One sure sign that we've escaped the economic abyss is the increasing amount of spots on radio and TV, not just locally, but nationally too.
There's a fine line on just how much time to devote to spots and actual programming and content. Take a listen to Ronn Owens on KGO, for example. It was brought to my attention that out of the 60 minutes each hour Owens broadcasts, roughly 29 of those minutes are commercial spots and news. That leaves a mere 31 minutes of actual programming. Wow. Granted, Owens show makes considerable money for KGO, but at the cost of driving away listeners, how much is too much?
Same thing at KNBR and KCBS too, although KCBS' ad lineage is far more spread out, partially due to its FM sister station, 106.9, (which simulcasts all of AM)
KNBR, which has been running ad clusters up the ying-yang, (particularly PM drive and on the "Razor and Mr. T" program,) will be chock full of extra spots and you can thank your World-Champion SF Giants for that; to Knibber's defense, most outlets would do the same--hey, the Giants are gold and we want to profit off of it, nobody can argue that position, and unlike other non-sports stations in the market, I doubt many of the hardcore baseball fans are going to suddenly switch from listening to Jon Miller and company because there's too many spots.
Bottom line is that the industry buys are back in full force. The car dealers, (which spend the bulk of dough on radio) are back en mass as are the usual box retail, (i.e, Sleeptrain, Hotels, Dot.coms, food outlets, etc) The so-called "remnants" spots are back too, but far less lucrative--either way, the money pit is back and the ad guys are loving it.
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Rich, judging how much money I have in my wallet, granted I filled my gas tank up, we're still treading through tough times.....I hope things are looking up for the millionaires that run media outlets!
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Just for fun, any estimates of KGO's annual revenue and what portion of it comes from Ronn's show? Given the spot volume and the average spot rate for his show, his contribution has to be significant -- as I'm sure he pointed out during contract negotiations. I used to be able to gather some of that info from BIA but no more. I have some ballpark guesses, but that's all they'd be. JW
ReplyDeleteRich: I do hope you keep bringing this up, especially with regards to KGO. I notice it especially on Owens’ and Gross’ show. After they introduce the topic there’s a huge gap filled with commercials and on top they also have a couple of news breaks. It’s ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteBoy you're not kidding about adspace! When I'm in the car and radio channel surfing trying to find something even slightly listenable. Hitting 810 is like dropping in on the "Ad Spot Network - All Ads, All the Time!"
ReplyDeleteIs it only 31 minutes now? I timed one of Ronn Owens' shows in November (after the change in break times) and measured 34 minutes of on-the-air time for Ronn -- a bit more than your figure.
ReplyDeleteIf you miss an interesting show and want to hear it later, it's great to download the archived file. You can skip past the ads, and listen to an hour's show in less than 35 minutes.
By the way, the old KGO-AM web site prominently displayed a "send email" link by the name of the on-air host, but that's no longer the case. It appears that they're now discouraging the use of email.
KGO needs those long commercial breaks (as does Barbieri) because as these guys get older it takes much longer for them to empty their bladders.
ReplyDeleteListened to Gil Gross today, he had a caller who identified herself as a sports psychologist. She was a very intelligent caller who was contributing to the discussion. Gross had to cut her because of one of those inane news "updates" which was a rehash of previous "updates". Between that and the commercials his program comes of as really disjointed. Realize you gtta make a buck but...
ReplyDeleteI just listened to Ronn's show today (it's after 6:30 pm) and I counted about 32 minutes of program, the rest was commercial. At the bottom of the hour there is nearly a 10 minute stretch of commercials. If it's an interesting show you almost have to listen to the shows once they're archived, otherwise it's a total waste of time, way too many commercials ...
ReplyDeleteeh, who cares? - its free, either listen or don't...when enough people turn off they'll change their ways..
ReplyDeleteSomethings up with KNBR,their shaking things up a bit,the whole FP thing(Urban must have rubbed Hammer the wrong way to not be given that mostly post Giant show)the Radnich on a timer,and they are cutting him off-no more playing around. And also-they have been hitting the censor button a lot lately on Radnich. I think he's on the short leash.
ReplyDeleteThe many mentions of Dickey on KNBR lately? He must have put the fear into the staff. Something in the air-I know.