by Scott Howard | Jul 1, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
The summer of 2015 update on advertising with WOWO Radio continues today with an update on what my manager calls, “My Secret Sauce”. 
When I joined WOWO’s sales team in 2013, most of the others were focusing on offering 60 second commercials, which as I mentioned yesterday are about $100 each. I needed something else to help businesses get exposure and after a few months started selling another advertising option on WOWO.
10 second live sponsorships. Now these were being included with the advertising campaigns that my co-workers were offering. I didn’t invent these, however…
I had not seen these as the primary method of getting the message out on the radio. The 10 second live sponsorships were a secondary, not a primary vehicle for most of our advertisers on WOWO.
I flipped it around.
Here’s why:
On WOWO, these 10 second live sponsorship messages are embedded in the programming elements. The sponsorships are of News, Weather, Traffic, or Sports and are read live during WOWO’s primetime hours. That’s weekdays between 5am and 6pm.
Depending on the business and the message we want listeners to hear, many times you don’t need a minute. 10 seconds does the trick.
What is the advantage of a 10 second live sponsorship on WOWO over a 60 second commercial on WOWO?
The first thing that stands out is the price. Instead of $100, how about $50? Now I am treading on dangerous ground right now, and here’s why:
Some businesses and organizations need a full minute to get their message out. Unless your message can be communicated in 10 seconds, don’t try this.
Here’s the other warning I have for you. Instead of trying to be cheap and going with the 10’s only to save money, use the same amount of money, but buy more ads. $2000 can get you 20 60 second ads, or $2000 can get you between 40 and 50 10 second ads.
There are plenty of additional considerations that we need to talk about too, including the competitive landscape both in your area and on the radio. The call to action, the simplicity or complexity of your message, to name just a few more.
I’ve talked about this in the past and my co-workers have been including more and more of these 10 second live sponsorship messages in the marketing solutions that they have been offering their clients, which means…
The price for 10 second live sponsorships on WOWO has gone up. When I started, we didn’t even have a set price, we had our own internal guidelines. But just last month, due to the success of “My Secret Sauce”, we had to pay closer attention to how many 10 second live sponsorship messages we had available and include the price on our rate card.
The rate card for WOWO is a living document that is updated weekly. It tells me how many 60 second commercials are available during each of our primetime programs and what the price is for the remaining commercial slots that are not sold each week. Last month that rate card added a couple of lines for the 10 second live sponsorship messages. Before, I could offer these at a rate ranging from $20 to $40 each. Today, those prices are controlled by the number of spots we have left. $50 is now the top end, but we’re more likely to be able to price them at $40 each if we reserve the time in advance.
The reason the demand for these 10 second live sponsorship messages is increasing is because they work. Even with the price increase, they will work, and I’ll be glad to show you how this could be the right marketing solution for you.
by Scott Howard | Jun 30, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
The summer update of Advertising with WOWO Radio continues today with a smack of reality. When I first revealed the cost of advertising on WOWO in Fort Wayne back in February, I mentioned that there was some wiggle room.
That’s changed a bit. 
Advertising on WOWO with a full 60 second commercial during our most listened to hours, what we call primetime is $100 per minute.
That is the base price when we are about 85% sold out. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what type of organization you run, we price our advertising around this $100 a minute price tag. Our prices are based on inventory. If we are only 75% sold out, then I could sell you an advertising schedule at a lower cost per commercial.
In February that $100 price had some flexibility. With some careful planning and long range thinking, I was able to put some advertising partners on WOWO for less than $100 a minute. Not so, right now. For example last week, if you wanted to be on WOWO and you didn’t reserve the time a few weeks ahead, you were out of luck unless you paid around $130 to $150 a minute. Every available minute reserved for advertising on WOWO was bought. We were sold out. By paying above $100, we would figure out a way to bump someone else off and reschedule their ads for a future week, but we don’t like to do that and rarely do.
Just the other day I was talking with an advertising partner about all of this and did some calculations. They are currently spending $500 a week for in a combination of 60 second and shorter 10 seconds ads. They reserved their advertising schedule with me in February. A brand new advertising partner who wants to air the same schedule starting in July would have to pay $775 a week.
