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February 11, 2021 1:32 pm  #1


Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

Interesting Tweet below for cost per 30 second spot.


https://twitter.com/fagstein/status/1359912934865072133


never worked ever, in radio
 

February 11, 2021 2:12 pm  #2


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

leafs67 wrote:

Interesting Tweet below for cost per 30 second spot.


https://twitter.com/fagstein/status/1359912934865072133

Less expensive than I would have expected for Toronto.

 

February 11, 2021 2:20 pm  #3


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

Toronto has some of the (relatively) lowest rates in the country.

 

February 11, 2021 5:12 pm  #4


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

Pretty cheap rates.  Now if they could just get more advertisers.  TV and radio in Toronto seem to have a very shallow pool of local advertising customers on air, even when there is no pandemic. And in radio playing 10 songs in a row and ramming in 6-7 minutes of commercials/promo where a sizable chunk of the audience leaves during the break is not serving advertisers or listeners.  Maybe time to rework the clock guys?  You may even find you could increase your rates.  Results matter.

 

February 11, 2021 5:17 pm  #5


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

Most large markets in North America get the bulk of their revenue from national clients rather than local. Local businesses got priced out, not to mention there are a lot fewer local businesses in the first place over the last couple decades.

You'll still hear some legacy local clients on the AM side, simple because they have relationships with those stations that go back decades.

 

February 11, 2021 5:26 pm  #6


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

paterson1 wrote:

Pretty cheap rates.  Now if they could just get more advertisers.  TV and radio in Toronto seem to have a very shallow pool of local advertising customers on air, even when there is no pandemic. And in radio playing 10 songs in a row and ramming in 6-7 minutes of commercials/promo where a sizable chunk of the audience leaves during the break is not serving advertisers or listeners.  Maybe time to rework the clock guys?  You may even find you could increase your rates.  Results matter.

This has long been one of my pet peeves about modern radio. You simply cannot air a four or five minute spot break and expect anyone to stay tuned for that long. Both 'RB and 640 are especially guilty of this in certain dayparts. Sometimes I will tune them out during an especially egregiously long commercial pause only to tune back 5 minutes later and say, "They're still not back!" It's incredible. 

I know spots pay for the programming, but I believe they're cutting their own throats if they keep cramming in so many ads - not to mention promos, which on TV, critics have correctly labelled as "clutter." It is astonishing how long some of the breaks have become. 

 

February 11, 2021 5:34 pm  #7


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

In major markets national is where the money is at, but that has been shrinking too, especially outside of mornings.  There are large local businesses that should be potential advertisers, and also co-op advertising which involves local businesses, but so far this hasn't been tapped. Lots of potential business out there as the national budgets continue to move elsewhere or are cut.  Hope radio is planning for this...

 

February 11, 2021 7:21 pm  #8


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

RadioAaron wrote:

Most large markets in North America get the bulk of their revenue from national clients rather than local. Local businesses got priced out, not to mention there are a lot fewer local businesses in the first place over the last couple decades.

You'll still hear some legacy local clients on the AM side, simple because they have relationships with those stations that go back decades.

Having lived in several parts of Southern Ontario, I've definitely noticed this. Stations in London or Kingston have a lot more local ads than in Toronto. Same goes for television, though Citytv and CFMT were long exceptions to that for Toronto.

Same thing happens in BC - Victoria's local stations have a lot more local advertisers than the ones in Vancouver. And one time I had been to New York City, I noticed the local stations had virtually no local ads, compared to what I was used to from the Detroit and Erie network affiliates. Only WPIX 11 I recall having any local commercials, and it wasn't a lot. Even in Mexico (which I've spent a lot of time in), national advertisers dominate radio in Mexico City, and it's only in the smaller markets where I ever heard ads for local businesses.

Small and medium businesses in bigger markets tend to do more online advertising than traditional media, from my experience (e.g. Facebook or Google).

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (February 11, 2021 7:31 pm)

 

February 11, 2021 10:45 pm  #9


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

RadioActive wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

Pretty cheap rates.  Now if they could just get more advertisers.  TV and radio in Toronto seem to have a very shallow pool of local advertising customers on air, even when there is no pandemic. And in radio playing 10 songs in a row and ramming in 6-7 minutes of commercials/promo where a sizable chunk of the audience leaves during the break is not serving advertisers or listeners.  Maybe time to rework the clock guys?  You may even find you could increase your rates.  Results matter.

This has long been one of my pet peeves about modern radio. You simply cannot air a four or five minute spot break and expect anyone to stay tuned for that long. Both 'RB and 640 are especially guilty of this in certain dayparts. Sometimes I will tune them out during an especially egregiously long commercial pause only to tune back 5 minutes later and say, "They're still not back!" It's incredible. 

I know spots pay for the programming, but I believe they're cutting their own throats if they keep cramming in so many ads - not to mention promos, which on TV, critics have correctly labelled as "clutter." It is astonishing how long some of the breaks have become. 

Corus tried a live nation-wide experiment I think 15 years ago; they moved all their stations to clocks with more breaks with fewer commercials each. Same overall minutes. Listeners overwhelmingly responded that the stations were playing more commercials and ratings dropped.

In media, that's a lifetime ago, and I know some Entercom stations like 107.7 The End in Seattle are trying again.

Regardless, radio will have to move away from long sets of :30 commercials one way or the other. I don't think just spreading them out differently throughout the hour will be the solution. We need something more creative than that.
 

Last edited by RadioAaron (February 11, 2021 10:46 pm)

 

February 12, 2021 9:58 am  #10


Re: Cost of Doing Business on the Radio....via Twitter

When I first read these rates, I figured they were for off peak hours. I have always been curious what the AM Drive rates are. As a side note, when I arrived for work at Bruno's Fine Foods last week, some radio sales reps [from Boom as it turns out] were discussing his future radio advertising plans. He has been with CFRB for decades. They were apparrently successful. I spoke to one of the reps. Ads are going to start the week of Feb 15th. I would have loved to take a peak at the folder left behind containing all the pertinant details. That would have been interesting reading.