NBC MONITOR!

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

If so, they are a vast, mostly monied target group. They are virtually being ignored as they swell in numbers.

A couple of generations ago we had a much more limited set of media to reach people. Radio was the new-kid-on-the-block and it was asked to do some things that maybe were not it's strongest points... but it worked... even if today we would say it was used incorrectly.

With computers and data-bases, a whole net set of advertising and sales methods have opened up and by pin-pointing what the computer says are "high value targets" media that we used to think of as costly are now much more affordable.

I'm "out of place" in my neighborhood. (I know. Some of you are thinking: "He would be out-of-place in ANY neighborhood!") I have one of the least expensive houses on a dead-end street on a peninsula leading out into a big lake. There is a house at the end of the road that has been on the market for $6,000,000. Lots that touch the water begin at $300,000. If my lawn mower were to throw a rock into the street it would likely hit a BMW or Mercedes. When they pass my place they have the pleasure of seeing my 15 year old Tacoma mini-pickup sitting in the driveway.

Here is my point: You cannot believe some of the direct-mail advertising I receive. It is aimed at the older crowd that you suggest radio is overlooking. And I think BigA and I are in agreement: Radio cannot come up with data to indicate that older listeners can be reached at a competitive price compared to lobbing slickly-printed direct mail into a "ghetto" like mine.

I'm putting together a cardboard sign. I'm going to put on some bib-overalls and stand on the side of the road next week holding up my sign: "Will Work for used BMW".

 

[joeybabe25]

cannot believe some of the direct-mail advertising I receive. It is aimed at the older crowd that you suggest radio is overlooking. And I think BigA and I are in agreement: Radio cannot come up with data to indicate that older listeners can be reached at a competitive price compared to lobbing slickly-printed direct mail into a "ghetto" like mine.

So you're saying that "junk" mail, which is more often than not thrown away before it it is looked at is a better buy than network radio ( and every little "nook and cranny" that has grown from this product over the last 40 years) or
local radio which can pinpoint even more precise demographics?

I think one of the problems with radio today is that it is stuck in the mud (which is filled with cash, but for how long)
and owners are afraid to make a move for fear of losing any share at all.

Well, radio, as we know it, if it wants to survive, better begin to think out of the box (cliches' are allowed once per piece according to my old lit teacher) because not too far down the road is internet radio.

And the whole ball game will be reset. It will make the transition radio made in the television era look simple.

Joe

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

So you're saying that "junk" mail, which is more often than not thrown away before it it is looked at is a better buy than network radio ( and every little "nook and cranny" that has grown from this product over the last 40 years) or
local radio which can pinpoint even more precise demographics?

I'm not fond of "junk mail" but the fact that it keeps coming is a sign that it works... whether it is loved or not.

Our discussion risks coming unglued a bit if we don't compare apples-to-apples. (That's my ONE cliche for this post. ;D )

A significant amount of "bulk mail" (The Post Office prefers terms other than "junk") is LOCAL advertising. That cannot be compared to NETWORK radio. Compare it to LOCAL radio.

A friend of mine just moved his mother-in-law into a retirement center/assisted living center. $4,200 per month. (Do put a bit of money for that in your 401k). Radio reaching the 18 to 45 year-olds probably can't reach the people who can write the check for putting Mama in that kind of digs. Closely targeted mail can. People who need to purchase the $6,000 to $15,000 hearing aids may not be listening to radio... local or network.

Radio is doing what so many other businesses are doing: You send out the sales folks and they sell whatever they can to whomever they can... whether it is the SMART thing to do or not.

I have spent a lifetime pontificating on what radio ought to do, what government ought to do, what I ought to do. That's fun. That's entertaining. But to make a living I spent a lifetime selling or doing whatever I could with whomever I could.... whether it was the SMART thing to do or not.

We could have lunch today and you could tell me of all the things I really SHOULD have done differently than I did. But I live in the neighborhood that has at least one $6 million dollar house, and I will fire up the Lexus after awhile to run to the grocery store. And the guys who are doing radio so wrong today.... well they OWN the stations but you and I don't. I always think about that when I write a post telling radio what it SHOULD be doing.

 

[joeybabe25]

We could have lunch today and you could tell me of all the things I really SHOULD have done differently than I did. But I live in the neighborhood that has at least one $6 million dollar house, and I will fire up the Lexus after awhile to run to the grocery store. And the guys who are doing radio so wrong today.... well they OWN the stations but you and I don't. I always think about that when I write a post telling radio what it SHOULD be doing.

I agree with you, Goat. And you may have the facts solidly in place, on your side of the argument. I worked in the business for 20 years and the best people i worked for were the ones who relied less (but some) on focus groups and market reserach (you cannot do without it) but used the "sense of radio" that they had understood and learned themselves. And the willingness to take chances.

The best job I ever had was at a talker. One day the boss fired a crowd of people (I was spared) and he looked at this 27 year old former disc jockey and said "wanna try out for this morning talk show"? I did that show for many years and learned a lot more about talk radio because this guy took a chance.

AM is nearly moribund. Terrestrial is dying. I said in a previous post that internet radio is around the corner.

Goat...anything could be around the corner.

Joe

 

[Art Landing]

Yes, the weekday evenng counterpart to Monitor was called Nightline. Hosted by Walter O'Keefe (best known as radio host of a gme show called Double or Nothing) in incorporated other NBC programs such as Biograpohy in Sound and Reccolectioons at Thuirty (an NBC Retrospective). Here is alink to a website recalling the program's shortlife - http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Biography-In-Sound.html

I seem to recall a morning daytime program called NBC Bandstand in 1956-57 that replaced a bevy of NBC soap operas, but can only find passing references to it on the Internet. It was part of an effort by NBC to create a national format akin to Monitor on weekdays but went nowhere.

 

[Mike_Rafone]

Art,
Thanks for the link on Nightline. Here in Atlanta, I don't think WSB carried it because they had their own local franchise of NIGHTBEAT with Jerry Vandeventer.

And I recall hearing NBC Bandstand in the early (like 2 or 3 AM) when our family would travel to Florida. Like you, can't find much about it in research. Maybe what my dad would listen to was a feed of it designed for re-broadcast later in the day. And I thought they started repeating the old comedy shows as replacements for the soaps.

But I could be wrong.