Competition Alert: Clear Channel To Launch Commercial Free Radio
Now the merger has a better chance of clearance...
CLEAR CHANNEL TO LAUNCH 'COMMERICAL FREE RADIO'; TEST IN TEXAS... DEVELOPING... read more:
hereHere's the story...not quite commericial free:
In Dallas, Commercial Radio Without Commercials
By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
Facing increasing competition from satellite radio and iPods,
Clear Channel Communications is trying something radically different at a commercial radio station in Texas: getting rid of the commercials.
As of today, KZPS in Dallas — on the dial at 92.5 FM or online at
lonestar925.com — will no longer run traditional 30- or 60-second advertisements. Instead, advertisers sponsor an hour of programming, during which a D.J. will promote its product conversationally in what the company calls integration.
For example, the D.J. will identify
Southwest Airlines, one of the station’s first advertisers, as the sponsor at the beginning of the program. In a prototype provided by the station, the D.J. later discusses the South by Southwest music festival, a popular annual event held in Austin, and concludes, “You know, the best way to get down to Austin for South by Southwest is Southwest Airlines. They have tons of flights. It’s the way I travel.”
The product-themed chitchat will account for about two minutes peppered throughout the hour, in contrast to the 12 minutes to 16 minutes of commercials that most stations broadcast each hour.
Advertisers will own not just the hour but also their categories. The station has four initial sponsors — Southwest Airlines,
AT&T, Coors Brewing and Guitar Center — and will not sell advertising space to other airlines, phone companies, breweries or musical instrument stores.
Clear Channel’s move is not unprecedented. In 2005, three stations on Long Island owned by the Morey Organization experimented with a similar model but eventually returned to conventional commercials...read more:
here4/22/2007 09:07:00 PM
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