That’s the question MSNBC and NBC News Anchor Stephanie Ruhle asked the CEOs of radio’s three largest companies at the Radio Show in Dallas, Wednesday afternoon.
We’ve heard it many times, from so many radio executives dating back too many years to count, that radio is undervalued, punching below its weight class and not getting the revenue it deserves compared to the results it produces. So, why is that?
Here’s what the big three had to say…
Cumulus CEO Mary Berner: “It’s not for lack of trying. It’s a perception-versus-reality gap. It’s hard to change perceptions. Agencies are siloed so the impact of radio is not clear to them.”
Entercom CEO David Field: “There are signs that is changing. Scale is making a difference. We now have much better tools. There is reason for optimism that we are on the right path.”
iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman: “When I came over to radio it had the worst client relationships. It had much better agency relationships. We need to bring new money into the sector. We need to get rid of silos. We need to be talking to clients and showing them our data.”
Is it really that advertisers and agencies don’t get radio? Or is it that there are just too many radio stations, with too much inventory available, keeping prices down? Is it that radio still fights radio for total share of an audio buy? Perhaps that would have been another question for the big three.
Next year at the Radio Show will this question still be on the table? Or, will executives be saying we finally turned the corner, agencies get us, and revenue is rising? 2020 will be another record year for political ad spending, so maybe 2021 might be a better time to ask this question again.
I recently called two stations in Michigan, both were answered by an automated phone system. The first, after going through a list of options said to dial “0” to have the call transferred. I did that and got a recording that that number was no longer active. The second station did not give me an option to dial “0” nor did it list an extension for the General Manager. How are advertisers supposed to do business with these and other stations like them?
Isn’t just radio stations being run like this. You find it all over. The nerds who sold you all this automated computer stuff insist that “everyone has these systems now”.
This is not progress.
I recently had a flight cancelled in Ft. Lauderdale to Chicago, so I called the hotel where I had just spent two nights to get a room for one more night. The operator said they only take reservations on-line. I said “I’m in your system, I just stayed there.” Nope,on-line only.
I took a cab from the airport to the hotel and asked to use their computer in their guest area. From there, around the corner from the reservation desk, I made my own reservation. This is not progress.
Makes me think of the commercial where everyone is sitting around a conference table and the boss starts handing out plane tickets and says we need to start seeing out clients face to face again. Or something like that!
Radio has to address its “second class citizenship.” Until we believe–all of us–our talent (where it still exists) coupled with significantly advancing music management, we’ll remain in stasis. The Big Three need to spend more time in their programming war rooms.
Another answer to the question posed in the title:
Maybe advertisers hear their local stations, and go away from the experience completely under-impressed.
The 93% penetration thingy, meanwhile and by comparison to their own subjective experiences, becomes no more than an annoying 60-cycle hum.