Pre-Rolling the Dice

Every Friday for the past two years, I've heard the same question at work:

"How do we make more money off the website!?"

For two years, I've given the exact same answer:

"Get sponsors for the podcasts and the live stream features."

Technically, I'm the youngest person working in the radio station, but also ironically one of the longest tenured. It sometimes makes for a weird dynamic of "He' been here for a while, so maybe he knows what he's talking about...but then again, he grows facial hair like a twelve year old girl and doesn't remember Guns and Roses, so maybe we need another opinion." I'm guessing it's this confusion that's led to a stalemate over the whole web-marketing issue.

We're not the biggest radio station in the world (AM baby!), but at any given time we can get upwards of 15,000 listeners. That's pretty solid numbers. Our website is cheaper than a suit from Sears, but I've been trying to make due making it look like not-the-ugliest-girl at the prom for a while now. The important pointI keep raising to "The Powers That Be" is this: why would people go to a news/talk radio's website? To click on the advertising tiles on the left and right hand side? To see the profiles of the hosts? To read about the latest trends in eyebrow plucking?

No! They go to listen! Hear the interview they missed or listen live because they're stuck at work! Not to get all number-y...but the stream has been downloaded 10,000 times since the start of the new year. The podcasts get played over 160 times a week. And there's no advertisements on them. At all. To advertise on the air at my station, or one of a similar size and market, can cost thousands of dollars a month for the potential of maybe a few dozen commercials at best. If Sam's Bed and Taco Emporium were to advertise on the podcasts, for example, they'd be heard nearly 200 times a week, guaranteed. As anybody who watches videos of Hulu or downloads content from any news site...you can't skip those little pre-rolls.

That right there is a microcosm of modern advertising in the media. The traditional outlets like radio and print and even TV commercials are damn near impossible to pitch. People are using them less, and even when they do they aren't likely to stay dialed in for the commercials as much as they used to. It's a world of sliding in advertisments here and there, coming up with catchy hooks (and now the WB Mason Postgame show, anyone?) that become synonymous with the product. Sponsor the news, the weather updates, the interviews, the traffic...whatever you can possibly stick a name in front of that people cannot avoid. In other words, nail them when they go online, where everybody is aware that we can't avoid pre-roll commercials before downloadable content.

So...uh...that's how'd I'd like to see money get made off the website.