Tell The Truth

Tell The Truth

This week I have a message to those people who are in the advertising and marketing world and I am going to also apply it to those of you who are simply in the business world.

The message is one your parents, pastor and teachers told you repeatedly from the time you could talk.

Tell The Truth.

I know, there are people who will say that what they are saying is their version on The Truth, but some things are simply untrue.  They are often buried in fine print, or fast talking disclaimers, or sometimes just claims that are bogus and outright lies.  You might get away with these because the person you are telling them to, doesn’t know any better.

Here’s what got me on this little rant today.

Along with being the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, I also serve on the Board of Directors at a local Non-Profit organization.  As the only board member with a background in media and marketing, our board and Executive Director asks me for guidance in those areas.

A few years ago, a local TV station approached our Executive Director with a proposal to buy commercials on their television station and I offered to review it before our Executive Director signed anything.

What I did first however was go through an exercise we call a Marketing Strategy Model.

The Marketing Strategy Model is a template from the radio stations sales consultants that is one of the best ways to determine what to buy because it gives you a measuring stick to use when evaluating advertising proposals that ad salespeople try and get you to buy.

Creating a Marketing Strategy Model for the Non-Profit took a couple of meetings and some really in-depth questioning and research, but it was well worth it.

When I did this a few years ago, and then we looked at the TV station advertising proposal, we saw that their advertising sales rep was way off base and the proposal did not meet the real needs for our Non-Profit.  Our Executive Director asked me if there were any media recommendations I would make.

Now I knew ahead of time that WOWO radio was likely the best choice for them to reach the people for their need but that was because of my media background and insider access to rating and demographic data.  If I was working for another radio station, I would still recommend WOWO because it was the best fit for the needs we uncovered while creating the Marketing Strategy Model for this Non-Profit that I serve as a Member of their Board of Directors.

The need that this Non-Profit has is for volunteer drivers. They have all the other bases covered, but the work they do relies on volunteer drivers.

One of the other Board Members suggested earlier this year that we look at diversifying our marketing outreach.  WOWO is a conservative news talk radio station which is highly popular because this part of the state of Indiana has a conservative leaning population, politically speaking.

This other Board Member suggested we look at getting the word out about needing volunteers by using the more liberal leaning public radio station which also broadcasts a mostly news and talk format during the day.  I think it’s a good radio station too and I often listen to it on weekends for some of the Public Radio shows that are both entertaining and informative.

As the media advisor on our board, I was sent a copy of the proposal for the Non-Profit by the public radio station and as I read through the 2 page document, red lights started going off in my brain.

I knew that one line on the first page was a lie.  That one lie cast doubt on everything else in the document.  It was mentioned as a simple fact that could not be fact-checked unless you had access to the rating database that I have because of working in the local radio business.

It was also an un-necessary lie.

Here’s what it said:

W— Listeners (90,000 in NE IN) are highly engaged in the community.

I am not calling them out by name, but there is only one local Public Radio station, you can look it up.

They don’t have 90,000 listeners in Northeast Indiana. They have less than half that many.

I did my research and looked at monthly rating data that goes back 16 months, to 2020, and none of the months showed they had close to 90,000 weekly listeners.

If their underwriting director had been truthful and said “we have over 40,000 weekly listeners” that would have been a credible statement.

And honestly, for the needs of this Non-Profit, the total number of listeners is not as important as the actions those listeners take when hearing the message about needing volunteer drivers.

That’s another challenge when using Public Radio or Public TV stations.  They are prohibited from selling commercials that have distinct call to action in the message or a comparative statement.  They position themselves as commercial-free because their broadcast licences don’t allow them to sell regular ads.  They are underwriting messages, which are pretty bland.

If our Non-Profit was looking at creating community awareness with a branding message, this could have been an option to consider. However there is a current urgent and on-going need that needs to be filled and that is recruiting volunteer drivers.  That was determined a few years ago when I helped them create a Marketing Strategy Model.

There were other disadvantages of using the Public Radio Station versus WOWO along with the limitations of the message.

The audience size, no matter how I sliced it, was half of the WOWO audience and for the money, the Public Station offered only 6 or 7 ads per week compared to 30 per week with WOWO.

When I shared this insider information with the Executive Director of the Non-Profit, she also told me about how she had to make multiple calls and emails inquiring about advertising before the Public Station returned her calls and then he was incomplete in answering questions.

