[BC] Staffing levels

[Dave Dunsmoor]

> > This is what mystifies me so... has revenue to Radio dropped *that* much
> > since then? HOW did stations do it in those days? Full staffs like this
aren't
> > cheap, in *any* economy or Dollar value! So, HOW did they do it back
then, and
> > why can't they do it now?
>
>
> no mystery
>
> I hear it all the time about radio sales people:
>
> Salesperson goes out and pitches ads on WXXX @ say 40 bucks a pop
> Customer shows resistance
> Salesperson then says 'If you buy ads for 40 bucks on WXXX, we will throw
in ads on WQQQ,
> WYYY and WZZZ for free'
>
> BINGO !  rate per ad has just dropped to 10 bucks
>
> and once one group of stations in a market does this, the others follow
like sheep
>
> so to answer your questions...
>
> 1) in the 'old days', advertisers paid the going rate or did without
>
> 2) they can't do it now because some sales reps are so afraid of losing a
sale that they
> cut everyone's throat, including their own

And, I would suspect that this has to do with the fact that there are far
more stations
stuffed into the sack now. When I first came to town, there were 3 AMs, and
one TV.
They all had been here since RinTinTin was a pup. Now we have the 3 AMs, 6
FMs,
4 TV, several translators, and a couple LPFMs (which of course do not take
any ad
dollars, but theoretically fragment the listener's time).

Dave Dunsmoor