Taking Advantage of TV Tie -Ins

88 September 15,1989 OHR CONTEMPORARY HIT RADIO

JOEL DENVER Screen Gems

To pump up station visibility on the small Taking Advantage Of TV Tie -Ins screen: Shoot for local TV exposure whenever possible `Club MTV,' `Youthquake' Build Local Station Image Negotiate for the best deal when arranging TV exposure is one way stations position themselves KMEL /San Francisco; KQKS tie -ins (KS104) / Denver ; KYRK /Las Veg- as "larger than life." Witness one PD who said in a recent Find a balance between national and local column that his goal is to get his station on the local news as; KPWR (Power 106) /Los An- geles; WGCI, WYTZ (Z95), and events at least once a month. WBBM -FM (B96) in Chicago; Use personalities to get more mileage out of TV But that requires a noteworthy WLUM (Hot 102) /Milwaukee; event (not to mention a good rela- WDJX /Louisville; WLOL and appearances tionship with a TV news editor who KDWB in Minneapolis; WHOT and won't refer to your outlet solely as WMGZ in Youngstown; and WTLC/ "a local radio station ") . An alter- Indianapolis. native ticket to the tube is tying in advised, "Go for the best deal you with cable TV specialty programs Radio Barriers Falling can cut with MTV and your local such as "Club MTV" or syndicated Konowitch believes the barriers cable operator. Don't accept exact- series such as "Youthquake." between MTV and radio are ly what they offer. There's a del- These shows offer radio stations crumbling fast. "Programmers icate balance in promoting such an low- or no -cost routes to call let- see the drawing power of MTV and event without getting overshadow- ter /personality visibility via pro- especially the popularity of Julie ed by the MTV side of it all. (Morn- gramming aimed at a specific tar- Brown, who brought out a lot of ing man) Ron O'Brien got a lot of get audience. non -concertgoers according to our benefit from hosting it because he Low -Cost TV Exposure research. Stations saw the tour as was on the local spots and then live an event they wanted to tie in in front of thousands of listeners. MTV" debuted almost two Jennifer "Club with." years ago as a daily 30- minute ( BJ105 ) /Orlando; WHYT /Detroit; Co-promoting meant each sta- show starring VJ Julie Brown and WPHR /Cleveland (with a tie-in tion became the outlet for tickets featuring video clips, dancing, and from nearby WKDD /Akron); and T- shirts. But most important- live perfomances. After it caught WKBQ /St. Louis; WKRQ (Q102)/ ly, the stations received plenty of on, MTV decided to take it on the Cincinnati; WAPW(Power 99) /At- free airtime through TV spots run- Hollywood Hamilton road this summer as "Club MTV lanta; WQUE /New Orleans; ning on local cable outlets. Accord- Live: The Concert Tour." WKSS /Hartford; WEGX /Philadel- ing to MTV Director /Special Pro- Customized `Quake' "This tour was very radio- phia, WQHT (Hot 97) /New York; jects Steve Leeds, "We allowed If you can't wait for the next suitable, and in many markets we KEGL/Dallas ; KKBQ /Houston; each of the stations to put up big MTV event, you might want to talk did co-promotions with radio," said to the "Youthquake" folks. A con- MTV VP /Music Programming Ab- cept developed by host Jennifer, bey Konowitch. "From our stand- who formerly handled marketing was the The point that easy part. and promotion for "Dance Fever," complexity was (dealing with) five the show starts weekly production/ bands on different labels." broadcasts in January. On -line is a Appearing on the tour were Tone roster of 125 TV stations coast-to- Loc, Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, In- coast, including outlets in New formation Society, Was (Not Was), Lyndon Abell York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. selected dates, Lisa Lisa & and, on "Radio must continue to explore Describing the radio benefits, Cult Jam. "Since records break alternative exposure opportunities Jennifer said, " `Youthquake' of- from a variety of formats and such as this. While TV spot buys fers a contest fie-in at the end of ev- niches, it was impossible to do ex- aren't outrageous here, the frag- ery show (i.e., a trip to London or co- every- clusive promotions mentation is making it harder than to Dweezil Zappa's house). It's cus- where," Konowitch added. "In ever to score a direct hit with any tomized with the local radio affil- we used more than one some cases targeted part of the audience. iate's calls and contest phone num- radio outlet. The overall decision "Like other stations, we're now bers. The first ten callers win was not ours alone; the tour itself readying our own local weekly TV `Youthquake' T- shirts (customized was packaged through Pace Con- show. A pilot (`106.5 Tremors with the station's logo) and albums certs in Houston and sold to local Live') ran August 26. It was pat- by the artists appearing on that promoters across the country who terned after `Club MTV' and fea- show." made the final decision." tured afternoon personality Geoff Jennifer uses local jocks as co- Making a total of 30 stops, the Davis along with video clips, kids tour worked with the following sta- dancing, and artist interviews." Continued on Page 91 tions: WRBQ (Q105) /Tampa; Paula WPOW ( Power 96) /Miami; WBJW Abdul and former Hot 97 /New York PD Steve Ellis during Club MTV. banners at the show and be the opening act, with one of their jocks spinning records and introducing the main event. "We used large outdoor venues, with potential crowds of 10,000+ at each stop," Leeds added. "While not a total sellout in every city, the tour was successful. The labels were happy because their artists were exposed to many people they'd have never gotten the chance to play for. "It's a natural tie-in. We plan to do this again next year and will roll out other shows stations can tie in- "Club MTV Live: The Concert Tour" stopped in New Jersey at the Brendan to." Byrne Arena. Hobnobbing backstage are (l -r) MTV VP /Programming Abbey Cut The Best Deal Konowitch, Milli Vanilli's Fab Morvan, MTV Director/Special Programming & "Youthquake" shakes up Chicago's Great America: host Jennifer (c) tries Ta lent Artist Relations Steve Leeds, Milli Vanilli's Rob Pilatus, and MTV Sr. WKBQ /St. Louis PD Lyndon to coax WKTI/Milwaukee's Dr. Steve (I) and WYTZ (Z95) /Chicago's Steve VP/Marketing & Promotion Bob Friedman. Abell was satisfied with his Craig (wearing a WKTI shirt??) into riding the Shockwave rollercoaster. station's "Club MTV" exposure but