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Wonder why I seem to dislike a lot of broadcasters

D

DudeFan

Instead of public service, WACH insists on payment:

WACH Fox 57 is hosting a very unique holiday event for the City's Climate Protection Action Campaign: Change for Change.

Earlier this fall, 85 artists received defunct parking meters to transform into pieces of art! The unveiling, show and auction of these one-of-a-kind pieces will be held on Tuesday, December 21 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 701 Whaley. WACH Fox will match the proceeds and use all funds to promote sustainability in the Midlands on air.


So much for serving the Public Interest Convenience and Necessity.

I have no problem with noncommercial stations receiving support for public service campaigns or commercial stations being paid for airtime or production costs. But it is sure seems like a scam to have the City do all the work and auction off artwork in the guise of "charity" to pay a commercial broadcasters who should be treating this as public service.
 
Is WACH profiting from the auction/publicity?
Maybe the City has some rules about disbursing of former City Property, so they still need to be involved?
 
quadraphonic said:
Maybe the City has some rules about disbursing of former City Property, so they still need to be involved?
Click to expand...

This. I don't work for the City of Columbia, but I do work for a municipality and we have to auction EVERYTHING.
 
DudeFan said:
Instead of public service, WACH insists on payment:

WACH Fox 57 is hosting a very unique holiday event for the City's Climate Protection Action Campaign: Change for Change.

Earlier this fall, 85 artists received defunct parking meters to transform into pieces of art! The unveiling, show and auction of these one-of-a-kind pieces will be held on Tuesday, December 21 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 701 Whaley. WACH Fox will match the proceeds and use all funds to promote sustainability in the Midlands on air.


So much for serving the Public Interest Convenience and Necessity.

I have no problem with noncommercial stations receiving support for public service campaigns or commercial stations being paid for airtime or production costs. But it is sure seems like a scam to have the City do all the work and auction off artwork in the guise of "charity" to pay a commercial broadcasters who should be treating this as public service.
Click to expand...

I don't get it, Dude. You're leaving out some details here. The station wants to be paid for what? How much? What exactly is the station's involvement in this thing?

Maybe there's something more to this but I don't see much here that's interesting, convenient or necessary to the public - maybe to the people putting on this little shindig but not anybody else.
 
That was the entirety of the press release other than date/time/location.

The City entity is selling these things and the money is going directly to WACH TV for a paid advertising schedule. In other words, this is a fundraiser for WACH 57 instead of being a public service.

Other than the above-stated redaction, the release was cut and pasted verbatim.
 
DudeFan said:
That was the entirety of the press release other than date/time/location.

The City entity is selling these things and the money is going directly to WACH TV for a paid advertising schedule. In other words, this is a fundraiser for WACH 57 instead of being a public service.

Other than the above-stated redaction, the release was cut and pasted verbatim.
Click to expand...

I really want to understand this. The city is raising money to run ads on the TV station, is that right? You think the station should give the city free air time. What are the about or for; what is the message in these ads? What are the other TV stations doing: Paid ads for the city or free air time?

I dislike a lot of broadcasters, too. In all fairness, a station can't give air time to anybody who wants it - any time they want it. A station has to say "no" sometimes. Does this station provide any free air time for anybody?

And full disclosure: Are you at all involved in this parking meters for artists auction?
 
Not involved at all.

Think the whole thing stinks.

I give a lot of airtime away every year in public service. I can't say yes to everyone, but if the cause is one that is of interest to our listeners and they are not using any paid media, I am usually very generous. If they are using other paid media, we ask for and usually receive a contribution from the organization. After all, if you can afford to spend money with Clear Channel, Citadel, or Inner City, who are all headquartered outside the community and send their profits out of the community, then there room to consider supporting a local, independent public broadcaster.

While no one is required to give away air time to anyone, I think this arrangement makes WACH look bad. It's one thing to ask for and receive some compensation from the City. In this case, according to the City press release, WACH is receiving ALL THE PROCEEDS.
 
Couched that way, it does sound like WACH could just give the half of the commercial run of ads they were matching, and let some other cause keep the auction half.

Maybe the press release was written by an intern. Maybe it's not as nefarious as it sounds....
 
Nefarious is probably a little strong. Shameless is probably closer.

Don't get me started on what Clear Channel and Citadel do to community groups that seek to publicize their events. They will give the group a "break" but demand that they be the only radio station group allowed to be involved in the event.

While such an arrangement benefits the corporate cluster, it is not in the community organization's benefit. The reach is limited to maybe a quarter to 30 percent of the available persons (being generous with 12+ share). Charitable events and organizations need as widespread publicity and promotion as they can get and being locked into one "cluster" sure doesn't get them there. Another fine example of the "corporation citizenship" of many of these folks.

