Selling too much air?

['79 KUAI Jock]

That bit about Clear Channel Radio Group limiting the amount of commercials they'll play each hour on the opening page...

Is this supposed to be earth shakin' news? Every station I've worked at had a stated limit... and that's going back some!

Now--- tell me that they'll only play one minute worth of commercials each hour- and that they'll derive all their monthly revenues off this one commercial an hour... and I'll be amazed.

Of course the rate for that one commercial would have to be a doozey!

People keep forgettin' that "tha's how a radio station stays afloat"... playing ads!

Listening to NPR on HPR lately I swear I hear honest to goodness thirty second commercials... playing on what's supposed to be a commercial free radio station... am I wrong?

It's probably hidden under the label "underwriting"... but they sure sound like commercials to me.

Great of Clear Channel to see the error in their ways though... and voluntarily cut back on their revenue :-)... or could this just be a ploy to perhaps draw listeners... hmmmmmmm

What you tink?

[pzarquon]

Re: Selling too much air?

Like you, I don't think it will get as "good" as one minute of ads per hour, but I do think a shift has been a long time in coming. Fewer ads, higher rates, and better impact for advertisers overall. I mean, if your radio ad is seventh or eight in a break, you know no one's listening.

Listening to NPR on HPR lately I swear I hear honest to goodness thirty second commercials...

Well, their underwriter statements are getting longer, but still, you pretty much only have to put up with it once per show. I'm less worried about the "Morning Edition is brought to you by Oat Bran, makers of fine yada yada" as I am about the fact that some entire segments seem to be commercials because of who's used as a source. NPR's tendency to pick pundits from the institutes that sponsor it is pretty creepy.

The local HPR talk shows are prime examples, too. Where - as one example - Jay Fidell will have Mr. Eager Entrepreneur on his "Think Tech Hawaii" show, in which he's given a full hour to talk about the wonders of his cutting-edge product. Sometimes there's real meat behind the story, but a lot of the time I cringe. "Did Fidell actually believewhat this company put in its press release?"

[mel]

Re: Selling too much air?

Many talk radio stations in this town already have hour long talk shows that are nothing but commercials. Take a listen to KHVH on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Most of the shows are paid programs, which is fine to me since I presume, not too many people are listening to the radio during these time slots. That said, what I generally don't like is when an hour long "paid" commercial appears within the context of a regularly scheduled program... for example Rick Hamada's show on KHVH in the morning. Several times during the week he has either the investment broker (Terry Lee), the mortage guy or another real estate person inserted as part of the actual content of the said morning show. Those are downright infomercials right in the middle of prime time morning drive.

I am sure these pay the bills which is fine and dandy for the radio station, but an hour long infomercial during weekday morning drive? It would be like KGMB TV running a paid infomercial right smack in the middle of prime time (which someone did mention on another thread at this board).

Of course whenever most of the paid segments appear on either Rick's or Mike Buck's afternoon show, those are the times that I usually turn the dial to listen to something else.

I think both Rick and Mike should hold a higher standard and keep their programs topical much like Rush Limbaugh and other syndicated content appearing weekdays on their stations which don't dedicate entire segments of the show to infomercials.

Since KHVH is a Clear Channel Station perhaps this paid one hour infomercial in the middle of someone's show will be discontinued as part of the commercial policy swtich at the station starting next year.

[pzarquon]

Re: Selling too much air?

That said, what I generally don't like is when an hour long "paid" commercial appears within the context of a regularly scheduled program... for example Rick Hamada's show on KHVH in the morning.

Since I never listen to KHVH, it's interesting to read about this. It's the same complaint I raised in this thread about how KSSK uses "advertorials" during the supposedly candid banter on their Perry & Price morning show:

...It has always bothered me how KSSK, specifically, segues from casual, informal DJ chatter into a commercial without any disclaimers. Not that I don't think most people can't tell that when Larry Price starts waxing poetic about the new truck bed liner he got, he's reading an ad, but still... It seems a bit too misleading to me.

It's like, one minute Michael Perry is taking a strong stand on criminal justice after a long debate about some guy's lenient sentence, and the next minute he engages Larry Price in a upbeat, chatty conversation about this great new product that promises to take years off your face. Boo, hiss!

[mel]

Re: Selling too much air?

I don't listen to Perry and Price often enough to notice this, but then again I am not surprised. Both KSSK and KHVH are Clear Channel stations. It seems though that on P & P (based on your post) that the "advertorial" just shows up at random times. On the morning Rick Hamada show at KHVH, the listeners know what day and what hour the advertorial will appear which gives us the opportunity to turn the dial.

I mainly listen to KSSK FM for the background music content after P & P are done for the morning (Kathy With a K and/or afternoon drive).

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Selling too much air?

Playing informercials on the radio used to be compared to "signing a pact with the devil" It's easy money for the radio station but boy do you shut out your listeners! But then again if that a sponser is willing to pay big bucks in time slots you couldn't normally sell then what the heck right? It's all about the money.

Regarding Rick Hamada's morning show, there were so many commercials that I clocked Rick speaking a total of only 17-minutes during a 7am hour. The rest was either ads or the news. Even paid local shows don't get the full hour, there's 5 or 6 minutes at the top for the national news (in which there are two 1-minute ads embedded), a minute there for the bottom hour news teaser and a full minute before the top for a psa and a 10-second legal.

I guess the only way we'll ever see commercial-free radio is when commercial radio isn't free anymore. Kinda like my Yahoo address, to get 2gb of storage and no banner ads I pay $19.95 per year otherwise it's 100mb for the free email service with virus scanning and spam blocking. OH MAN did I just do a commercial for Yahoo!? Damn that's the same strategy P&P uses.

[mel]

Re: Selling too much air?

I'll agree. If some firm wants to spend big bucks in prime time radio then we really can't blame the station for not taking up the sponsor's offer. So even though there are regularly scheduled paid segments on KHVH radio, at least most of the regular listeners know when they are on, and if they like em they can continue to listen. If not there are other radio stations on the dial to tune into.

As for Yahoo, yes you just gave them a free plug. Perhaps we can discuss this in either Circuit City or the Internet topic in this section.