Voice Tracking\Still Cutting The Fat?

[pocket-radio]

Did you read this? Farid Suleman is considering cutting his sales staff now.
It's bad enough radio is moving more towards voice tracking, now the sales people are endangered species.

Farid bueller believes, as much as half of the revenues would come in with or without a salesperson. Ok maybe a clerk could work the accounts. As quoted in Inside Radio "why are we paying commissions for that revenue?" I bet CC, Renda, & Cox must be thinking the same thing. That or agency spots will be booked over the internet.

So this means if your station is # 1 or # 2 and you’re an ad guy or gal selling with a big agency list, look out! You could be next.

If Faird bueller tries the great experiment and it works. Guess what! Send in the clones. Renda see, Clear Channel see, Cox see... They will all see and due!
I'd love to buy you a lovely bunch of bannas. But I can't because I'm out of work. LOL

The good news is, they’ll be more coffee for the on air people. just kidding they’ve cut that budge too.. Dam you, dam you all to hell!

Who names their kid Faird anyway?

Seems like you might be safer with a station that’s # 17th because the agencies won't be calling.

Hey bueller, have some guy or gal from India working the agencies! Just change his or her name to Bob or Susan.. They'll never notice.

I really thought radio was done cutting the fat but I'm wrong, again!
Has voice tracking hurt radio? or does anyone care.

Your thoughts?

 

[Brother Bear]

It's amazing the ends that fat can be cut from a budget, but it's shoddy butchers that take the meat with it.
As far as voice tracking is concerned, I believe it's the most vile, odious byproduct of Evil Empire's rape of what radio was. Once they deemd it acceptable to stick a disembodied voice on the air the trend spread like wildfire.
If you don't have a few hundred bucks a month to spend on hungry youngsters (and they ARE out there) to give your station some life in the evenings and on weekends then you should just shut it down and be done with it. People like that are not part of radio's future as I see it.
Radio has been and will always be something that's in your BLOOD, not a half-assed business venture for some clod that can't pick the winner of a one horse race and cuts and runs when things get sticky.
Maybe it IS the Kool-aid talking, but dammit I believe that once radio is finally purged of the bean counters and used car salesmen, and starts being run by BROADCASTERS again, we may get back to what we all came to know and love. It wont be the SAME, but we CAN make it better.

 

[vadar]

Damn Bear, I gotta go search for my Thesaurus again..............Good luck at CC!

 

[Stewy]

Pocket, that is very bad news. Normally, normal operators increase the sales staff as things tighten to increase the odds of a sale. The cc's of the world have never understood the personal relationship part of radio so they would think them unnecessary. If you live only or even largely on agency business you are screwed because then you let the agency dictate price to the station(s). Sales talent is different from on air talent less than what some think. Air boosts ego with ratings and sales boosts ego with money which you need a goodly portion of both to be a successful broadcast company.

I feel for sales and air talent released because of these short sighted idiots but if they are really thinking of throwing the money makers out the door then their end is very, very near. As I've said before, if your an "old schooler" get rested and ready because the time for an industry rebuild is soon to come and we will be needed.

 

[pocket-radio]

Bear I feel the same way. When the housing bubble finally burst good hard working people lost everything. The radio bubble will also have to go bust. That means the bottom hasn't falling out yet, but when and "if" it does the value of stations will drop. CC, Cox, Citadel or Renda will have to give up a few stations to the bank so then the real operators will come to a giant yard sale and buy the broken pieces cheap. And radio will rise from the ashes to start over again. So far the current crop of operators, only care about short term profits and getting their quarterly bonus check.

 

[alcapone]

Within 10 years most commercial radio stations in the US will have all their on air people out selling spots on the street. That's what all this is coming down to.

 

[vadar]

10 years? Probably less than that and what about the possibility or likelihood of selling being outsourced? BTW, the housing/mortgage industry lost over 100,000 employees. The single largest lost of employees in one line of work since the airline industry was decimated by 9/11.

Oh, Oh, too many big words there, I sound like Bear. Sorry.