No matter what business you are in, always be truthful, if you lose your credibility, you have nothing.

And if you want information on using WOWO, I won’t make you beg for it.  My pledge to you is no less than 1 or two business days is the longest you’ll have to wait.  Most likely, it will take minutes, or hours, not days or weeks.   Scott@WOWO.com is your direct line to me.

 

“The 2022 Sales Lift-Off” January 13th

“The 2022 Sales Lift-Off” January 13th

 

Are you in the radio business? Join us for this very special national event that I’m honored to be a part of “The 2022 Sales Lift-Off” January 13th !

Join us live on the Clubhouse app next Thursday, January 13, 2022, @ 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific for a revenue-focused, idea-rich sales event for sales managers, market managers, and local sellers.

Loyd Ford from Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works and Alec Drake will host a sales panel to discuss revenue plans for Q1, recruiting your next salesperson, and actionable items to help you grow revenue in 2022.

OUR January 13th ROUNDTABLE

–> Chuck Wood – VP/GM of Delta Media Corp., a multi-media company comprised of seven television and nine radio stations in Broussard, Louisiana
–> Scott Howard – General Sales Manager at WOWO Radio/Federated Media, Ft. Wayne, Indiana

– Actionable sales ideas – Recruiting Strategies – Get Your 22 Momentum

OUR January 13th ROUNDTABLE


–> Chuck Wood – VP/GM of Delta Media Corp., a multi-media company comprised of seven television and nine radio stations in Broussard, Louisiana

–> Scott Howard –  General Sales Manager at WOWO Radio/Federated Media, Ft. Wayne, Indiana

– Actionable sales ideas – Recruiting Strategies – Get Your 22 Momentum

If you don’t have the app, go here: https://www.clubhouse.com/

$5000

$5000

As we approach the end of 2021, I’m looking to add to my advertising sales team at WOWO Radio.  I just started running a radio ad that mentions a $5000 sign-on bonus going to the next person who qualifies that I hire.

Here’s the text of the ad or if you would like to hear it, listen to the audio clip in the podcast:

It’s true. Everyone is hiring. But you’re not just anyone. You’re a self-motivated, over-achiever who’s looking for a new career home. Have you considered that home might be right here, working for your favorite radio station? The legendary WOWO radio has been making an impact on our community nearly a century, and I’m looking for our next radio sales account executive to join our growing team.

This is Scott Howard, General Sales Manager for WOWO radio. We invest in you before day one on the job: it starts when you take our free sales talent assessment.  Text sales to 46862. That’s sales to 46862 to receive your free talent assessment. With only one sales opening, do it right now! If you wait, you’ll also miss out on the five thousand dollar, $5000, $5000 sign on bonus. That’s right – a five thousand dollar sign on bonus for the next WOWO account executive. Text sales to 46862 so we can start investing in you at Federated Media; or send me an email: scott@wowo.com.

Federated Media  an equal opportunity employer.

6 Lessons Learned From Surviving A Pandemic

6 Lessons Learned From Surviving A Pandemic

Now that we’ve made it this far in a once in a century pandemic, I thought I’d share with you a piece that I wrote for radio insiders.

First, the backstory.

This summer, radio consultant Loyd Ford reached out to me to be a guest columnist on his website that is designed for people in the radio industry.  People who work at radio stations on the air or behind the scenes.  I’ve done both but for the past couple of decades, what I do is not on the radio with the exception of a few ads I voice on WOWO radio where I am the General Sales Manager.

So what I am about to share was written for a very specific niche audience, however I believe you too will perhaps get some insight and ideas for you and your business.

6 Lessons Learned During A Pandemic was first published earlier this month at https://rainmakerpathway.com/free-blog/f/6-lessons-learned-from-surviving-a-pandemic

At the beginning of 2020, none of us thought that Surviving a Pandemic would be on our to do list, but sure enough, it rose to the top of the surprises for the year.

Now that we are in year two and continuing to battle the lingering effects of the Coronavirus that still rears it’s ugly head and will impact the communities we work and live in, I’ve got a few hints on how to move forward, no matter what happens next.