There is a law of supply and demand in play here. Every week we have people contacting me and others at WOWO who want to get on the air to advertise their business or event. We also have businesses that advertise on WOWO continuously and have for years. I know of a couple of advertisers that have been on WOWO since I started listening as a teenager 30+ years ago.
Why do they continue to advertise on WOWO? Because they are seeing a good return on their investment. This study says an average of $6 return for $1 spent is average for radio which beats the pants off just about any other advertising option. My own experience over the past couple of years with WOWO is that the results with a well planned campaign are significantly higher compared to using other Fort Wayne radio stations I have worked for.
So bottom line is WOWO is in demand by the business community because advertising on WOWO works. Even with the price at $100 a minute, we are producing results that matter for advertisers. With the largest adult audience of any Fort Wayne radio station and those listeners have money to spend and are spending it, using WOWO should be at the top of your list of advertising options.
More in the days to come, but go ahead and reach out to me now to start a conversation about all of this today.
by Scott Howard | Jun 26, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
More insight on advertising with WOWO Radio. Today, a little discussion about why we have so many listeners, what they are listening to, and why.
WOWO is 90 years old this year. My family moved to Fort Wayne when I was 6, but I’m guessing it wasn’t until I was 10 that I had my own clock radio. That would be in the 1970’s and over 1/2 of Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana started their day with WOWO at 1190AM.
WOWO Air Staff from the 1970’s Photo from http://historyofwowo.com/
For several decades from 5 to 7 in the morning, WOWO aired a farm program called the Little Red Barn. WOWO continues to be a powerhouse for the ag community to this day. But when I was growing up it was a combination of news, music, weather and sports, especially Komets Hockey play by play were the elements that made WOWO with their 50,000 watt radio station featuring personalities Bob Sievers, Jack Underwood, Chris Roberts and Ron Gregory the most listened to station in the region.
Twenty years ago WOWO evolved into a talk radio station and now features a combination of national and local talk shows.
They are owned by Federated Media which owns several stations in Fort Wayne along with Warsaw and South Bend/Elkhart, Indiana. Federated Media also has a digital division and entertainment division that I work with too. WOWO is actually the 2nd oldest media outlet that Federated Media owns, they also have a newspaper, the Elkhart Truth that is 125 years old. 
In the early 1980’s I worked on the air on WMEE, a sister station of WOWO and now they are in the same building. When I rejoined Federated Media after 30 years, there were two people from my previous tenure who still work there, Sharon our business manager and Charly Butcher. Charly was doing mornings on WMEE in the 80’s when I left and is the host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO today.
Before going further, here’s where you can listen to WOWO… 1190AM, 92.3 FM, and also online by clicking here. We also are on TV for an hour each morning from 6 to 7 on NBC 33 in Fort Wayne. 
Weekdays on WOWO starts with Charly Butcher and the Fort Wayne Morning News crew featuring News every 15 minutes with April O’Neil, Traffic every 10 minutes with Kylie Havens, and Sports twice an hour with Jim Shovlin. Continuing our coverage of farm news, we have reports from David Kohli twice an hour too. Fort Wayne’s Morning News follows this format from 5 to 9 each weekday with a continuous, fast paced program featuring interviews from our National Representatives in Congress and the Senate along with local leaders including the Mayor. We have news reporters from our national news network Fox and commentaries too. Business News, Weather Updates, and School Delays in bad weather keep things moving.
Charly’s fill-in host is attorney Steve Shine. Steve, like Charly has a Top 40 Music Radio background, also on WMEE a few years before Charly joined WMEE. Steve once ran for Mayor of Fort Wayne, with the slogan, Shine in ’79, on the Democratic ticket. While he did not win, he has made his name in both broadcasting and politics. Steve Shine is the Chair of the Allen County Republican Party.
We have elected a Democratic Mayor the last few elections however Indiana is traditionally a conservative state.
After Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher, WOWO airs Glenn Beck live and Rush Limbaugh live. Local and national news updates along with weather twice an hour air all day and night. Farm updates from our nationally award winning Farm Director Rob Winters air all day too.
At 3pm, WOWO returns to local talk with the Pat Miller Show until 6pm. Evenings on WOWO during the week feature tape delayed versions of national hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. The full-line up is on the WOWO.com website.
Weekends include some “Best of Shows” along with original local shows like Midwest Ag Matters and House Calls on Saturday mornings. WOWO continues to broadcast all the home and away Komet Hockey games and we are also the Fort Wayne radio home for the Indianapolis Colts, the Indy 500 and the Brickyard NASCAR Race.
