Inside Music Media

Here’s what’s really killing radio revenue right now.

Agencies are in the driver’s seat.

They demand lower rates and market competitors – usually the big consolidators – begin the race to the bottom of the rate card.

Naturally, competitors feel they have to also comply to get in on the buy.

Then the agencies want bonus spots.

Again, the other bidding stations have to step up with goodies.

Sometimes this means contests and/or promotions above and beyond the initial rate quote.

Then there are some consolidators such as CBS, iHeart and Cumulus who try to push competitors out of the buy by dropping rates even further.

iHeart flexes its corporate muscle even more by doing remnant-like deals with agencies that buy their radio spots for pennies on the dollar then get the rest of the iHeart multimedia platform effectively driving spot rates down to dangerously low and ridiculous levels.

Even good radio groups looking to protect their rate integrity are facing these crosswinds.

Radio is not only shooting itself in the foot using a weapon handed to it by agencies and buyers but then they pass that weapon around to each other to inflict further damage.

We’re going to deal with this in Philadelphia when we get together April 5^th.

Some things cannot be changed.

But there are a lot of things radio can do and before you reserve a seat to get familiar with these options, let me explain.

Radio creates virtually no premium content that agencies must buy at their rates. But there is a way to carve out part of your inventory for premium content and it comes with its own rules.

Morning shows used to be premium rate material but as groups have watered down morning shows and accepted lesser rates, the premium has vanished.

Now, there is a way to start a “waiting list” for advertising on your morning show if you do a handful of things to make buyers and agencies crave it. Imagine a “waiting list”.

And a way to redefine the meaning of “bonus spots”, the ones that are in essence driving rates down further.

And you will be fascinated by a Millennial sales pitch I am going to show you how to make to a handful of big clients. We’re talking about big money here.

The pitch.

The pricing – which I’m going to tell you now is high, but you’ll get it.

If you bring your sales execs with you I will show you privately how to overcome specific objections.

And did I mention that this is for a one-year contract or else you pull it off the table?

And we’re just getting warmed up because we need to place bets on new ideas.

I’ve got content divided into 11 groups:

Strategies to End Rampant Rate Cutting
Reducing High Advertiser Churn -- Presented by WBEB’s Jerry Lee in response to a shocking study of 5,000 ad campaigns in which 68% of local advertisers said their radio spend was “a waste of money”. Let’s stop this in its tracks.
Rebuilding Eroding Radio Audiences -- Millennial-friendly new targeted formats.
Digital That Makes Money -- How to assemble the “Content Station” of the future that merges radio with digital and social.
Creating Fresh, New Formats -- A sampling of formats and format variations that hit the sweet spot for even the most distracted in-demo audiences.
Finally Attracting Millennial Listeners -- By making radio sound like them, have special content for them and embrace their 5 most desired values.
The Morning Show of the Future -- Why a lead female personality is now required – no more sidekick status. New features. And the ones that should go. How to make mornings 60% of your total station billing.
Ending Repetition That Turns Listeners Off – How to surgically add music discovery to the familiar hits.
Dealing With Too Many Commercials – We need to have a conversation about something that drives listeners away.
Longer Listening -- Time Spent Listening to radio has declined every year since the early 90’s. And hardly any Millennial listens to songs all the way through these days (even on other platforms). Now there is an easily implemented way to keep listeners from straying and it isn’t longer music sweeps.
Underground AM Radio -- Say hello to the underground AM station of the future. Formats possibilities, how to promote and sell.