasting holdings. They've also been doing "interactive" as a partner to their publishing arm for about ten years or so now. It makes sense that they would allow non-newspaper towns to go ahead and spread the interactive bean a little.

The difference between the two is one is NYSE listed, the other is listed in the Evansville phone book.

 

[Tennessee Cowboy]

Not a lot of stations these days that are only doing radio. Same with TV, newspaper, and Yellow Pages. It's a lot like going to Starbucks for a steak.

 

[Tennessee Cowboy]

As long as we're on the subject...

Is adding internet promotion and SEO the equivalent of hedging your bets?

Or is sticking with radio to the exclusion of all others a losing strategy?

 

[boogiecheck]

As long as we're on the subject...

Is adding internet promotion and SEO the equivalent of hedging your bets?

Or is sticking with radio to the exclusion of all others a losing strategy?

It's the equivalent of admitting you don't know what you're doing and your product can't reach the market it was designed
to reach because it isn't programmed effectively. Cost cutting and the end of actual broadcasting is the losing strategy.

 

[ksw2844]

Boogie.
As much as I have respected your past opinions, I think you think you think you know more about this issue than you do. As an observer from another market (I love East Tn) I think SC is dead on target. The trades would seem to confirm that and they still have PR's (power ratio's) that defy their formats, they are growing their radio share, and finding a way to diversify their marketing portfolio. That you claimed that TV was still a part of their portfolio either indicates your ignorance (no disrespect intended) or you own an axe that needs grinding. Please don't slam me, I have friends that work their, so I have different perspective. Their people are more content than they have been in YEARS, because they have additional solutions for thier clients. If that is a bad thing, for the life of me, I can't understand how. Anyway, my vacation is over so I have to head home. Other than this point, I mostly agree and enjoy your perspectives on ET radio. I'll pay more attention to THIS board now. Thanks guys.

 

[ksw2844]

My point being the digital effort they have embarked on is a perfect augmentation of their radio offerings, and they are "ahead of the curve," not "off target." And they will be copied, as Journal has done, and so will others. And btw, Journal, in an internal memo, cited SC as "getting the jump" on them. Just a fact.

 

[boogiecheck]

My point being the digital effort they have embarked on is a perfect augmentation of their radio offerings, and they are "ahead of the curve," not "off target." And they will be copied, as Journal has done, and so will others. And btw, Journal, in an internal memo, cited SC as "getting the jump" on them. Just a fact.

I tend to agree that entering the digital marketplace would make sense if it was done in concert with other areas of revenue generation. In this case it is not. It's the only thing the sales force talks about. Also, if they could actually deliver they would be miles ahead of the competition, but so far they haven't been able to do that. Even their staff complains about the situation.

Here's a way of looking at it. If your neighborhood, family operated Italian joint found themselves up against some hard times, they wouldn't place sole meuniere on the menu. They would hopefully go with something they knew like different pasta dishes or even pizza.

 

[ksw2844]

Boogie,
I suspect that we will agree to disagree. I also suspect we have different perspectives. Thank you for your discourse.

 

[Tennessee Cowboy]

IMHO...

If a station's website has useful information and is worth visiting on its own, it makes sense to use it as a revenue source. It's best to have someone dedicated just to selling and maintaining the site. Most of the real money is in selling web services to companies that would not normally be local ad prospects.

If a station's website is mostly an excuse to sell ads, no one will visit it. If the radio ad staff has to sell it they won't be able to generate much money with it, and it winds up reflecting poorly on the ad sales people.

The News Sentinel has a dedicated web staff. More people visit their website than all of the radio stations sites combined. Most of the knoxnews money comes from search engine marketing services. You would never know this from looking at their site.

Most of the TV stations have their ad sales people also sell web. The web-only packages don't sell very well. Clients feel like they can't buy a TV ad without having a bunch of stuff they don't need pushed on them by someone who only marginally knows what they're selling.