INSIDE RADIO READER POLL
Inside Radio is conducting a Reader Poll on broadcast radio spotloads. Here are (edited) reader comments from that
poll.
Most common comments from my friends and man-on-the-street are, "why are there so many commercials?" We need to figure out a way to
incorporate the spots without it sounding like we're overloading sets or taking too frequent breaks. Both seem to be equally annoying to listeners and
television viewers and cause button pushing. I think if commercials were more engaging instead of just being dumb, listeners would spend the necessary
Unfortunately in small market radio, we can only dictate the market price so much. Yes we have national clients but in towns with populations like ours
30,000 to 40,000 outside of rated metros but we can only price so high. Meaning we can't run fewer spots and offset the loss in revenue with a higher
rate. Would love shorter commercial breaks but we can't afford to.
Spot loads are WAY out of hand.
We run 12 minutes in mornings and 10 minutes the rest of the day. As a side note, it's not just about the minutes, units are just as important if not more
important.
We sell in units so we could have up to 9 minute in an hour, but at most 3 in a spot set... done this since the beginning, 1991.
We are currently using a 60 second max per break imaging. This has worked so far but getting rates up is the problem. Advertisers and listeners love it
but advertisers are willing to pay more.
We have commercial free Mondays!
Too many commercials are a turn off. I work in the business, and I know when I'm listening in my car, once I hear more than 3 commercials(no matter
what the length), I'm hitting that radio dial.
Great question - but it's only a part of the problem. Radio has had a radical "talent-ectomy." Or a "relevance removal." What's on the radio that I can't
get somewhere else - on demand? Ask the people stuck in mile long snow storms on interstates. One was quoted on CNN saying, "I tried tuning my
radio looking for information about the closure - but there was nothing." Do we text up to the minute traffic info to our listeners? (And sponsor it?)
Spots are loud, obnoxious, poorly written & sometimes in FCC violation!!!
stations that go for 2 hours commercial free and then slam the audience with a 10 minute or longer break is doing a dis-service to both the sponsors and
the listeners. We keep our spot breaks down to 4 minutes at a time, do lots of news and weathers and the audience or advertisers have yet to complain.
We have been doing this for the last 15 years.
We can finally play e true value on inventory and stop giving away time by cutting spot loads. It could be the only way to keep listeners.
We will run 12 -14 unit stopsets in 2 breaks per hour. I can do my last break, walk down to the garage, get in my car and drive almost to the airport
before we get back into music!
The number of spots equates to money. So someone must be making a ton of money. In the old days the price went up and the spot load went down. I
run an AM station with no FM at all...So we do not have that problem. Our problem is to get spots ..... period.
Makes it tough to air network programming, too. Network spots plus local equals WAY too many for talkers, approaching 20 minutes.
The main thing Radio needs to focus on is the total number of units per break instead of the number of min. per break.
We run 8-12 min in one stop set at times.
We have always limited commercials to max 3 per stopset, max 3 stopsets an hour. That count includes promos
Local radio loads WAY to many spots together and too many blocks of commercials per hour. In some cases 30 to 40% of hour air time is commercial.
Listener zone out and channel changing.
Syndicated, clock-based programming is one of the root causes of the excessive spot loads. Stations have to fill breaks in the syndicated programs and
mistakenly believe they need to fill the time with commercials, rather than local information, news and weather.
Depending on the format. Talk radio can get away with longer spot loads. I think about three, three minute breaks an hour is about maximum for a
music format.
Clear Channel did this years ago with the "Less is more" campaign
As a small market station reducing our commercial load would mean increasing cost per ad which is hard to do with small advertisers. It would be nice
but not practical.
The listeners need to understand that if they want to listen for free they're going to have to put up with some commercials.
Cable TV subscribers not only pay to watch their television channels but they have to suffer through up to 24 units an hour.
We're at 10:15 per hour. Townsquare in our market--8-11 units per stop. 2-3 stops per hour. Good gravy!
In my opinion the radio industry needs to respond to the evolving marketplace. Consumers are willing to tolerate a certain amount of advertising in
order to receive the content they desire for free. However with the amount of entertainment choices available to people today, the threshold most are
willing to tolerate is growing smaller and smaller. As an industry we should be evolving with the marketplace and running shorter commercials inside
Jimmy De Castro was the best ever at this. In 1998 whenever he bought a radio station (Evergreen/AMFM) he would immediately reduce spotloads to 6
minutes per hour. Salespeople would be forced to sell the spots at nearly double the previous rate. Within weeks the ratings always jumped and it was
no problem justifying or getting the rate. Buyers don't mind paying a premium for their favorite station. The Wall Street folks who dominated radio for
STOP playing those Prostate, Sex Drive, Viagra, Mens Clinic damn commercials. It's disgusting and a complete tuneout. If you still want the money...make
the commercials at least palatable. They are outrageously graphic. "
I can drive house to work and never hear a song on some "music" stations
Radio needs to evaluate spot loads but that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to reduce. On-air clutter is not only a spot issue...it's a clutter issue. To
make sweeping statements that radio needs to reduce would be inappropriate. There are certain listener "limits" and there is a breaking point. If the
national average is over 12 for a music station, then I would agree that reduction is necessary. Otherwise, "reducing spot loads" as a general statement
It's not so much the length of spot breaks that concerns me as the number of messages and units within those spot breaks. Far too often I'm seeing an
abundance of :05, :10, and :15 spots in each break.
