What’s the Deal With Infomercials (Another KAAM Rant)

[woodyrr]

I have been in Dallas the last two weeks. I still have to switch to KZQX on my iPhone at 1:00 daily, but I have found that while it used to be safe to turn KAAM back on at 3:00, I have found that there have been infomercials in the 3:00 hour now as well.

What is the target audience for these things: Is there a significant subset of listeners who stare at the radio breathlessly waiting for 1:00 to arrive so they can listen? Are they the same people who listen to the music during the morning or do these programs attract listeners from elsewhere that tune in especially for the program and then tune out when the music comes back on.

It must be profitable for the station and for the people who buy the time to air the programs or they wouldn’t do them (I guess). I must be missing something.

 

[bturner]

Infomercials are the spam of radio. If the infomercial being aired can sell to just a few, it works. The sad part is some stations need revenue so badly they will sacrifice their audience to pay the bills. I've been at that position at a station and it was a sad state. Literally it cost about as much as the station earned to cultivate a new client (usually a local business with small ad budget) and many times that client would be gone by the time all the work began to pay off. The informercial was welcome revenue even though we knew it would chase away some listeners.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Infomercials are the spam of radio. If the infomercial being aired can sell to just a few, it works.

It's the business model of many if not most AM stations these days: Broker out the time and take revenue whenever and wherever you can. Station management doesn't care if anyone is actually listening--as long as program buyers think there's an audience that can bring in more revenue than the cost of purchasing the time, they'll keep buying. In a sense it's incredibly inefficient, like using a shotgun to kill a mosquito--virtually all of what is used will be wasted, but you just might hit the target.

The infomercial was welcome revenue even though we knew it would chase away some listeners.

"Some"?? More like "most."

 

[unclepudd]

As it has been for many years... "Crawford Greed" with no thought given to the listening audience...

 

[sidchase]

Reminds me of my first radio gig in Memphis where we ran the audio from the PTL Club, Yes Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. I would leave the network in que for the tone to wake me up and change the tape

 

[Chuck]

I have been in Dallas the last two weeks. I still have to switch to KZQX on my iPhone at 1:00 daily, but I have found that while it used to be safe to turn KAAM back on at 3:00, I have found that there have been infomercials in the 3:00 hour now as well.

For some time I'd been wondering why our web stream at KZQX has a big peak in listening at exactly 1:00 PM almost every weekday. Maybe KAAM is the answer. I hadn't thought of that. Anyway, I'm happy to hear you are listening....

 

[bturner]

The sad part, such time brokering has nothing to do with the listeners, it's whether the electricity stays on or not. Trust me, you'd rather say no but the need to make payroll or pay the light bill makes you say yes. Sad but true. When somebody comes along offering to pay enough to pay the bills, you accept the cash. You are right, it is not about the listeners but about keeping the station from going silent.

 

[woodyrr]

I have been in Dallas the last two weeks. I still have to switch to KZQX on my iPhone at 1:00 daily, but I have found that while it used to be safe to turn KAAM back on at 3:00, I have found that there have been infomercials in the 3:00 hour now as well.

For some time I'd been wondering why our web stream at KZQX has a big peak in listening at exactly 1:00 PM almost every weekday. Maybe KAAM is the answer. I hadn't thought of that. Anyway, I'm happy to hear you are listening....

I hope and bet KAAM listeners are tuning to KZQX at 1:00. I'd listen all day except my issue is that 3 hours of streaming audio sucks my iPhone battery almost dry. I have also been spending time in Dallas for about 20 years and I have always had a real soft spot for KAAM, especially the 1310 and 620 days. On Fridays (until 1:00), I do listen to KAAM online at home in the Oklahoma City area and I wonder if they notice a big drop in their web stream at exactly 1:00 PM.

I get that these infomercial people spread the cash around and that it's tough for a station like KAAM to pay the bills. What I am trying to figure out comes down to:

...If the infomercial being aired can sell to just a few, it works.

Apparently, the infomercial people don't need to get a lot of response to pay back their air time investment. It seems to me like there would be a very limited market of those who would listen to an infomercial that consists of much much less "info" than "mercial". Many fewer still that would actually make the call and get involved with the product or service. Obviously, I am not correct because the same programs have been going on for over a year and the well hasn't dried up yet. There are even more of them!

I guess what I'm saying is if you see me out and about and you also see someone who voluntarily listens to these infomercials, please point them out. I'd like to see what one looks like.

 

[budman1]

what i don't understand is how the DFW area doesn't have the largest concentration of millionaires in the world. every day of the week someone is listening to "the lifestyles unlimited radio show" where 'you too can get rich buying real estate'.

if i person an hour becomes a millionaire, in a couple of months they should be all over the place.

 

[bturner]

Radio's dirty little secret on informercials is they don't always work. The agencies flashing the cash always beg a few bonus plays when the results are less than anticipated, usually backed up by another order. In my case we usually ended up with some sort of a bonus on about every third order placed.

From my understanding, most of the folks I dealt with needed only a handful of buyers to justify the buy. Many of these infomercials offer a product or service the customer will continue to use. They know the trends for the product or service and don't just look at the one-time sale in determining success for failure. Thus, $19.95 might equate to $75 (just random numbers here) when you consider the post-infomercial sales from the percentage of buyers that come back for more.

How many listen is the big question. I know sitting in the office, I typically turned down the volume when they came on but I would listen the first time to 'educate' myself on what they were doing.

We even had one guy that developed his product into a live, satellite-driven hour-long show with live calls, etc. Some of those infomercial companies should study this guy's model. His show was actually pretty entertaining.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I am sure HD really helps sell products during infomercials.

 

[dfwupallnight]

“Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!”

I was board-oping once during a paid programming block selling vitamin supplements, when the phone rang. I was bored, so I answered it. Here's how it went:

Me: (station name in an upward inflection)?
Caller: Yeah, I wanted to comment on the Vitamin D discussion.
Me: I'm sorry?
Caller: The show you've got on right now, I want to talk to them
Me: Sorry, Ma'm, this show is recorded. Um, I can give you the program director's number...
Caller: No, that's ok.
Me: Ok, thanks for listening.

People not only listen... they call!

 

[Triple Fake Jerry]

what i don't understand is how the DFW area doesn't have the largest concentration of millionaires in the world. every day of the week someone is listening to "the lifestyles unlimited radio show" where 'you too can get rich buying real estate'.

if i person an hour becomes a millionaire, in a couple of months they should be all over the place.

DFW leads the known universe in the number of $30,000-a-year "millionaires," if you get my drift.