Innholdsfortegnelse for January 16, 2017 i Radio Ink Magazine

I“I’ve got good news and bad news,” said my accountant, David. “The bad news is that you’ll be bankrupt in three weeks.” “What’s the good news?” I asked. “If you let everyone go now, you can give them all two weeks’ notice and have a week of operating capital left.” Radio Ink had grown to a staff of nearly 40 people. Because I did not know publishing, I’d hired a very capable and experienced publisher, and she hired some top-tier magazine people from New York. But with that staff came a giant cash burn rate, and we couldn’t sustain it. It was a somber day when I let her and all but four people go, including my accountant, who should have alerted me months earlier. In hindsight, I should have…

Don’t Fumble the Ball Don’t lose control by asking the client dumb questions like, “What’s your budget for this?” or, “What do you want to say in your commercial?” We know now that the local direct client is not qualified to write his or her own creative. We need control over the client’s creative. We also need control over the client’s budget. We should be coaching them on how much they should be spending, not the other way around. Don’t Allow an Interception Always, always ask for long-term business. It’s good for the client, and it’s good for you. What a shame to do all that work and then see the account taken away by a media competitor or a crappy little advertising agency because you failed to protect your…

Radio has always been known to pay extremely high compensation to corporate officers and managers, but has not been known to pay well to other positions, especially in sales and on air. Don’t misunderstand here; once a seller is established, they can earn a nice income, but often it can take years to get there. And that can create a major challenge in recruiting. We will be facing that challenge over the next decade, as many of our veteran employees, who make up one third of the work force, will be retiring. So the competition to hire experienced managers and sellers will be fierce, not to mention that many of those who will be hired are millennials, who have a totally different approach to work and life. Leading a market…

In 2017, Radio Ink turns 25 years of age. In each issue this year, we will flash back through pages of previous issues to see what was going on and who said what along the way. Our first Radio Executive of the Year was then-RAB President/CEO Gary Fries, back in 1993. In this issue we’ve scrolled back through our interviews with former Executives of the Year to see what they had to say back then. Here’s a montage from those key radio industry players. In the January 2, 1995 issue of Radio Ink, NAB President/CEO and Radio Ink Executive of the Year Eddie Fritts said: “Be involved in the governmental process, understand it, know that it plays an important part in the business life of every radio station. Understand that…

BIA/Kelsey has provided resources to the media industry for over 30 years. Their insight into the local advertising and marketing marketplace offers trends and analyses that impact local revenue dollars as well as detailing other important indicators. Tom Buono, the company’s founder and CEO, participated in the annual investment session at last November’s Forecast. He presented some interesting projections that we agreed were well worth sharing with our readers here. Between 2016 and 2021, it is anticipated that the local advertising market will yield a 3.8 percent CAGR consistent growth pattern, driven primarily by increases in mobile and social advertising. In terms of hard numbers, how does that break down? We project total local advertising revenue to increase from $148.8 billion in 2017 to $174.9 billion by 2021, a $26.2…

Internet guru Seth Godin says, “Hardware is sexy, but it’s the software that matters.” It’s true. Your PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet: They’re all virtually useless without the software that makes them functional. The same may be said of advertising. While the media or platform advertisers choose might be “sexy,” what really matters is the software: the message they choose for each platform. But all too often, advertisers give credit for a sale to the media or platform, without understanding the role the message or brand played in generating the sale. For example, in the old days, the Yellow Pages often got credit for a sale because consumers said they “found the business phone number in the Yellow Pages.” While that may have been true, advertisers often neglected to understand…

The Free Beer & Hot Wings Show is hosted by Gregg “Free Beer” Daniels, Chris “Hot Wings” Michels, Joe, Steve, and Justin. It started out as an afternoon show at noncommercial KIWR in Omaha back in 1997, when Daniels and Michaels were roommates at Central Michigan University. They eventually moved to mornings, where they remained until 2000. They moved on to WBON/Knoxville and then, in 2002, to New Jersey, where they were simulcast on WTHK in Trenton and WCHR on the Jersey Shore. The Free Beer & Hot Wings Show began full syndication in 2004 with the addition of WGRD in Grand Rapids. Joe joined the show in 2005, followed by Steve in 2009, and Justin in 2016. The show is now syndicated by Compass Media; CEO Peter Kosann took…

In this issue and the next several issues of Radio Ink we’ll spotlight companies that are generating real digital revenue for radio stations across the country. Gary Rozynek spent 33 years in radio, the first 15 working for large public companies and the last 18 with Jeff Warshaw in the first iteration of Connoisseur, back in the ’90s. He hung another shingle at Maverick Media, built it up to about 25 or 30 stations, and sold in 2013. Then he became interested in digital, especially when he started to notice the billions and billions of dollars shifting from traditional media. In 2014, Rozynek launched Vici Media. The company teaches broadcasters everything they need to know to help their radio clients succeed using digital, helping them compete successfully against digital-only sellers…

Norman Rockwell was an illustrator of fiction. He never showed us America as it really was, but America as it could have been, should have been, might have been. His images caused an entire generation to vividly remember experiences we never had. Rockwell showed us a fictional America, and we believed in it. I don’t want to mention client names and I’m sure you’ll understand why, but my most successful ad campaigns have been built on exactly that kind of fiction. Not lies. Fiction. There’s a difference. Fiction is romanticized reality, showing us possible futures and the best of the past, leaving out the dreary, the mundane, and the forgettable. It is a powerful tool of bonding. Properly used, fictional characters can attract new customers and deepen customer loyalties. But…

The radio industry does a great job of teaching people how to sell, and how to sell our medium. We don’t always do as good a job teaching them how to make it work. Let’s start with the answer to the burning question posed above. What business are we reallyin? Not the one you think. You are in the business of selling the client’s inventory, not yours. Salespeople are often told, “Just get the order; let the agency worry about the copy and the schedule.” Wrong, wrong, wrong. Unless you want to churn and burn advertisers and have to prospect forever, we have to pull out the stops, give each and every campaign a full court press, and make it work. That’s the only way to build a base of…

OPEN BY RADIO INK PUBLISHER DEBORAH PARENTI I first got to know Caroline Beasley almost 20 years ago, following conversations with her brother Brian about joining WXTU in Philadelphia. This was during the early stages of consolidation, and I was curious about the company’s long-term vision. Brian quipped that his parents had five children, and that one brother was a doctor who “cures the sick.” He laughed, saying the rest of the children got the “radio bug,” for which there is no cure. Indeed they did, and none with more passion and focus than the woman who now leads the company. Caroline Beasley makes a distinct impression from the moment she walks in a room or steps on a stage. She is small in stature, but her soft voice is…