Buying, selling SMALL MARKET radio

[Buzzsings]

These questions are aimed at the hundreds of you who have or currently found yourself working for rural and small town stations.


How do you survive in a bad/down situation?

EXAMPLE: a country-formatted station with a bad owner who won't do the basics that towns expect --- won't air local news/sports, won't cover local sports, won't put obits on the air. Moreover, this owner wants to air :30 commercials and semi-voicetrack all but one or MAYBE two dayparts.

How do you sell this station? Can you sell it when it's done "wrong"?

What would you do? Buy the station and present it the right way? Would you and could you find some buddies at the banks/venture capital companies and buy it for two-million dollars in hopes you could recoup your investment and keep the bankers happy?

Okay. Once you've bought this station (and two or three others that this owner has been ruining), how do you set up the sales for a group of stations? Do you go to the biggest agencies in your region (let's figure you have a big city about 100-150 miles away) and try to sell a "group buy" for some of their clients?

HOW would YOU handle this situation? Obviously, you have to have people who can program this group of stations the right way --- but you have to get the sales up VERY quickly in order to satisfy those investment backers.

 

[wattagecottage]

How about freshing up that resume????<P ID="signature">______________
I've been listening to your show on the radio, and you seem like a friend to meeeeeeeee</P>

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Rather than whining about how the station is voice-tracked, work with your operations people so that it doesn't *SOUND* voice-tracked. Another big problem with the sound of many small-town, satelite stations is lack of variety. You'll hear maybe 2 voices in a 3 minute commercial break, and if you listen for 3 hours you'll hear the same 5 ads 5 times each.

Then you have to find some reason for advertisers to advertise. That will be really hard without any locally produced content. What do you have as far as sister stations within 20-30 miles? If you don't have anything ... try that buyout thing. If you do, figure out a package deal...local content on station A and regular programming on station B.

Sales seems to be cyclical in small-market, small-signal stations -- in 3-5 year cycles. No one is interested for 3-5 years, but then suddenly there is interest from a dozen businesses. Then those clients slowly drip away and aren't replaced, so the station sounds boring with the same 5 PI ads airing...and of course there are the clients who don't pay for their advertising -- they may be interested, but you aren't.

Just my experience with a station where the GSM has tried to buy the station.

Question: Any other local competition? If there is some, listen to them to determine who might have interest ;-) And look back at the clients list from 10 years ago.

Good Luck

 

[radioboy]

>
>
> EXAMPLE: a country-formatted station with a bad owner who
> won't do the basics that towns expect --- won't air local
> news/sports, won't cover local sports, won't put obits on
> the air. Moreover, this owner wants to air :30 commercials
> and semi-voicetrack all but one or MAYBE two dayparts.
>
> How do you sell this station? Can you sell it when it's
> done "wrong"?

Boy, have I been in this situation! I feel for you, because it is difficult,
and, to be blunt, it is an un-winnable battle in the long run..UNLESS, of course, you're a gazillionaire and can buy it out.

In the situation I was in, the station was a 5 kw AM daytimer with no promotion,
no perks, etc. and an owner whoose attitude basically was "If they won't buy
$300 a month at least, don't fool with them. Now this owner is a good man, don't get me wrong, but he really couldn't sell advertisers on his own station.
When I went to work there, he was moving out-of-state. The station had a handful of advertisers, some block preaching programs and tons of trade-outs.
The mortgage was way behind and it was obviously in financial trouble.

It took me three years to turn it around by myself. I left the morning show intact but added some weather, local event announcements and such, and then did the same in the afternoon by ultimately dumping the talk show that
struggled to get three callers a week. I went on the air myself six days a week
at least six hours a day. The morning show guy didn't do any sales but was also the music director and did some promotions and remotes.

As far as sales, I introduced myself to all the ad agencies I could, both local and national, and they kind of laughed at first, but, it worked. A small $200
buy here; $150 there; $900 for a special event with spots, giveaways and bonus promotions..it did take a while, but the station was averaging $11,000 a month
in billing 3 years later, whereas it might make $6500 on a good month before.
The mortgage was PAID OFF!

Here's where the "owner" part gets rough. After all that work, he decided..talk radio is the place to be and we're chaning formats. So, he did, but..

