Why do so many stations bury their syndicated shows?

[Lehos]

Why is it that most stations bury their syndicated shows? Im talking about the weekend shows like American Top 40 (both Seacrest and vintage Casey Kasem), Flashback, American Country Countdown/Country Top 40, Backtrax, Fox All Access, etc etc. These shows are almost always buried at 6am Saturday or Sunday, or air late Sunday night which is typically the lowest listened to daypart of the week. These are all great shows with good production and it seems that stations air them, but try to hide them. Heck, some stations run these shows as early as 5am. Years ago, these shows were appointment tune in. I realize radio doesnt draw like it once did, but I feel like these shows would help with appointment tune in. Its not like these stations end AT40 at 9am and go live, most just turn into voicetracked jukeboxes for the day. why not air these shows in midday or afternoon slots on weekends? Occasionally you will find a small market that does, but its rare. I know many people who would enjoy hearing old CK from the 70s but arent about to get up at 5 or 6am on a weekend morning to hear it.

 

[landtuna]

I've long wondered the same thing and originally thought they used syndicated shows as a vehicle to give live on-air talent time off. It does seem like they are shooting themselves in the foot by putting the syndication on at very low listening times.

 

[snailboy]

I have not encountered that with my shows...yet. I found if you have a great product and the PD is happy with the show(s) your will get a time slot.

 

[Lehos]

Yeah, but you can't tell me that "American Top 40" isn't somewhat of a well known "product". And yet on countless big market CHR stations it is buried at 6am.

 

[snailboy]

Lehos I agree. I don't know. The only thing I can tell my show I do 2 hours of music plus interviews then a top 10 countdown.

 

[firepoint525]

Why is it that most stations bury their syndicated shows? Im talking about the weekend shows like American Top 40 (both Seacrest and vintage Casey Kasem), Flashback, American Country Countdown/Country Top 40, Backtrax, Fox All Access, etc etc. These shows are almost always buried at 6am Saturday or Sunday, or air late Sunday night which is typically the lowest listened to daypart of the week. These are all great shows with good production and it seems that stations air them, but try to hide them. Heck, some stations run these shows as early as 5am. Years ago, these shows were appointment tune in. I realize radio doesnt draw like it once did, but I feel like these shows would help with appointment tune in. Its not like these stations end AT40 at 9am and go live, most just turn into voicetracked jukeboxes for the day. why not air these shows in midday or afternoon slots on weekends? Occasionally you will find a small market that does, but its rare. I know many people who would enjoy hearing old CK from the 70s but arent about to get up at 5 or 6am on a weekend morning to hear it.

I know of small-market stations that do that, too.

 

[firepoint525]

I've long wondered the same thing and originally thought they used syndicated shows as a vehicle to give live on-air talent time off. It does seem like they are shooting themselves in the foot by putting the syndication on at very low listening times.

Yeah, but you can't tell me that "American Top 40" isn't somewhat of a well known "product". And yet on countless big market CHR stations it is buried at 6am.

I have a couple of theories about that.
1) These programs are heavy in commercials, and maybe the stations fear losing listeners over too many commercials.
2) The whole "play the hits" thing. Maybe they want to be "live" when they think they have the most listeners. Although I would think that voice-tracking might make this less of an issue.

 

[mediadude]

Syndicated shows require stations to give up some of their local inventory, so they have less to sell. Consequently, stations frequently run the shows at time when their spots are least valuable, thereby losing less revenue while saving on some costs.

 

[firepoint525]

Syndicated shows require stations to give up some of their local inventory, so they have less to sell. Consequently, stations frequently run the shows at time when their spots are least valuable, thereby losing less revenue while saving on some costs.

There are local avails within those programs as well. But stations (particularly FM stations) have been burying these programs at early morning weekend times since at least the '80s (or so it seems), so needless to say, I have sort of aged beyond the top 40 format anyway.

It was indeed, appointment radio for me back in the '70s, when I could listen to it on my local AM station on Sunday afternoons. Seems like when FM became the dominant band (again, in the '80s?) that these programs started being buried on weekend mornings. AM radio always seemed to have church services on Sunday mornings, so that time usually wasn't available for countdowns anyway.

Some FM stations had bonus airings of their countdowns on weekend overnights, which was cool as long as it wasn't the only airtime for these programs.

 

[Silkie]

Burying them or not airing them at all has also hurt more than one station's ratings overall, especially when the public discovers why it was done.

 

[chriscollins]

I agree on the burying...

I don't run any of them. I'd rather control my own stuff. We can just VT. No man hours to download, etc...

Programming wise, I see no reason to even run those shows anymore.

 

[Silkie]

If there is something people want to see or hear they will tune in anyway. If it gets disappeared you can still find it and leave the stations that dissed it behind with their dwindling advertisers.

 

[snailboy]

People do still like listening to syndicated shows.

 

[xmusicmatt]

People do still like listening to syndicated shows.

Sure, I run an internet station and I air sydnicated content (some from nationally known folks heard on FMs) and I have a lower listener count while the sydnicated programming airs then when we're in "ottomation mode" with a non stop music mix.. I don't think "everyone" likes these programming.. I would suspect this may ALSO be why some FMs air these programs at off hours.

 

[snailboy]

I have only good positive feed back about my shows? The air in good time slots too.

 

[Silkie]

Do you figure that the people who are syndicated really care whether they are buried?

 

[snailboy]

I do. I talk to the PD's (email/phone) I ask how the show is going and any feed back. I am happy to have my shows on the stations.

 

[Silkie]

Some get buried on the air. I still think there are those who really couldn't care less about that. You are probably one of the few who care about it, but you are still excited about the novelty.

 

[snailboy]

You are correct about being new. I do have the passion for the shows and customer service can make you or break you in any business.

 

[Paul_Warren]

Syndicated shows require stations to give up some of their local inventory, so they have less to sell. Consequently, stations frequently run the shows at time when their spots are least valuable, thereby losing less revenue while saving on some costs.

Bingo! No more calls...we have a winner! As a PD this was a huge frustration. The big national syndicated shows do this to themselves. Midday weekend avails are worth a lot of money to the local stations. Syndicated shows generally want half of them, and then do dumb things like fill them with back-to-back airings of the same commercials, or running Viagra and Prep H spots in countdowns supposedly targeting young demos.

Formats are so splintered now it's also hard to take a syndicated countdown show that sounds like it belongs in format. What if your station doesn't play three of the top 5 songs? AT40 was huge in the early 70s in part because there weren't five different shades of CHR. True Top 40 stations used to play the hits, regardless of genre. In the late 70s and early 80s there was lots of country crossover to CHR.

And yes, there are splinter countdowns, too, even one for Smooth Jazz, a format which plays few currents. But if your format is too small a niche to even have a credible chart, what's the point of a countdown?

But the avails are the big thing. Even in syndicated talk, local managers won't let their PDs lose too many weekend avails, especially if there's some local gardening, fishing or car repair expert willing to host a weekend show just for the exposure.

There's also a layer of battle done above the GM's head, because the biggest radio groups own their own syndicators, and if you want to displace one of your own company's shows with something from the outside, you'd better be right about its appeal, and your GM better be ready to back you up.