[BC] NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING - Revitalization of the AMRadio Service

[James B. Potter]

Robertm:

The key to your assertion is 'savvy advertisers.' In the case of national
advertisers (Chevy, Ford, Coke, etc.) they pay big bucks to large national
ad agencies to both produce their spots and place the insertion orders to
carefully selected important stations and groups. These agencies have the
staff and budget to perform sophisticated market research.  These
advertisers account for a fraction of advertisers in aggregate but for the
bulk of the transaction value.  

The next lower tier includes small- and medium-sized town and city stations
and their customers who are not savvy and do not have big research budgets.
These stations arm their revolving door sales force with rate cards,
coverage maps, contract blanks and maybe an old Arbitron survey and send
them off to pitch radio spots to the used car dealers, delicatessens,
restaurants, mom-and-pop hardwares, bakeries and flower shops in the strip
malls along Main St..  There is no marketing savvy here in this mix, just
salespersonship.  Commission sales is a hard way to make a living, and I
respect it.  During the sales presentation, the salesperson whips out the
'coverage map' -- a fifth-generation Xerox of a fax which was made with a
ballpoint pen-drawn circle around a mayonnaise jar lid on an Exxon roadmap,
and the customer wants to believe it.  Happens every day. Makes the
Wonderful World of Local Radio turn on its axis one more day.  Lesson:  For
the lower tier, station listenership is whatever the station claims it to
be. It can't be easily disproved by the small retail business owner.
Furthermore, all the other competitor stations in town make the same
exaggerated claims to their prospects.  It's a fool's paradise. 

Regards/J

 

.From: Robertm

If you think buyers believe promotional materials of a radio station, think
again. They have tools that are far more sophisticated and that includes PPM
and other well documented means of verifying real listenership. The