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Um, yeah. Kerosene is expensive.
Posted on 07/25/2010 10:26:19 PM PDT by Minn
Have you ever wondered what the fact that Hydroxatone was “given away in VIP gift bags at international film festivals” has to do with anything whatsoever? Have you wondered how dense you’d have to be to think the fact that a product was given away means it works to remove wrinkles? Have you ever been mildly insulted when you were informed that you were listening to “a public announcement” and that “Those with last names starting with A through N can start calling now. Those with last names beginning with O-Z can begin calling tomorrow; Nine AM”? Have you ever considered projecting significant physical violence upon the proprietors of Window World and their ad agency, sometime around the 400th time you were exposed to their incipit jingle? Would you like to just have two minutes with the drone that convinced the Alarm Force people that the best way to get people to call them was to make up a melody free jingle that repeats their phone number countless times?
If you answered yes to any questions, chances are you have an appreciation for Rush, Dennis, Mark, Glenn, Laura, Sean (not so much), Michael, Hugh, or their local counterparts.
As far as I can remember I’ve been listening to talk radio regularly since 1982. I’ve been with Rush when my work scheduled allowed since the beginning of his run. I think Dennis Prager is one of the country’s great minds and a hell of a good guy. Levin, while he would be more entertaining if he didn’t come unglued and shout down idiot liberal callers, has a first class wit and intellect. Medved, Ingraham, Ghallager, all have their plusses and minuses, but are worth tuning in to. Many local shows are also enlightening and informative.
So, what’s not to like? Well, as the opening paragraph indicates, I’ve recently reached the conclusion that the advertising on talk radio is so lame, so frequent, and so repetitive that I can barely stand it anymore. I still manage to tune in to the programming, but am becoming better and better at reaching for the dial or the power switch the second a commercial period starts. Sometimes I bother to tune back in a few minutes later, sometimes I don’t. I find my life is better when lived talk radio commercial free.
Further, rather than having any sort of loyalty to the brands advertised on talk radio, I have a growing contempt for many of them. So, not only will I not go out of my way to support them, I actively boycott them. Window World and Alarm Force will certainly never see a dime from me. Perhaps I am a lone curmudgeonly crank on this issue, and one of the very few thinking these thoughts. But I doubt it.
If I had the ear of a radio or advertising executive I’d like to ask them this: do you not understand that when something like 30% - 35% of your airtime is advertising, your listeners will judge the entertainment/annoyance factor of advertisements, just as they do the programming itself?
I understand that the number of willing sponsors for any station or show is limited. But does that mean that the same exact commercial must be repeated over and over in the same hour, and hundreds of times a week? Do you ever have the slightest inclination to enforce some sort of quality control on what you decide to allow on your air, for your own benefit and the benefit of your advertisers? Do you understand that you don’t sell products to people by annoying them and insulting their intelligence? I wonder if it has ever occurred to a radio exec to say something like “You know Mr. Window World, our listeners just have a limited tolerance for the same jingle over and over and over, just like music radio listeners have a limited tolerance for any one song. Let’s see if we can work with you to vary your pitch so as not to annoy and insult our listeners; prompting them to tune us out.”
I’m sure an answer to these questions would be that individual radio stations really aren’t in a position to tell potential sponsors how to treat their national advertising campaigns, and revenue needs require taking any advertising you can get. So be it. But sooner or later the fact that the advertising model you are selling to sponsors pushes listeners, that actually like the programming, away will start to effect the rates you can charge. Will it not?
I would think that after being on FR for 12 years you would know this belongs on personal/bloggers rather than news/activism.
At least they don’t play those annoying Vermont Teddy Bear and Pajamagram ads year round.
So I suggest you buy up all the commercial time to spare us of the horror.
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The advertisers pay the bills so you can listen to these radio shows free. If you don’t like the ads, change the station. If you want socialized radio, listen to NPR with all of the other liberal freeloaders.
IBTZ
Don’t you believe in capitalism?
They get their revenues from advertisers. If nobody would advertise, they would go off the air.
I do. And often hit the power switch, as I explained. Something people in the ad business might be concerned about.
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What I do is change the channel whenever a commercial comes on.
But now that Rush et al are incorporating commercials within their on-air time....
I rarely listen.
(Don’t EVEN get me started when Rush yammers on and on about his Elton John Wedding.)
The words "Life Lock", "Carbonite" and "Go To MY.." are automatic cues to hit the switch
View them as comic relief and they won’t grate so bad.
I understand what you mean, especially the “Name begging with A through..., may call..” made we want to smash the radio.
