WDEL Spots that Have to Go!

[650AM]

1) Mealey Funeral Homes' "mother and daughter".."It's Just In Case, Honey" spot. This beaten ad has long worn out its welcome and has been annoying WDEL listeners for possibly as long as five years.

2) Benchmark Transmissions' "My friends and family told me to go to Benchmark. I guess I should have listened." I'll scream if I hear that guy's buddy talking thru his nose about Benchmark one more time!! Like the Mealey spot, this one has been around for 3-4 or five years.

Does anyone within the WDEL station management or sales staff ever assess such spots, notice they are beyond STALE, and know that if you want to attract listeners' attentions... PLEASE freshen them up at least once every several months! Don't the sponsors notice that their ads are stale?

Your Concord Pet spots, are a positive contrast. They change regularly and are interesting to listen to. So we know you can do it!

3) Also, can your traffic person schedule something other than the rap-flavored stroke warning "dial nine-one-one" PSA that runs EVERY day at 5:20am? Please have some mercy and mix it up a bit, can you? The "singing" on this PSA is virtually inaudible so any health-related message it attempts to relay is lost in the translation.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

The Mealey spot is well done and quite creative, but is very old. My guess is, the spot was produced by some Ad Agency, not WDEL[those female voices I never hear any where else at WDEL - definitely is NOT Amy Cherry's voice in either part], thus costs the Mealey folks extra money to produce something of that caliber.

When I did spots at WBBX - Portsmouth, NH back when I worked part time there while stationed there in Air Force, I used to love being creative like that. The radio drama, with sound effects, or clever conversation [like the Mealey spot] get people's attention vs music in the background and a DJ reading copy, or worse yet the screaming used car ads or furniture store ads - Newark's Eagle Furniture comes to mind [I used to truly loath that spot - when I worked P/T at WNRK. Thankfully the store went out of business so we no longer have to hear EEEEEEGGGGGGLLLLLEEEEE Furniture anymore.

The Concord Pet spots are pretty much the same, what I listen for is at the end of the spot, the new number that the guy will get wrong and have the dog barks to correct. Concord Pet has 21 Arf Arf, I mean 22 stores in the Delaware / Pa area to serve you.

Reminds me of that old joke, Now its time for a Spot announcement, Arf Arf, Thank you Spot.

 

[650AM]

Mike the Mealey's spot was creative the first 20 times I heard it in 2010. I am virtually certain the woman portraying the Mealey "mom" is a WDEL employee. She is heard on several spots.... including as a "caregiver" in an Easter Seals home care ad, a Paul Campenella's auto care ad, saying "you mean Paul Campenella's on Augustine Cut-Off," & once declared "I'm NOT getting into that car!" in a carwash ad. Her voice is unique & easily identifiable. The old, old, old Benchmark Transmission ad includes the voice of at least one person who, at the time, was a Delmarva Broadcasting employee.

 

[FredLeonard]

They are lucky to have ads at all. I know station people deny this. I have a friend who works in a regional ad agency who Delmarva pitches. He told me they sell WSTW (50% of the rate card and throw in three spots on WDEL for each spot on WSTW). He has no ax to grind and the station does. Even at that, I have to wonder why anyone would want to buy time to reach the crowd of angry, old White men who listen to right-wing talk.

Beggars can't be choosers. Most often, bad spots are the way they are because that's what the client wants. Most business require some sales ability. The guy thinks he can sell. So, he thinks he knows how to sell using radio advertising. You can't tell most of them anything. Advertising would be a lot better if it weren't for clients. And most commission sales reps don't even try to get clients to realize what they are doing. That's because most of them don't have much sales ability.

 

[DX]

Three points:

(1). Believe it or not, some clients resist changing spots. Others say they will, but everything else is a higher priority. They never get around to it. I've seen this at several stations. You don't want to alienate the client.

(2). When WDEL holds a client appreciation night, the ballroom is packed, and most clients are WDEL-only clients. Listen carefully to both stations (WDEL & WSTW). You won't hear very much duplication.

