11-29-2012
During his keynote address yesterday at Forecast, Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman said he's been making sales calls to major advertisers and the response he's getting from them is, "We never see anyone from radio." In other words, radio is getting such a small piece of the advertising pie because, as an industry, we're not making enough sales calls. "We're kidding ourselves if we think we're doing it," Pittman said. He also said radio isn't bringing enough fresh young talent into the business.
Pittman said when he goes on these sales calls he brings Clear Channel's creative people with him. "We ask them what ideas they need." He referred to it repeatedly as ideation. "We have to ask for an assignment, not a buy. We have to be willing to bring them fresh ideas." Pittman said advertisers use newspaper because it's a legacy industry. He called it a hangover. "We should be comparing radio to Television and newspaper, not to other radio stations." Pittman says radio should be a $35 billion industry, which is more than double what the industry brings in now. "We have to crush the myths about the perceptions of radio. We need to talk about how strong radio is."
Pittman said he was a Program Director in radio at age 20. "I don't see any 20 year old programmers any more in this business. We need to bring in fresh blood."
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