While radio advertising is still being heard by radio listeners, the relevancy of those ads to listeners is low. In contrast, the audio ads heard by podcast listeners were deemed highly meaningful.*
The Radio Ad Disconnect
Once upon a time, radio stations employed gatekeepers. (Gatekeeping – “the process of controlling information as it moves through a gate.)
Let me give you a personal example of what I’m talking about. In the 80s, I was managing WFPG-FM in Atlantic City, New Jersey. WFPG-FM programmed a Bonneville Beautiful Music format and was the market leader in the Atlantic City-Cape May, New Jersey Metro. Walter Powers, Vice President of Operations at Bonneville Broadcasting System, was our music gatekeeper. But just as important as making sure that the music was well targeted, WFPG-FM’s program director was the gatekeeper of every other element of content that would be heard on the radio station. Every advertisement was reviewed to insure it was appropriate and relevant to our audience. We employed these same standards when it came to our promotions and air personalities too.
Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey News and Commentary on the ABC Radio Network was an advertising powerhouse. Paul considered himself to be a salesman first and a broadcaster second. Harvey wrote and voiced the radio copy for the products and services he told his listeners about and it was well-known he would not advertise a product or service he did not personally use.
Today, we see this happening with podcasters who likewise voice the ad copy for the company that sponsors their podcast. I believe this is why podcast ads resonate with podcast listeners versus radio advertising.
Howard Stern
When Howard Stern was the afternoon air personality on 66-WNBC in New York City, he often read live copy for his local advertisers.
On one of my trips to New York City to meet with advertisers, I stopped into the broadcast facilities of WNBC and met with their local sales manager. I will never forget asking her this question: “What are fewest number of commercials you will sell an advertiser?” She answered: “one, if it’s on Howard Stern’s show.” One, I asked? Is that effective? She told me that Howard Stern was such a good communicator and had such a loyal audience, that if he promoted a product or business, even just once, they always got results. But then again, Howard had the authority to accept or reject any advertiser.
Both Paul Harvey and Howard Stern were gatekeepers for their radio programs.
Randy Kabrich
This past week, we learned of the passing of one of radio’s great CHR/Top40 programmers, Randy Kabrich.
In reading an article about his life, I couldn’t help but notice that the twice named Billboard magazine CHR/Top40 radio programmer of the year was a serious gatekeeper.
When Kabrich was Program Director at WROQ-AM/FM in Charlotte, North Carolina, the station management planned to accept an advertising buy from Planned Parenthood. Randy felt the ads were “too volatile and blatant” to appear on a “family” radio station. Inside Radio reported that Kabrich said “I’ve been trying to make WROQ a fun, family radio station – an escape from reality, from the conflicts in life – and I felt these spots were inappropriate for the station’s audience.” This resulted in Randy resigning.
Anything For a Buck
There was a time when radio operators employed gatekeepers that weren’t afraid to say “NO” to an advertiser and his money when their product, service or simply the way they wanted to deliver their message was not in concert to the goals of the radio station.
Those were the days when radio operators understood that EVERYTHING
that came out of the listener’s radio speaker mattered. Spoiler Alert:
DickTaylorBlog 
He’s programming 3 stations, is OP’s Mgr for a 7 station cluster and is doing a live 4 hour show and 2 daily voice track shows.
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Exactly. That’s a big problem in today’s radio world.
Thank You Mike for weighing in.
-DT
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Dick, I don’t want to hijack or change today’s (04/08/2024) topic, but with all the national and local media outlets in a frenzy over today’s solar eclipse I have a question. Will AM Radio stations in the direct path of today’s Eclipse have to go to their night time operating restrictions during the period of darkness today? And if they do, will anyone notice?
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The short answer is “NO,” AM radio stations won’t have to do anything different from their normal requirements for this broadcast day.
But since you asked, NASA says: “Ionospheric Anomalies: The sudden changes in ionospheric conditions during an eclipse can lead to the formation of ionospheric anomalies, such as ionospheric holes or depletions. These anomalies can disrupt radio signals and GPS navigation systems, affecting communication and navigation over the affected regions.”
-DT
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I knew Randy Kabrich well. He was responsible for helping me figure out the problems I was having with the music on my 80’s station I was programming from 1998-2001 in Columbus, even though we were not a client of his. All he told me was one sentence – “The rock product drives the bus”. That was all I needed to hear. At that time, he was programming for Cox and had launched an 80’s station in Dayton which I later was APD for…95-7, The Point. Today, there are still programmers who insist that you need to play a lot of urban and a lot of dance music at Classic Hits. They should, instead, be listening to Randy.
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Thank You Kevin for sharing that Randy story.
-DT
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The “Point” stations he consulted were the blandest sounding things on the dial, and all sounded the same. KHPT in Houston was basically “classic rock plus some Madonna”. 96.5 The Point in Philly was a failure because of that, and quickly went away.
Rock may drive the bus in some markets, but only where cows or corn outnumber people.
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Well Tom, it appears that many of radio’s top professions might disagree with you. Here’s some of their thoughts on Randy Kabrich’s impact on broadcast radio:
• The radio industry is still coming to terms with the untimely passing of veteran programmer and consultant Randy Kabrich. As initially reported by RAMP on Wednesday, Kabrich died on March 17 of an apparent heart attack at the age of 68. While his family take the time to mourn and plan a possible memorial service, we wanted to highlight these heartfelt remembrances that were shared with us by some of Randy’s friends and former colleagues.