1. Pivot for your people. Pivot was an overused word in 2020, but it was appropriate. We are in the people business, otherwise we would not be needed. When our radio stations needed to allow our air talent to broadcast from home, our engineers made it possible. When our sales and office support staff needed to stop coming to the office and needed some leeway to accommodate kids at home instead of in school, we worked with them instead of being inflexible.

2. Don’t dwell on the past. In Northern Indiana, we saw our weekly revenue reports going from our best ever, to being cut in half, and then negative numbers. Weeks went by with only a fraction of the new business that we had been used to and had budgeted coming in. Instead of getting stuck there, our company made some cuts and also adjusted. When we closed the books on 2020, we finished further ahead than we thought we would when everything hit the fan in March 2020.

3. Create a Plan B, Plan C & Plan D. This is a lesson that I’ve had to relearn and apply more than ever. If you never have to use the alternative plans, fantastic. However the process of creating the alternative plans helped us leap forward and update practices that needed to be revised.

4. Care about your business partners. I gave my sales team the latitude to do what they felt was needed to help their customers. Some got reduced spot rates, some received extra no charge ads. Some had to suspend their ads because they were shut down and had no way to make money. We ran free ads informing our listeners and their customers what was going on. Meanwhile we heard about other local broadcasters that stuck to the letter of the law and refused to help their advertisers because they were trying to hang on to their radio revenue. In the end, the business owners remembered who cared and we have stronger and more robust relationships with them.

5. Adapt to the new ways. Video conferencing was never really on my to do list for 2020, although I was familiar with Zoom because of a client I meet with who does a weekly Zoom meeting with her marketing team across the country. Now video calls are another tool for connecting. In the retail world, they adapted to curb side pick-up and delivery. What ways can we adapt to make life easier for people to do business with us?  We also added an online payment portal in 2020.

6. Follow the Basics. No matter what the circumstances there are basics we need to do every week, like prospect, meet, present, sign, and service. Repeat. Business owners need and want our help to make bring them customers.

Our Guest Expert

Scott Howard is the General Sales Manager of WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana, one of 6 local stations owned by Federated Media. WOWO is nearly 100 years old and continues to be both the most listened to station and top billing station in both our company and also in Fort Wayne.

Scott has been with WOWO since 2013 and his background includes sales and management positions in both Indiana and Detroit after starting his broadcasting career on the air and in programming a few decades ago.

Since 2004 Scott has been writing and publishing media and marketing insights every week at https://www.scotthoward.me/and launched the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast also updated weekly with over 200 episodes under 10 minutes each at https://podcasts.federatedmedia.com/show/scott-howard-media-marketing/

You can find him online by Googling, “ScLoHo” which is his online persona. Besides leading, teaching, training and mentoring the WOWO Local Sales Team, he also is called upon the guest lecture at area colleges and universities annually.

 

Thank you Loyd for the opportunity and I will be contributing to his website regularly in the future.

Audio Insights

Audio Insights

Of the 5 senses most of us are born with, some have different filtering properties.

Those 5 human senses are

  • Taste
  • Touch
  • Sight
  • Hearing
  • Smell

Some of these might diminish as we get older, the most common ones are sight and hearing. Others vary depending on the individual as my wife’s sense of smell is much stronger than mine.  

In the media and marketing world that I work with it’s usually the sense of sight and hearing that are most important.  And there is one huge difference.  

We can close our eyes and stop the visual messaging, but our ears are always listening.  Even when we are dead asleep, we can be woken by an unexpected sound, right?

A recent report  offers insights on different audio and why people listen to them.

Traditional AM/FM Radio,  Owned Music such as CDs, Vinyl Albums, Downloaded MP3s , Music Streaming Services and Podcasts were all examined.

In my role as the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio, a news/talk station that’s nearly 100 years old, I always find these independent studies interesting and they often confirm what I already know.

There has always been an interesting relationship between music radio stations and “record companies”.  When I worked for music stations we relied on the records/cds/mp3s for our programming.  The record companies relied on the music radio stations to play and promote their recordings because it led to sales of their product.  

There has always been a segment of the population that would find ways to get their music without either paying for it, or avoid commercials and the reality is that Never Radio group is actually a tiny percentage of the population.  Most of us are consumers of multiple sources of audio.

Let’s dig in to the research.