 

[Brother Bear]

vt may have a good point. Back in "The Day" I did morning drive and tended a handful of accounts afterward. I didn't exactly set Wall Street on its ear, but I DID make enough to put hot dogs in my Top Ramen. I think the ones who will take a REAL pounding when we hit bottom are the mega-ad agencies. They are little more than a middle man niche created by aloof corporate owners that were too good to deal one-on-one with local business.
Stewy's right on the money about personal relationships with local business owners. I think with patience, hard work, and a little credibility (something the Evil Empire's eschewed years ago) radio can turn the corner and come back.
... now The Bear's got to get back to "Egghead Words To Compensate For a Small ..."
Well, you know.

 

[eradio]

Everyone here needs to realize that radio is a business in transition and under attack from several angles. Internet, IPod’s, Cell phones...etc.
I am not sure cutting your sales force is really that simple, maybe they are just losing the dead weight.
Evolve or die!

 

[Tibbs4]

As for evolving or dying...radio is being slaughtered by CEO's with no longterm plan or vision. The "play it safe"
mentality has already been proven to put stations on life support. To cut sales staff (NOTE key word SALES)
that could increase revenues (even from agencies) is like telling a vendor filling shelves to just call the store
manager ... to become just an order taker is reducing revenues. To not have a sales staff out on the streets,
filling air time with local non-agency business, means the rates are to high for regular businesses or the results
are not worth the cost and something programming-wise needs fixing. To cut the very people responsible for
bringing in the revenue to the bones TO SAVE MONEY is the stupidest thing I have heard. And, dead weight,
if the job is 100% commission, is a moot issue.

Citadel better be looking at what quality product they are offering the customer FIRST and then when they
have more agencies calling to buy time than they can fit in, hire more people to spread the word they the
stations are red hot. NEVER cut sales staff to save money.

This company will tank by end of the year. I am surprised that there is no real outcry about Farid's pitiful
performance. The company's name is now mud, they are a joke and no one's up in arms that he's getting a
paycheck still??? Wow. Talk about denial...

 

[Stewy]

Easy Tibbs, remember the blood pressure. And also, speaking of rants on the board, have you guys noticed that some pretenders are reacting to what we post with on air changes? I for one am going to refrain from anymore "it should be done like this..." so as not to give any more direction to the pretenders. They've already ruined the media (temporarily) so I've decided to let them drown in their own arrogance with no more direction from me.

I'm just going to sit on the side and enjoy the comedic tragedy end the way I know that it will.

Silent Stewy 8)

 

[pocket-radio]

You can blame the greed mongers for the state of radio today. They care about short term profits and milking the cow dry.

 

[alcapone]

Market managers may blow smoke up your ------ saying that changes are made because they're looking at the long term. Nothing in TV or Radio is ever for the long term. This is an ever changing medium. Voice tracking has cut the fat because it's the way of the world. Other businesses have been cutting corners for years. Radio & TV is late in doing it. Radio will never be what it was even at the start of the decade. It's taken a back seat to almost every form of entertainment. That is if you want to call radio entertainment

 

[wkrpfm]

voicetracking can be made to sound like a decent live show..it's all about the time and effort the jock puts into it before they leave Friday at 5pm...a shift that may take a 1/2 hour for someone to do would take me triple...even if I VT my show, it should be just as good as if I was live.

 

[pocket-radio]

So if voice tracking can be made to sound live and is that good as you say.
Then what is to stop the greed mongers who run your stations from calling Rent-A-Jock
located, someplace in LA, California, or Idaho? They’d have a great talent pool to choose from and wouldn’t have to pay you any benefits or worry about anything else for that matter. At the rate people are losing jobs there won’t be any talent left.

Dude I’m yanking your chain but I hope you see where I’m going with this???

 

[edwardabalama]

I see two sides to this.

First off, Google adwords has quickly become advertising's next big thing. Right now adwords is just text that is placed on wesbites, but the kicker is that the client can choose how many ads are run, for what budget, and exactly where they'll play. Google is in the process of launching Google Audio Ads, which really should scare salespeople. Imagine being able to log on as a client business, assign someone to write your commercial, choose which markets and on what stations to play it... and pay the lowest rate possible (automatically) because google has already figured it out in a formula for them. You don't have to deal with a pushy salesperson, you can spend as little or as much as you want, and you can do it in your spare time.

