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What is the typical price/length of a syndicated radio news contract?
How much do commercial radio stations pay for their "top of the hour"
news from Westwood One or ABC News and how long do those contracts typically last? What I can't find out (and I *know* someone in this group will know for certain): 1) How much would a talk radio station not owned by Infinity or Disney/ABC in a Top 10 market pay for a contract with Disney to broadcast ABC News at the top of the hour? How much would that station pay Westwood One for CBS News briefs? (I know stations like WABC in NYC and WBAP in Dallas that are *owned* by Disney/ABC obviously have different contracts for radio news than say, a Cox or Clear Channel-owned station in Atlanta or Chicago.) 2) How long do these contracts last with Westwood One or Disney/ABC? For example, the Seattle market has two major commercial talk stations: KVI and KTTH. KVI acquires their news from Fox News Radio and caters to a politically conservative audience. KTTH also caters to that audience, but has ABC News at the top of the hour and is finding that even their P1s will switch to KVI for 3min at the top of every hour because they perceive ABC News as being more left of center politically. The PD for KTTH has publicly stated that they will use "ABC News for the foreseeable future" but didn't give any indication as to the length of their contract with Disney/ABC. 3) What are the limitations of re-broadcasting those syndicated news briefs by radio stations with Internet streaming audio? For example, can an Infinity-owned radio station with a "click here to listen live" graphic on their website legally stream the CNN Radio at the top of every hour or are they blocked the same way that AFTRA rules block the rebroadcast of Howard Stern over the Internet? Thanks for the info, Scott |
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Rich Wood wrote in message ...
On 19 Apr 2004 05:22:57 GMT, (Scott McCollum) wrote: 1) How much would a talk radio station not owned by Infinity or Disney/ABC in a Top 10 market pay for a contract with Disney to broadcast ABC News at the top of the hour? How much would that station pay Westwood One for CBS News briefs? (I know stations like WABC in NYC and WBAP in Dallas that are *owned* by Disney/ABC obviously have different contracts for radio news than say, a Cox or Clear Channel-owned station in Atlanta or Chicago.) If you're a highly rated station in a major market, they may pay you. They'll compensate you for the spots they require you to run. A network spot brings a fraction of what a locally sold spot brings. In one case you have to be very careful. If you don't meet a required clearance precentage, you get no compensation at all. In major markets every contract is different because of the compensation terms. At WOR we were an ABC Entertainment affiliate but didn't run the hourly newscasts. We had our own news department, but used their actualities and wall-to-wall coverage when necessary. We ran all their spots. Evenings and overnight we ran Mutual hourlys. When I was at ABC we watched stations very carefully to make sure they weren't running the network spots in low rated time periods. If we found you were running our spots overnight your risked losing your affiliation. In other markets it's generally barter. You run a certain number of spots per week for use of the programming. Since I don't work in radio professionally and I'm just learning about this business, I'd like to get this correct by repeating what I've just learned in this forum using the simplest terms: 1. Major market radio stations that are *NOT* owned by a network but are affiliates don't have to pay for ABC Radio News, any of the Westwood One news offerings (CBS to CNN), Salem Radio News, or any other top of the hour news content providers. 2. Smaller markets do not pay for the news either, but rather "barter" for the content by broadcasting the news content from a provider a certain number of times during a specified weekly schedule. If these two statements are basically accurate, I would like to know how news content providers make money. It almost sounds like radio stations don't pay for these news briefs at all (almost like a public service). My expectation was that a radio station would have contracts to pay ABC News a fee (that was determined by number of listeners, demographics, etc.) for broadcasting their news briefs. It sounds like it's much more complex than that and I'd like to understand why. 2) How long do these contracts last with Westwood One or Disney/ABC? Every contract varies. For example, the Seattle market has two major commercial talk stations: KVI and KTTH. KVI acquires their news from Fox News Radio and caters to a politically conservative audience. Surely you're joking. We all know that FOX is "fair and balanced" so it's a cruel accusation to say they're conservative. Roger Ailes will sue you or get very upset. The PD for KTTH has publicly stated that they will use "ABC News for the foreseeable future" but didn't give any indication as to the length of their contract with Disney/ABC. What's his alternative? There can't be two "fair and balanced" stations in the same market. He'll have to figure a way to take FOX away from KVI. Rich I don't care about the politics; I want to understand the business thinking in the radio industry: --Two big radio stations in a top market are vying for a similar audience. --Each station wants to differentiate itself by offering their large target audience content it wants. --One station is losing business because it's audience does not derive value from "Content X" while the other station with "Content A" is gaining business. --The station with "Content X" wouldn't win over listeners with "Content Y," "Content Z," or any of the similar offerings. --Nothing can be gained by having two stations in one market with "Content A" but why wouldn't the losing station switch from "Content X" to "Content B" (especially since "Content B" isn't the same as "Content A" but more closely tracks with what their audience values)? If a radio station received constant complaints about the network content and it was driving listeners to another station, why would the station want to keep its affiliation with a content provider that everyone hates? Some would say the network pays them too much to *not* change but wouldn't it hurt the station's bottom line to stay affliated with a network everyone in town despised? Thanks for all the information - it's been very helpful. |
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