AM/FM Radio stands alone as the audio most widely used to ‘get information’ and ‘feel connected. Podcast listeners most commonly listen to satisfy their curiosity: they listen ‘to learn something new’ but also ‘to be entertained’ and podcasts are the only audio type where many also listen ‘to be inspired.’

WOWO radio accomplishes this with our news talk format and our Federated Media Podcast network includes both archived highlights and interviews along with original content.  On a personal or side note, the growing popularity of podcasts fits in with the current trend to On Demand entertainment that so many of us have been doing with TV viewing.

The top seven activities taking place while listening to AM/FM radio are: commuting by car, shopping/running errands by car, relaxing at home, working, doing chores/gardening, eating breakfast and driving kids to school/activities.

Traditional thinking has been that the most listened to times for radio stations is “drive times” because people are listening  as they drive back and forth to work. Looking at the rating data I have for WOWO radio however, our listenership remains strong all day long.

AM/FM radio again carves out a distinct profile, most frequently riding shotgun as listeners commute, shop or run errands in their cars. Listeners to the other types of audio are more homebound, being most likely to listen while ‘relaxing at home.’ Many listeners to podcasts and owned music also listen in the car, unlike music streamers where data charges likely get in the way. AM/FM Radio serves a particularly distinct set of needs and use cases, reaching listeners when they are seeking information and connection and when they are out and about.

Also unique to the talk radio format is what I call “appointment listening”.  Some of the most loyal talk radio listeners tune in daily to hear what their favorite talk show host has to share on WOWO.  Music radio listeners are less likely to do this and may tune out if the station plays a song they don’t like or too many commercials in a row.

Want to know more about how to invite our listeners to become your customers?  Contact me, Scott Howard  with an email. Scott@WOWO.com is my email.  I also have sponsorship opportunities for our podcasts along with on the radio, and if you’ve ever considered doing your own podcast, we have the tools and technology for that too.

 

 

State of The Station for WOWO Summertime 2021

State of The Station for WOWO Summertime 2021

Here we are in the middle of June 2021 and this weeks article and podcast is a little different from my usual weekly updates.

Today an update on what is going on at WOWO radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from an insiders perspective as we peak behind the curtain and give you some insights.

First a bit about me, just so you know who I am and how I know what I’m going to tell you.  I joined WOWO Radio in December, 2013 as the 5th person on a five person advertising sales team. WOWO is one of 6 radio stations owned by Federated Media in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I not only survived, but thrived.  I won my first Feddy Award in 2014 for Supergoal.  Feddy’s are the Federated Media achievement awards, like Grammy’s or Emmy’s.

As the years went by, I continued to grow and I won my second Feddy Supergoal Award in 2019 for Federated Media’s Fort Wayne division.  These Supergoal awards are only given to one person each year in Fort Wayne and they do the same at our Federated Media South Bend division.  I also won my third Feddy in 2019, but this was company wide, not just our division.  This Feddy Award is Account Manager of the Year for our company.

The past nearly 8 years is just a portion of my background in radio, advertising and marketing.  I started while I was in high school on the radio and worked for a few other stations on the air and on the advertising business side for a few decades.  Finally, I will mention that right after I won my second and third Feddy Awards, I was promoted to become the General Sales Manager for WOWO Radio and now lead the team to help businesses connect with our listeners and convert them into customers.

Now let’s move on to what I really wanted to share with you.

WOWO radio is nearly 100 years old.  2025 will mark a century of WOWO radio.  The past 20 or so years, WOWO has been a news and talk formatted radio station.  Since I joined in 2013 we’ve had a couple of changes in our programming line-up:

Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher was on until August 2018 from 5am to 9am.  Charly unexpectedly passed away while on vacation and our company had to scramble and plan at the same time.  Charly was a beloved radio icon who I worked with when I was on the air at our sister station WMEE and when the opportunity arose for a new morning anchor on WOWO, Charly was given the opportunity which he handled marvelously.  He was in his early 60’s when he died and Federated Media had a couple of guest hosts as they did a local and national search for his replacement.  Turns out our news director, Kayla Blakeslee was selected and Kayla has been doing an outstanding job these past 3 years.  Looking forward, Kayla has decades ahead of her as the host of WOWO’s fast paced morning news show.  Her advertisers are getting results and her personal endorsement clients are thrilled.

National talk show host Glenn Beck kicks off the WOWO Mid-Day Double Play at 9am as he has for years.  Glenn also will endorse local businesses, ask me about it.

