There is no quicker way to take the pulse of radio sales than by measuring the amount of PSAs that make their way into long form programming.

For the non-professionals: In every hour of network or national shows there are blank slots provided for the local affiliates to fill with spots. They are based on multiples of units :60 and :30 seconds in duration. In order to time out each break and rejoin the program without any dead air, sometimes the locals might fill with a recorded Public Service Announcement (PSA).

Traditionally radio sales in the first quarter of any year are slow. On locally originated programs you just extend your programming or play a couple of extra songs, depending on the format.

The days that usually fill up with commercials first are Wednesday through Friday in an effort to influence weekend buying habits. When you hear PSAs during prime hours on those days you know things are slow.

This past Friday I was driving through Bend at 4:30 in the afternoon. KBND went to a break in the Bill O'Reilly program which contained the pre-inserted national spot from the network and FOUR consecutive PSAs with no local revenue whatsoever. Yikes! This is the top rated station in the market during Friday afternoon drive!

This isn't to single out Bend, as I've heard similar things in Portland. Let's just hope not ever the entire break in drive time.

Thanks for posting that. I've always kept track of the PSA's, thinking it was for that reason. Nice to have it confirmed.

Having said that, OUCH!!

It's brutal out there guys. I feel for you. Sales are flat out ZERO right now. I keep touch on a few different industries. Nobody is having a good time of it, unless you are GSA, and even then the discounts are brutal.

The few I have made have been with serious concessions, and are a solid relationship sell all the way. That's existing project plans still on the table. Keeping them on the table has meant lots of little freebies to encourage the ball keep rolling. Break even, get through scenario at best.

NO NEW BUSINESS RIGHT NOW. BRUTAL.

Circle the wagons, go and read the other thread where we kicked sales around a bit. It's the one with that guy, who builds lists then hands off to juniors for farming and management. I like that one, and have adopted some of that idea and can report that it works in tech!! Maybe it works in radio too.



Hoping we at least see the bottom soon. That's ugly, but it's known ugly and something one can deal with. Ugh...

Some good news from my niche is that people are exploring new plans. They are not executing, but some are willing to pay for the services to realize those to be as potent as they can. Given radio is services oriented, perhaps some consulting might help keep seats warm until things pick up.

That is working for us. (high tech, engineering) Maybe that's an option for you guys. Deliver it at cost, plus 20 percent or so, and see if they don't need some help planning their brand, or something. Keeping seats warm now means being able to leverage them on the upswing, instead of grinding through re-training or rehiring when there could be revenue on the table. Just saying...

:p

Just imagine that suddenly a really great morning show hit the Portland airwaves. Excellent personalities who are all over everything going on the this market. Not your usual polite, reserved and boring local air talents. Air vets who have something to say and know how to say it. Lots of listeners on the air. Appearing in various parts of the market almost every day... the kind of show that people talk about at work all day long...

I bet THAT could be sold!

Good thread, Tom Parker. This problem is evident in my region (Rocky Mountain) as well. Most of the AM's have a dearth of local spots and the PSA's are everywhere.

I've noticed Fox News radio top of the hour casts atleast put in a feature (usually a highlight from TV, or a retrospective audio feature) to keep it atleast somewhat compelling from a content standpoint.

I will have to start counting the PSAs. 970 is one station that appears to play a lot of them. That station is different than other talk stations in that they do not have a top-of-the-hour newsbreak, so they have more time to fill.

Okay creative types how can you use that precious spot break to your advantage without sounding desperate? Can those PSA's have a different twist that can pull in some income for the station.

I'm just thinking out load here, but if we in radio programing preach local, local, local, maybe a combination of barter/trade/cash might work to stimulate some revenue.

Talk to your most loyal advertiser who may be cutting back ad time and try some creative radio commercials that uses emotion that identifies with the listener about tough times. Something like "we are all in this together" type of spot without actually using that phrase.

Now more than ever people want a good deal, but even then it may not be enough.

There's always the "Good Guy" positioning commercial that helps out a local charity with the advertisers name attached. You have to be careful how you market the spot, but again creatively speaking there are many directions you could go.

The same old way will not work in this economy that's for sure. This is a benchmark moment in our nation's history and we need creative and persistent type people working the front lines with all kinds of businesses.

Yes it may mean two steps back to go one step forward. Like an old Japanese proverb says: "Fall seven times, stand up eight."

