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Tony Venturoli New Program Director at WEBR Radio
- Thread starter Bill Yuhnke
- Start date
WBFO seems to be doing well. Folks like you said the community would shun them and never listen again because they did not provide Blizzard coverage on Christmas Eve...
Well, there really isn't much of an alternative for NPR listeners, is there? And their little bump in the ratings is statistically insignificant. More importantly, how's their revenue doing? They seem to be begging for dollars more frequently and urgently than in the past.
I rather enjoyed the Westwood One format we did on WECK ("Timeless" era). It was programmed by Karl Hampton (Southcutt), whose dad Chuck was a pioneer in the Standards format. Unfortunately, they cut their airstaff and turned it into a jukebox, but at its best the music was well-targeted and the jocks each had unique personalities. Karl's show especially was great in PM drive, very music-driven with lots of cool trivia. I'd do something like that again in a minute.
You mean like how David Field is literally begging for money? Audacy has collapsed. The formats they have tried on 107.7 in the last several years have been listener repellent. The ratings history data should tell you something about what worked and what doesn't...
Well That's me so I guess it fits. I'm still alive though and I still want to know about where to eat, what stores are having sales as well as new products I may be interested in. We got rid of the shag carpeting and bell bottoms a long time ago.
Again the format that WEBR started with I found unique. There are plenty of other stations playing the same songs they feature now.
Were you defending Bill's efforts when he started up WEBR? I was, but to expect it to be an instant success? Well it's just not going to happen. Pick something the competition isn't doing and run with it.
The ad agencies, unfortunately, have research that shows that people like you (and me) generally eat at the same places they've been eating for years, buy stuff at the same stores they've been shopping at for years and/or buy only house brands, and aren't interested in enough new products to justify the expense of trying to get them to buy. This described my late father to a T, and it has come to describe me as well.
This is a recurring theme. Radio doesn't want to program for the 55 plus crowd because "it's too hard to get a sale". The AM stations mentioned in this thread have no other choice. Their only hope is to program for that audience and try to get appropriate advertisers. Some can do it and others can't...
In this instance, we are talking about ad buys made by advertising agencies. In many markets, particularly smaller ones, there is not that much large agency business; it is all local direct or smaller local agencies.
Direct accounts don't use ratings as the entire base of ad buys. They may be influenced by ratings, but they are more influenced by sales. And anyone with a purse, wallet or checkbook is fine to them. They buy older leaning format... in fact, in many cases they like them because that is what they themselves listen to.
That's true, but the same local business is available in large markets. Corporate Radio chooses not to pursue it. Many underperforming FM stations could be programmed for the 45-70 crowd. I guess it's too much to expect salespeople to work...
Wrong. In large markets, small businesses can not pay the rate that retailers with a dozen or more locations or broad market services can. So a single location ma and pa store can never afford large market radio.
I managed a high rated station in market 14 and we did not even have local sellers as no direct account could come close to paying our rates.
P.S. Selling to agencies is just as hard as selling to direct accounts. It just requires a bit different personality and skill set.
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This is a very important observation and it deserves elaboration. It occurred to me long ago that certain AEs were great with local direct, while others were agency mavens who could pull a rabbit out of a thimble even with weak numbers. I've often wondered what personal or business (or combination of) traits came to the fore that created this proficiency... aside from patience, perseverance and the absolute desire to be able to pay the mortgage and the kids' orthodontist.
Oversimplified: agency sales are analytically based, while local direct is emotionally based.
Agency sales are, first and foremost, achieved by meeting the Cost Per Point in the agency client's target demo. Relationships come in only when there are multiple stations that meet the client's goal, and not all of them will get the buy; that is where liking the station rep will make a difference.
Local direct selling is based on more than ratings, such as offering one-day turnaround for new copy if the client has a sale or some new merchandise or offerings. It's about finding out what the client's needs are... what in the old Jason Jennings sales courses was called the "consultant sale" where the seller asked plenty of questions about the client's business and needs. The idea there was to spend very little time pitching the station and a lot of time finding out how to do what the client needed.
Almost left brain vs. right brain selling styles.
You missed the point. I was talking about stations with LOW ratings in big markets. They could be programmed for older audiences. You've said many many times that ad agencies don't want over 55 listeners. It sounds like you're saying that it's better to have NO ratings and NO revenue rather than serving an audience that still uses Radio. Yeah, I get it. The Corporate groups are so far in debt, that any revenue at lower ad rates is insignificant and not worth the effort...
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You missed the point. We're talking about a local station that was purchased at a far less punitive price by a local owner. Major groups have other ways to extract revenue, like making low-rated stations part of a national buy aimed at a particular audience or as part of the national distribution of a syndicated show (see "Free Beer and Hot Wings"). In general, local sales are still the backbone of radio, but that's not always the case. Major groups have to determine the best way to derive revenue from their properties, whether it's from local sales, comboing local stations to drive down cost per point, or national syndication.
musicianslegacy
Banned
I am new to this site. Overwhelmed however, by the extreme negativity and non solicited advice. Uninformed people who are more worried about grammer than common courtesy should really focus on their own self improvement. I am curious as to how many of those commenting have owned a radio station? Two radio stations? A cab company? I know of one person qualified to respond to that. I would like to address a few of the guesses and pot shots in this thread. I will start with the fact that WEBR and WLVL have a professional sales staff. Obviously most of you have never listened to the station to hear the multiple commercials that play daily. Constructive suggestions are helpful and welcomed but If you have not listened long enough then you really have no businesses commenting about what works and what doesn't. Over the last few years WEBR has faced many challenges as you seem to be aware of. Bill Yuhnke has not missed a beat. It is only the persistence and abilities of his ownership that will continue to drive this station forward. The format change was necessary and it is absolutely not the same as everyone else. I will bet if that if you listen, you will find something that you like.
musicianslegacy
Banned
Glad to hear that you were. Keep listening. Everything takes time to work. There are many things that WEBR is doing that other stations are not.
That's a fact.
Again you are misinterpreting my response.
Not all group owners are in major debt. Right in Buffalo you have Townsquare which is profitable, not highly leveraged and successful. In fact, there are only a couple of groups that are in significant trouble and even there the group stations are profitable but the profit won't cover debt. If you have profitable stations, you don't experiment with programming that has little likelihood of being profitable.
Station in big markets with low ratings are generally the poor signal stations, the rimshots, the daytime AMs, the high on the dial AMs and the like.
With very very few exceptions, the full signal B and C class FMs do well enough to not have to consider a format such as you suggest aimed at seniors.
There are already quite a few like you think are underutilized. Sol Levine's AM station in LA has partial coverage of the market and does such a format. Sol himself said that the revenue barely covers the light bill... and he is a seasoned broadcaster with over 60 years of experience.
Generally, such "senior formats" are done by groups that find nothing else to do with a secondary AM or far suburban FM. But usually the owner-operator situations that are stand-alones pick a brokered format or some kind of foreign language operation as that is more profitable than trying to sell marginal signal coverage and a senior audience.
The few examples, like Buddy's station in Buffalo, that are successful are very few and have required a lot of work and extensive community knowledge and good relationships with businesses and leaders. Or they are stations in small, unrated markets where the only business is local direct business and most business owners are also older themselves.
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