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
23 Comments
1. the real Barbara | February 15th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I can’t stand Steve Bailey,,,,,I heard him when he first came on the air way back when, all he did was stutter and stammer, couldn’t connect two words together without stuttering, I heard him yesterday and he seems to have improved on his delivery, however, he’s still a hack lovin’ moonbat!
2. joy | February 15th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
i am wit ya there, babs
bailey is a hack. plus, mix in a salad every once in a while, steve ya know what i mean? cripes. my heart aches for yer belt
3. WRKO Staffer | February 15th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Listen, this is nothing new. Bailey once used his column to rip apart Severin and never disclosed that he was a contributor to WRKO. I saw it as an example of bad journalism. He apparently doesn’t seem to care about any appearence of bias. He is pretty discredited by many.
4. BigBish | February 15th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
If Baileys nose was any further up Finnerans ass he could smell his belly button. I have three words for him and that screeching Harridian Ellen
JUST SHUP UP
Dead silence on the radio sould be better than those 2
5. Reality Check | February 15th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Once again, you have ranged far from your area of expertise and it shows a little. Yes, rate card rates are generally inflated. I have a pretty good sense of the average unit rates for all of these programs and as you state, these numbers are all far too high.
However, your bias against WRKO leads you down a wrong path. Last year, in market #10, Entercom billed more in Red Sox Baseball than any other station did with major league baseball, including Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs, all in much larger markets. This was true before the playoffs and will likely be true again this year. Your estimate of the rights fee is also high, based on my information, which based on your track record probably comes from better sources than yours.
I agree that WRKO is probably not heavily sold based on the open inventory we hear. However, without more specific knowledge of the market conditions, it is hard to second guess the pricing strategy. Rate integrity is important, and we don’t know, for example, if the rate was cut in half, would they sell well more than twice as many spots? Stations do not want to cut their rates too much since a) they would then run out of inventory if the market tightens and b) it is always difficult to get the rates back up when people are used to paying less. That is why you are more likely to see two spots at full price and a no charge, rather than three spots, each at 2/3 of the price. It is also why you see inflated prices on the rate card (In Bailey’s example, you could see someone pay $1,500 for two D & C spots and get a third one free. The rate stays inflated, but the real average rate is $1,000).
I’m not sure that Finneran actually does get higher rates than Imus, but if he does it is for a couple of reasons. The first is probably a greater % of live reads or spots read by the host both of which cost more, and Finneran is also well connected to Boston’s business community and has brought in a fair amount of business personally during his first year. Clearly Imus is not as plugged in locally - I am not sure if this is what you were alluding to when you said he’s local, but I thought we should be specific for those outside the business.
I know you like to sound the death knell for WRKO, but as someone familiar with radio station financials for most Boston stations, I can tell you that the station (excluding Sox) is not losing millions as you suggest. It is mildly profitable, though I don’t think anyone can be happy with its ratings or revenue performance at present.
On a final note, I don’t know why Bailey wrote this at all, must have been a really slow news day.
6. Bingo | February 15th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
If Steve Bailey spoke in the woods…and no one was listening…would it be any different than his radio program?
7. The Real Not an RKO Employee | February 15th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Calling someone self serving coming from you Brian that’s a laugh.
Reality check hits the nail right on the head.
When reading anything on the blog one has to remember:
1. Brian has an agenda because RKO refused to hire him. His opinion of his talk talent is not shared by most in the industry.
2. He has actually spent very little time working at a staion and knows very little about ad sales and the business side of broadcasting.
8. Brian Maloney | February 15th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Real:
As far as the Entercom managerial commenter goes, I’m happy to see his posts in the interest of equal time.
Yours is more of a personal attack and not based on any real knowledge of my background.
Entercom is known for its cockiness, but within the industry, it has become a joke. The Boston operation was the object of much snickering during last year’s Talk Radio Seminar.
A small group of major-market managers walked right up to me in the hallway and were in agreement that splitting Red Sox games between two stations was the dumbest thing they’d encountered in all of broadcasting. I’ll bet many inside WRKO and WEEI agree.