(3). This canard about "angry old white men" being the primary listeners to WDEL is crapola. The station's news blocks, Al Mascitti's morning talk show, even Rick Jensen's afternoon talk show (because he does so much more local talk and entertainment-based talk.... Delaware Today happenings; "Thirsty Thursday"; etc., than typical national conservative-driven talk) draw somewhat younger demos than WILM. Younger politically involved bloggers (Delaware Liberal) repeatedly cite stuff they've heard on WDEL. The "angry old white men" have a home: WILM. Progressive/liberal and centrist whites, African-Americans, Hispanics have all migrated from WILM to WDEL (and public radio).

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Thank you DX for making the point I was going to post about the station's listeners.

I am, yes an older white male, not angry, not conservative, more moderate [liberal on some issues - conservative on others], Registered Independent. I listen to Al Messitti's show, not every day, but fairly often. I also listen to Allan Loudell's midday report, and catch some of his afternoon news on my drive home from work. I did listen to Rick Jensen the other day driving back home from Rehoboth, because he had the Wilmington mayor on and I was interested in hearing what the mayor's plans were for ending the violence in the city. I also do listen to NPR as DX suggested. I can't speak for his first two points, but he was spot on with the third.

 

[FredLeonard]

Even if they are not all angry, or even all White, they are still old. This is AM radio and people who came along after the baby boom don't listen to AM. Millennials don't listen to radio at all. In any case, AM talk stations still get old people advertisers don't want. The one exception is sports talk. Maybe the Steinmann's should fire everybody but the sports guy and pick up ESPN, maybe add a local sports show or two. Then they'd have an audience they could sell.

Every time somebody cites audience statistics, somebody else comes along and says "I'm different. Therefore, the statistics can't be right."

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I hear what you're saying, but CC Delaware did just what you suggested. WWTX 1290 the Ticket is a Sports Talk station [Fox Sports Radio]. I listen to it too [Dan Patrick Show and Jay Mohr Sports]. I go back and forth between WDEL, WWTX, WHYY-FM, WPEN-FM, WIP-FM, and WIP-AM for CBS Sports Radio]. Depending on what's being discussed that catches my interest decides where I stay to listen. For a while WWTX had a live and local sports talk show weekday afternoons from 3pm - 6pm with Philly sports guests, etc. Apparently still didn't draw enough to pay for the local host's salary. Now WWTX is off the bird airing Fox Sports Radio other than for their local coverage of UD and Del State sports, Balt Orioles and Ravens games.

Interestingly WWTX never comes close to the 12+ numbers of WDEL, that is prior to Arbitron listing only those who buy the book [Interesting that someone on another thread here said that CC Delaware buys the book for WILM and WDSD, but not WWTX [they probably know that they aren't pulling in many listeners of any age, but the few males in the prized demo are who the customers are buying spots to reach so why publish how few. It would seem that CC makes its money more from WWTX clearing CC's network shows in Wilmington, just as it does with WILM [note how far fewer local spots air on WILM than do WDEL].

It would be interesting to find out how many of the local spots aired on 1290 are linked to a buy via WDSD 94.7 vs 1290 alone.

So WDEL probably would lose market share, local spot revenue by going all sports talk at this time. There's a lot of sports talk radio available here on the Wilmington radio dial: 610 WIP-AM [CBS Sports Radio], 1290 WWTX [FOX Sports Radio], 94.1 WIP-FM [Philly Centric Sports Talk plus the Phillies and Eagles games, 97.3 from NJ [ESPN Radio], 97.5 WPEN [Philly Centric Sports Talk, plus Flyers and 76er's games], 1150 WDEL for Phillies and Eagles games, Wesley College football, and high school sports, 89.7 Rowen Univ Radio 89.7 for Wilmington Blue Rocks games, 94.7 WDSD for NASCAR races, and WVUD 91.3 UofDel radio for Blue Hens games. A lot of sports radio options.

