• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

am970 The Answer

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lee Linwood

Frequent Participant
Joe Piscopo was boasting about the immense financial success of am970, which broadcasts his show. However, judging by the overall dearth of advertising and the low-quality of the advertisers, combined with the lack of listeners, I have to wonder if the station is even in the green, let alone a huge moneymaker.
 
Last edited:
Lee Linwood said:
Joe Piscopo was boasting about the immense financial success of am970, which broadcasts his show. However, judging by the overall dearth of advertising and the low-quality of the advertisers, combined with the lack of listeners, I have to wonder if the station is even in the green, let alone a huge moneymaker.
Click to expand...

And? You’re listening. Rather closely at that it would appear.

People engage in puffery. It doesn’t really matter.
 
Lee Linwood said:
Joe Piscopo was boasting about the immense financial success of am970, which broadcasts his show. However, judging by the overall dearth of advertising and the low-quality of the advertisers, combined with the lack of listeners, I have to wonder if the station is even in the green, let alone a huge moneymaker.
Click to expand...

The station has been reported by its owner as profitable. If you control costs, that type of second or third tier programming makes money.

While there may be a Green New Deal, profitable businesses are said to be “in the black” and not in the green. But “green” does make moré se sense. The use of red and black has to do with old fashioned typewriter ribbons which could do just red and black on some machines. Red was used to distinguish debits or losses.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The station has been reported by its owner as profitable. If you control costs, that type of second or third tier programming makes money.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that this is also a station that does a lot of things it HAS to do, and that includes host-reads of those "My Pillow" ads that the OP dislikes. That includes running infomercials by doctors on weekends. That includes having hosts write books that are published by Salem's book company. This is how you make money with a low rated AM station that might be more about image than reality. If the owner and the morning host say they're profitable, and you believe them, then that's all that matters.
 
Is it possible that WNYM is the best-performing of the Salem "Answer"-brand stations? There are only 33, and several are poor facilities, so I wouldn't bet against it.
 
Well , WNTP here in Philadelphia ( actually Lafayette Hill) is a Salem affiliate but it is oftentimes impossible to listen to. because of all the interruptions . . I’ve let them know about it . The hosts are good and all syndicated but when you come out of the bottom of the hour station break at 34 past , go to a commercial break at 39 past , come back at 45 past and break again at 52 past, you have a unlistenable station . And tune outs . There’s nothing good on weekends .
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Is it possible that WNYM is the best-performing of the Salem "Answer"-brand stations? There are only 33, and several are poor facilities, so I wouldn't bet against it.
Click to expand...

I’d be surprised if am970 is even turning a profit. Salem’s Christian stations are the cash cows running a steady stream of ministry and related paid programming. Many of the national commercials running on am970 are network ads likely running for free on the station. The morning show has only a small handful of regular sponsors, such as a car dealership and a mom-and-pop restaurant which likely don’t represent massive billings. The trickle of new sponsors tend to quickly disappear, probably due to poor listener-response. I suspect Salem is subsidizing am970, supported also by sister station am570 “The Mission.”
 
Lee Linwood said:
I’d be surprised if am970 is even turning a profit. Salem’s Christian stations are the cash cows running a steady stream of ministry and related paid programming. Many of the national commercials running on am970 are network ads likely running for free on the station. The morning show has only a small handful of regular sponsors, such as a car dealership and a mom-and-pop restaurant which likely don’t represent massive billings. The trickle of new sponsors tend to quickly disappear, probably due to poor listener-response. I suspect Salem is subsidizing am970, supported also by sister station am570 “The Mission.”
Click to expand...

http://www.insideradio.com/while-yo...cle_4b0feef8-0fc4-11e8-9ac6-cfe74883b60e.html
 
Certainly the cash cow on a per-station basis for Salem is the Christian AC "The Fish". The teaching format is on many more stations, so it's total revenue is higher. "The Answer" is on its second-tier AM stations.

If 970 The Answer wasn't profitable, then Lee Piscopo would be on the street and Hugh Hewitt's morning show would be cleared live in New York. Salem is not there to subsidize anything, given the slim margins of its business.
 
Lee Linwood said:
Many of the national commercials running on am970 are network ads likely running for free on the station.
Click to expand...

Free? Nothing is free. They don't carry outside syndication. Salem has its own in-house national sales department. Everything feeds the beast. All of those infomercials make money. They run several college sports teams (basketball & football), and they all make money. The hosts write books published by Salem's publishing wing. Yes conservative talk isn't a big money-maker. It's all about selling drugs, insurance, and credit. Lots of 1-800 numbers. But when you put together all of the various things they do, it works. A friend of mine runs a funeral home. It's not a happy business, but he provides a service, and he makes money. Not unlike what this station does.
 
TheBigA said:
Free? Nothing is free. They don't carry outside syndication. Salem has its own in-house national sales department. Everything feeds the beast. All of those infomercials make money. They run several college sports teams (basketball & football), and they all make money. The hosts write books published by Salem's publishing wing. Yes conservative talk isn't a big money-maker. It's all about selling drugs, insurance, and credit. Lots of 1-800 numbers. But when you put together all of the various things they do, it works. A friend of mine runs a funeral home. It's not a happy business, but he provides a service, and he makes money. Not unlike what this station does.
Click to expand...

Commercials, in effect, run for free when they’re part of network buys for their Christian stations. I suspect am970 is a loss leader in order to have a NY presence.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Certainly the cash cow on a per-station basis for Salem is the Christian AC "The Fish". The teaching format is on many more stations, so it's total revenue is higher. "The Answer" is on its second-tier AM stations.

If 970 The Answer wasn't profitable, then Lee Piscopo would be on the street and Hugh Hewitt's morning show would be cleared live in New York. Salem is not there to subsidize anything, given the slim margins of its business.
Click to expand...

With few listeners and sponsors, I don’t see how Piscopo’s show, in particular, could be profitable. How much can a neighborhood restaurant bill? The bulk of the other shows are sponsored by gold, pillows and snakeoil health pills.
 
Lee Linwood said:
Commercials, in effect, run for free when they’re part of network buys for their Christian stations. I suspect am970 is a loss leader in order to have a NY presence.
Click to expand...

The network is owned by Salem. So the money goes into the same pocket.

Lee Linwood said:
With few listeners and sponsors, I don’t see how Piscopo’s show, in particular, could be profitable.
Click to expand...

Who cares? As pointed out, if they didn't run him, they'd replace him with Hugh Hewitt, and they'd have fewer positions to sell. At some point, that's what's going to happen.
 
TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that this is also a station that does a lot of things it HAS to do, and that includes host-reads of those "My Pillow" ads....
Click to expand...

Dennis Prager, who has a national show on the Salem network, and who I happen to like, disappointed me when he personally endorsed a gold sponsor which he said he did business with. Gold is generally a bad investment. That gold company stopped advertising on his show and he began personally endorsing a new gold sponsor which he said he is now doing business with because of some gibberish about having a new investment strategy. What about the suckers who purchased gold from the first sponsor based on Prager’s personal endorsement? The same guy who makes himself out to be the paragon of ethics and virtue.
 
TheBigA said:
Try not to pay such close attention...you'll sleep a lot better. It's just entertainment.
Click to expand...

With Prager, it’s more than just entertainment, or so he purports—He’s writing books on the Bible. Prager probably believes that his radio show is the greater good and he prays that God won’t judge him harshly for whoring himself out to gold sponsors and others.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom