It isn’t just a coincidence that Audacy and iHeartMedia are cutting back their sales departments at the same time. Local spot revenue isn’t there to support them anymore. Radio groups are reliant more and more on national and programmatic services to bring in digital revenue for streaming and podcasting than from local stalwarts like “Big Mike’s Kia and Porsche” on Route 643 or “Bottles & James: The Grill & Pub” at the corner of Broad and Main.
Whatever local business is left is being handled by a couple sales managers working directly with regional agencies. The remaining AE’s have been scrambling to getting a commitment on where they can get the meat truck to park on Saturday morning and hoping to get trade for the new Dirty Soda shop in town.
It’s not all radio’s fault. Mom and pop businesses have been pushed out of the marketplace for decades as national chains move in. First came the fast food restaurants and big box retailers but now nearly every business vertical has been affected. There are chain car washes, dentist offices, chiropractors, barber shops, even plumbers are under a single shingle. Where there was once competition necessitating buying marketing on radio, now a single ad buyer can pick and choose a platform that works best for them and now there are even more platform options to choose between.
Even with the increased hurdles it doesn’t need to be this way. Radio can still make gold out of the local buys that many of the other platforms cannot. Stations have a reach still that most local social media platforms wish they had, and in some cases the station and personality’s social platforms match that as well. But a dry copy spot buried in a seven minute stopset full of promos for podcasts that are not of interest to the station’s demographic and to go to a concert hundreds of miles away is not going to cut it.
This is show business. Let’s bring back the show. Even if there’s only one (or even none) local personality on a station you can still be a superstar in your market. Look the part. Act the part. Not by being a dick, but by repping your brands at all time. Make your endorsements matter by showing them off on multiple platforms in a way that only radio can do. Sure the business can buy an Instagram ad or a spot on a local OTT video streamer, but how many can then also turn that into a conversation topic on-air that drives engagement?
Let’s picture that brand new Dirty Soda shop attempting to capitalize on a current culinary trend knowing the odds of longterm survival are slim to being with. It has been open for four months now and the initial buzz has died down and they’re looking to begin marketing to increase their chances at surviving. A campaign is built around a contest for flavors built around three stations in your cluster like a “B108” honey flavored soda, “Mix 99 Christmix” peppermint mocha flavor, and a “Rock 102” concoction with pop rocks and cinnamon. The best seller remains on the menu for a few more months and a digital activation is built to build a database of voters through the station apps, email list, or a service like TextGroove to give coupons and prizes to them to build traffic to the store. The station and personality brand equity drives engagement through digital media and on-air that builds actual results.
Station websites can be local business directories with paid placements and on-air tie-ins. Pay extra and you get three mentions as the local business of the day on-air. The jock gives a secret code like “mention Hot 95” and get 9.5% off your purchase this week. The business now has a way to measure who the campaign brought in.
Station databases are the secret weapons many stations have yet to weaponize as an asset for sales. Radio tied with digital platforms is the best possible marketing machine in a local market. Sure it takes a little more work to put together, but you have the ability to offer so much more than a simple 30 second spot that hasn’t really changed in strategy in decades.
It wasn’t that long ago that GMs were telling me “thank God for local.” It’s sad to see it jeopardized.
I listened to a few indie-owned stations in various sized markets over the last 24 hours, curious to hear what their spots were like. (Part of the motivation with indies was not just their emphasis on local, but counting on being able to hear the over-the-air spots.)
WHGL (Wiggle 100) Troy, Pa., and its sister stations were actually partnered with a local travel agency for a Bermuda cruise and had an old-school sponsored anti-drug PSA. There was an ad for a local hot tub dealer and a local restaurant. That was about 40% of the hour, with the rest seemingly CBS News spots.
In Southern California, where local is inherently regional, KKGO (Go Country) had several local contractors, a local grocery store, several law firms, and a regional casino.
Rubber City’s WQMX Akron, Ohio, was 95% local with three different HVAC companies as spring begins, as well as local lawyers, a local supermarket chain, several car dealers, a restaurant, and a club. There were several more when you add weather or sweep-starter sponsorships, concert partnerships (the one I heard was for charity), and other NTR (although the whole point of the article is that even calling it NTR seems quaint now).
This is a great read.
The most important two sentences in this post:
“This is show business. Let’s bring back the show.”
Dale Parsons
Maui, Hawaii
Glad to see the truth coming out instead of puff stories saying ‘Car dealers depend on radio ads, or Nothing like over the air in emergencies….’ I’m in a market where the third generation is running one local station on two frequencies, and the rest off satellite feeds. Sales folks won’t stick around and one ‘leader’ won’t drive more than five miles from the office, and it shows! When you see AM’s in major markets being turned in, for the land value under the towers, speaks volumes, and NAB and FCC isn’t lifting a finger. Nothing to see here, we’re opening a window for NON-profits in the fall…..” I just saw $15 ads on OTT television on 5 million watt network station, so the ‘cure’ involves everyone pushing in the right direction. The story shows exactly what’s wrong with today’s Over The Air operators, and happy to sell ads online….listened to in foreign countries that will never, ever visit the advertiser. My two and a half cents…