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Norsan Media Acquires Magic 106.3
- Thread starter lanceventa
- Start date
And just likee that it's gone poof!!!
Disagree. I wouldn't say that's the only reason... in any case.
By your own words, you say "debt," and better run operations could fix that. More money from more effective advertising campaigns could fix that. Larger audiences from groups who adapted to the audience's tastes earlier and more effectively could have fixed that.
Corporate radio is the locomotive manufacturer who refused to switch to cars. It's the music industry who got it's *** spanked by Napster. It is an industry where the most stations are controlled by just a few people. Are you suggesting those very few people are the best this industry has? Or maybe you might agree that they gained their positions for something other than merit and accomplishment.
I disagree that corporate radio did things right and that "debt" was the only reason some of them failed.
Agency "buyers" do not determine the target of an ad campaign. The agency account executives along with client marketing executives determine the target of each campaign.
The Media Director of an agency writes the specifications and special situations and then has their Media Planners allocate funds by different markets and different media. The radio specs are then given to buyers with instructions on which markets to buy, how deep in each market, the demo target and spread and the goal in terms like Gross Ratings Points. The radio buyers look at the stations that are eligible and pick the ones that meet the buy specs in terms of age and other demographic goals at the right price.
If the buy is broad, like full M/F 25-54, the buyers will be instructed to pick a group of stations that covers from the youngest to the oldest of that target.
Agencies don't buy LPFMs as they are not commercial. Further, most buys are only a few stations deep, starting with the top one in the target and working down.
No LPFM in the average multi-county radio market covers even 5% to 10% of the population.
For a reason: those 30's and 60's with a decisive selling point SELL. The others are more for image.
They are and they measure it.
An LPFM with a very small coverage area and often esoteric formats will not generate measurable sales with any type of commercial. That is why most depend on donations, not sponsorships.
If you are referring to what was Salem's WRTH, that is not an LPFM. While it was under Salem, it operated a Class A FM with another FM in a simulcast. It was sold to EMF.
Debt was the reason they went bankrupt.
Even with the poor advertising economy for all media, radio researches its formats and music quite thoroughly. There are no "hidden formats" out there.
Actually, more locomotives are sold today than ever before. Railroads constitiute one of Warren Buffet's favorite investment sectors.
Napster was one of the biggest examples of thievery to ever exist. It allowed people to steal songs while the artists, composers and record labels made nothing. A very poor example, as are all of yours.
Very untrue. There are about 11,000 commercial radio stations in the US, and the largest owner of stations owns less than 8% of them.
Yes, there are many highly qualified people in the business. And like any other business, some leaders are not as good. Same went for K-Mart and Sears, too.
Every significant failure in the last 15 years has been due to things like the 2008 megarecession and the 2000 pandemic and resultant cut in advertising in all media. Some could not survive those events.
I agree & disagree with much of what you say here.
-Agencies are structured differently, and routinely change. Yes, there are decision maker in the process- however, it could be anyone. It could be the client, a one-person agency, the daughter of the client's niece and more. I don't believe you can be 100% sure that the structure of the agency you describe is parallel to every agency.
"For a reason: those 30's and 60's with a decisive selling point SELL. The others are more for image."
-This is a formal ground for disagreement. There is ample data suggesting that, in a world where spam is everywhere and becoming more and more annoying, that the audience is tuning out hyper-selling ads of all forms. The 30s and 60s format of 1970 is not as effective as it was when it was established. Imaging a business among such a large amount of "spam" take creativity. Just getting the audience to remember your business name takes, first, not getting them to tune you out.
-What's measured is the decline in ROI for radio ads. There are too many more affordable and more measurably effective ways to advertise. And the amount of new media is growing every day. Radio, sticking to the old 6 minute spotset, three times and hour formula isn't so durable it will survive. Not without adjustment.
Radio needs to be more than an audio service in order to serve their markets today.
"Even with the poor advertising economy for all media, radio researches its formats and music quite thoroughly. There are no "hidden formats" out there."
-Hidden formats? I wasn't implying that. But, there is no doubt many... many underserved older markets.
"Napster was one of the biggest examples of thievery to ever exist. It allowed people to steal songs while the artists, composers and record labels made nothing. A very poor example, as are all of yours."
-Nice. Reread what I said. Maybe my under-explained point will sink in.
"Very untrue. There are about 11,000 commercial radio stations in the US, and the largest owner of stations owns less than 8% of them."
-And #2 has how many? How about #3. Are you disagreeing that a handful of people control the largest segment of the commercial radio industry?
"Yes, there are many highly qualified people in the business. And like any other business, some leaders are not as good. Same went for K-Mart and Sears, too."
-Exactly.
"Every significant failure in the last 15 years has been due to things like the 2008 megarecession and the 2000 pandemic and resultant cut in advertising in all media. Some could not survive those events."
-Internet? Social media? Podcasts? Other new media? Some of that had to play a role in the "megarecession." Concerning radio, better run companies could have survived that more effectively. Forward looking modern companies who watched trends and then acted on them.
While small agencies may have one person doing multiple functions, the decision on media and demographic targeting is done at the highest level.
Yet companies that spend hundreds of millions in research like P&G continue to use "ask for the buy" approaches. Beyond that, read a bit about USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Just "getting your name out there" will not work. You have to ask for the order after giving a good reason why.