In summary, people listen to WOWO to feed their brains. The news, talk and information that WOWO provides is what people tune in to hear. I sometimes say the news talk format of WOWO is brain food compared to music formated radio stations that are escapism. When a commercial plays on a music station it can be an irritant, because it is not music. When a commercial plays on WOWO, it is usually not an irritant because we are already listening to people talking.
Over 100,000 people listen to WOWO every week, 95% are adults age 25 and older. And now you know what they listen to and why.
by Scott Howard | Jun 25, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Yesterday I shared an article about my generation of Baby Boomers who range in age from 51 to 69 as I kick off the summer of 2015 update on advertising with WOWO Radio. Today I’ll share with you some of the information we get from the rating service we subscribe to about who listens to News/Talk 1190-92.3 WOWO Radio Fort Wayne.
These are approximate numbers, rounded off since I should not publicly publish the exact count.
Total number of weekly listeners age 12 and older for WOWO is about 125,000.
The Baby Boomers are about 45,000 of that total.
There’s another 35,000+ that are older.
That leaves more than 50,000 adults that are between 21 and 54 years old.
Anyway you slice it, WOWO has a lot of listeners. More than most businesses have customers. Coming up tomorrow, I’ll give you a peek at why they listen as I share what you’ll hear on WOWO in 2015.
by Scott Howard | Jun 24, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Time to lay the groundwork for advertising on WOWO Radio. This is the place that has been my work home since the end of 2013. Today I’m kicking off the summer of 2015 version of Advertising with WOWO Radio.
I’m 55. Technically I am a baby boomer, the generation born after World War 2. The Baby Boomer years are thought of as 1946 through 1964, so I’m on the tail end of that group. I bring this up because my generation makes up a significant part of the WOWO audience. And that is good. WOWO is now 90 years old and it is a much different station than when it began. There is even a website that chronicles the history of WOWO.
When I was a kid in the 60’s and 70’s I woke up to WOWO to see if we had school delays. I listened at night for the music and sillyness that Ron Gregory provided as a WOWO Air Ace.
It’s funny because I’m now friends with Ron and just had lunch with him and a mutual friend a few months ago.
For the past 2 decades WOWO has been a news/talk radio station at 1190am and a few years ago added 92.3fm as a way for listeners to tune in.
Last week I saw this story from Mediapost:
Boomers Are Listening by Spencer Brown
Remember when radio was our only audio source for news, sports and, of course, music discovery? Eighty million or more American boomers listened to radio. Our favorite DJs. The latest hits. The big ball game. And then it became portable! The transistor radio changed our lives. For the first time, we could listen to the radio at the beach or in the park. Well, things have certainly changed.
In the last 10 years, audio consumption has fragmented. But if you think this means radio has become less important in the media landscape, think again. Radio, perhaps the original mass medium, continues to play a big part in the lives of Americans everywhere—with 243 million Americans listening weekly. That means more than 91% of Americans (age 12 or older) are tuning in each week, according to Nielsen.
For advertisers keen to reach the boomer audience, those who continue to listen to radio longer than anyone else, radio delivers a mass audience in real-time across markets large and small. 
Audio continues to appeal to the boomer crowd, ages 50-64. According to Nielsen, 57.9 million use radio each week, that’s 93.5% of boomers! And while Generation Y (ages 35-49) is a close second, boomers spend an average of 15 hours, 6 minutes each week with radio (that’s the most of any demo). Older listeners make up the biggest cohort of news/talk/information’s audience of more than 58 million people.
Let’s not forget that boomers account for nearly $230 billion in sales for consumer packaged good; they control nearly 70 percent of the nation’s disposal income and they stand to inherit $15 trillion in the next 20 years. As they get older, this is a population that will have more time, not less, to listen to the radio, online and over the air.
In the chart above, it shows the national demographic composition of News/Talk Radio (like WOWO) listeners.
I began listening to News/Talk Radio 30 years ago when I lived in Detroit. That’s about the age that a lot of people start listening to News/Talk radio, no matter what generation you belong to. But that’s for another day. Like tomorrow, when I will give you some of the details of the audience composition of WOWO.
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
TuneIn
Deezer
CastBox