Lucky for me, however, I left the USA five years ago and now get all radio online via Radiotime.com
I listen to a few talkers, like Savage and Levin, and Rush I get via Rush 24/7.
The rest is all music from non US stations.
I don’t think he is irritated about the amount of advertising, but simply the quality. These people pay a LOT of money sometimes to advertise on these shows. Why the dearth of quality, entertaining advertising? Must they annoy? I believe that is the question. It is not that he is complaining about water being wet, he is complaining about the water tasting bad.
Some of your responses are as idiotic, annoying (Uh didn't you know that's how they get funding etc.) and even as childish (wrong forum?) as the advertisers you despise.
To name a few. I have to turn it off when a (obvious) woman uses a child voice to do a commercial.
Whenever Obama speaks.
When the news comes on.
Might be just Local, when it's about telling your child about sex.
Or, like you said, any commercial that repeats a phone # over and over...
Radio Advertising Bureau’s Top 10 radio formats
1. Country
2. News/talk
3. Oldies
4. Adult contemporary
5. Hispanic
6. Adult standards
7. Top 40
8. Soft adult contemporary
9. Religion
10. Classic rock
Source: www.radio.about.com/cs/funradiothings/f/faqradio6.htm
Rush should work for free so you don’t have to listen to any of his sponsors, right?
It is disturbing. Sean Hannity did a personal testimonial for EZ Water, which is a transparent flim-flam.
You’re going to catch a lot of flak for your post, but the nature of talk radio advertising has always bugged me. I understand the importance of advertising revenue, but the ads you find on talk radio seem to be disproportionately aimed at cretins. It’s even worse when the talk radio hosts themselves record ads for snake oil products designed to rip off the gullible. One example is the product that Bill O’Reilly and Laura Ingraham were plugging a couple years back as “the thinking person’s weight loss drug” (the name of the fraudulent product—now run out of business—escapes me). Another great one is NatureBee...a bogus miracle cure created from bee pollen that some of the local hosts here in Seattle have been pushing.
The first one I remember was the NOW gang going after the Florida Citrus Growers for ads on Rush's show. It eventually worked.
There are a lot of corporate advertisers that simply want no part of controversy. Conservative talk radio gets what's left over.
As is Life Lock.
OH yeah, and whenever (”Hey, you know what?” - “Deadfish Rahm”) Hannity is on. Especially when he does one of his “debates”. It’s not just irritating, it’s embarrassing.
That would certainly explain it. It's a shame.
That’s 1-800 CALL-NOW
That’s 1-800 CALL-NOW
That’s 1-800 CALL-NOW
blah, blah, blah....
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>>>> “ It is disturbing. Sean Hannity did a personal testimonial for EZ Water, which is a transparent flim-flam. “ <<<<<
What? nearly 30 years in business and it’s flim flam?
Seems to me if it is a fraudulent product that it would have been discovered years ago.
Care to share?
TT
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Well, I might quibble over the definition of transparency. The claims of EZ Water defy elementary Physical Law, and I’m not sure the same can be said of Life Lock.
Have you been feeling boxed-in lately, looking for a way out?
It is called “Capitalism.”
Advertisers pay for air time. The listeners can choose to buy the products/services or not. If the advertisers do not get sufficient sales, they cease to advertise. Clearly individuals are choosing to purchase the product at issue, else the objectionable advertising would cease (for lack of funds).
Supply and Demand (in this case not Quantity Supplied and Quantity Demanded but that is the next lesson).
I used to listen to talk radio a lot but stopped after the 2008 election. I “tried” to start again a month or so ago when I took my wife to work but the ads were just too many. On the second trip, it was all ads from the time we left home until I got her to work and then the talk show host went on a short spat about future shows. I turned it off and haven’t been back. It just isn’t worth it.
I’ve gone back to music in the car and internet at home. I’m pretty much done with talk radio. And the main problem is the ads. The quantity, that is.
Their own promotional material does not present any coherent explanation for the supposed function of their product, and the description of its physical configuration precludes any possibility of its affecting the physical properties of the running water in any way. The claims for its efficacy are tantamount to magic.
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Geico varies theirs.
Minn is not saying they should not have advertisers.
He is saying the advertising is so stupid and repetitive that they are losing listeners do to it.
He is suggesting they keep advertisers happier by teaching them to be more creative and interesting with their ads, rather than just annoying and repetitive.
Less folks will tune out, and more products will be sold, presumably.
I think the right wing radio’s advertising people are actually doing a disservice to their advertisers. They should be helped to make a package of ads that are more appealing and do have us ALL reaching for the mute button all the time.
