Bailey’s Self-Serving Rate Card Comparison
by Brian Maloney, February 15th, 2008 at 12:12pm
In today’s Boston Globe, Steve Bailey used his column to do something terribly self-serving: he included rate card comparisons for WRKO, WEEI, WBZ and WTKK.
Sure enough, WEEI’s morning show comes out on top:
Who is on top in Boston’s drive-time talk radio world? Nothing says it so directly as the rate card for a 60-second ad.
In the morning: WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan, $1,500; WBZ, $1,300; WRKO’s Tom Finneran, $400 (whose show I appear on every morning); and WTKK’s Don Imus, $250.
In the afternoon: WEEI’s Glenn Ordway show, $1,500; WBZ, $625; WRKO’s Howie Carr, $600; and WTKK’s Jay Severin, $350.
Over at Media Nation, Dan Kennedy correctly points out that radio rate cards are full of imaginary figures, rarely paid by sponsors. Would you ever pay the full sticker price on a car purchase?
Radio ad buys are actually discounted far more, especially when spots are purchased in quantity, or when a sponsor isn’t picky about time slots. So Entercom’s fantasy rate card might simply be pumped up higher than Greater Media’s. For the sake of the rest of this discussion, however, we will treat them equally.
Another big factor is availability: how many are they actually selling? Many SaveWRKO readers have pointed out how WRKO seems to run an incredible number of annoying PSA fillers, a sign of unsold inventory.
As for Finneran generating higher rates than Imus, that’s an easy one: WTKK is paying a price for running syndication in morning drive rather than a local show. Even if The Felon stinks, at least he’s in Boston. That makes a big difference during key drivetime hours.
One major point that has been missed is that WRKO’s low rates must be killing Entercom. Remember, WRKO airs the Red Sox games, not WEEI (generally with one weekly exception). WRKO turned in puny Red Sox ratings in 2007, despite the team winning the World Series.
We know the company is paying somewhere between $15 and 20 million per year to run Sox games. So WRKO broken out by itself must be losing millions. Can WEEI make up for WRKO’s losses? Maybe, maybe not.
In my book, the worst buy on the list is WBZ’s newswheel, where larger numbers of listeners tune in, but for very short periods of time. They are the least likely to stick around through the next commercial break. A good talk host (certainly not Finneran) can tease ahead and discourage dial-turning.
As far as Carr fetching more than Severin, despite the latter’s higher ratings, several thoughts come to mind. First, it’s hard to believe Howie’s getting that kind of bread after his long break last year and weak recent performance.
Second, he’s been on the air many years and is perhaps the most recognizable radio name currently working in the market. And WRKO itself has been building a loyal audience for a quarter-century, even if has chosen to piss it away over the last few years.
By contrast, WTKK has struggled since its 1999 debut to build a fiercely loyal local audience. It has played it far too safe, preferring to keep Boston politicians appeased rather than build long-term listenership. Station marketing is also weak and the current talent lineup leaves much to be desired. It beats WRKO in the 25-54 category, but that hasn’t translated to as much as it should.
As for Bailey, even though he discloses his WRKO contributions in the column, the piece is blatantly self-serving. If WTKK’s rates were higher than WRKO’s, do you think he would have included this information?
UPDATE: There’s an interesting discussion about Bailey’s column here.
Entry Filed under: Boston Media Suck-Ups
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