It would have been an interesting sight to see if Bob Pittman gave his presentation side-by-side with Marci Ryvicker from Wells Fargo (see next story). The two seem to be telling two very different stories about the radio industry. Clear Channel's Bob Pittman had nothing but good news for Radio Show attendees, backed up with graphs, pie charts and a lot of cheerleading for the industry that he said he would defend vigorously if anyone tried to talk radio down. Pittman says "the consumer loves radio, radio is a companion, nearly everyone uses radio. This is not a product in trouble."
Pittman gave the crowd a lesson how to market the entire Radio industry and said he has never been around an industry that's runs itself down like radio does. And, of course, everyone knows he's right. Radio stations talk trash about other stations in the market. Radio reps talk bad about other sellers to advertisers. And, in the end that hurts the business and becomes part of why we continue to get 7 or 8% of the overall revenue pie. Pittman says Radio is not about towers and transmitters. "Our business is a brand. Radio is not selling a bunch of spots. It's about renting the relationships we have with our listeners to our clients."
So why do we underperform in the revenue department? Pittman says "we need to sell the medium. We need to tell our story. There is no good reason why we don't have more. Our fair share of the revenue pie is more than double what we have now. We're talking to people who have already decided what we're going to get. We just fight over that pie. We need to tell the story ourselves." Pittman also says advertisers get more bang for their buck with radio than they can with television. "Is TV more effective than radio? It's not even close. Radio reaches the influencers. Radio can do what TV does for a lower price." This coming from a guy who worked at MTV when it was first starting up.
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