THE HARD TRUTH FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN
I know that what I’m about to say won’t land well with some, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve taken heat for being honest vs being nice. Like many in our industry, I have been RIF’ed, downsized, and covid’ed out of a gig. What has happened during that time has given me a different perspective. We like to think music, rotations, and cutting people in the name of efficiencies is the solution to our problems. It is not. What radio actually has is a product problem. I keep hearing how revenue has declined, that it is going to other sources; meanwhile, over the last 10 years, local advertising being spent has gone from $141 Billion in 2016 to $171 Billion in 2025. 2026 is on track to be the biggest year yet, with $184 billion being spent. This is from the BIA Advisory Services. https://www.bia.com/press-releases/bia-revises-2026-local-ad-forecast-total-spend-to-reach-184-5-billion-2/
Radio’s cry is that the money is going to digital and other sources. This is true. Radio’s piece of the pie is smaller but I’m going to say the quiet part out loud. It’s our fault. Much of broadcast media doesn’t realize that it no longer has a product to sell. We see the research that about 80% of American adults still use radio daily. So why isn’t that converting to audience and revenue? It’s pretty simple: our product is not as good as we convince ourselves that it is. Yes, there are great brands that do well, but does each market have as many brands that matter to the local audience as it did even 10 years ago? NO! I have witnessed this firsthand, and it breaks my heart. I have been able to help local businesses place advertising and help with their marketing. Being a HUGE proponent of radio, I want to implement radio as part of the strategy. For my efforts to support our industry, here are a couple of test case studies.
First, I dialed in a station where festival tickets matched the station’s brand. They wanted the buy of course, and the promotion. So, what happened? They took the buy to run the commercials but didn’t run any of the promos for the event as promised. They also failed to execute any promotions or giveaways. Only the spot buy ran to promote the event. Even the digital they promised didn’t go up until 2 days before the festival. They didn’t even realize it until I called it to their attention the week going into the festival. To scramble, they did a street hit the day before the festival to try and hand out all the tickets they had originally requested for on-air giveaway. Since the tickets are bar-coded, the return rate was horrible…actually ZERO! I didn’t need ratings to measure ROI, because the performance was measured by the ticket scan. The station lacked the bodies to execute what they promised, and honestly, they had no discernible talent to lend to the event. Basically, a station that was once a market leader is now a shell of itself. Every major local player in the advertising community knows it. What is sad is that upper management doesn’t.
Second, I set up a promotion with another local station. They did an ok job on air, but it was a built-in community event. From my previous experience, an easy, slam dunk gig. We paid a top-end remote fee for them to appear at the event and have their “main local personality” host. It was four hours, so we doubled the talent fee. Having come from that world, I always like to make sure the jock is appropriately compensated. The jock showed up two minutes late, so we had to hold the event kickoff until they got to the stage. They had nothing prepared even though they were given notes and the press release previous to the event. Luckily, the event coordinator had the release with all the information as they walked on stage. They spent the day stumbling while reading off the release. No preparation to know the material, no notes to make it sound like it was them hosting the event. As a former air talent, it was painful to watch. At one point, I wanted to grab the mic and host it myself. Kudos to the sales rep and street team as they got there early and did a good job on their setup.
This is what happens when you continue to devalue the need for people to create a real product.
I don’t blame the Market Manager, the salesperson, or even the talent & programming. It is a direct result of companies that stopped placing the primary value on the audience.
So here is the problem as I see it. Radio is viable. Radio has just abandoned its product. Without a product, the audience has no reason to stay. Then the revenue goes to where the product is engaging the audience. Listeners left for other forms of media; they left because we stopped being the top of the content creation chain and we stopped treating the audience as a valued member of our radio family. Look at social media influencers. They celebrate wins. They thank their followers online, they celebrate milestones, they do good in their communities, and they turn their audience into “fans” or “followers”. Many do the same bits we did… Hide cash and let people find the location. Create opportunities to be local heroes. Play games and silly interviews on the streets. Create parody songs.
The fact is, companies are cutting local personalities. I get that, but you can’t be mad when local businesses no longer want to use you for advertising. They know you don’t have a viable product. If you want to get back to gaining your share of that $184 billion in local ad spend, then you need to create talent and brands that drive engagement and stop fooling yourself that you are doing a good job by using talent outside your market and not building a local team that can meet the needs of the station. You need to understand that all ROI is not transactional, but built with a brand over time. As the saying goes, you can’t fix a problem until you admit you have one. Radio has a problem. It is self-inflicted. It stopped creating a quality local product. It’s chasing transactional ROI vs value ROI. It can be fixed, but commitment to quality must come first before you can drive real local revenue. If not, no issues. Just don’t complain when clients no longer see value in your local stations.
#Radio #Broadcasting #RadioIndustry #LocalAdvertising #AudienceEngagement #ContentStrategy #MediaLeadership #BrandBuilding
If you need help building a local brand and audience interaction, feel free to connect with me. All my contact information is here: Cat Thomas Contact Info
Next up, “What Talent Needs To Do To Matter”
