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WHO CAME FIRST A ByrnesMedia Guest Article Greg Gillispie Pete Townshend so eloquently asked the question when, after five Who albums, he released his first solo album - Who Came First. And to dramatize the contemplation of the question, the cover shows Pete standing on a plate of eggs.
It is an age-old question. And the debate usually centers on the chicken or the egg. In the world of radio and subsequent media, the debate often centers on sales or programming. But not necessarily who came first - that answer is obvious. The more debated question is "Who is more important?"
When KDKA signed on as the first radio station, it covered the presidential election. As other stations hit the airwaves, the content included information and grew into entertainment with theater and music.
At some point, someone had a brilliant idea of selling something you could not hold in your hands. At first, program sponsorship, such as Texaco Star Theater, brought in revenue to support and expand programming. Soon after, the concept of sponsorship (or branding as it is recognized today) grew into selling products within the context of the programming via commercials. And a new revenue stream created more programming and profit-generating opportunities.
Once radio became a publicly traded business, an even greater emphasis was placed on sales. Increase top line revenue. Meet quarterly projections. Develop strong relationships with advertisers that can generate more revenue. Undercut the competition to get 100% of the buy. And some companies have an unlimited sales staff hiring policy; as long as those that join the company can demonstrate their sales abilities and meet their goals within the first few months.
Radio (and other media) sales can be an extremely challenging, yet rewarding job. But creating and successfully delivering the product that sales sells can be even more challenging and less (financially) rewarding.
Consider this - Programmers must spend every minute (if Arbitron's Portable People Meter becomes reality, it could be every second) of every day selling the station's "product" to the current and potential consumers - listeners! And unlike sales selling commercial units, selling increased product usage is more mercurial.
Selling commercial inventory can be quantified and generally the impact of the campaign can be measured in the advertiser's increased customer traffic and sales. And while the product programming creates can also be measured, ratings are not as concrete as the dollars and cents generated by the number of commercial units sold.
Sure, ratings can be an indicator of how successful the selling of the product is in creating a greater - in both size and quantity of consumption - customer base, but even Arbitron will tell stations to look at four-survey averages to get a much more accurate reflection of the product's success. And the reason for that recommendation is, once a consumer's usage is recorded, that consumer cannot be surveyed again for at least a year or more, whereas sales has an immediate and ongoing recording system for tracking its customer base usage and success.
As a result, many broadcasting companies require those that manage one or more stations in a market have commercial-unit selling experience. It seems the reasoning is, market managers are ultimately responsible for hitting sales goals and making (or exceeding) budgets, which some believe requires the market manager to spend perhaps 60% - 70% of his/her time recruiting, directing, and managing sales departments.
But market managers are also responsible for the proper execution of duties and success of every other department in the cluster of stations - programming, marketing, promotion, production, engineering, accounting, traffic, and general office staff. And some of those departments are the face of the business that consumers (listeners) know and connect to the station.
While a programmer (product developer) may not have a long history of doing the business of traditional sales, he/she can bring perhaps an even greater sales skill set to the market manager position - selling usage to a consumer that can only express satisfaction by turning the radio on and leaving it on for an increasingly longer period of time. And it is more difficult to consistently count time than units.
Given appropriate direction and support, product people can quickly grasp all the nuances of generating revenue and managing the economic well being of the business. Those that sell commercial units may find it more difficult to learn the fine art of product development in a like amount of time. But at the pace which radio moves today, swapping sales positions - unit for usage sellers - even for a week, could greatly hinder the success of the entire team.
So, who came first? When it comes to sales and programming, it does not matter. Who is more important? Neither! They both sell something critical to radio's success. And they both could be the leaders the business really needs today and in the future! |
