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800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2015 Cut spotloads? Not yet at most stations. There have been some high-profile attempts by stations to serve up low-spot inventory formats to listeners scattered around the country. But for the vast majority of stations, things don’t sound all that different. An overwhelming 80% of people taking part in an unscientific Inside Radio survey said their station or cluster hasn’t cut spotloads during the past 18 months. Just 17% of stations say they’ve scaled back on ad loads. The rest aren’t sure. Some poll takers cited difficulty meeting client reach and frequency objectives with low spotloads. “How are advertisers supposed to hit CPP goals when you run six units an hour,” one questioned. “If they don’t meet their goals they won’t use us and that drives more money to digital.” Others said they reduced inventory only to hit a wall when their competitors ran more units at lower rates. “I couldn’t convince buyers that we had a better commercial environment for them,” said one reader. “They just would buy CPP.” While most stations haven’t made any inventory reductions, broadcasters aren’t entirely confident in the choice they’ve made. An overwhelming 82% thinks radio in general needs to reevaluate its spotloads. “With the amount of entertainment choices available to people today, the threshold most are willing to tolerate is growing smaller and smaller,” said one reader. Added another: “We’re going to have to make some tough decisions in radio about spotloads.” Survey: Majority of stations run 10-14 minutes of ads per hour. Every station’s competitive situation is different, with some formats like news-talk more tolerant of heavy spotloads. But according to Inside Radio readers, a majority (55%) of stations air 10 to 14 minutes of commercials per hour. Roughly the same number air 16 minutes or more (7%) as run less than six minutes (6%). Some poll respondents say they’ve always kept their inventory levels in check. “We have always limited commercials to a maximum of 3 per stopset with 3 stopsets an hour,” one reader said. Said another: “We use shorter breaks as a selling point in our results-oriented sales efforts.” Other respondents suggested stations focus on the total number of units per break instead of the number of minutes per break. “It’s not so much the length of spot breaks that concerns me as the number of messages and units within those spot breaks,” one reader said. Another said their inventory caps are based on units, not minutes. “With the increased use of :10s, :15s and :30s, if your station is running minute loads it will sound really cluttered,” the reader said. Another reader suggested a tactic when competing against stations with high spotloads: “Record the station break and play it back for an advertiser. His/her commercial as the 12th unit in a stop-set creates a reaction that speaks for itself.” Still others wrote that the issue is one of quality, not quantity. “Compelling ads that speak to the listeners will not be a tune-out,” one poll respondent noted. Dozens of Inside Radio readers sounded off on the issue. Read what the industry is saying about spotloads HERE. NEWS INSIDE >> Cap the units, not the minutes, programming exec suggests. What’s more likely to cause listeners to change stations: four 60-second spots or six 30-second spots? SMART MOVE FOR THE According to Alpha Media EVP of programming Scott Mahalick, it’s the six :30s, even DIGITAL AGE — OR A though they contain one less minute of commercial time. Units, not minutes, are the “PAYOLA WAVIER?” [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2015 more critical metric in commercial deployment strategies, he suggests. “What creates fatigue isn’t so much the amount of units, it’s the change in thought,” he postulates. “I’d rather run four :60s, each with great storytelling, than six :30s where there are six changes in thought and you’re into more of a bark and shuck mode than a storytelling mode.” While hardly a new trend, the number of shorter-length spots has grown in recent years. According to Media Monitors data for stations it tracks, :30s accounted for at least half of radio spots that aired in the first quarter of 2012. Excluding spots that are 15 seconds or shorter, 51% of spots aired were :30s and 49% were :60s. Agency execs say the trend to shorter-length spots is driven by four factors: a growing recognition that 30-seconds is enough time to convey the message; a rising perception that consumers have shorter attention spans; increased use of online audio, where shorter-length spots are the standard unit length; and agencies trying to do more with the same money. FCC considers allowing stations to put ‘paid for’ info online. With native advertising the rage among marketers, a group of nine radio groups say the time has come to allow broadcasters to shift some third-party sponsorship identification information for programming and songs to station websites. The Federal Communications Commission is giving the idea a definite maybe, as it opens a formal comment period looking for input on such a move. The owners, who are calling themselves the Radio Broadcasters Coalition, suggest stations that air mostly music or sports programming be allowed the option of using less frequent on-air announcements together with enhanced online disclosures for “paid for” or “sponsored by” content. The option would not be open to sponsored content appearing within news, informational, or political programming, regardless of a station’s format. The radio companies petitioning the FCC for the change include Beasley Media Group, Cox Media Group, Cromwell Group, Emmis, Entercom, First Natchez Radio Group, Greater Media, Henson Media, and iHeartMedia. Together, they say putting more sponsor identification information on station websites would be more “user-friendly and satisfying” for listeners, as well as in line with how consumers get information in the digital age. At the same time, they say it would give stations “a degree of flexibility” to meet FCC regulations. The FCC is giving broadcasters until April 13 to weigh in, with reply comments due May 12. The move could draw fire from consumer groups with critics already labeling it a “payola waiver,” but chair Tom Wheeler has been pushing to revise the agency’s regulations to embrace the digital age and has already advanced a proposal to allow contest rule disclosures to be shifted to the web. Here’s how it could work. If the FCC isn’t quite sure how such a change could translate into reality at local stations, the Radio Broadcasters Coalition’s proposal spells out in detail how it thinks a combination of on-air and online announcements could work together. It suggests stations be required to create a separate and distinct section on their website clearly labeled “Enhanced Disclosure of Sponsored Programing.” It would give listeners access to information, including the name of the sponsor, the program in which their sponsored content appears, a list of any song or artist played, or sports team featured. The station would also say what it received in return, such as cash payment, on-air appearances, tickets to a concert or sporting event, or merchandise like CDs or downloads for giveaways. Things are a bit more complicated on-air. A disclosure could say something along the lines of “some of the music that you hear on this station is paid for by Universal Records,” then direct listeners to the web. The Coalition also suggests stations be required to comply with a more intense “three-week listener-education period” with four-times a day on-air announcements in morning and afternoon drive, and middays, once a station opts to begin posting disclosures online. Scripps returns to radio April 1. If all goes according to plan, E.W. Scripps will make its return to the radio business official on April 1st. That’s the date it and Journal Communications have scheduled to close their merger. Shareholders at both companies approved the merger last week. It will see Journal and Scripps radio and television holdings go under the Scripps umbrella and their newspaper assets fall under the new publicly-traded Journal Media Group. The new company will trade under the symbol “JMG.” When the dust settles, current Journal shareholders will own about 31% of Scripps. The Scripps board has declared a $60 million special cash dividend, which equates to about $1 per share for Scripps shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 25. As of the close of business on that date, both Scripps and Journal shareholders of record will receive shares in Journal Media [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2015 Group. Based on current estimates, radio will contribute 4% of the new Scripps profits. CEO Rich Boehne says he’s happy the company is back in radio for the first time since the 1990s, but he doesn’t see it growing far beyond the stations Journal already owns. “I wouldn’t expect us to be some big radio consolidator in the future, but at least for now this is a good group, very locally focused, and we’re going to hang onto it,” Boehne said in a recent conference call. Journal Broadcast Group EVP of radio Steve Wexler will become vice president for radio at Scripps following the closing.