Why is it that Radio and TV sales people sell “spots” and newspaper people sell “ads”? Does what you call a thing make a difference? A lot of people on Madison Avenue certainly think so. It’s my position that one Radio ad is equal to one newspaper ad. We demean our product by referring to [...]

Clear Channel’s recent layoffs are merely the latest in a continuing series of employment cutbacks in Radio, and certainly more reductions are coming in the days ahead. However, the elimination of sales positions is a double-edged sword. One very successful market manager I know believed in hiring as many salespeople as possible. He felt a [...]

You’ve seen this scenario dozens of times in the movies and on TV: the bad guys (robbers, terrorists, etc.) are inside a building with hostages. Outside, police SWAT teams surround the location, and a negotiator communicates with the hostage-takers. The bad guys have demands: food, transportation, release of prisoners, whatever. The police respond by offering [...]

The bad news floods out of our Radios, TVs, and newspapers, and we internalize it. Not an hour passes without news of increasing unemployment, declining sales, and dismal forecasts. Eventually, after continuous exposure to such depressing propaganda, we accept it uncritically. We start to believe it. Once you’re convinced the economy is in a tailspin, [...]

There’s nothing that could make my blood boil faster than having a client fail to pay for his Radio schedule. While scrupulous attention to accounts receivable can minimize the agony of not getting paid, there are always some accounts that go bad each year, accounting for more lost revenue than you’d like. With the advent [...]

In the opening scene of the movie Patton, the late George C. Scott in the title role gives a stirring speech to an unseen group of men prior to battle. After describing the aggressive action he expects from his troops—perhaps nervous about what was to come—Patton says: Thirty years from now, when you’re sitting around [...]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the book Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill has many inspiring stories that came out of the 1929 stock market crash and resulting depression. Along with his uplifting prose, Hill made a number of predictions about the future that were wildly off the mark. None of them [...]

It’s shocking to me that some stations in the 21st century aren’t taking advantage of yield management strategies. In lean economic times, pricing your inventory based on supply and demand makes more sense than ever before. The best argument for utilizing yield management comes from reviewing an unsold inventory report (assuming your traffic system can [...]

As of midnight tonight, we bid farewell to a troubled year. There’s no need to recount the issues that face our country and our industry; if you’re in Radio you probably go to sleep at night worrying about poor sales, cutbacks, and what the future may bring. It might make you feel better to know [...]

In an earlier post, I mentioned how advantageous it can be to learn the name of the decision-taker and gatekeeper when approaching a new client. The question is: what’s the “easy” way to uncover this information? Here’s how it’s done: pick up the phone, call the potential client, and ask.