Technology will allow for greater economy in advertising. This is way off in the future as I still know many businesses that have no idea what adwords are.

The great debate all comes down to this simple fact. How important are ratings to the station? With a local sales force you develop relationships with the community that serve promotional, as well as, revenue functions. But, as we see Clear Channel and Cumulus moving away from Arbitron, and with recent SCARY PPM results, I can imagine a day when the big guys decide that it's time to stop "beating around the bush" and make your station a full-on jukebox. I'm sure they could find the data to support it as CC did with Less is More.

Agency business currently provides a buffer for sales people who are trying to establish local accounts. It is very important to most sales people, although it could be handled by just 2 or 3 people in a cluster. So the thought that salespeople pave their own way via commission is only really 50% true. The easiest way to make a bad salesperson dissappear is to pull all of their agency accounts. And you always thought that sales people were wimps... nope, they just can't afford to live after that life line is severed.

 

[Stewy]

edward, it can be done without ratings. You can make lots of money without ratings. Ratings are very easy to sell against or without, they are only one tool. Ratings do make it easier but if you get lazy and live (er use) with them, then you'll starve without them. The same goes for agencies. The same goes for google. Those who know me on this board know I speak the truth and have done so.

Selling an abstract product is an art. Getting people motivated with an abstract product is an art. Art can be taught to those with the capacity to learn it. The problem with the industry now is that most of the teachers of the art have been excused from the industry for reasons of money, ego, insecurity, etc. The ones remaining that can teach the art keep quiet so they aren't excused as well.

Find a teacher, learn the art. Patience, artists, patience. Our time cometh, and that soon.

I wish all an enjoyable and honorable Memeorial Day Weekend.

 

[pocket-radio]

It can be done without ratings. But it takes a skill set that many in our business have forgotten or worst yet were never taught. Without ratings you have to deliver results for local advertisers. That takes writting ads that sell with production to match. It’s called advertising. Many have a limited radio mindset. Ads sound more like post it notes and lack the creative juices to cut through the 10 spot load clutter. Here’s the problem. Radio doesn’t want skill and hard work. It wants cheap and part time, no benefits. That leaves the creative guys and gals in production overwhelmed and frankly the creative juices were sucked dry by the greed mongers a long time ago. Radio sales people aren’t taught the art of writing never mind what works in advertising today. They’re taught one thing, how to sell & tell nicer sounding lies.

The people who make money work stations with ratings and carry a big agency list. Yes they’ll call on local accounts, but they’ve worked agencies for so long they don’t understand local direct or what works in advertising today for the mom & pops. Instead the short change good acounts by taking poor schedles. Or spread small budgets over spot schedules and the internet just to get the greed mongers off their backs.

And the new kids are pumped and dumped. And lucky if they last 10 weeks given dead account and no real training. The greed mongers have managers running around like chickens with their heads cut off and the new kids receive no direction. I know Cox trains but management is busy multitasking leaving no quality time for anyone. Renda, has mastered the art of agency avails but are clueless about local direct. They just don’t understand the concept of making the cash register ring for the local guys. It’s all about them. And the same could be said for almost ever station.

Radio knows how to sell its inventory but is clueless about selling their clients inventory.

 

[alcapone]

I thought the question was is voice tracking cutting the fat. Guess we agree.. yes. You people go and on as if the question was "Should Alan Colmes get a whole new face and is that him really talking". That's a question that should be debated. Geez give it a freakin break

 

[Froggy]

Everyone here needs to realize that radio is a business in transition and under attack from several angles. Internet, IPod’s, Cell phones...etc.
I am not sure cutting your sales force is really that simple, maybe they are just losing the dead weight.
Evolve or die!

IMHO-The absolute WORST part of Voice Tracking is that the listener can no longer pick up the phone and talk to a LIVE PERSON. The airwaves are supposed to belong to the public....in an EMERGENCY there is nothing like picking up the phone & being able to talk to a familiar voice.