If Politicians Advertise on the Radio, Should You?

by | Nov 1, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Over the next 5 weeks, I am sharing the 5 most shared articles I’ve published in the past 12 months. As we prepare for the final week of the 2016 Election cycle, this look back on the 2015 election still has some truths to consider:

WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne is recovering from the November elections that we just had a week ago today.   While it was an off year for Federal and state offices there were many local offices up for grabs including City Clerk, Mayor and City Council.

(I’ll tell you why I used the word recovering in a moment.) 2015-election

WOWO has been on the air at 1190 am for 90 years and News/Talk for around 20 years.

As the most listened to radio station by adults combined with the news/talk format, it’s a magnet for politicians to place ads so they can stay in office or upset an incumbent.

We are obligated to accept political advertising from the candidates official campaigns and charge them the same price.  At Federated Media, all of our political advertising is handled by our station General Sales Managers.  I had a candidate contact me and I passed him on to Ben, the G.S.M. for WOWO.

The reason I say recovering is we had to be very creative and work with some of our advertisers who gave us flexibility in when their ads would air to jockey around some of the ads since we have a limited number of ads we can air each week.

Some of the ads that would have aired in October for some advertisers are going to air next week, for example.

Radio ads and yard signs are two of the most popular ways politicians spend money to get elected.  I saw a story last week that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are investing in radio ads for winning primary contests.

Why? Radio works.

But what about T.V.?  Let me dig into what happened in the Fort Wayne City elections last week.

Republican Mitch Harper spent money on radio and T.V. along with plenty of other medias to unseat our Democratic Mayor Tom Henry.  Mitch lost.

One might expect that since the Democratic candidate for Mayor won, many voters would vote a straight ticket and elect Democrats to the other city offices.  Wrong.

The 3 City Council at Large seats were won by Republicans.  I bet the 3 top vote-getters are the 3 that advertised the most on WOWO Radio.  And I suppose that if Republican Mitch Harper had spent more on radio ads and less on TV ads, he could have been preparing for his first term as Mayor of Fort Wayne.

You may not care about politics, but you can learn from the successes and mistakes that our politicians make during a campaign.

Dad, Politics and the Future

Dad, Politics and the Future

by | Nov 3, 2011 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo

November 3rd, 1930.

29 years before I was born, Donald Fredrick Howard was born in Maine.  The 2nd son and third of four children to my grandparents whom I never met because they both passed away before I was born.

In 1998, he passed away after a short battle with cancer.  He was 67 at the time.

In those 37 years that he was my Dad, he had his principles.  And just like the rest of us, he made his mistakes.  But he is remembered more for the impact on the lives of those who knew him.

He was patriotic.  He served in the Navy.  He took me to parades on Memorial Day and the 4th of July and passed along a respect for those who served and for the country that they served.

I’m not sure what he would say exactly if he saw the mess we are in today.

I know that he would be disgusted by the self-serving, lying politicians that are either in office right now, or who want to be in office.

And I echo those sentiments.

I realize that there are plenty of sincere people wanting to serve as elected officials.  But it’s hard to know who is who sometimes.

All we want is truth with a minimum of distortion.

Different points of view are fine, different solutions are fine, but the spin on the truth that occurs on all levels of politics from my city to my country and around the world…

Please stop.

Next week we will have elections in my city for Mayor and other city and county offices.

The sad fact is that so many people who have the power to elect the office holders for the next four years know very little about the candidates, what the role of each office has, and how it all fits together.  It is the political advertising, and to a lesser extent, debates and commentary that will persuade the voters to select one candidate over another.

I’ve only done slightly better.  I have done a decent job of paying attention to all of my choices for Mayor and have spoken with 2 of the 3 who will be on the ballot next week.

I do my best to listen to as many sides of an issue as I can find and look for nuggets of truth.

There are two other notable birthdays later this month.  On November 16th my friend Ron turns 70.  He is surprised to have lived this long as he has now outlived his parents.

The day before, November 15th, my son Jon will be celebrating his 27th birthday, which I find hard to believe.

The future for me, my kids and their kids is in all of our hands. Each of us has an impact on others.

Seek truth in your lives for everyone’s sake.

 (Picture was taken when I was 7 years old with my Dad)