WDST Radio Woodstock Changes Business Model

[MHVRadiofan]

According to Tom Taylor Now newsletter 100.1 WDST, Woodstock, better known as Radio Woodstock has significantly changed its business model. Tom Taylor reports that although WDST will still air some ads for the local business community, the majority of the stations budget will come from listeners. Owner Gary Chetkof asked listeners to pledge $100.10, which corresponds to Radio Woodstock’s 100.1 frequency. The station says the pledge works out to $8.35 a month, “less than satellite radio or streaming services.” (In five days, over 300 listeners signed up.) In exchange the listeners who donate get preference in purchasing tickets and exclusive invites. Chectkof plans on two fundraisers a year. Simple math shows the first effort garnered just over $300,000. Is that enough to keep the lights on ? Should be interesting.
All the listeners get an “uncluttered environment” with few interruptions.

 

[b-turner]

By my math that is $30,000 versus $300,000 however, for 300 to pay up is quite a nice start. Just think of where they might be in the coming months as more listeners catch on to the concept. And they can still run a few spots as needed. Pretty sweet.

An interesting observation is that it seems the listeners will pay even though some commercials will air. It seems content (programming) is more important than if a commercial or two is slipped in. Some non-commercial stations view the commercial and to some extent, the Underwriting Announcement as a 'listener killer'. Might WDST have the final say on this?

 

[MHVRadiofan]

Of course you are correct, on the $30,000 my calculations in my head are faulty. Non coms that are licensed are such are forbidden by rule to air commercials. But some of underwriting announcements sound like commercials. The announcement of this new setup at WDST said they plan 2 fund raisers per year. I would think they will have to ask for money on an ongoing basis just as the non-coms do. $30,000 won't pay for much, probably not even the electric bill or one persons salary.
The $100.10 ask my tie into their frequency, but they should allow smaller or larger , much larger donations.

 

[b-turner]

My head does the same thing...too often.

I read a report recently that the smart money was on a small amount per month on an automatic draft basis versus a one time amount to be a member. While I love the $100.10 idea would $10 a month get more people to become a member of WDST because $10 seems so insignificant?

I read somewhere that WDST had somewhere in the neighborhood of about 45,000 unique listeners a week averaging about 55 minutes a day with WDST or a TSL of about 6:25. This easily exceeds the average TSL for a successful public supported station that seems to be in the neighborhood of about 4 hours a week. I could be wrong on those figures but I know the more time a listener spends with a station each week, the more loyal they are to the station. Many say that about 10% of listeners feel strongly enough to financially support their favorite radio station. You start running those numbers and this could be quite a good model for the station. 4,500 x $10 a month = $45,000. And you have not tapped other revenue potential.

Let's not forget that membership list means you have dedicated listeners you can communicate with on a one on one level and if you do it right, so could the business advertisers. It could even be crafted as somewhat of an insiders club of information not offered the average listener. A members only e-letter each month or more with insider deals from merchants to monetize it and you could really have a nice income. It seems the trick is not to make the e-letter about selling the member on a business but actually providing a strong enough content so that listeners don't see it as a commercial-driven email. I think back to the listener guides classical stations published that were more like magazines. Many of those had quite a few ads. These days we can skip the cost of the hard copy. Imagine selling an ad in the e-letter: every reader has paid to receive it. So, content is so valuable it's worth money. Your ad rides on the coat tails of this 'worth paying for' content (implying your ad benefits from the content by seeming as important as the content the reader is paying to receive).

I think of how much time and effort goes in to generate commercial sales at a radio station. You have the salesperson's salary, production, copywriting, traffic and such that eats in to each dollar in advertising generated. At many stations I worked you had a 4 or 5 hour air shift with a couple of hours for production each weekday...roughly 50 hours a week. Putting those hours toward creating value for members could be substantial. Naturally WDST can still sell ads and if you have members paying you should be selling that too, so I'm not implying you can get rid of employees but redirect their efforts somewhat without adding to payroll to pull this off. In the end, the station becomes a bit more listener than advertiser focused because the listener represents a good chunk of income and a way to monetize beyond the membership donation.