I never demand or require exclusivity. Never ever ever. It doesn't serve the community in the long or short run. If the event succeeds and other stations are involved, everyone wins.
 
Okay Dude. You say you can't accommodate every charitable organization. Neither can Clear Channel and Citadel. So you fault them for asking for exclusivity in the events they agree to partner with. Do you want to be on a banner with twenty logos on them? They don't charge a dime for the air time (the thing you are accusing WACH of doing) but you say they are hurting the organizations they are promoting. So which would you rather have, 30% of the market or none of it? Or maybe they would be lucky enough to be one of the ones you choose to promote on your station? Sorry. Hope I didn't "get you started".
 
In the past twenty years, the most successful events have been those where the stations have cooperated and agreed to sponsor and promote the events.

You are thinking about it from the "how big is my logo" point of view. That is the completely bullshit way to think about charitable events. No one remembers which stations have their logos anywhere. Just like people don't remember or care if it was WCOS or New 92 that bannered up the Colonial Life Arena for Generic Country Artist. Second, you are licensed to serve the public interest.

Mark Ramsey wrote several columns that touched on this issue in a number of contexts. It's not about you, radio station, its about whether the listener felt like the listener was cared for.

In my experience, the pay off only and -- always -- comes from hearing the event on the air of the station and folks remembering and internalizing that their favorite station supported and contributed to a particular cause and the resulting good will.

I will tell you this: if an organization allows one group to present a community event as an exclusive "WXXX Presents" event, no other station is going to touch it or mention it. Would you give airtime or any mentions to another station's promotion?

Enough said.

The point you made emphasizes the egotistic self-centeredness of most of the stations and folks in the industry. And it reinforces my opinion that I really do greatly dislike a majority of radio and TV folks.
 
nobody every changed the station they listen to based on banner placement, size of station vehicle, balloon handed to their kid at an event, or having your call letters on a printed piece at the event or in the newspaper.

it comes down to what they want to listen to. stations will always try to partner with advertisers...even if it's dollars budgeted for marketing.....and even if it's your local government.

charity or not, airtime has some value and radio should make an effort to recoup their expenses.
 
All we know so far is that there was this event and some station refused to plug it for free. Everything else is speculation.

I dislike a lot of people wanting free air time. They often act like they are entitled to it. They are often disorganized and wait until the last minute. They think they are doing good and therefore must be deferred to and accommodated (not matter how ridiculous or impractical their demands).

Any media outlet has to decide what news stories are worth covering and what service projects deserve free air time.

If a media outlet decides to support some charitable cause or event, they are doing those people or that group a favor. They should act like it.
 
Dude, when a radio station partners with a charitable event, it is a true partnership. They don't choose the event based on money, it starts with the listener. It's easy to throw stones as a non-com that all these mainstream guys only care about logo size. My point on the logo comment was, if the station is going to help make this a success, they certainly expect to claim some credit for that. That's how you build community relationships is to trumpet the cause and trumpet the success of it. No station or group can take on every event. You said yourself that you cannot either. So are they to quietly help out and hope for the best? No. Take an event, be the exclusive radio sponsor, add a TV element and do it right. So in your world, all stations promote a couple of events together and celebrate that warm, fuzzy radio community feeling. What happens to the other one hundred events? And I find a certain irony of you lecturing the rest of us on ego. Good grief.
 
If you get paided for settting up somewhere then you are not doing a public service even if it is a trade out. If you cover an event for free to help the community and or event in your area or do a spot on the radio for free then that would be a public service. If you want to be the only station at the event then you have a very big head and shouldn't be there in the first place. If having other stations there hurts your station in some way at the event then your station is doing the event for reasons other than public service and should be labeled as such. There is nothing wrong with doing setup's to get you station out there in the public eye, that's what radio is all about but wanting to be the only one there or saying it is public service when you get something more in return (money, trade outs, ect...) is wrong.
 
So Gatekeeper, if a larger charity has a budget for media, then the radio station is to say "no thanks" while the charity buys adds in the paper and on TV? It's wrong to accept money? I can assure you, a couple hundred bucks from a big charity pales in the thousands and thousands of dollars in ad time they will receive.
 
@Whopper: Some non-profit or public sector group or organization is served. They all claim to serve the public or at least some part of it. Many of them primarily serve themselves. A business wants your money but they give you something (a product or service) in return. These people also want your money but give you nothing in return. Instead their executives and managers often make big bucks (based on their ability to get people to part with their own hard-earned bucks), have fancy buildings and throw lavish parties. The majority of the money they bring in goes to over-head, not to the purpose for which people gave their money. These groups also get local business leaders (i.e., advertisers), publishers and station managers to sit on their boards. Good sales contacts for the station and a way for the organization to get free air time whenever they want it.

I say the public is best served with good news coverage or music they want to hear. It is not necessarily served by puffing somebody's pet cause.
 
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