Back in the 1970′s — almost medieval times — several studies took place to discover the optimum number of commercial announcements that could be aired in a “break” or “cluster” without causing listener fatigue.  Depending on the study you believe, I recall the number was between three and five…let’s call it four. After the fourth [...]

How do you define success? For most Radio salespeople, success is making the sale. Closing the deal. Bringing back a nice order. Seeing the sales manager smiling as you turn in the big-ticket, multi-month buy you’ve worked on for weeks. But what constitutes success for the client? What yardstick does he use to determine if [...]

“We have a special this month,” said the sales manager. “Anyone who takes our Mega Monster Package before the end of the month will get 20% off.” There is a buzz among the sales reps. This is a good deal! “And it’s good only for new advertisers.” You’ve probably heard this many times before; a [...]

Have you ever agreed to a long-term, low-rate schedule and later come to regret it? It has happened to many of us. The allure of a large gain in total revenue can blind us to the long-term consequences. A wise Radio mentor educated me long ago that each ad on your station is worth exactly…what [...]

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 [...]