Number & length of commercials

[CAwasinNJ]

(Just moving this part of the thread over.)

I don't see any major station in the US going with only 3 minutes of commercials per hour unless it's underwritten by a music lover with deep pockets. The return on investment just doesn't seem high enough. It would be nice, definitely. I just don't think it's feasible. And yes, I'd love to be wrong on this.

There was an interesting hybrid experiment on the eastern end of Long Island I heard about. I can't remember the name of it right now, but the idea was to take some of the idea of public radio and apply it to commercial radio. There were 15 minute long segments of music with a short commercial billboard in between announcing who was sponsoring that block. It was on 3 stations and lasted less than a year. The revenue was awful.

[Timmy]

I think it was Lonestar 92.5 in DFW, tx where they experimented with that sort of concept. They would sell their advertising much like NPR with companies like Southwest Airlines sponsoring this hour of great country/rock (or whatever that format was).

Check this thread from Radio-Info: boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,69471.10.html

I didn't follow too closely, but I think they've since flipped the format again since...

[thebaldone]

I don't there are any stations doing only 3 minutes of commercials an hour (during peak times), but 2-3 breaks and hour of 3 minutes of commercials is a reality. You just have to get away from the corporate crap and there are great station owners out there that do this. And you know, radio stations don't always have to make a profit with on-air commercials, but community events sponsored by local companies. Some companies will pay just to have their name attached to things. I almost feel bad for those stuck in big city radio, seriously. One of 120 radio stations where you have to play 7 minute stop sets twice and hour. I hated it everytime I would go to a commercial break.

Now, cue the satellite radio guy who comes in and professes that satellite radio is a god-send. I for one prefer to listen to locals... when I am in radio and those times when I am not, I want to listen to local people talking about local things. Brings up the trolley square stuff... how many stations (especially those across the street) talked about what was going on there?? If you tell your listeners that music is the ONE AND ONLY thing important on your station, then you should just sign up to have a satellite format. ...then watch the ratings NOT COME. No one will ever tune to your station for information, they won't come at all unless you play the song they want to hear when they scan the stations. That doesn't bring the people in for long periods of time either. Just the downward trend that has killed big city radio.

I know there aren't many people who agree with all I say, sorry.

[CAwasinNJ]

You're right about big city radio and all the nonsense that comes with it being a problem. Unfortunately there isn't really all that much of a choice in the large markets. When you pay a few million dollars for a station, you have to make that money back somehow. I'm not saying I like it, but those are the realities. When you get into small markets, then you can make a little profit doing much less. Maybe that's the way radio is going to go now that the bubble had burst. I wouldn't count on it though.

[thebaldone]

Then they deserve to fail.

"Small market,... little profit doing much less." Those who own some of the stations in the small markets are those who were smart enough to cash in over there in the big markets before it crashed by selling off... who knows, maybe those little guys will come back, buy something in a firesale, and heal the big markets... BUT you can't heal a spinal cord when its been severed.

[Timmy]

I know KSOP has pretty short stop-sets. I never sat there and counted/timed them. Seems pretty reasonable compared to, say, KBull.

[dxstuboy]

I don't know Kbull's length but KBER and KHTB are pretty similar (so Kbull might be the same). There are (usually) three breaks per hour running 3-4 minutes of commercials. Ugh.

[thebaldone]

What do y'all think about filler spots?... say, if a station only sells 4 of the 6 minutes they set aside for a stop set, they fill those 2 minutes with cheap spots, I mean super cheap...

[thebaldone]

I just re-read my first post in this thread... why didn't anybody point out that my first two sentences didn't make sense?? Geez, what was I on that night?