This will be really interesting to watch. There's not a bunch of models out there to follow but it is sure a path that needs to be explored and refined as radio redefines itself.

 

[RFRadioWoodstock]

Richard Fusco here. I'm GM of Radio Woodstock.

This was not just a supporter fund drive. It was culmination of a year-long strategy.

This was a process we started last summer with our Hudson Valley Tour which was live day-long broadcasts from 14 different locations in the Hudson Valley to define our listening area. The goal was to connect with our listener in their communities to re-enforce our local identity and deepen the emotional bond they already have with Radio Woodstock. The Woodstock brand is innately associated with a sense of community. A sense of community and strong emotion bond are key components to success of a supporter drive.

The second important component was to give our listeners something that they could relate to that benefited them directly and made for a better listening experience. We accomplished that by lowering our ad minutes per hour to 10 and limiting our stop sets to 2 and one-half minutes. We promoted both of these things. We promoted lower minutes per hour with commercial-free hours of music as a thank you to our listeners and let them know that we are pulling back the number of ads. We promoted the shorter stop sets by saying before each ad break that we’ll be back in 2 minutes or whatever the length of the stop set was. By the way, we also told our advertisers that this policy was good for them because fewer ads and shorter stop sets meant their ads were more effective especially since they were on a station listeners had a deep bond with.

So we went on the road to connect with our listeners on a one-on-one basis. We gave them a better listening experience with the lower number of ads and let them know subtly but constantly about building a deeper relationship with them over 6 to 8 months. And it worked. We raised over $30,000 and will have a second drive later this year. We plan on having 2 drives per year.

We already send out a WEEKLY newsletter with exclusive music videos, concert info, local based content and advertiser banners. We also have advertiser featured stories in the newsletter which are content based not advertising driven. We do the same thing on our Facebook page. Advertisers can sponsor content based posts. No direct advertising allowed. This maintains the integrity of our Facebook page.

Creating a better listening experience for the listener and a better marketing environment for the advertiser are our goals.

By the way, we did offer a payment plan of $8.35 per month. Most people opted to pay the $100.10. Feel free to contact me at [email protected].

 

[MHVRadiofan]

It will be interesting to see how this works out. You have a valid point about shorter stop sets being more effective. When stations launch into 5 minutes plus commercial breaks ( WPDH & WRNQ are the worst offenders) I change the station. I doubt anyone who doesn't is really listening, but rather the radio is just background. Does anybody remember what was said during spot #8 of that break?

 

[b-turner]

Richard, thank you so much for sharing.

I especially appreciate you sharing some specifics about how WDST connects with listeners.

All the research I have read says the monthly subscription is preferred. It is good to know the 'one time' amount works. Sometimes I wonder if some research fails to pick up on all aspects but rather centers on what they're trying to show will work or not work. In your case it seems to show a great level of trust the listeners have in WDST and an attitude of here's a lump amount (versus monthly payments) because I prefer that. I can see where monthly installments could turn negative when the listener forgets about it and finally rediscovers it is happening. Research I've seen ignores that factor.

It sounds like you are taking WDST from an already great position to an even greater one. I think you might be the trend that will take place in the coming years for many radio stations. In both large markets where agency buys dictate to the smaller market when businesses have more options than ever, radio is working harder than ever to grab a piece of the pie large enough to pay for all the expenses. Your model, based on decades of fostering that relationship with listeners, has taken it to a higher level by growing closer to the listener in lieu of just simply trying to craft something that might get a larger piece of the advertising pie, although your plan does both. You created a 'best of both worlds' scenario.

Thank you for thinking outside the box! You have my respect and admiration. I would say I'll be watching to see how everything plays out but I already have that gut feeling you're simply moving to the next level of success.