Which is it for you?

One of the challenges facing consolidated radio is the persistent urge (need?) to cut expense.

Even those groups that don’t have billions of dollars in debt are now conducting the business of their stations as if they do.

That, along with a fundamentally flawed view of what PPM purports to tell us about the content talent produces between songs has led to massive cuts in the investment into non-musical content.

But it’s not too late to take a different path, primarily because radio is still vital.

Check this out:

“Thinking of your content as an expense like advertising means you always underspend.” 

That’s David Meerman Scott, who is worth your time every day, and he goes on to say that this mistake means you “…are looking at an investment in content as a short-term expense instead of a long-term asset.”

Come on. Be honest with yourself. You’ve been doing that, haven’t you?

Until we get back to viewing those who create the stuff between the songs as assets rather than expense, we’re going to struggle to gain market share, to generate stronger advertising rates and revenue, and to differentiate our product from the tightly compacted crowd of “safe” (less expensively run?) stations in every PPM market.