• “Randy Kabrich was instrumental in creating the market research and launch strategy in Los Angeles at Pirate Radio, and he helped build the in-house research department at Z100. A true critical thinker the industry will miss.” — Scott Shannon
• “Randy was an extremely bright professional who loved Radio deeply. He was passionate, tough yet kind, and would help anyone in need. I will miss him greatly. Randy’s passing is a huge loss to the radio industry.” — Lisa Miller, Miller Broadcast Management, Inc.
• “Randy was a brilliant guy. He was never afraid to tell you exactly what he thought, even if he knew you weren’t going to like it. That was immensely valuable in an advisor. And, importantly… he was usually right. He really had a feel for the legacy branded radio stations and was highly focused on delivering on those stations brand values relentlessly.” — Bob Neil, former Cox Media Group EVP & Cox Radio CEO.
• “We competed — Edens (Y95) vs Nationwide (KZZP) — and later were partners on the Strategic Radio Team at Clear Channel/iHeartMedia. More than just about anyone I’ve ever met in radio, Randy always had an answer on the issues we explored as we worked together as part of the. People throw out the term ‘genius’ loosely, but but Randy was one of the most exceptional minds I’ve ever met. Brilliant. Funny. Quirky. A Contrarian. Look, we didn’t agree on everything, but he was my friend and I loved him.” — Guy Zapoleon.
• “Randy and I spoke a few weeks ago. A long freewheeling conversation, with the same passion for radio and blunt talk I’ve respected for 30 years. Randy was my consultant when I was PD at B98.5/Atlanta in the late ’80s/’90s. His ability to strategize, be ahead of trends, and ‘call the baby ugly’ was really helpful to me. I really enjoyed his passionate takes on the business. We kept in touch over the years, and he signed off the last call with, ‘Hey, don’t be a stranger.’ I was really looking forward to our next conversation…” — Phil LoCascio, Sr. Account Executive, Audacy New York
• “I worked with Randy at Cox Radio, where we launched 106.9 The Point in Birmingham, ‘Best of the ’80s.’ Randy was incredibly passionate and detail oriented. No doubt, he was one of the original architects of the ’80s format. My prayers for God’s peace and comfort.” — David R. DuBose, Market President, Townsquare Media Tuscaloosa
• “I knew Randy for nearly 40 years. We worked on many projects throughout the years, and he was one of the smartest programmers of our time. He would challenge anyone at anytime. That was Randy! Probably why so many people wouldn’t talk to him (LOL). And what a pair of ears. He told me over and over that you could hear Keith Moon‘s drum stool squeaking on one song. I called him out on it, and he showed up in my office one day with the album and an isolated part of the song. After about an hour I thought I heard it. Then we went to lunch and argued about it. HA! RIP Randy.” — Chuck Beck
• “Randy was one of the smartest programmers I’ve ever met. No, I take that back. He was THE smartest. And most intense. And most passionate. I met him many years ago when he programmed Q105/Tampa, and we became friends through that relationship. He loved to discuss (debate) every aspect of programming and ratings manipulation, no matter how small. It drove me crazy, especially since he was always right. I learned so much from him, and he became one of a small handful of influential mentors who have helped me for many years. The news of Randy’s passing hit me hard, but I can imagine him arguing with St. Peter right now about ratings methodology and flaws in the sequencing of the music rotations in the heavenly playlist. You’d think the playlist would be perfect, but leave it to Randy to find a problem.” — Tracy Johnson
(As reported by RAMP)
-DT
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Dick: He was condescending, arrogant, and many times just plain wrong when I would see his comments in various social media discussions about radio.
And I stand by my statement about his “Point” format.
For his other work, I wasn’t alive to hear it at the time.
Sorry for his family, but my interactions with him (on technical, not even programming matters) left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.
Off to listen to The Pointer Sisters, Atlantic Starr, Bobby Brown, Chaka Kahn, and Whitney Houston….the actual best of the 80’s
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Once upon a time there was radio, print and TV. Those ad dollars were many and each one got a nice share. You could afford to be choosy. Since 2000, radio has lost 70% of it’s revenue to things like online advertising, websites and such. In small markets the chain stores have made moms and pops smaller (ie – that grocery store that spent $3,000 a month inflation adjusted in 1980, spends $300 today thanks to a big chain store or two). Today meeting payroll and getting the light bill paid are more essential than turning away business you desperately need because the slice of the advertising pie has been divided into so many slices). Some will try blaming it on radio itself. And those folks haven’t a clue. You can do things right and still struggle. In fact, in an earlier article a commenter slammed our locally owned station for going corporate and playing too many commercials. If you add up his claim, we’d need 70 minutes in the hour before we add in the 4 songs he said we played that hour. Typical of the ignorance.
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Never was the concept of how much ad-supported media a local marketplace support taken into consideration.
Instead, we just kept adding more and more and more broadcast signals to a market. Now with television’s ATSC 3.0, we could see even more audio/video signals coming.
And Bill, as you pointed out, consolidation on the retail side has taken away many of the mom & pop shops that supported their local radio station(s).
They say to have a healthy garden, you need to prune back some of the growth. I would contend that the same type of thinking needs to be applied to broadcast radio and television.
But realize, that’s going to be a tough putt.
Thank You Bill for joining the conversation.
-DT
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Dick…
Re: the Planned Parenthood ad… I’d like to hear it or read a transcript of it. North Carolina, except for the Research Triangle, is a classic southern conservative state. I’d say it’s even money that, rather than it being a case of the ads being “volatile and blatant,” it was a case of station ownership and management being solidly anti-abortion and thus 100% resistant to any ad submitted by PP.
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Well Jody, I don’t know what the copy was back then, but what happened was station management wanted to run the ads and take the money. Randy resigned in protest over that decision.
-DT
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