Average Station Generates $137K in Digital Revenue

2-25-2013

According to a new online advertising study released by the Radio Advertising Bureau and Borrell and Associates, an average radio station generated $137,033 in digital revenue in 2012. An average cluster took in nearly $600K. The radio industry increased its piece of the local online advertising pie from 1.8% to 2% in 2012, according to Borrell.

Internet pure play companies such as Craigslist, ReachLocal, Yelp and Angie's List took in nearly 50% of the local digital revenue. We spoke with Borrell about specifics of the study.

Listen to our interview HERE.
RAB members can download the report HERE. The RAB will have a free webinar on the report March 7th.

If you want to be better than average at selling digital you should attend CONVERGENCE next week in Santa Clara. See the AGENDA. REGISTER

(2/25/2013 1:41:44 PM)
Curious, what does that digital revenue mean to the overall radio station pie? What percent of the station/cluster revenue is derived from digital?

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DIGITAL - Morning Show Generates $30K Per Month

1-5-2012

The big Ace and TJ news is their return to Charlotte?s air waves today on CC?s WHQC ? That?s not the story I want to dig into however. I want to find out how team Ace and TJ were able to put up $30K in local direct digital revenue in November without the help of a broadcast stick. We?ll hit up Adam Goodman (Chief Operating Officer for Ace and TJ and Co-President of 7to8 Media) for details and hopefully uncover a gem or two that you can apply to your local morning show to boost your digital revenue.

RI: Adam, 30K in local direct digital dollars in November?How?d you do it? 
ADAM: The simple answer is that we have a great team and because of that we?re able to produce a great radio product?Good products are easy to sell. More specifically we leveraged established relationships with advertisers and every communication tool and listener touch point we could. We didn?t have a station to rely on locally to get the message out so we had our baptism by fire in that our only option was?to figure out how to make radio work with internet only delivery. It was a rough road at times but we?re stronger and more savvy because of it?and now that we?ll be back on air we?re going to be even more successful at driving revenue from online.

RI: What ?tools and listener touch points? do you use?
ADAM: We stream the live show, we created a 10a-11a digital only hour of content to increase our inventory and to offer added value to our stations that carry us in other markets, we run a 24/7 loop of the most recent show, we have the podcast and archives, we leverage facebook, social media, we have inventory on the website, we still do appearances and local promotions, we do couponing, contesting and we have our listener email database of over 32,000 fans of the show.

RI: How many advertisers did it take to hit that revenue number?
ADAM: We had 24 advertisers on in November.

RI: What was the one thing that generated the most revenue?
ADAM: A co-op type promotion where we got 10 restaurants to put in $500 along with a $100 gift certificate. The promotion culminated in one listener winning a $1000 in restaurant GC?s. Listener response was great. Restaurant partners were excited to participate.

RI: And how did you close the deals?
ADAM: We had our main sales person, Tracy Poff, literally go door to door until we hit our target number of 10 restaurants. Turns out she?s so good she only needed to go to 10 places. All said yes right away. More promotions like that are coming for sure in 2012.

RI: Did you have any bigger national brand money booked or was it all local?
ADAM: I?d love to say that Pepsi and Apple take my phone calls but in truth all of our revenue is coming locally and regionally. Even when we?ve done work with a big brand like Ford, as we did recently for the Charlotte Auto Show, it was coordinated and paid for through a local dealer.

RI: Given your success taking a broadcast morning show online (and back) what is one suggestion you would make to stations to help them monetize online more effectively?
ADAM: You can?t sell what you don?t have. By that I mean good content. Good content and good ideas allow you to create inventory. If you don?t have the jocks on board you?ll have difficulty creating the types of content listeners will seek out and find online. I have been in meetings with lots of big name talent and the number one question I hear about digital is, ?How much more work is this going to be because I am already stretched to the max.?

RI: Could you see logic in sharing revenue with the talent or morning show for creating the additional content?
ADAM: Definitely. We do it to motivate sales people it can work to motivate a jock. At least they would feel like they?re getting something for the extra work they?re doing. And strictly from a financial perspective if on one hand you don?t have this piece of content created and you get zero dollars?.but on the other hand it is created and you get $500 or $5000, even if the morning show gets 50 cents on the dollar you are still up 50 cents.

RI: So in effect you?d be creating a digital content monetization bonus?
ADAM: Exactly.

RI: What?s the future look like for Ace and TJ?
ADAM: We plan to keep doing good radio where ever listeners are consuming it. Digital will continue to be a big focus because inventory and opportunity online is limited only by creativity. We?ve got big plans for our new home at Clear Channel in Charlotte, for the stations that carry us and for our listeners.  We plan to own 2012.

To ask Adam about any of the online strategies Ace and TJ have employed to drive revenue reach him at AGoodman@7to8media.com. To add Ace and TJ to your station?s programming roster reach out to Dave ?Chachi? Denes at Benztown Radio Networks at dd@benztown.com.

Carl Magnuson is the co-creator and director of sales for Social Radio?s personalized listening platform. Reach him at carl@socialradio.org.

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Radio Ink Blog on Podcasting Generates Slew of Letters

7/20/2011
by Brian Baltosiewich

Last week?s blog (Can You Make Money Podcasting?) generated some response! Enough that it might be worth addressing some of the comments I received and clarifying some of the points the article was attempting to make. ?Bill? wrote: ?The question is not whether you can make money, but how do you get people to listen to your podcast??  Actually, in that particular blog, the question WAS can you make money. It?s right there in the title. We?ll address the ?How Do You Get Them to Listen?? question in next week?s blog.

