FM Talk Management Insight to Profits - If Every Station was a Talk Station - Walter Sabo

EVERY STATION IS A TALK STATION NOW WHATImagine if every radio station except one in every city was programmed fulltime as a Talk station How would those talk stations differentiate themselves to the listener They couldn39t all take the same approach they would have to appeal to different demo and psychographics There would be talk stations for TEENs 1824 men 2534 women 3554 year old professionals You would hear talk stations just for parents singles sports fans all news for people over 50 and for people under 25 In LA New York and San Francisco there are over 60 viable signals the possible format iterations would match the scope of human interestsMusic stations today are well defined with discrete audiences Yes a CHR fan might also listen to Classical music but those musical genres are absolutely going to air on two different stations No one thinks of quotmusicquot as a format Each musical genre has stations devoted to a single genreONLY ONE MUSIC STATION PER MARKETMost cities have had a history of being the home to ONE talk station If history was different consider a marketplace with dozens of talk stations and ONE music station That music station would do very well it would be the only music station It would air CHR Urban Country Jazz Polkas It would probably be the number 1 station in the city Why It was the only music station Because of its dominance radio execs would say quotThat39s how you do music radio You play CHR and AC and Jazz all on the same station The results prove that39s right the station is number 1quot But you clearly see that such a music station would be number 1 or 2 because it is the only music stationAt some point an innovator would say quotLet me try to play just Country musicquot The response from his radio peers would be outrage ie quotYou can39t just play Country music That39s not how you do music Where has it been done beforequotTHAT39S HOW YOU DO TALKSince most cities have had one talk station if any the creative approach to producing talk radio was unchallenged The single talk station often did well becauseIT HAD NO TALK COMPETITOR All the revenue prestige and format tenure defaulteddefaultedto one station Because most cities had only one talk station many broadcasters concluded quotThere can only be onequot They feared themselves out of the talk revenue stream for many reasons including the notion that quottalk is soooo expensive to doquot To this day no one has produced the financial rules and regulations that say Talk has to be expensiveTHE FIRST key deviation from the quotThat39s how it39s always been donequot school of talk radio was Mike Craven39s allsports WIP That was followed by Jeff Smulyan39s WFAN The list of radio execs who thought those stations would fail can be found on the walls of barrooms along the Eastern SeaboardTALK IS A BETTER BUSINESS THAT39S WHY IT BELONGS ON FMThis is the moment in history where it is time to quotjust play country musicquot That is it39s time to target specific audiences with talk on FM Traditional AM Talk stations are excellent at reaching a 55 audience If a company puts the quotAMquot format on FM it will also reach a 55 audience but have an overall smaller share Why volunteer for thatWHY BOTHERIf a music station delivered the demos of an AM Talk stationit would change formats fast But most AM Talk stations with predominantly 65 listeners have been in the format for decades Why Because Talk sellsamp8226 Advertisers get the best response with Talk because the audience is engaged on every levelamp8226 Talk tolerates a high commercial load Commercials are a positive part of the programming flowamp8226 In times of crisis Talk demonstrates what radio does best reacts instantly to local market needs and tastesBut the problem is that 65 demoPROBLEM SOLVEDFor well over 20 years SABO media and our clients have discovered how to take the ADVANTAGES of talk to the FM band without the disadvantages Select a demographic target That39s the target that can be reached with Talk on FMYoung men WTKS FM Debuted 1 1834 Men in 1994Young Women Wendy Williams39 PM Drive call in show on WBLSNO CUME SHARINGIt is very easy to earn a high share with Talk on FM without sharing ANY audience with an AM Talk station It39s a sad loser myth to believe that FM Talk automatically takes away audience from a 65 AM Station That39s like saying Z100 steals audience from the Music of Your Life station just because they both play music Through host and topic selection combined with a rigorous format clock and format guidelines any audience can be reached with Talk on FMThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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FM Talk Management Insight to Profits - If Every Station was a Talk Station - Walter Sabo

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