There has been an ongoing discussion for years now about radio stations and how they are not locally involved with their respective communities anymore because of a corporate ownership that is only concerned about the bottom line. Whereas I am not a fan of the Tel Com act of 1997 which allowed the corporate take over of radio, there is nothing wrong with a corporation owning a cluster of stations in your market as long as they are serving the local residents and addressing local issues through the power of radio and thus making a positive impact on the community.
From my perspective local involvement does not mean having a station booth at the local MS walk or having the annual coats for kids drive. Don’t get me wrong, these are very worth while charitable events, however they are also cookie cutter promotions that the top rated stations in your market have done for years to give them the appearance and perception to their listeners that “they care” about the community. In general these types of “local” involvement can be sold to sponsors for a quick buck and they’re designed to be the “warm and fuzzy” event that are the easiest way to make station employees and listeners feel good about what they’re doing. To me true local involvement is so much more and is demonstrated in the following two examples.
1. As the GM in a small market I had lots of competition from stations in the neighboring medium size market. I had just arrived two weeks before Christmas at an AM/FM combo to straighten out a bad situation. Rates were at $2 and $4 (for :30’s and :60’s respectively). Two women from the local food bank came to see me on a Thursday and wanted to know if I would air more promos for them as donations were at an all time low. I told them “No I don’t think I can do that”. They looked at each other in disbelief. I quickly then replied with “but I can do this for you”. “Let’s set up a remote broadcast from the local Safeway store from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and ask for donations”, I said (and here’s the kicker). If someone donated at least $5 in food or cash and wanted to hear a particular song we would play it. The FM side was an AC format at the time. I had 3 jocks and 3 sales reps to work with, 9 days later we held the remote, played everything from Frank Sinatra to Frankie goes to Hollywood. In 12 hours we raised $5,000 in cash and thousands of pounds of food and clothing. The following day the stations were on the front page of the local newspaper the town fell back in love with their local radio station and to this day the “Christmas Cheer “event is still held. The stations did not make a dime from this event. BUT!!! Instead of a dismal first quarter we had a steady stream of advertisers who wanted to buy time on our stations because we had done something that immediately impacted the community in a very positive way and listenership was back up! The jocks got behind this event and the sales reps got behind it, it was a long day for all of us. What’s most important is that the town got behind it and by second quarter rates were at $8 and $12.
2. As GM in the same market the local high school was about to lose its’ entire sports program do to budget cuts. The PTA came to me and asked if I could run free ads for their fundraiser. Again I had to tell these folks “No I don’t think I can run free ads for you”. One of them actually got up and started to walk out in disgust. I quickly said “but I can do this”. “Let me donate 6 hours of air time on our AM side, have the PTA do the leg work and get as many donations of merchandise as you can and we’ll have a live on air auction”. You can imagine their astonishment and overwhelming appreciation for such an opportunity. Two months later we indeed held a live 6 hour auction on the AM station with updates on the FM side. We raised $27,000 for the high school and once again the stations were on the front page of the local paper. Once again the station did not make a dime with this on air event. By third quarter however the rates were now at $15 and $20. By the end of the year the stations had increased revenue over $200,000 from the previous year.
I am sure you see my point here. “Pay it forward”, especially in these economic times what better way to give your station true “White Knight” status than to get your station involved in real local projects that can make a difference. It does not matter what rank your station is in the market place. What matters is the “will” of your entire staff to get involved in your local community to make a difference. That’s the power of radio. The money will follow. And that’s a fact Jack!
–Dennis Heinz, Radio Sales Trainer, [email protected]