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh anchored the noon to 3pm portion of the Mid-Day Double Play on WOWO until February this year.  He passed away a little over a year after announcing he had lung cancer.  Rush was able to continue his radio show with a rotating cast of fill-in hosts in 2020 when he was off for treatment.  After the announcement of his passing this year, the program continued with hosts playing clips from the Rush radio archives that were woven into the events of the day. 

The Rush Limbaugh program was syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks and while we at WOWO waited to see what Premiere was going to do to replace Rush, we looked around to see what our options were.  Should we wait and see or pick someone local?  Is there someone that we should consider that another network was offering? A lot of activity was going on behind the scenes even before Rush died because we knew we would need a plan.

We needed a plan to satisfy two groups.  The WOWO listeners who were loyal to conservative talk radio in the style of Rush Limbaugh for decades, was one group.  We also wanted to give our advertising partners a radio show that they would want to continue to support.  Now let me share with you something about that.

Not all of our advertisers would be called supporters of the conservative talk programming WOWO offers.  But they see the value in inviting the WOWO listeners to their business.  Advertising on WOWO is a great investment and I’ll have more on that in a moment.

Around the country over 1000 radio stations carried Rush and as we contemplated our options, we also knew the timing would need to be right.  Rush listeners grieved and by continuing with the legacy Rush shows on WOWO, it helped them, I’m sure.  We also did a poll to our database of listeners to see who they wanted and it turns out the listeners top choice was also ours.

Dan Bongino debuted on WOWO and hundreds of other radio stations on Monday May 24th and the response has been excellent.  Dan’s show is not from the Premiere Radio Network so it created a bit of confusion when about three days after Dan debuted, the Premiere network announced they were going to pair Buck Sexton with a guy from the Fox Sports network to co-host from noon to 3pm.  Dan did an excellent job of explaining that they were a different network and he wasn’t going anywhere.

I am very happy with Federated Media’s decision to add Dan Bongino from noon to 3pm and I think you will be too if you listen.

Afternoons on WOWO continue to be the Pat Miller Program.  Pat marked a 20 year milestone on WOWO this year.  He started out hosting a Saturday morning show on WOWO and then took over afternoons from 3pm to 6pm when that daily show became available.

Nights on WOWO continue with a tape delay (by three hours) of Sean Hannity’s radio show from 6pm to 9pm. We have one more change occuring starting next Monday night at 9pm.  Mark Levin returns to WOWO.  Mark is another national conservative talk show host that was on from 9pm to midnight when I started at WOWO and his return is welcomed by all.

Now that you know the line-up, what about our ratings?

Ratings are done by an independent company that surveys people in the Metro Fort Wayne area and provides us with monthly updates.  During my time at WOWO, we have been either number one, two or three out of nearly 30 radio stations in the number that matters most, total number of listeners.  It’s been at least 5 years since we were third and usually we were number two behind our sister station WMEE in total listeners ages 12 and older.  We’ve always been the most listened to station for grown ups.  Well the last rating update has WOWO as the most listened to radio station with over 100,000 listeners every week.  Hat’s off to all of my co-workers in the programming department and news department for that outstanding accomplishment. 

I was asked this week by the manager of one of the largest retailers based in Fort Wayne, how we are doing financially?  Did we take a hit during 2020 and have we started to recover?

Here’s the answer:  March 2020 was when the state of Indiana was told to stay at home to prevent the spread of Covid.  Federated Media made some adjustments and also worked with our advertising partners to help them survive.  Numerous times I have been thanked by our clients for our being sensative to their situations and it has paid off for both them and us.

WOWO’s goals are to not just beat 2020, but to grow beyond our 2019 pre-pandemic levels.  We are doing it.  I have some of the very best advertising and marketing people in our city working for me at WOWO.  We hear it from our advertisers that we really listen, care and respond to what our clients need.  

As you look forward to the rest of 2021 and the years ahead, my pledge to you is to continue that level of service and earn your trust month after month after month.

Email me if you would like more information, Scott@WOWO.com and one more item…

I am looking for just the right person to join our WOWO Advertising Sales Team.  Email me Scott@WOWO.com and I can give you more details on what can be one of the most rewarding careers available in Fort Wayne, Indiana at WOWO Radio.