Hi Gang
Helping a friend with a project...wanted to get your take on the "remnant radio" business and its ability to drive revenue. If you have experience with google audio / dmarc or other "sell us your last minute unused inventory cheaply" programs I'd love to hear from you. Especially those who have dealt with "bid4spots".
Thanks!
Phil LoCascio
Hey Phil-
Here is my two cents worth. Bid4Spots is generally a pretty legit outfit. You can use it as you need it and skip if you don't. They have been a nice safety net to add a couple of hundred bucks a week when we needed it. Downside is that it is about 60-70% off even really good rates on our station. One thing that you have to be careful with them is that they do have some pretty slimy client and you can and will get you listeners calling to complain about being treated poorly when they call some of the toll free numbers. Over the last two years we have been able to sort of get a feel for what we are willing to take and not. You have the option each week to accept or not accept certain advertisers.
Regarding PI advertising...we tried it once and got completely killed on it. We ran probably $3000 in advertising (a lot for us) and got $700 in payment...we'll NEVER do it again!!
Another remnant option I would look into is Radio Nectar (www.radionectar.com). Marcus is the dude there and he is good people. You can pick how much or how little inventory that you give him and he let's you spread it our 6a-12a which is nice not killing you 6a-7p like Bid4Spots. If you (or anyone here) contacts Marcus let him know that I sent you...maybe there's a cut in it for me. We get a rate that is about 50% of our normal evening rate but we rarely sell out our nights so....
Hope that helps and good luck!
This business isn't rocket science but it is not a piece of cake either...we need to work together and communicate for the betterment of the industry!
Peace...out!
Dan--great info, thanks!
Seems like you could make around 75-100G per year with remnant advertising. Are you in a major market? If not it's still a good number.
Does bid4spots or nectar let others know about your rates? I would assume that would do damage to your local rate card if they did.
