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What are the business models to get a show on the air?

L

Lounge_Lizard

Guest
All right - I'm going to show my ignorance and ask aloud...just how do you get a specialty show on the air?

Other than paying outright to a station for time on, how else can you get stations to play the show? What about syndicators, and exactly how does that work versus multi-market sales by the show company?

What are real world examples of business models that bring cash in to the show to exchange for pay for play?

And can anyone please explain how a show can make money if it does an exchange of time for advertising (throwing open avails to the stations)?

Again - I exclaim my ignorance, but I really am trying to figure out this beast I love called radio, and not have to fall into the arms of the demons that run liner jocks and corporate-driven 'topic A' programming.
 
Ralph Emery AT40 model;

You get the initial program idea, and put it all on paper so it can be easily explained to sponsors, etc.

You hire a writer or 2, air talent, station relations (to approach stations), engineer for program production, accounts payable, accounts receiveable, and Sales people to approach advertisers. Also, what is your plan if something PUKES during production?

YOU get sponsors. You also get prizes for contests. We GAVE AWAY over $10,000 WEEKLY in sports-related prizes for the first year we were on. It gets people to listen. It may get stations to air your show.

YOU produce the program with your sponsors ads included and as many local availabilites as you can (so the station can place ads and make money). You want to make it EASY for the station.

Barter means YOU provide the program with your ads in it and the station agrees to run the program with your ads in it, and run their own ads/or promos in availabilities you provide within the program.

You might get people related to the topic of your program to make promos. "Hi! I'm Harry Carey. Even though I'm dead I still listen to BS about baseball on KMOX."

YOU get the program to the stations. We did our program LIVE at KMOX, St. Louis, on 104 Saturday mornings, and broadcast over satellite so the other 99 stations could receive it (another expense).

If your program is less "dated" you can ups or fedx a cd to the stations. Lots of Church programs and short features I use (in my part 15 stations) come this way. You may need to contract with a "distributor" to take care of this packaging/shipping for you.

YOU advertise your program in the trades, or call/visit stations and SELL it. We hired a guy who knew alot of radio managers/pd's and how to approach this. THIS is a critical and VERY TOUGH job. He JETTED around the US (pre-9/11) getting us an impressive line-up of stations.

Stations say "I want the program" and ask for it. If you want to brag a bit, YOU PAY a few big stations to run it, so you can say (the big guy) runs it. Small stations are often impressed when a "killer signal" has your program on.

YOU send the stations an affidavit (legal expense) that the station fills out, saying they ran the ads for YOUR sponsor. THEN YOU bill the sponsor using the affidavit that "proves" their ad ran.

They Pay (if you are lucky). What is your plan if the sponsor does not pay?

(repeat cycle.)

Note; this is a trusted and often proven model.

We used it a few times, including producing and and selling "The Great American Sports Trivia Show w/Zip Rzeppa" that ran for 2 years on over 100 radio stations, nationwide, including WOR, KZLA, WMVP, WJR, WIBC, WOWO, KMOX, WCCO, WTMJ, KSL, KDWN, WMBD, WHO, KDKA, WFAA, WBZ WOOD, and 83 others.
 
Our stations here are leased time. People pay for the time by the hour, present their own programming, and keep whatever $$$ they make by way of selling sponsorships. It is a win-win situation when you think about it. It does, hoever, require that you be entrepreneurial yourself - go out and promote your program and find sponsors. Start out small, maybe a couple of hours per week. If you keep at it , you can grow an audience for just about any type of program you can name. Get out there and try it. Good luck!!
 
Thanks gentlemen - I appreciate the candor and the lesson...I have a few more questions - may I contact you personally to ask?
 
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