Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Election Day Radio Coverage Goes Mobile...

For the first time ever, CBS Radio goes mobile with its election coverage starting tonight at 7. The CBS website advises that you can listen to their wall-to-wall coverage on the CBS Radio iPhone app, Radio.com and AOL Radio. CBS is going social too, offering on-going results on Facebook and Twitter. Add mobility to - local and free - radio's greatest assets...

While TV got about two-thirds of political spend for this important midterm election, recent surveys have shown that radio got more than newspapers, direct mail and the internet. According to Advertising Age, 2010 is expected to exceed the political ad-spending record of the $2.8 billion set in 2008. It should shatter that mark with more than $4 billion in ad expenditures. While online spending doubled to just less than $45 million, online has to be discouraged by its final spend results...

Early in the ad cycle, campaigns ramped up significant online operations with video disputes being waged on YouTube but then it stopped cold. The politicos figured out that press releases were easier and cheaper than video. TV and radio appearances were mostly free, so the campaigns shifted there. According to Ad Age, more than 75% of respondents say they get much of their information regarding elections from TV (appearances and commercials), 15% went to radio and the rest was culled from newspapers, the internet and elsewhere. Of all those media, the internet is the least likely to move numbers - even less than direct mail. Respondents say there's just too much clutter. The advantage of TV and radio advertising is that when your spot is running, you own the channel. You have someone's undivided attention. They have to take a physical action to avoid your message. Internet banner ads compete side by side with the content a viewer really wants and it usually loses...

Now if stations could just separate opponent's ads, maybe they wouldn't immediately tune us out. One factor never taken into consideration is the burnout created by the avalanche of spots. But what station is willing to turn down dollars???

10 Timeline Memories:
1.1947] Taking Off: Howard Hughes pilots his huge wooden airplane, the Spruce Goose, on its only flight, which lasts about a minute over Long Beach Harbor (CA)...It's not your speakers - there is no audio on the clip...
2.1948] Chicago Tribune street cred is questioned: The front page of the Chicago Tribune screamed 'DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN'. Too bad it was the other way. Truman defeated Dewey...
3.1959] The birth of payola: "Twenty-One" contestant Charles Van Doren tells a House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight that he was given questions and answers in advance of his appearances. The committee starts radio investigations as part of their probe. Uh-oh...
4.1964] SOLD: CBS Inc. purchases 80% of the New York Yankees for $11 million. They buy the remaining shares eventually. CBS actually loses money when they sell the team to the George Steinbrenner-led Cleveland group 9 years later...
5.1976] From peanuts to president: Former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter defeats Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford to become the first president from the deep south since the Civil War. Texas is in the southwest so LBJ doesn't qualify...
6.1983] On the dotted line: President Ronald Reagan signs a bill establishing a federal holiday on the third Monday of January in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr...
7.1984] Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the U.S. since 1962...
8.1988] Wormy: The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention is launched from MIT...
9.2004] Re-upped: President George W. Bush is elected to a second term as Republicans strengthen their hold on Congress...
10.2006] Hanky spanky: The Rev. Ted Haggard resigns as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after a man says they had had sexual trysts together...

Music Memories:

Commentary:
The Tampa Bay Radio Reunion is on for this Saturday, November 6, 2010 from 2PM-Until. The reunion will be hald at the Hula Bay Club, 5210 W. Tyson Avenue, Tampa (FL). For additional information, email swoodworth@embargmail.com or call 813-205-5247...

"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
David Schwimmer (44), k.d. lang (49), Maxine Nightingale (58), Stephanie Powers (68), Pat Buchanan (72), David Blatt aka Jay Black (72) and Earl "Speedo" Carroll (73)...

Timeline Countdown: Today is Election Day, Game 6 of the World Series will be played tomorrow night in San Francisco, 5 nights until standard time (clocks back one hour) starts & 23 days until Thanksgiving...


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