Political advertising helped boost Q3 numbers but it was other growth categories that fueled the increase. Communications/Cellular tops the YTD revenue chart, followed by Auto, Financial Services, TV/Cable, Food, Dept./Discount Stores & Professional Services. RAB states that "Automotive, Financial and Department Store marketers are most notably promoting radio's economic growth. The four top radio categories all registered spending well above the $300 million level in Q3 and the top two (Communications and Automotive) are already above the $1 billion mark for the year to date through September - with Financial Services and TV/Cable all imminently poised to move up to that level. Radio also received a major cash infusion from political advertisers in the final throes of this year's competitive mid-term elections"...
While all of this Q3 and YTD news is welcome, it will still take a more substantial increase in local revenue - radio's bread and butter - that will indicate that the recovery is finally here...
10 Timeline Memories:
1.1906] It's better than a white flag: The "S-O-S" distress signal is adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin...
2.1955] Elvis Money: RCA pays $25,000 to Sam Phillips for the rights to the music of a truck driver from Tupelo (Miss) by the name of Elvis Presley. Colonel Tom Parker tosses in a $5,000 bonus which Elvis spends on a pink Cadillac for his mother ("such a good son")...
3.1963] A day we’d all like to forget but never will: President John Fitzgerald Kennedy is gunned down in Dallas. A day we always remember what we were doing at the time. I was recording a Canada Dry spot at WMID, Atlantic City. LBJ is sworn in as our next president...
4.1977] SST service starts: Regular passenger service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde begins on a trial basis...
5.1980] “Happy Trails“: Aging blond bombshell Mae West suffers a fatal stroke at 87…1997] INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, 37, is found hanging in his Sydney, Australia hotel suite…
6.1986] Baby champ: Mike Tyson becomes the youngest world heavyweight champion by KOing Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas (Tyson is 20 years, 4 months old which is his biological age, not his mental age)...
7.1995] Toys are us: The first Disney/Pixar film is the first feature film made entirely from computer graphics: Toy Story - will earn more than $361 million world-wide...
8.1998] Dr. Death: “60 Minutes” airs videotape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian unethically administering lethal drugs to a terminally ill patient...
9.1999] Going to hall: Wayne Gretzky ("The Great One") is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame with 61 NHL records to his credit...
10.2005] Night night, Nightline: Ted Koppel hosts his final edition of ABC News' Nightline. The show continues without Koppel...
Music Memories:
- 1964] Number One on this date: "Leader of the Pack" - Shangri-Las...1971] "Theme from Shaft" - Isaac Hayes...
Commentary:
The 2010 Third Annual New York Voiceover Mixer is coming up on Saturday, December 4 at Tonic, 727 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. Here's your chance to mingle with top voiceover industry people from around the world at the east coast's premiere networking event! Learn to cup your hand over your ear and enunciate loudly and clearly with as much resonance as you can muster. Admission is free with your official RSVP by email. RSVP via Facebook will not guarantee admission. Click here for more information...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Scarlett Johansson (26), Boris Becker (43), Mariel Hemingway (49), Jamie Lee Curtis (52), Steve Van Zandt (60), Sandy Alderson (63), Billie Jean King (67) and Robert Vaughn (78)...
Timeline Countdown: 3 days until Thanksgiving, 9 days until Hanukah, 29 days until winter and 32 shopping days until Christmas...