It's called cause marketing, and it is one of the best ways that a radio station can promote itself with a negligible promotion budget, and it's something that stations should be doing anyway as part of their "serving the public interest" obligation.

Adopt a cause/non-profit. Create events for that cause, sell it to sponsors. Become a media partner for every event in your DMA that will draw over 100 people in one place, and in exchange for the airtime, post your banners, set up a tent, do some live - or if the station is tracked on Saturdays - canned breaks.

Act as an agency for your clients bringing them together with events that draw their target demo, and advertise on both.

There are myriad ideas, and with radio hurting and many non-profits on life-support, it's a way to help both survive these days.

Chris--you are forgetting. Most if not all the creative people have been fired. Interns are dubbing the spots and fresh out of collage kids are selling airtime. They work cheep. The creative people cost tooooo much. With corprate greed. You reep what you sow. IMO.

You wanna hear a lot of PSAs? Listen to stations' Internet streams. The whole NTR concept appears to be a major victim of the recession.
Also: I'm not sure they make the feeds to our stations, but Fox News Radio and Fox News Talk produce a lot of info-based pieces to use as spot placeholders on the satellite and Internet feeds.
Most recently, we're trying to answer listener questions about various moves by Congress and the White House.
And in the past, the '50 States of Freedom' series featured a song representing each state. Good ol' Perry Como shows up for Washington, and something by a female group singing about being back in Portland. Never caught the name, though.

Not to be a braggart but, we are SOLD OUT, and I am happy to say, the only PSA we run right now is the required OAB spot now and then.
We have been very blessed by great sponsors who continue to do business with us. We have remotes scheduled at advertiser locations the next three weekends.
We have had to change the way we approach customers but it is back to the basics, visit, talk, relate, help and the do it all again and again.
Even in this economy, money can be made in radio.
As for streaming, we will do it as soon as it sells itself, which is very close to being done.
Of course our rates aren't anywhere near Portland or even Bend for that matter, but we also have MUCH lower overhead.
Just want to encourage the salespeople out there, go back to basics!

"Portland Woman" by New Riders of the Purple Sage?

I believe the singer was female. 'Back in Portland' or some such thing. Oh God... I've turned into... a listener!!!

Well who really wants to listen to radio? Five Minute Commercial breaks?

Drill my teeth with no Novicane while your at it.

To make the economy really recover all frequencies should become the property of the governemnt and reauctioned.

This time you get to own one AM and one FM in any community. All the proceeds from the auction would be redirected back to the current owner, up to the debt level of the corporation.

When the radio frequencies were sold in the 90's for millions, half of all of the gain should have gone back to the government. The license holders were given a monoploy by the government, that should have been limited to ten years. Instead they were renewed each year with minimal resistance (it's harder to get a drivers license).

If the period of the license had been limited to 10 years you would either get sharks (like we have now) who try to squeeze out every cent possible until their 10 years are up, or you get true community leaders who give you ten great years of service.

The sharks are called "Capitalist" what would the others be called? Since few if any of them are around.

....Good ol' Perry Como shows up for Washington,

Yet there is a statue of him in Cannonsburg PA.

The wettest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle
and the mold the greenest green in Seattle.
Stuck in traffic on I-5
Your destination you might not arrive.
Housing prices out of sight, at Gas Works Park they're flying kites, at least the coffee is alright, in Seattle.

Stevedj-

One of the joys my wife and I get from voice tracking our morning show is the fact that it is a locally owned operation with 2 distinctively different radio formats. We are given creative control over content and delivery.

I am happy that Roger's station is sold out that is encouraging. As far as I can tell our station isn't playing recorded PSA's but offering up "News you can use" segments throughout the broadcast day on local activities.

I feel very proud about the work we are doing in Coos Bay especially now that we have streaming audio.

Uh, Chris, you probably meant to say Dodger's station.

Yep - Sure did. Nice catch Newflyer.

Perhaps we should consider what really happens at Dodger's station. It operates on satellite 24/7, which leaves a ton of avails. They simply plug paid or unpaid spots into those avails to create the illusion of a successful sales department. No rate integrity, just illusion. Sponsors are happy because they get a ton of free spots. Dodger is happy because he can pontificate on great success. The fourth horseman just knocks on the door.

When passenger volume started dropping at the airlines, they didn't just invite a bunch of people to ride free to keep the planes crowded. They reduced available seats as a strategy to hold or raise fares.

