Back to the music, slower?

Wait!  Hold On! 

Clear Channel is now trading in their 3-breaks-an-hour “Less-Is-More” clocks for new 2-break clocks?  (Same amount of commercial time, just in two bigger clumps instead of three smaller ones.)  Didn’t they have all kinds of research just a couple years ago showing how three was better than two, ‘cuz the breaks were shorter, and you could say clever stuff like “back to the music faster,” which would obviously make you the “fewer commercials” champ in your market?  Except, it wasn’t about fewer commercials.  In many cases it meant more ”units” an hour…just shorter ones.  So what’s more irritating: 3 sixties, or 6 thirties?  Same total length.  And on top of the “spots” add a promo, a website plug, a traffic billboard, the weather billboard, a studio sponsor, maybe a “blink” or an “adlet,” and of course a shot or two for the HD Alliance…none of which count as “commercials”…and that’s some bad pile of units you’ve got there.  During my time with LIM, I never went the “fewer commercials” route in our imaging, because I don’t want to lie to the audience.  We did say, “fewer commercial minutes,” but not “fewer commercials.”  We did feature head-to-head, same-hour comparisons of total number of songs played vs the competition.  That really showcased a genuine, measurable, advantage of LIM to the listener, and I suppose stations could still do that comparison of the positives under the “new” clock arrangement, but will listeners even believe that once they get a load of one of the two new giant unit-fests each hour? 

“Inside Music Media“ publisher Jerry Del Colliano happened to mention the spotload issue the other day as just part of what he’d do as a radio company to turn things around…

“Bring proven, top-notch programmers back to produce the best radio you can using the formatics that get ratings and the talent that still resonates with the available radio audience. Cut the commercial load to eight units – ten in morning drive. Let the client buy up to 60 seconds of commercial time or as little as ten – but the station still only carries eight to ten units. Price accordingly. Raise the rates. My programming friends will attest to the fact that this can be done easily and listeners will like it. Ratings will go up.”

I want to work for Jerry’s company.