Commercial clusters lasting 5-7 minutes create massive turnover, tune-out and frustration on the part of the listener. Helping the client sell more
product has to be in alignment with ratings -- and it is not.
We run unit loads not minutes. With the increased use of :10's, :15's and :30's if your station is running minute loads it will sound really cluttered. On
my station a :15 is a unit and counts against my 12 unit load.
I feel listeners understand that there will be commercials, however, I feel airing more than 3 or 4 in a stopset is a turn-off. Run 8 to 12 minutes, but no
more than 3 minutes at a time
You will not have too many listeners when you have a heavy spot load. I just raise my spot rate assuring my client is getting a quality medium of
advertising without the clutter.
Shame on radio for allowing spot loads to grow to 8 to 12 units per break. It's not reasonable to expect a listener to sit through that. It will take the
IHeart's Cumulus', Townsquares of the industry to make a conscious effort to change the standard. Decrease the spot load and be patient enough to
allow it to drive rate.
Have not counted so unknown how many it actuslly is but it is too many.
Could use more breaks and fewer spots per break. Listeners don't stay around for 5-8 spots in a row but they will for 3. Play the right music and you
won't have to try to be Pandora. Better yet allow stations to shorten songs that stop being interesting or run out of lyrics after 3 minutes
With the high demand for in content live reads I think the spot loads could be reevaluated to sound more like lives and less like the clutter that many
listeners tune out. It would help bring value back to pre-recorded commercials in the eyes of advertisers. Something needs to be done to help make
commercials in the "spot break" valuable again.
Lower the spotload-then we'll talk about QUALITY.
Radio should really shift to a different sales model, and eliminate the commissioned sales employees.
In diary markets, Cumulus and Iheart continue to add inventory, especially the last two weeks of each month. I believe if radio would hold or even
decrease units then rates, quality of programming and overall product would rise.
We typically have 4 spotsets 6am-7pm with 3-4 ads per break (limit 3 1/2 minutes). We use having shorter breaks as a selling point in our resultsoriented sales efforts. In our listener surveys, there are few complaints about quantity of ads. It's quality of ads that gets complaints - specifically fillertype national ads (think daytime or late-night TV ads).
Spot loads are less important in small markets. If the commercials are relevant to the listener they don't mind listening for local information on products
and services. Many positive feedback from listeners has come when we have run the heaviest spot loads. Rarely do we exceed 15 minutes per hour,
except during local news blocks.
Stations that are playing with lower spotloads are worth watching. Part of the strategy of the easy listening stations of a generation ago was four two
minute breaks (with a hard cap on the maximum spot load.) This may still be valid today for the right format.
Two breaks an hour is now stupid...4 or 5 short breaks...two breaks an hour worked in 1990...not 2015...there too many places listeners will go with 810:minute spot breaks
It is the topic sales doesn't like to discuss but programmers and listeners will tell you, it needs to be discussed and corrected. You can't say, We ONLY run
fourteen minutes an hour but don't include the over and above spots like barter, network and trade spots. Listeners don't see the sales orders. They
hear the end result. 6-7 minutes a break plus a promo for programming plus another 1-2 minutes of :15-:30 spots is ridiculous. Book comes out and the
It's easy to compete with groups that air 9 minute stop sets, at times w 15 units. We record the station break and play it back for an advertiser. His/her
commercial as the 12th unit in a stop-set creates a reaction that speaks for itself. Nevertheless, it doesn't bode well for our industry, and the client
comes away with 'tried radio, it didn't work'.
Not likely to happen on any scale with current corporate owners. It will take zero base budgeting and a complete reboot of expenses. Strong brands may
survive anyway..others?
I would not sit through 6 mintues stopsets twice an hour. How do we expect the listeners to do that. If you are the 4th,5th, or 6th advertisers in a cluster
you have probably wasted your money. We are messing with our listeners and our advertisers by doing this.
Spot loads are only important if your content is weak. Great content will always keep a listener, EVEN through the commercials....every time. Otherwise,
if you limit commercials JUST to air more mediocre content or music, you are no better than an I-pod or benign music service.
When I programmed Y-100/Miami from 1974-1983 we stuck to that spot load religiously. It worked well for both programming and sales.
Over commercialization in an era of ever-increasing options for listeners will continue to drive them away from AM/FMs."
Look, station owners/operators all know that listeners peal away when they know that 6 or more commercials are coming next. That's why they have
buttons on the radio — to get to another station in an instant. Now with satellite radio available, it is wise to re-evaluate the number of commercials.
