By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
Attention news/talk radio sellers! Get ready to meet your new best friend… and it is not who you think it is.
Take a guess. Could it be a mega budget opening up from an advertiser targeting 55+?
No. How about your closest competitor admitting defeat and conceding it no longer makes sense to compete?
Close, but this could be better. This is the part where your new best friend becomes such a giant ally, making your demographic pitch so valid, you are left stone-cold speechless. This is where “The Golden Bachelor” answers the double “Jeopardy” question and you could become the next Ken Jennings of news/talk radio ad sales. Give up? Here is the story line.
The New York Times article “TV Networks’ Last Best Hope: Boomers” saluted, validated, recognized, and just about honored the news/talk radio 55+ audience value proposition. We could be talking about a new day for news/talk radio sellers.
When the highly resourced sales teams from linear network TV begin telling the same demographic value story that news/talk radio sellers have been telling forever, well then, it is time to start popping the champagne in your local sales department.
It seems that linear network TV programmers are finally conceding the 60+ audience is the remaining core audience for your favorite network television programs. According to the article, franchise programs like “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “The Voice” have median viewers over 64. Wait, what? Dr. Meredith Grey and the crew at Seattle Mercy are now appealing to seniors? It may have taken 400+ episodes, but the last man standing is indeed grey! The sellers at NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX could start singing from the same demographic page as news/talk sellers and the harmonics are sounding wonderful.
Please don’t be silly enough to think this will ever get truly competitive. No friends, this is where everyone wins if the selling stays at the value level. Media habits are changing at mach 4 speed, and nobody knows the change part of the business better than the terrestrial radio business. From fragmentation to consolidation, we’ve seen it all. Is the best yet to come?
Smart radio sales teams will embrace this opportunity. Do you still pitch the “older demo” value proposition with the anecdotal Grace Slick is 83, Mick Jagger is 80, and Elton John is 76? Time to start talking about the scene where 70-year-old Jerry Seinfeld says to 74-year-old Kramer, “I’m movin’ to Florida! You comin’ with me or not?”
Steve Lapa is the president of Lapcom Communications Corp. based in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Lapcom is a media sales, marketing, and development consultancy. Contact Steve Lapa via email at: Steve@Lapcomventures.com.
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the rapid growth and distribution of the Salem News Channel, and in HC2 Broadcasting’s expansion.” HC2 operates stations in markets including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, Phoenix and more. HC2 Broadcasting president and CEO Les Levi comments, “We are excited about our partnership with Salem Media Group and delighted to be launching the Salem News Channel on our TV broadcast platform. The channel will be available for the first time to broadcast television viewers, who should enjoy the network’s rich and informative news content.”
“They have the time and tools to listen, they like spoken word contest,” and Edison Research president Larry Rosin reminds us, they’re big-money consumers.