The advertisers all cancelled, including the ones that had been there for the past 15 years. ALL of them. I took a sabattical and let him hire a "talk radio expert." Yeah, right. Nine months later.. "We're going down the tubes. Can you help save us?"

Like a fool, I went back, to find the station billing less than $4000. I turned it Southern Gospel (worked in this market) and in two years, it was billing $10,000 a month.

Then came the "I'm thinking of changing the format.." again from the owner.
Owner didn't know what he wanted, just anything besides southern gospel. He
ordered it off. I complied, while submitting my retirement (not resignation)
papers. I mean, enough is enough and it was a lot of work to rebuild it over and over.

Unfortunately, after I retired from the station, it pretty much fell apart - literally. It's still on the air with all satellite - no listeners, 0 cash flow,
it's sad, but that part was not MY choice.

Yes, you can sell time on the station, primarily by offering packages that include "sponsored" or weather to give more value. The voice-tracking is
more of an issue to us radio folks than to the average listener who
pays a bit less attention to the DJs than we think they do. If you can keep the
format tight and keep elements in there to make it "sing," you can sell it.
>
> What would you do? Buy the station and present it the right
> way? Would you and could you find some buddies at the
> banks/venture capital companies and buy it for two-million
> dollars in hopes you could recoup your investment and keep
> the bankers happy?

I considered buying the station mentioned above in some of its better days.
The risk was too big and its profit potential too small.

If you're going to buy a station, you have to have your financing in place
ahead of time. The sales aspect is critical. Can you generate new sponsors and sources of revenue over and above the present level to pay the note?

I'd stick to buying ONE station, if you're a first-time buyer. Seriously, you are looking at long days, evenings, weekends and holidays for a while. It's a big commitment.
>
> Okay. Once you've bought this station (and two or three
> others that this owner has been ruining), how do you set up
> the sales for a group of stations? Do you go to the biggest
> agencies in your region (let's figure you have a big city
> about 100-150 miles away) and try to sell a "group buy" for
> some of their clients?
>
> HOW would YOU handle this situation? Obviously, you have to
> have people who can program this group of stations the right
> way --- but you have to get the sales up VERY quickly in
> order to satisfy those investment backers.
>
Absolutely right. Get good salespeople who know the business and can attract
QUALITY advertisers to your station.

Good luck!<P ID="signature">______________
Proudly remembering the days of the hometown "country giant" radio stations now at
http://www.live365.com/stations/alanmccall</P>

 

[greatscott1960]

Could it be all of this town stuff and bitching is just another stupid objection to get rid of you.

You must have some listeners who just like listening to country music, so instead of buying into negative crap try selling your clients results. Yes mr. store owner we don’t broadcast sports, but we do have listeners who buy what you sell. Gee what a concept! Good luck!


Rather than whining about how the station is voice-tracked,
> work with your operations people so that it doesn't *SOUND*
> voice-tracked. Another big problem with the sound of many
> small-town, satelite stations is lack of variety. You'll
> hear maybe 2 voices in a 3 minute commercial break, and if
> you listen for 3 hours you'll hear the same 5 ads 5 times
> each.
>
> Then you have to find some reason for advertisers to
> advertise. That will be really hard without any locally
> produced content. What do you have as far as sister
> stations within 20-30 miles? If you don't have anything ...
> try that buyout thing. If you do, figure out a package
> deal...local content on station A and regular programming on
> station B.
>
> Sales seems to be cyclical in small-market, small-signal
> stations -- in 3-5 year cycles. No one is interested for
> 3-5 years, but then suddenly there is interest from a dozen
> businesses. Then those clients slowly drip away and aren't
> replaced, so the station sounds boring with the same 5 PI
> ads airing...and of course there are the clients who don't
> pay for their advertising -- they may be interested, but you
> aren't.
>
> Just my experience with a station where the GSM has tried to
> buy the station.
>
> Question: Any other local competition? If there is some,
> listen to them to determine who might have interest ;-) And
> look back at the clients list from 10 years ago.
>
> Good Luck
>

 

[greatscott1960]

Try building relationships with you clients.