Granted, if WDEL wanted to go Sports Talk they probably could bury 1290 as a "Big Don Boltz Show" could be live and local discussing both Philly AND Balt sports action along with Blue Hen, Wesley, Del State, and Blue Rocks sports action [something the Philly Centric WIP-FM and WPEN don't bother with] might make a WDEL Sports Talk format a money maker more so than WWTX's brand of sports talk. Maybe they'd even do more coverage of Elena Delidonne and her WNBA teams games. All would have Delaware appeal vs a Philly only approach.

However, I believe WDEL serves Wilmington and upper Delaware far better by being a News/Talk station. So as long as Delmarva is happy with WDEL's ratings, and more importantly their spot revenue, I wouldn't look for that sort of change anytime soon. WDEL offers sort of the best of both spoken word formats. Live and local talk [lib and con, with national and local issues plus some non-political topics by both hosts, excellent local news/commentary, plus national/international coverage via CBS Radio, major league sports from Philly, and DialGlobal's radio network coverage of playoff games, both baseball and football, etc. A very well rounded station for male listeners who aren't only interested in Sports. WDEL is about as full service in the spoken word realm as you can get. They even have some local churches and a synagogue who broadcast their messages on Sunday morning.

Only thing missing is radio dramas, and as cool as listening to radio dramas are [in my opinion], I realize I'm only one in a million listeners who'd enjoy listening to that sort of programming so I don't blame WDEL for not airing that sort of spoken word program, again they are a business, not a hobby.

Frankly, Chris Carl and the WDEL team are doing a great job, in my opinion. They took the good stuff from WILM, prior to the implosion of CC buying the station and gutting it, and took the good stuff they already had at WDEL and made one really great radio station that is quite unique. They make money on top of all that. What's not to like.

 

[FredLeonard]

Currently WIP gets the sports talk audience in Wilmington (and Philly). Fox Sports doesn't get numbers anywhere. In Wilmington, there are no local shows and the station is not promoted. Still, sports talk is the only format that draws a demographically desirable audience to AM. And The Ticket may lack quantity but the format generate quality, at least quality from the perspective media buyers.

How do you know WDEL makes money? They say they make money. What else are they going to say?

 

[MikefromDelaware]

How do I know WDEL is making money? Well for one, IF WDEL was losing money in a serious way, would they have added John Watson [done just recently] to their staff as an evening live and local talk host? Trust me, John isn't working for free. He's a pro and he gets paid when he works.

If WDEL were a money pit for Delmarva, would they keep live and local all work day long?

If they were losing money might they do live and local ONLY for AM/PM drive and go to the bird for the rest of the day? Or simply go to the bird after AM drive as WILM does?

Would WDEL keep the largest radio news staff between Philly and DC? WDEL [as did WILM back in the day when I was there as a part timer] has the the largest radio news staff of any radio station between Philly and DC [meaning Wilmington, the rest of Delaware, Baltimore, and Eastern Shore MD]. Philly's KYW and DC's WTOP have larger news staffs. So if WDEL was hemorrhaging money would Delmarva keep such a large news staff, or would they do more like CC Delaware does with WILM/WDOV, or as Radiophiler did as the one man news department at WBUX?

Second, based on YOUR comments about the Steinmann's, who own Delmarva and WDEL, they'd never pay out more than they were bringing in financially. So based on YOUR comments about how these folks operate a business, they'd never tolerate WDEL losing money and continue to expand the cost to operate 1150 AM. These folks are business folks [who've been operating successful radio and TV stations since before I was born [1951]; so they aren't hobbyists or amateurs, and wouldn't run a station blindly and watch it lose money without taking action to stop the loss. So these things tell me WDEL is doing just fine.

 

[FredLeonard]

How do you know? You don't. At best, you surmise.

How much are they paying Watson, who is retired and with time on his hands, to come in for a part-time gig? How much compared to a syndicated show, which don't necessarily come free and often require spots to be made up when the show is preempted.

And here is a classic: You surmise they must be making money because they have a "large news staff" - like a former station, which constantly lost money and kept losing money for 30 years. But you expect us to believe based on this that a large news staff and not changing format is evidence of a money-making operation, even though you cite the example of a known money-losing operation.

Denial: A river in Egypt.