7-21-14
As the number-one radio advertiser that is, according to Media Monitors. The big orange store aired over 52,000 commercials last week, 9,000 more than GEICO which came in second place for the second week in a row. Autozone moved up from 11th to 3rd with 29,610, TrueCar was 4th with 28,296, and McDonalds rounded out the top five airing 26,629 ads.
11-2-2012
It's election time and that means a boon for advertising. But be careful with those rates. Sometimes, even when you act with all good intentions, things can go awry and you're faced with a moral decision. Fortunately, we have our resident legal expert John Garziglia to help you sort through just such dilemmas.
Radio Ink asks: We just discovered we did not charge the lowest unit rate to a candidate running for local mayor. We did charge lowest unit rate to the incumbent mayor who won the election. Neither candidate knows. What should we do?
John Garziglia says: If a candidate was entitled to the lowest unit charge for a class of time and was overcharged, the overcharge must be promptly refunded.
The FCC requires that stations periodically review their political time buys during the election season to determine whether refunds are required, and to issue any refunds promptly. The FCC expects stations to issue refunds to candidates before the election in order to allow candidates to maximize their campaign funds.
While a candidate may not be aware of an overcharge, the FCC requires broadcast stations to keep political files for two years. Therefore, anyone reviewing a station?s political file may see that one candidate was charged one rate for a particular class of time, and the opposing candidate was charged a different rate for the same class of time.
No station should wish to take the risk that an inspection of its local public file, by a member of the public or by an FCC inspector, would reveal an apparent lowest unit charge violation. The dollar amount of the overcharge to be refunded likely pales in comparison to what the station might spend defending itself at the FCC for failing to review political time buys and refund any overcharges.
With the election being just days away, now is the time for stations to review their political files for any overcharges. Charges in excess of the lowest unit charge can and do happen for a variety of reasons. For stations that sell broadcast time on an auction or quasi-auction basis, the lowest unit charge for a particular class of time will always be a moving target. Even for stations that try to hold rates, there is always the possibility of a particular class of time clearing at a lower rate than anticipated.
The FCC will take a dim view of any radio station that waits until after the election to identify and refund charges in excess of the lowest unit charge. Conversely, a station that does its review of political charges now, prior to the election, and immediately rebates or refunds overcharges will be doing exactly what the FCC expects of stations.
Overcharges will happen. Radio stations are required to periodically review political time buys and immediately issue refunds for overcharges where required.
John F. Garziglia is a Communications Law Attorney with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in Washington, DC and can be reached at (202) 857-4455 or jgarziglia@wcsr.com. Have a question for our "Ask The Attorney" feature? Send to edryan@radioink.com.
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Monday afternoon Clear Channel held its first earnings conference call since the company named Bob Pittman CEO of the company on October 2nd. Pittman was asked about the layoffs that have been sacking programmers and jocks in many small and medium markets under the Clear Channel umbrella. The layoffs have been big news, not only in the radio trades, but in newspapers all across the country. Pittman said of the reporting "I'm not sure anyone in the press got it right." And what it came down to was the determination that small and medium markets were just putting out some bad radio.
Pittman reiterated the latest firings were not about saving money. And, without actually coming right out and saying it, what he was implying was that Clear Channel came to the conclusion that small and medium market radio just doesn't cut it anymore. Pittman said "The driving force was: We have all these assets. How can we make it better?" The horrible thing is that some people lost their jobs. By the way, at the same time, we are adding jobs at the national level and in digital. This is a reallocation of resources and a different way of doing business, realizing that the world is different in 2011. After this reorganization, the businesses will be in great shape to operate better and improve the quality of performance and generate more revenue."
Pittman says this was not one of the efforts to reduce cost in the company. "This was truly an effort to improve the quality that we offer to those people. Any company that started before the Internet is outmoded in terms of operational structures. We took a very hard look at the smaller markets. I know what you are up against in those small markets. And I'm very excited about what John #Hogan# and his team have put together here."
(11/1/2011 6:12:23 AM)
This is not a cost cutting measure...well why would they need to cut more, when they are squeezing more out of their remaining workers and paying them less? This is a fact. Also, I am sure many of the newly unemployeed are glad they got a free subscription to Radio Ink so they can read more about how bad they really are. Geez...the fact is, this is a political move...cut the workforce, drive up the unemployment rate, force a change in the White House. The problem is, the law of diminishing returns. Eventually no one will have any money to spend with CC's clients.
(11/1/2011 5:59:40 AM)
..sounds like voice tracking, remote voices, and automation in Clear's small markets.
(11/1/2011 2:49:30 AM)
I'd be curious to know if these comments were delivered with a straight face.
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