We’re pretty open about the comment section but my own background has been misrepresented here many times. I was an employee of Entercom twice, including at WRKO. Two Entercom stints is more than enough time in purgatory. There are bigger and better things to do out there.
As for readership, the Radio Equalizer is approaching four million page views and SaveWRKO took off like a rocket upon its debut last year. The primary site has more traffic than several industry trade publications. Put together, we’re probably beating most of them.
In addition, All Access regularly links to both this site and the Radio Equalizer. Many radio insiders read both sites, including some with no New England ties.
My work has repeatedly been featured on the FOX News Channel and I’ve done a number of cable news interview segments. Other than Howie, I don’t see anyone from WRKO doing TV interviews. Why is that? I’ve also been quoted in newspapers across the country.
There’s no reason to get “revenge” against Entercom, it is self-destructing quite nicely without any assistance. Take a look at the stock price, or the way Jim Cramer slammed it by name earlier this week.
Commercial radio is imploding and only the best-run outfits will survive. Entercom doesn’t have a prayer.
As for Reality Check’s comment, you’d **better** be billing more for Sox games than baseball stations elsewhere, because you’re paying more than any of them by millions, even the Yankees. Radio trade estimates of your deal were in the $15 to 20 million range annually.
9. James | February 15th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Hey real not (dumbass name for a dumbass)
Why don’t you grow up
Only one playing girlie jealous agenda around here is you. And everybody sees it. Go see if bloated Kahn will play jammie party with you. She likes your kind. Whipped.
10. Anti-Braude | February 16th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Brian, you are too nice. Slap that staffer making $12.00/hour and taking you to task.
G’As for G’leve Bailey at the G’loston G’lobe. I stand to G’listen to g’he garbled marbles in h’gis mouth.
“They” should have the Bailey and McPhee hour…radio for the deaf. no offense to deaf people, I love you guys.
11. Lisa | February 16th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Brian,
This site is one of the first I go to every day because it is informative and entertaining. I applaud you for letting all sides be heard.
12. Al Bowlly | February 16th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Back to Bailey for a minute..
Glad to say I told you so on that hack.
Now on to Brian..
Consider the courage of someone in the industry to be this honest. These sites put him clearly in the outside looking in in a vengeful, petty industry. That takes balls of steel. He’s provided a valuable look under the covers of a putrid company for the consumers of that company’s product. Ralph Nader did the same and I don’t consider him self-serving.
Plus Brian does something that should be central to talk radio and is going the way of the Buffalo: He’s entertaining, informative, and interesting.
It’s not lost on me that the people who frequently attach BM personally LIVE on this site.
13. The Real Not an RKO Employee | February 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Dear Brian,
1. How long where you actually employed at RKO?
2. Have you ever held a management position at a major market station.? I have at the both the local and network level.
3. Have you ever worked in the sales department
at a station or been involved in negotiating rates or setting a rate card?
Since both of your sites are free of charge and there are thousands of wanna be radio people out there, I don’t consider eithier site a hugh success. It takes only a few seconds to go to a site and see what has been posted.
In another life, I regularly appeared on several radio and TV shows including Good Morning America, Hard Copy and several Fox shows. For most producers the most important requirement was you would be available on short notice and give up your time free of charge.
There is no question you have an ax to grind with Entercom and your posts about the company for the most part are unfair and baseless.
As for personal attacks, You never miss an opportunity to to call Entercom managemnet degrogitory names and let posters make hatefull comments about several people.
You seem to enjoy dishing it out but you can’t take it when someone fires back.
14. Al Bowlly | February 16th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
So basically Real is claiming to be Brian without the brains, courage, creativity, and public spiritedness to produce these web sites.
Lighten up Real, size doesn’t matter. What a Schlemiel.
15. Rocky | February 16th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
We know that Brian actually exists. “Real” is just a fake phony fraud. GIVE YOUR ACTUAL NAME and then maybe your “bio” can be verified,stupid.
“Real” appeared on Hard Copy…How GAY is that?
16. The Real Not an RKO Employee | February 17th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Comments like Rocky’s are a perfect example of what I am talking about.