Could it be all of this town stuff and bitching is just
> another stupid objection to get rid of you.
>
> You must have some listeners who just like listening to
> country music, so instead of buying into negative crap try
> selling your clients results. Yes mr. store owner we don’t
> broadcast sports, but we do have listeners who buy what you
> sell. Gee what a concept! Good luck!
>
>
> Rather than whining about how the station is voice-tracked,
> > work with your operations people so that it doesn't
> *SOUND*
> > voice-tracked. Another big problem with the sound of many
>
> > small-town, satelite stations is lack of variety. You'll
> > hear maybe 2 voices in a 3 minute commercial break, and if
>
> > you listen for 3 hours you'll hear the same 5 ads 5 times
> > each.
> >
> > Then you have to find some reason for advertisers to
> > advertise. That will be really hard without any locally
> > produced content. What do you have as far as sister
> > stations within 20-30 miles? If you don't have anything
> ...
> > try that buyout thing. If you do, figure out a package
> > deal...local content on station A and regular programming
> on
> > station B.
> >
> > Sales seems to be cyclical in small-market, small-signal
> > stations -- in 3-5 year cycles. No one is interested for
> > 3-5 years, but then suddenly there is interest from a
> dozen
> > businesses. Then those clients slowly drip away and
> aren't
> > replaced, so the station sounds boring with the same 5 PI
> > ads airing...and of course there are the clients who don't
>
> > pay for their advertising -- they may be interested, but
> you
> > aren't.
> >
> > Just my experience with a station where the GSM has tried
> to
> > buy the station.
> >
> > Question: Any other local competition? If there is some,
> > listen to them to determine who might have interest ;-)
> And
> > look back at the clients list from 10 years ago.
> >
> > Good Luck
> >
>

 

[LR]

Buzz, the advertisers only care about ONE THING from your station. Do you have listeners? If so, do you know who those listeners are?THAT'S how you sell the station. Advertisers aren't buying local news, sports and weather. They're buying pairs of ears.If you don't have lots of pairs of ears, you can still win this one...without having to buy the station.It's called promotion. Get your station out on the street, out at the local honkytonk bar, out at community events. Be the station that's there for the community. It does work to win loyalty. And country fans are the MOST loyal around.It can work. I'm doing it in a small market right now, where most of the programming is tracked and/or satellite feed. No "local" news to speak of, no sports at all, and never an obituary - that's what the paper is for. Practically no promotional budget; we trade or get things sponsored. But for all that, I've got the #1 station in town because we have music people like and we're out in the community telling new listeners about it all the time.Don't worry about what you don't have. See what you can do with what *is* there. Take that attitude, and you can get things rolling. And then think about building sponsorship packages to cover the operational costs of news and sports services. Don't fear those 30-second commercials; our numbers (sales and ratings) went UP with the change to 30's. And it's not hard to show an advertiser that they're getting the same frequency for less dollars when using a 30.

 

[musicsweep]

Quit working for Jerry Russell and move on.

 

[spark gap]

You must have some listeners who just like listening to country music, so instead of buying into negative crap try selling your clients results. Yes mr. store owner we don’t broadcast sports, but we do have listeners who buy what you sell. Gee what a concept! Good luck!

That's the secret. Forget about what is on the air...figure out what the advertiser wants..and bring him/her a solution. Stations with 1khz tones have listeners (not many granted) so a generic satellite delivered format will have listeners. Probably more that some $9 an hour kid reading the school lunch menus and who expired at the local hospital (I was one of those kids by the way).

You're getting caught up in the tangible aspects of radio..."sir, you'll be sponsoring the Yak butter futures report, obituaries." Forget that crap...figure out what they want and bring a solution.

 

[musicsweep]

In small market radio, many times its not what's involved, but who's involved. I worked at KWRD-AM in Henderson, TX. I had a prospect tell me that if the former owner still owned the station, whe'd by my proposal, because it was a good deal. But since ownership changed, she had no interest.

So, the secret to small market sales in tenure. Stay a while, make relationships with the clients, and eventually, you'll cash in. DOn't get me wrong, you still have to be able to offer a benefit to the client, but the longer you are there, then better it will get.

If you absolutely can not stand working there, go somewhere else. BUt hte next job you take, make sure it is one you would like to stay at for a while.

 

[lfuss]

If this involves any station Jerry Russell owns, get out of there fast.

LF