If a majority of avails in a music format are going unsold, why are there still long stopsets to fill with PSAs? If credible estimates say radio ad revenue will be down 13-15% this year, why not shorten (or eliminate some) stopsets? Is TSL now a bad thing?

Of course, if your playlist is being generated at corporate, it would have to be a chain-wide move...

Had the same problem in a very small market. Needed to fill a 4:30 break. In hours where the inventory went unsold, we played a Song. Had a rotation of a couple of hundred tunes. The station sounded uncluttered. It also had an better flow than playing 4:30 worth of useless PSA's from the AD council.

When I took over some satellite stations that were AC and Country, I was gifted with some big holes of 4, 3 or 2 minutes from lack of sales and didn't want the PSA world to take them over.

Until I could count on some solid sales, and getting tired of no support from the GM, I finally took matters into my own hands and just started spending any extra time creating various 4 min and 3 min carts FULL of music to fit each format. Each one with a custom liner on the front to transistion back into the normal rotation. For example, "Apple FM, giving you a little something extra you deserve" ramping the tune.

Everyone thought I was nuts for spending the time on it, but after getting nearly 200 titles in there that most consultants would get nervous about, I felt a song was better than three wasted PSA's that were ingnored. Plus, I heard great feedback from the listeners that appreciated the extra's we gave them. It was nice that they didn't realize we were hurting on the sales end a few months.

The key was always keeping it fresh since there was a chance of so much repetition.

Then again, maybe I spent too much time on it, as the GM gave me walking papers nearly three years later after a vacation and another excellent book. Oh wait, he was new to radio anyway. Oh well.

OH, I see, I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH to HAVE a station..

re: flyonthewall
Let me further explain. We DO repeat ads OVERNIGHT but from 6am to 7pm ALL spots are paid for and not used as filler.
We are SOLD OUT during those times. We have in fact taken every break our national shows give us plus have even expanded our breaks a tad to squeeze in more. When doing live local shows we pop in a few more breaks to handle the inventory.
So, your assertion is not correct.
Again I am not bragging I am trying to ENCOURAGE those in this industry who are feeling that it's slipping away. It is still possible to SELL radio! Feel free to ask our salespersons how things are going for them, they are very pleased but they work very hard.
We have 3 remotes in the next two weeks for CAR DEALERS! Yes car dealers. How many other stations are doing PAID remotes for car dealers right now? How many even have a car dealer on the air PERIOD? We have a HUGE Glenn Beck event coming up that has over 80 rsvp's from listeners with a week to go and we were able to turn that into a money maker by getting the location to throw in some ad revenue as well as getting 4 sponsors to underwrite it! You just have to get VERY creative right now, but go for it!

What are the call letters for this wonderful station? Is it profitable?

Well, you are a LISTENERPETE, so you will have to dig harder to find it.
For those INSIDE radio, that particular station has an opening on the OAB site.

Thanks Dodger.

Just kidding! cmon.

Just wanted to know if the station is profitable. It seems to me that just because all of your spot are sold, it doesn't mean it is profitable.

_{I figured out which station it is, BTW}

Lets just say it's getting by ok.

Good grief, it has all the right wing heavy weights nutcases - Ingraham, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck - and its just "getting by ok?"

Hewitt and Prager? LOL

So does the gig pay a living wage in Salem? Or must one be married to (or supported by) a high level state employee to make it there?

Cost of living wasn't cheap in Salem when I lived there in '93...

LISTENERpete, your political views do not affect OUR bottom line.
OUR listeners do.
I am being kind.
We are doing JUST FINE.
Notalent: does it matter? You say you have NO talent.
nuff said

LP is just trying to get your goat, but kind of cold on the Notalent reply. You're better than that...Salem was a bit pricey regarding housing, but a nice place. Hope the pay is better than what seems to be the industry norm of 8ish an hour.

Overall, it isn't asking too much for a living wage in exchange for a third of a mans waking hours. Not singling out your bosses, but this concept seems to be lost in the boardrooms.
When the working man does well, the whole economy does well!

Dodger>> LISTENERpete, your political views do not affect OUR bottom line.
Dodger>> OUR listeners do.

WOW! Such profound intelligence! Mega-dittos LOL

Judging by your snark, Dodger, We can assume one would need spousal support to do the gig...

regarding the nom d'net... apparently sarcasm escapes you... We've worked at a few of the same stations, though not at the same time.