LOL - your adverts on this thread are hilarious!
Well written.
I think those “male enhancement”,”size matters” ones are the most obnoxious,and of course i understand programs need sponsors.
How about the “buy gold” commercials. Please make them stop!
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Um, yeah. Kerosene is expensive.
I think the idea is that most people are not listening to the whole three hours...they’re tuning in for a few minutes off and on. That explains why the same commercials run over and over. I know I only listen when I’m in the car. So I’m only listening to a few minutes, maybe a half hour at a time. I think most people are like me.
“And the main problem is the ads. The quantity, that is.”
I almost never listen to talk radio in the car any more, either. The ads are one reason (very repetitive), the speakers are another these days (very very repetitive. Can they not vary their subject matter once in a while?)
For example, during the months-long health care debate, they talked about nothing else, practically, for hours. I don’t mind a 15-20 minute update on the current status of health care every show. But they went on and on for the whole show sometimes, for day, making the same points umpteen times.
Lastly, many (not all; Rush a notable exception) seem to be geared to see how angry they can make us all today. Anger has its place but I don’t like feeling like I am being whipped up into an outrage every time I tune in. I don’t need to be outraged every day.
I am hoping that as the November elections come towards us things will liven up.
Excellent points, all.
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Minor correction, jimbo. Many businesses (even ones owned by conservatives!) "underwrite" programs on their local public radio stations, but instead of getting 30 seconds to plug their product or service, they get a little announcement along the lines of, "This hour of classical music was brought to you in part by Joe's Music Store in downtown Joeville, with a full selection of classical instruments, music, and instruction," and the "sponsor" also typically gets to have a little display ad in the monthly program guide or such. It's the business owner's decision to "market" to a particular audience (classical, for example) that way, and presumably listeners appreciate that Joe's Music brings Beethoven and Sibelius their way so much that they'll go patronize the store.
That's okay with me. I DO object to taxpayer dollars funding shows dominated by particular music formats on radio and further, I think it public radio has distorted many radio formats something awful. Why can't jazz or classical or folk or blues or radio drama programs make it on their own? It isn't because only liberals like jazz, classical, folk, and radio drama. It's because the honest free market in advertising for those formats has been cornered by taxpayer-subsidized public radio, and it's disgusting. I think it's fostered huge monotony in the formats of free-market radio.
Kozak to Minn: I suggest you buy up all the commercial time to spare us of the horror.
I think Minn is like me in that the objection isn't to the commercials, it's to how obnoxious they are. REPETITION WORKS -- it's why advertisers do it. Some good ads I don't mind hearing over and over -- Shatner's "Priceline" ads, for example, or the "Netflix" ads. THOSE people understand the power of pleasant imagery, comfortable noises and sounds, and a positive "You're a smart person, listener" message.
You haven't heard a bad ad until you've listened to KFI's John and Ken almost lecherously yak about "rotting, blackened teeth" two or three times on the hour, and how YOU need to go see a dentist. Or had the hell scared out of you by being constantly reminded about the deadly danger of "cancer" of every type and being advised what to do WHEN (not if, but WHEN) you have it, at least half a dozen times every hour.
There are many very bad radio ads out there because they're written by folks who are lousy at it. Like many people, I immediately turn the radio down or off so I don't have to suffer through having all that audio garbage imagery pumped into my ear and brain again ... with all intent to turn the radio back on. And five minutes later, I remember and miss that much of Rush, or Mark, or whoever it is. Think I'm ever going to do business with a dentist who rails at me about rotting teeth and then makes me forget to hear Rush? NOT LIKELY!
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is as annoying as the far-left, liberal, enviro-kooky, diversity preaching, super progressive ads for the Ad Council we are subjected to hearing.
*****************************
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Reprise caterwauling, chlamidia raddled hirsute womyn simulating feline climax: “yeoww, yeoww, yeeaaughhhhh...”
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What? No mention of the ads with people griping about their ringing ears keeping them up all night... and then replicating the noise on the radio so EVERYONE can enjoy it? I can’t turn the station fast enough.
And then there is Mr. Superbetaprostate. Get a month supply of Superbetaprostate for free. Superbetaprostate. Its sort of fun to say, really.
Lastly, the lame non-hybrid seed ads for that acre “crisis garden”. The very same seeds that the “global elite” keep up in the Arctic Circle (thay’ll be worth more than GOLD some day, you know).
The people who would starve to death during a crisis probably wouldn’t have access to an acre to plant these seeds on to begin with.
Ugh.
APf
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