Talk of the Town

By:style='mso-tab-count:2'> Rick Compton

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>It used to be that people gave and gathered opinions around

cook fires and at village water sources. The 20th century moved much of that

discussion onto media, where fewer and fewer opinions were distributed to more

and more people. While most didn’t mind the narrowing of opportunities for

discourse, others did. They met, in bistros, barbershops and around street

corner soapboxes to speak their two cents and to hear where the buck stops.

They believed that somehow, by offering their opinions and critiquing other

opinions, that their world will be enhanced.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>For the past fifty years, talk radio has become a common

meeting ground for the opinionated. The people who call in range from the

pensive to the pedantic, from agoraphobic kooks to people with decades of real

accomplishment in the topic of the day. Qualifications become less important,

as hosts evaluate each opinion on merit alone.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Talk radio is not made up only of hosts and callers, though.

The business substance of talk radio is the listener, who is most often silent.

Only a small percentage of people who tune in to talk radio actually call. Most

just like to listen.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>The cumulative total of these elements make talk radio a

unique medium. This uniqueness creates some important opportunities for

businesses to communicate to their customers.

none;text-autospace:none'>12.0pt;font-family:Gilde'>Who Is Listening...and Why

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>In this region, talk radio has been around for nearly 50

years, according to Joe Schwartzel, president of Meridian Broadcasting, Inc.

Meridian owns or operates WINK, WNOG and a smattering of other stations in

Southwest Florida and claims this longevity for itself. “The audience that talk

radio generates here is significant,” he says. “[It is] quite successful in

terms of the results it generates for the advertisers.”

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>The make up of the audience is striking: nearly two-thirds

of talk radio listeners make more than $50,000 and almost three-fourths have

been to college, according to Schwartzel. Fifty-five percent are male.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Summarily, talk radio reaches rich, educated, involved

decision makers.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Talk radio’s yin to this yang is its issue-based

programming. Nanci Cruise is the former program director for WGUF, a talk radio

station serving Naples. Cruise saw local issues as those most compelling for

her listeners and her client advertisers.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>“It’s a whole different thing,” she says. “Talk is so

different from music radio.” Cruise’s strategy was to become as involved in the

community as she could be. She lists WNOG’s John Nocera, former city

councilman and candidate for mayor, and WGUF's Tim Constantine, the county

commissioner, as local talk show hosts with special interest for listeners.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Cruise says, “What we are trying to do here is get as

involved in a community as we can.” Christopher Spiro, as president and

creative director of Spiro & Waites, an

advertising marketing and public relations firm, is ambivalent about

talk radio as a medium. In this market, at this time, he sees value. “When they

come down from up North,” he says referring to the monied snowbirds who are

every medium’s target, “they tune in to find Rush [Limbaugh] and G. Gordon

[Liddy].” Spiro cautions his clients that the success of a talk show ad

campaign is directly related to how controversial the talk show host can be. He

tells of his client Laredo & Lefty’s Salsa which languished at number 32 in

the national marketplace until Limbaugh got involved. “He held up the salsa, said he had tried it,” says Spiro. Thirteen weeks later,

Laredo and Lefty’s Salsa had moved to number fourteen nationally. The cost of

such movement? “A significant investment,” Spiro reveals, “in the high six figures.”

none;text-autospace:none'>12.0pt;font-family:Gilde'>Of Budgets And Brouhahastyle='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Gilde'>

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Spiro does not advocate campaigns using talk radio

exclusively. “You cannot dump all your dollars into any one medium,” he says.

“You need a good mix.”

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Talk show host and politician John Nocera (a.k.a. Dr.

Johnny) has a unique perspective on the medium. He is also a business owner, of

Supreme Auto in Naples, and buys media.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>“In my business I spend 3 percent of my gross sales which is

about $70,000 to $80,000,” he says. “Of that, I put 50 percent in radio and the

rest in print and TV.” Nocera’s talk show, he boasts, is the longest running

show -- 16 years -- on the oldest station in the region -- WINK/WNOG. “I’ve

explored the market for 23 years,” he says, “and I’ve found talk radio to be

the most effective way of advertising.”

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>For some advertisers, mostly those not familiar with the

medium, it is hard to swallow that they may be underwriting sentiments opposing

their own. Nocera is sanguine about the potential for conflict. “That happens,”

he says referring to hosts that may discuss something an advertiser might find

offensive. “Everybody is entitled to their opinion.” But Nocera believes the

marketplace works for ideas as well as it does for goods. “That’s what makes

talk radio unique. It gives the opportunity for open dialogue. If people are

not happy with what the host is saying, I guarantee they’ll be calling him, and

you’ll always be able to see both sides of the story.”

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Cruise points out that advertisers buy access to audiences;

they don’t buy editorial content. “We will not change our views to please a

client.” But she is sensitive to the reality of human nature. “We always try to

present both sides.”

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Meridian’s Schwartzel does not see much of a conflict

between ideas and ads. “Most of the issues that talk radio discusses are not

product oriented.” Print media may run a story in which a particular automobile

is described as unsafe in the same issue as full-page car ads for the same

product. In this regard, he’s found, “Talk radio is no different than

newspapers.”

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>Talk radio works. In this market, there are at least six

stations with a talk format, probably more than any other single format. The

oldest continuous format here is talk, and the oldest continuous show is a talk

show. They are all possible because advertisers foot the bill.

text-autospace:none'>font-family:Gilde'>And advertisers don’t foot the bill unless goods get sold.