We have always kept our spot loads to 5 minutes per hour at our station, with some exceptions from time to time. Our listeners appreciate that they are
never more than a commercial or two away from our music. It works for us.
How are advertisers supposed to hit CPP goals when you run 6 units an hour? if they don't meet their goals they won't use us and that drives more
money to digital. Is that the plan? Also paying 100% premium to be the only spot in the stop set is great for SOME advertisers (national)... but for the
majority of small Mom and Pop shops in our town this won't work. We are idiots. Spend more time focusing on doing good production and good radio
Why don't you guys write something truthful for a change instead of tip toeing around the challenges faced in the industries so not to piss off your
corporate friends? Greed, Managers that only care about their retirement and talent that couldn't entertain themselves out of a wet paper bag. Spot
loads are out of control. 27 units in morning drive! 23 units in afternoon drive. All that matters is the share price. I dare you write something real for a
Our stations had previously focused on units per break/hour as well as minutes but the goal of meeting low unit or minute expectations has not come
close to meeting the reality of sell-out and the reluctance of, specifically, NATIONAL clients to be flexible on either daypart or rate that comes from
demand on less available inventory. It feels like the attempt to limit breaks has been replaced with a "just get it on" mentality, at the expense of the
When you're billons of dollars in debt, you can't make a good decision for your listeners. It's totally and completely about the dollar and the debt. You
HAVE to play LOTS of commercials. These companies have screwed themselves. 9-10 units per set is crazy. PPM be damned, no listeners wants to hear
that. Look at the research. If I was advertiser 10 in that break, I would be extremely pissed. Don't get me started on the quality of the spots either. Most
The real problem for the most part is not how many commercials we run but the quality of the ads. Compelling ads that speak to the listeners will not
be a tune-out.
Radio needs to reevaluate how they address their local market.
We need better commercials. That is the top priority.
There is little or no rate integrity in the Ft Myers/Naples market except for a few radio stations! These spineless losers have lowered their rates so much
that they have caused the overall MKMR market revenue to dramatically drop off and the SQAD CPPs to plummet! Aggressive and predatory media
buyers know that they can buy radio dirt cheap here so they can hit their CPP goals and have money left over! iHeart and Beasley are the biggest rate
For us, hourly commercial minutes have not increased, but the number of units has -- as more and more advertisers demand 30s, 15s & 10s. So the yield
of stopsets goes up (charging 70% of the :60 sec rate for a :30... yet listener fatigue of sitting thru over 10 commercial messages in a 6 minute stopset
becomes more of a retention issue.
Spotloads vary by daypart- 14:30 max in morning drive, 13-14 in other dayparts. These include all paid sponsorships including traffic, etc. There are no
limits on number of units. We need to address this as well as 15s and 30s become more prevalent. Impressions matter too.
here we go again. seems I remember stations reducing spotloads which then ultimately didn't impact ratings. how you really gonna know with other
(uncontrollable) factors influencing ratings
IT'S NOT THE MINUTES THAT NECESSARILY HURT, IT'S THE UNITS....A 12 MINUTE HOUR COULD BE AS MANY AS 18-20 UNITS, 9-10 PER STOP SET FOR A
TWO COMMERCIAL CLUSTER HOUR.
The genre of the station dictates the amount of commercial time, talk news has more breaks but shorter in length. I work for a company that has 15
radio stations and each is different. The break length isn't as much of an issue as the number of spots within the break. I would rather hear 6 one
minute commercials over 12 thirty second commercials.
There should not be 3-4-5 minute "spotload breaks" Commercial matter should be woven into the programming at 30-60-90 second "break" more
often
I personally would love to see music stations go "retro" and use shorter, more frequent breaks. Instead of two 6 minute breaks an hour, as a listener I'd
much rather hear four 3 minute breaks an hour. And I believe the ideal would be four 2 minute breaks an hour. In today's ADD world that would be a
much more effective strategy. Advertisers would get better results and listeners wouldn't even think of switching stations b/c of commercial breaks!
We run 9 units per hour. Our biggest issue is the competition runs 12+ / hour plus lowers rates dramatically which hurts the industry and makes it a little
harder to sell local businesses on our higher rates.
The current atmosphere of anarchy will destroy the medium if left to burn. Radio's core fans continue to beg and plead for commercial reduction -- or
they just leave. More frustrating: our industry's wise, old leaders respond with claims that "listeners say they don't like twenty minutes of spots each
hour, but they know less than we do. Audiences don't really know what they want -- we know better. Research says so." Really?
Our average spot load in one break averages 8-12 minutes.
I was always keeping a spot load of 9 minutes in peak hours but my competition ran 12minutes or more. I couldn't convince buyers that we had a better
commercial environment for them. They just would buy CPP.
I am a former radio exec, now just a listener. Even I find myself listening more to Internet and satellite radio, primarily because of the number of
commercials on traditional radio.