Working in Radio through the recession of the late ’70′s and various minor economic downturns over the decades, a pattern started to emerge. Somehow, local retailers managed to sense a slowdown in business long before it revealed itself in national statistics. They responded to their perceptions by cutting back on their advertising budgets. Our stations [...]

Hitting the “scan” button on your car radio these days can bring a deepening level of disappointment. Is it just me, or is there a bland sameness to music stations that have become little more than a jukebox…one song after another with the occasional bland comment thrown in? I had the good fortune to grow [...]

A sales consultant I know was recently telling me about one of his clients. He said the stations were experiencing a rough period — this is unusual? — and some days as much as 69% of the available inventory was going unsold. The stations were only selling 31% of their ad time. I asked if [...]

Yes, it’s the most unbelievable blog post! We’re blogging like never before! And you’re going to read fantastic words that are so incredible you won’t believe them ’til you see them! Does that sound stupid to you? How do you think it sounds to Radio listeners who hear that drivel in an unacceptable number of [...]

The topic of Radio paying performance rights to recording artists has been tossed about like a hot potato for the past several months. And there are good arguments on both sides of the issue. In today’s economy — what little of it remains — many stations are on the edge of bankruptcy. Will adding another [...]

As a kid, I remember being amused and perhaps a little fascinated by the “Magic 8-Ball”. You may recall the over-sized sphere — black with the number “8″ in a white circle — was supposed to be able to answer questions about the future. For me, the answer that appeared most often in the window [...]

It had to happen eventually. Those of us in Radio could see it begin back in the late ’70′s. In the early ’90′s, the trend was obvious. Now, as we enter the last year of the 21st Century’s first decade, the monsters are visibly in pain, trying to hold off the inevitable. So it is [...]

Most Radio broadcasters are happy to see the last of 2009. With a number of major Radio companies at or near bankruptcy, most operators are struggling to keep their heads above water in an increasingly oppressive economy. But in the middle of the doom and gloom, there are glimmers of hope. In a few markets, [...]

In an earlier post, we talked about the fact that your Radio clients don’t require everyone to respond to their ad message; it is necessary only for enough people to react to the ad to produce a return on investment for the advertiser. Unfortunately, most Radio sales reps can’t or won’t convince the advertiser to [...]

If your stations are like mine, sales are horrible. We’re down for the year and it’s getting worse, with the average sale WAY down. The problem is not store closures or empty strip centers. It is confidence and spending. I think Radio as a whole is fine. The latest RADAR study shows 92% of the [...]