First, most stations in the top 50 PPM markets have ample reason to know why two (not three) stops per hour is ideal. And clients who do research find radio a very affordable medium as it is priced based on impressions in accordance with ratings data.
Radio IS an audio service. It can reinforce with all manner of ancillary services, online, through podcasts, through streams and the like. but the base is audio, distributed over the air, through smart speakers, through streaming sources.
Yes. But a better run company would not assume this kind of debt. Or, a better run company would make enough money to pay its bills.
I think if you do a little research, you'll find they were a well run company at the time they took on the debt.
There was this thing known as a worldwide pandemic. It had economic consequences that has also hit non-commercial radio.
They really don't. They all report to boards of directors, investors, and stockholders. When they default, they report to banks and lenders. There's also the FCC. Things are not as simple as you make them out to be.
Sales methods as you describe are mumbo jumbo to the guy the client is selling to. Try anything you want, "Joe Blow" doesn't care. After hearing 35 radio spots "ask for the order," their customer is not going to keep giving it to them. To think, that in research world full of P-scores and metrics, there would not be a column for "burn" is insanity. We tested for burn back in the 90s at the numerous music tests I worked. Either the pollsters are burying their heads to the "burn" column in their research or they just don't care. The audience, in the age of misinformation, more than ever before, doesn't listen and is SLOW to react. It takes creativity that these groups, and perhaps you, do not understand.
"Radio IS an audio service. It can reinforce with all manner of ancillary services, online, through podcasts, through streams and the like. but the base is audio, distributed over the air, through smart speakers, through streaming sources."
It has to be more. It has to fill all the local holes. It needs to be a full service local media company. Can't do that with 4 employees.
"Radio IS an audio service. It can reinforce with all manner of ancillary services, online, through podcasts, through streams and the like. but the base is audio, distributed over the air, through smart speakers, through streaming sources."
It has to be more. It has to fill all the local holes. It needs to be a full service local media company. Can't do that with 4 employees.
They honestly are that simple. They just have to be good at making excuses to boards of directors. Many CEOs are the children of CEOs who ran it before them.
I worked for Audacy/Entercom for years. I know how they run things.
And no ad money against older listeners except in much smaller markets. The big agency account advertisers know that the ROI in advertising to seniors is not profitable. It takes too many impressions to sell mass market goods to seniors. And the products only seniors would use almost universally require visuals to sell.
You used Napster to illustrate your point. It fell flat.
There are still thousands of stations in the hands of smaller groups.
Cumulus has 404, Audacy has 230 stations. Univision has, now, about 50, Salem is down to under 50.
The top 10 groups have less than 2000 of the over 10,000 commercial stations.
P&G, the best marketer ever, has to discontinue about half of its "new" products within 2 years. With lots of research, tons of test marketing and skilled product development, they can't win every time. Like baseball, if you have a hit 33% of the time you are a star. Radio format introductions tend to do better than that, so the industry is performing well on that count.
The 2008 recession came the same year as the iPhone with all its features. In fact, the biggest impact during the recession was cause by the PPM showing about 35% lower Time Spent Listening due to more precise measurement... and that hand nothing to do with podcasts and "other new media".
What has happened is that allocations of fewer dollars has been spread into different places. The biggest impact has been on newspapers, magazines and network television in fact. Radio, on the other hand, still reaches 89% of all adults every week.
I'm wondering if they'll shut those HD channels off, or if they'll lease the HD space so La Raza can use the translators to improve their coverage in Anderson/Pickens/Oconee like WORD and Magic did while at 106.3. Only thing is, they're already leasing WROQ-HD3 out to another Spanish operator (feeding 102.9)... wonder how they'd feel about that? I could see Audacy wanting the 101.5 and 95.1 for The Fan.
I do have to say, no disrespect to anyone that worked at Salem, but this was a heck of a cleaner flip!
RIP to Lite Rock 98.9, Magic 98.9, then Magic 106.3. It was a hell of a run that saw a lot of good folks come and go throughout the years.
"The top 10 groups have less than 2000 of the over 10,000 commercial stations."
20% of stations they have are the TOP, largest market stations/networks.
Now, give me the figure by revenue and stick value.
Decades ago we learned that Burn is a useless term.
You need to know if it means:
"I used to like it but I'm tired of it"
"I never liked it much, and they played it so much now I hate it"
"I like it a little but they play it too often"
"I don't think it fits my mood when I listen to that station"
The real issue is "how much do you want to hear that song today".
Bad research is worse than no research because it reinforces mistakes.
Burn may be a useless term to you, but it most certainly is not a useless term to the audience. As anyone who has a heard a Crazy Larry-like car ad. "I change the station every time I hear that guy's voice" might be a typical response. If there was no need to observe burn, wouldn't even older songs stay in the current category? If the audience liked them once, why would they not like them for the next 1000 times they heard it?
Burn is a real and measurable research metric that, if you are not using, you are not doing real research.
You are using the height of the waves to judge the depth of the sea. Superficial metrics with no inclusion of how we got to the point we are at.
In the late 80's, Docket 80-90 was being developed and it rolled out around 1990 and allowed for many new FMs, and more move-ins and power increases in nearly every market area.
Because there were too many station everywhere, less than half were profitable. The traditional big names, ranging from ABC and NBC to Metromedia were pulling out or thinking about it.
So the only answer was consolidation where the politican-manufactured station limits of the 30's were tossed out. We got consolidation, but the reason was the licensing by the government of too many stations. That is what we see now.
In 1990