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Walking Away From Money...
August 30, 2022
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Commercial radio is about making money. Programming and sales are tied at the hip, but standards must be maintained to avoid your station sounding like an audio version of a flea market. Work with sales but keep an ear out for commercials that are questionable sound-wise and otherwise.
A Perfect Example …
I once worked at a station with a "superstar" salesperson who would break rules but was the "Top Biller." She would prospect the dead accounts of other salespeople and make a sale. Every time she did it, there would be memos, meetings, and discussions on sales etiquette. However, in private, the General Manager and Sales Manager would congratulate her on closing deals with clients that other salespersons could not get on air.Bundle Packaging & Clutter …
That superstar salesperson I mentioned; she would bundle deals for clients for little money and flood the airwaves with the same frequency as many of our top billing clients. Good money in the short run, but a hassle if an observant agency or client hears what's going on and wants to renegotiate their yearly contract based on the unfairness of it all. And if the word gets out that this is one of your company's business practices, it could make meeting future budget projections that much harder.Ying And Yang …
Clarifying the efforts of programming to the sales department is a constant challenge for an OM/PD. A Market Manager or General Manager sets the tone and defines the relationship between the two departments. It takes political savvy on the part of a programmer to maneuver around ill-advised moves that sales might want to make to get money on the books.He Said It Best ...
I've always thought Rod Serling's opening monologue for TVs "Twilight Zone" best described radio sales. "It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone." -
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