Since I actually currently work in the industry, unlike most on this blog, I am not about to commit suicide and give my real name.
I thought this site started out as a tribute to the glory days of RKO back in the 80’s when you could listen to a decent morning show, Gene Burns, Jerry Williams and David Brudnoy and provide constructive ways to improve the station. However, it turned into petty posts in which station management is called names. Unfounded rumors by so called inside sources are posted and a far right wing agenda about many topics far removed from RKO are posted.
Just off the top of my head posts have included.
1. Brian’s inside source reports that Marjorie Claprood was returning to RKO. Never happened. She was at the staion to talk about a charity event.
2. Howie Carr had made so much money that he would retire to Plam Beech and write books and would never return to RKO.
3. Tom Finneran’s lobbying deal was a graceful way for him to exit RKO. Didn’t happen.
4. Bonniville Broadcasting would sue WBZ for the use of the Nightside name for Dan Rea’s new program. Didn’t happen.
I visit this site and post because I love the business I have worked in for over 25 years and don’t like seeing a failed broadcaster trash it becasue he couldn’t cut it on the air.
17. Rocky | February 17th, 2008 at 11:55 am
“25 years”..Ho hum-HOW DO WE KNOW? Your inside info is neither. If Maloney is a failed broadcaster,what are you.. a failed board op?
“Suicide”..sounds like your career is dead already..you’re a charlatan.
18. Al Bowlly | February 17th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Real, no one would expect you to commit career suicide by giving your real name if you really do work in the industry. In fact, you insights are appreciated. Your arrogant disdain for the radio consumers who post on this site does add to the likelihood that you work in the industry. You share the Entercom mindset if not their flawed tactical vision.
So some predictions didn’t pan out. Big deal. I would think that an industry big shot like yourself would be familiar with the prediction percentages of Drudge, Dick Morris, the cable news talking head shows and the rest of talk radio. For lowly radio consumers, our track record of predictions and inside scoops stack up pretty well with you pros.
You’ve proven one thing. You are one of THEM. Thank you very much for your contributions to destroying a beloved medium.
That being said it seems to me that you have a personal grudge against BM.
19. the rael not an RKO Employee | February 20th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Dear Al,
There is nothing wrong with predictions however, Brian doesn’t predict he posts his predictions as facts and I question the inside sources he claims to have at Entercom.
I don’t have a personal grudge against Brian. I do have a problem with his anti gay rants, juvenile posts about any liberal politician and his sophomoric name calling.
If you read the comments on this blog, you will see that very few have any substance. most are just small minded barbs by people who have little knowledge about what they are talking about.
As for Brian’s claim that this is a well read industry blog. I work in a building that houses one of the largest staffs in Boston broadcasting including a radio station and 2 TV stations. When ever I mention something on this blog to co-workers they look at me kind of funny because they have never heard of Maloney’s baloney, The Radio Equalizer or Hub Politics.
If you are looking for unbiased radio news and thoughtful comments I suugest you go to radio-info.com
If I sound arrogant that is just because you don’t know me. I am really a real sweet guy and I haven’t worked as a board operator since I was a teenager.
20. Rocky | February 20th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
concerned with “anti-gay” remarks,a perfervid defender of perverts like Barney Frank and then the really odd claim of “I am a real sweet guy”….WOW. A confirmed member of the Velvet Mafia. Are you a host of WFNX’S “One in Ten” ??? HA HA..you sodomite!
21. ColinR | February 21st, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Brian,
With comments like Rocky’s you should have no problem attracting some real blue chip advertisers to your site. I would copy them on to a one sheet and send them out to the agencies asap.
I hear some of Michael Savage’s advertisers are looking for a new place to spend their dollars.
22. Rocky | February 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 am
ColinR, your sarcasm is so subtle! You sound like a Bernie Ward guy..in many ways.
23. wavelength | February 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 am
Rocky,
You know all about “One in Ten”. Are you a closet case who listents or would of those sexually retarded types who are obsessed with anything dealing with the gay lifestyle?