?Kendall Weaver,? and ?Twit Fan? both mentioned Leo Laporte, a worthy name to drop and a glaring omission in my blog. I sit corrected. The blog, though, was written from the perspective of someone who does not have the connections or resources possessed by Mr. Laporte. What Laporte has accomplished cannot be denied, and his empire- I believe- very closely resembles what the future looks like for both ?radio? and ?tv.? Let?s be honest, most of us- right now- are not playing on the same field.

Radio Exiles was launched with about $60. And not even MY $60. The biggest cash outlay so far has been for a run of t-shirts. This is the field I think most of us are on, the one with the holes in the infield, no bases and if you hit the ball over the fence you have to go shag it yourself. So while certainly Laporte and Twit.tv should have been mentioned, I?m not sure he?s relevant for the conversation I was having.

?AJ? wrote: ?Respectfully, I'd say that your view on podcasting is very limited if you think Adam Corolla [sic] is the only successful podcsater, [sic again] and you're thinking in the box too much if you think that ads and page views are the way to make money at it.? I didn?t say he?s the only successful podcaster. I said the best examples of podcast success ?start and end with? Carolla, and that depends on how you define success. For the purpose of that particular blog, money = success. Carolla and his ?Ace Broadcasting? are making money. A lot of it.

I tend to agree with ?AJ? that banner ads and page views are not the way to make money podcasting. But, page views translate in no small way to downloads/listens, so they are an important piece of the puzzle. Your product, however, is the podcast, front and center. A listener who subscribes to your brilliance on iTunes may never visit your website and see your banner ads, but they will hear an ad, or some product placement, or a live read within your show.

Next week: bringing listeners into the tent.

Brian Baltosiewich has been a broadcast professional for more than 20 years.  His podcast website, www.radioexiles.com features professionally-produced podcasts from radio pro?s who have lost their gigs. Reach out to him at brian@radioexiles.com or through their twitter account @radioexiles and on Facebook at radioexiles.com

(7/20/2011 6:04:20 AM)
Re: "Actually, in that particular blog, the question WAS can you make money."

This is where we have the problem... interpretation of comments. First, let's take your definition of "slew." Is 5 responses a "slew"? Or is this an overblown interpretation of how many people commented to your article?

Next, The question you asked IS directly related to being found online (if you want to make money).

This is the exact style of comment that I referenced in the next line, which you conveniently left out - "This scenario of making a revenue generating podcast has been over-stated by many people..."

Podcasting has yet to be proven a money maker by anyone, that is, unless you can show me the money.

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Nebraska Cluster Generates $250K in Digital Revenue

by Carl Magnuson

Fast Facts:
4 stations in Lincoln, Nebraska (#171)
Been streaming for 9 months
$250,000 in streaming revenue on the books for 2011
55% local direct / 45% agency
80% of clients resign 6 month minimum contracts

I wander the digital streets (or wilderness depending on your perspective) daily and I have not found a radio group that is as progressively minded and as successful than NRG?s Lincoln Nebraska cluster helmed by GM Andy Ruback. I asked Andy two questions, ?How did you do it?? and ?What?s next??

Andy is a pragmatic GM. His answer was the following questions?
- How do I make these streams a profit center?
- How do I create a compelling experience for listeners?
- How do I do it with my current staff?
First he rallied the entire staff. Programming, traffic, promotions, production and sales all were brought in and made to understand what was at stake, what each department?s responsibilities were and what the overall team objective was. Second he made the decision that if this is going to work it has to be similar to what the group?s established sales reps are used to selling and what their clients are used to buying - namely high frequency over a long period of time. He also made the decision that the relationships his sales people had with clients were too valuable and that if selling digital was going to work it couldn?t be with a dedicated digital rep - his current reps HAD to be the ones to make it move. So it had to be an easy and attractive package for them to take to clients. Having a single package available to clients also eased things for traffic and production.

Thirdly the streams couldn?t have PSA?s, bonus spots or anything that might turn a listener off. In response programming created unique :30, :60 and 2:00 content vignettes. They included bits from DJ?s, shorter versions of songs, interviews with artists, etc? That unique content not only keeps listeners from leaving during breaks but incentivizes them to tune in. It adds value to the stream where a standard rebroad doesn?t.

?9 months into your streaming strategy and it?s clearly worked.? I then ask, ?So what?s next? How do you grow from here?? Andy states confidently, ?More streams. More formats. More unique local content available online and via mobile.?

At Convergence in 2009 I overheard a table saying, ?This is the wild west. There is a land grab happening. There are no rules.? I would agree that there are no/few rules (may the performance fee rules burn). However I would say the most fertile land lies beyond our industry?s current staked territory. If we had it Pandora wouldn?t be beating our ASS ? I mean AAS ? so bad.

NRG though is an example of a heritage broadcaster that has ventured out and successfully grabbed a piece of digital frontier and put up some real revenue.  But they know that there is even better and more resource rich land just a bit farther out. NRG is ahead of you and they aren?t stopping to look back. What are you going to do to catch them and compete?

Andy is happy to share his strategy with you. Email him at AndyR@BroadcastHouse.com

Carl Magnuson is a blogger for Radioink.com and Co-Creator and Director of Sales, Social Radio LLC. He can be reached via e-mail at thevoiceofcarl@gmail.com

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