Orioles Sponsors on WSBA

[bobmathers]

WSBA York's heritage of serving central Pennsylvania will be hard for any radio station in the market to ever surpass. Therefore, I was a bit taken aback when I tuned in the other day to listen to the Orioles on AM 910.

I picked up the broadcast around the 4th inning and stayed with it until the end of the game. The only local commercials heard during the breaks were from Maple Donuts and Penn State York Campus.

The post-game billboard mentioned the doughnut store as the only sponsor, and then for the remainder of the 60 second outro, touted WSBA's news department.

The intent here is not to criticize or disparage, but to ask why only one Orioles sponsor on WSBA's game coverage?

Thanks,

Bob Mathers
Former WSBA Employee and Orioles Fan

 

[DaveWilliams]

Sounds like they have a sales department that can't sell AM radio or isn't interested in it. What a shame.

 

[TODDMAYOR]

that is sad our is it the state of our economy. maybe when mr obongo exits in 2013 people will not have fear of their wallets corporate local and personal clients. go romney.

 

[wirelessinnepa]

Yes....President Barack Obama is most definitely to blame for the sales department of WSBA being unable to sell sponsors on Baltimore Orioles baseball. (insert laugh track here)

 

[TODDMAYOR]

come on money is tight unemployment up...advertisers are not spending...this economy sucks...it all trickles down from the top...think about it.

 

[Seltzer]

Sounds like they have a sales department that can't sell AM radio or isn't interested in it. What a shame.

That could be part of the problem. Cumulus has really put the screws to this station since taking over. But let's face it..the Orioles product up to this year hasn't been very compelling for years. How were ad sales when these games were on WOYK?

 

[grandoleopry]

In todays competitive media environment it all comes down to giving advertisers
the most effective schedule for the dollar. What that means for a station like
WSBA is placement of ads where the most people are going to here them.
Unfortunately in this day in age it is not during baseball games which mostly air
at night when the station is on lower power and reaches a smaller portion of audience.
There are very few local businesses purchasing their advertising in the York market
these days, most who spend any sizable amounts are represented by ad agencies
who will place the business where it will be most effective and on WSBA that would be
during the shows that get the numbers (Rush) (Hannity) (Morning News) etc.
Here at WHVR we are one of longest running stations on the Orioles network,and I can
tell you selling the Orioles has been a challenge. On the other hand our bluegrass shows,
Local News, Radio Yard Sale, Opry Show are what produces results for our clients and
that is where I encourage spot placement for the most part. Its all about results. Typically
the folks buying Orioles are Orioles fans.

 

[DaveWilliams]

Tim, it sounds more like WHVR has someone in the sales department that knows what their doing and knows how to sell AM radio! Your doing a good job there so keep up the good work!

 

[bobmathers]

Some of you on this board may remember the late Al Potena. He was General Sales Manager for a number of years at WGET in Gettysburg. During Al's tenure at AM 1320 in the 80's and early 90's, he oversaw Phillies sales on the station. Potena led a sales staff that year after year, wrote up 20 or more season sponsors for the Phillies.

We also did some neat promotions. One involved the awarding of a new car or pick-up truck if a Phillie hit a grand slam in the 8th inning. Later that summer, Dave Hollins hit the salami in afternoon game against the Mets and a girl from New Oxford chose the truck. The following week, a caravan went to Veterans Stadium carrying local Ford dealer Gene Latta, the contest winner and yours truly. We went on the field and posed for a picture with Dave Hollins around home plate.

The key to selling Phillies (or Orioles) on AM is to package the games with spin-off spots and add promotional elements into the mix. It also helps to bring players to your market. And, give away tickets to the games!

Bob

 

[grandoleopry]

Totally agree with you on how to package sports programming. During that same time
frame in the early 90s I could write 150k in Nascar Business in the York Market on
an AM radio station and during the same era WSBA could write 250k+ in Orioles
business
That was then this is now. I know in the most recent Arbitron book Orioles
baseball accrues only about 10 percent of the average cume that
we have between 7am and 5pm, no matter how you look at it if you
want clients to get response they need to be in the dayparts where they
are going to be heard.

 

[jhguthlac]

Its hard to sell baseball advertising when the games are mostly at night. That is why your package includes ads IN the game and OUT of the game.

When the O's were trying to see how many games they could lose in a row, we still managed to sell out the games on a Delaware AM station. 42 watts at night! Half of your ads would run during the games, half during dayparts when people were listening.

 

[grandoleopry]

I would guess your giving away a ton of prime inventory spots. I do not have
that type of Bonus inventory available, particularly during the Summer months
we are often sold out.
I do not give "bonus spots" in prime programming. Also depends what your selling
the spots for....if its a a dollar a holler its pretty easy to sell that.
I can tell you this we dropped Ravens football 5 years ago because according
to arbitron there was 0 cume on a 5kw stick. I replaced it with Bluegrass
and Southern Gospel music and our cume increased signifigantly and we are
sold out on those programs a majority of the time. Sports is dying on AM radio ....young people
listen to them online on their phones etc. As I said before it's all about results and
baseball games that have minimal cume are not my first choice for ad placement for
my clients. Although the free tickets do make nice spifs.

 

[Seltzer]

I would guess your giving away a ton of prime inventory spots. I do not have
that type of Bonus inventory available, particularly during the Summer months
we are often sold out.
I do not give "bonus spots" in prime programming. Also depends what your selling
the spots for....if its a a dollar a holler its pretty easy to sell that.
I can tell you this we dropped Ravens football 5 years ago because according
to arbitron there was 0 cume on a 5kw stick. I replaced it with Bluegrass
and Southern Gospel music and our cume increased signifigantly and we are
sold out on those programs a majority of the time. Sports is dying on AM radio ....young people
listen to them online on their phones etc. As I said before it's all about results and
baseball games that have minimal cume are not my first choice for ad placement for
my clients. Although the free tickets do make nice spifs.

Which is another reason why Cumulus will take one of their FM stations talk. The likely candidate is WINK 103. I would bet selling Orioles Baseball on FM would be easier to do in Central PA.

 

[Multiplexor]

Baseball just doesn't sell anymore. Their fan base, despite their slight success this season has dwindled, and as happens here in York County all the time, bandwagon jumpers have latched on elsewhere. With the advent of smartphones, people WATCH the games wherever they are or GO to games, they don't listen like they used to decades ago.

 

[loeper]

it's hard to watch the game when you are in the car...and , you may have noticed...there are thousands of cars on the road in the evenings when the Orioles are playing. THAT"S the audiance you program too...and sell to potential advertisers. granted...very few people actualy listen to baseball on the radio when they are at home....or, for that mater, listen to anyting else on the radio while they are at home. to much other media available in that setting.