Originally the FCC put a limit on the number of minutes per hour that radio could air commercials.
Originally the FCC put a limit on the number of minutes per hour that radio could air commercials.
Now the commercial load on radio is “left to the marketplace” which means that a station can do whatever its audience will tolerate.
Originally cable TV was “commercial free” as part of its promise to subscribers.
Today cable TV costs magnitudes more than before, and is overflowing with commercials.
Non-commercial radio was funded by schools, governmental agencies and churches, only now blatant advertising is simply renamed “underwriting”.
Movie theaters once ran commercial breaks in between feature movies, but today the movies are packed with “placement ads”, products punctuated throughout.
Private home telephones are assaulted by telemarketers and e-mail boxes pack with “last chance” offers.
Part 15 radio flails in the static trying to become something that earns its own support.
Step 1. Dedicate a frequency as 100% commercial, and get it started by offering to run commercials free of charge.
Step 2. When airtime is full-up with every commercial it can fit, tell your oldest advertisers that demand is so great you are now charging a dollar a week per client.
Step 3. As paid advertising increases, the rates must go up as your all commercial station proves to be ultra popular.
Step 4. Sell your all-commercial station for $10-million dollars and buy a licensed station to become all-commercial.
Demolition Man
“Step 1. Dedicate a frequency as 100% commercial, and get it started by offering to run commercials free of charge.”
Turn our stations into future oldies stations, like that depicted in the movie Demolition Man.
“Armor Hotdogs….Armor Hotdogs….the dogs kids love to biiiiittteeee”!
“Someone put me back in the freezer.”
RFB
Commercials
A long time ago I adopted a policy of not paying to have commercials or advertisements piped into my home or auto. In fact, the last time a satellite audio service, which my truck is equipped to receive, called peddling a subscription I told them my policy and suggested that they pay me to subscribe. They haven’t called back in quite a while.
My wife and I have discovered subscription commercial free video streaming and are going to dump the cable service (she wanted cable for the DVR service but it turns out she only watches PBS commercial free). We are also pursuing subscription audio streaming. It astounds me that people will pay $$$ to have commercial TV piped in. We won’t.
On the other hand, I expect over the air programming to have commercials because keeping things running is not free. I choose not to listen anymore because of the aggravation of interruptions every few minutes and the junk news and programming but at least those who do listen are not charged.
Neil
I think you guys are on to something here
I have been trying to figure out weather adds are worth the pain or not.
after reading this thread I am seriously considering running a truly commercial free station..
Neil I agree 100 % on the cable and Sat Radio.
Only problem is PBS is starting to look more like an commercial station more each season.
Clone
“Step 4. Sell your all-commercial station for $10-million dollars and buy a licensed station to become all-commercial.”
I would gladly take the 10 million, but to continue on and purchase a commercial “all commercial” station and partake in the real estate auctioning of spectrum and licenses, I would much prefer to retire from the field and go relax in the tropics and sip a glass of Pina Colada and be pampered by a pretty back massage girl in the sunshine with another fanning me with a huge hand held feather fan.
I wouldn’t want to get into the habit of declaring financial hardship as the excuse to keep that all commercial commercial station silent from the comforts of the finest hotels and resorts because I could with that nice chunk of mula.
What happens when a station under-sells itself with 60 second nationals going for 4 bucks a pop?!!
RFB
It used to be that all radio
It used to be that all radio programs were all-commercial, so to speak. The sponsors paid for the radio program, owned the radio program, and their products were written into the scripts (such as Jello in the Jack Benny Show). And that’s also why there are so many of these programs missing – the sponsors got the master transcriptions and usually threw them out in the garbage after a while (not seeing the value in what was to them, essentially one long commercial). We can only thank those who worked on these shows for saving that which did survive, as a lot of times they fished the masters out of said garbage (not so Jack Benny, he had so much clout that he kept copies of his shows in a climate controlled vault).
Come to think of it, it’s almost the same way today. Companies pay big bucks to have their products featured prominently in major movies or TV shows (not so much radio these days, as there’s very little entertainment broadcast), such as James Bond using all Sony gear, including computers and cell phones.
So your “all commercial” radio station idea, Carl, isn’t so new after all.
Correctly True
True, artisan, the idea is not new.
But maybe my idea is more blatant, as I don’t plan to disguise commercials as programs.
Actually, many commercials are little programs in themselves, like a funny Geiko commercial I saw depicting Christopher Columbus jubilantly zipping on the open sea in a speedboat. The punch line was something like, “How happy is a Geiko customer?” … “As happy as Christopher Columbus in a speedboat.”
In a way, part15.us is a continuing commercial for part 15!
Maybe our lives are commercials, as much as we’ve been conditioned. Yes, I can see myself now with a glass of wine and some fine cheese.