KBA'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

APRIL 22, 2021

OWENSBORO HERE WE COME!!!

BOARD MOVES FORWARD WITH IN-PERSON CONFERENCE

KBA's Board of Directors voted yesterday to move forward with an in-person conference this year. The Conference will be held September 19-21st in Owensboro. The Conference Committee believes that more than ever, we need to get together and celebrate our friendships, achievements and fortitude to push through the past year. Plans are underway for a dynamic and rewarding conference. Details regarding specials guests, activities, training opportunities, award nominations and registration will be coming soon!

STEVEN MEREDITH PASSES AWAY

HOST OF THE "DRIVE TIME" SHOW ON WKCT

Longtime radio personality Steve Meredith dies

Drive time may never be the same for Bowling Green residents. Steve Meredith, host of the 5 to 6 p.m. "Drive Time" show on WKCT radio (930 AM and 104.1 FM) since 2015, died Saturday at age 54 after a long career in local radio.

Read more
www.bgdailynews.com

RADIOTHON TO BENEFIT MAKE-A-WISH

WXKQ RAISES OVER $26,000

On Thursday April 15th, 103.9 The Bulldog WXKQ held their 1st annual Make-A-Wish Benefit, and it was a huge success! A total of $26,257.00 was raised to help make wishes come true for critically ill/disabled children in Letcher and surrounding counties in eastern Kentucky. Kevin Day and Beth Wright of 103.9 The Bulldog hosted the event on air and was joined by Faith Hacker of the Make-A-Wish of Central and Eastern Kentucky. The staff had a day full of fun, Make-A-Wish stories, interviews, special guests and a great response from their community.

LBS WEBINAR: WEYLAND WEDNESDAY

Wednesday, April 28th @ 12:00 PM EDT

Are Long-Term Advertising Contracts Possible in Today's World?

Presented By: Paul Weyland, LBS Broadcast Selling Expert

YES! YES! YES! When you establish meaningful local-direct professional relationships, you ultimately increase your contract selling skills while keeping customers for life. We'll discuss how to improve your account list value with passionate, loyal clients who will refer other businesses to you. Help your clients to spend a larger share of their budget with you now, establishing trust in your range of services and abilities. We'll also discuss setting up client meetings and keeping control of the discussion. As you go from business to business, you will find "it's the best of times or the worst of times," in other words, it's the perfect time to introduce long-term rock-solid agreements to your clients.

FREE TO KBA MEMBER STATIONS

LEARN MORE

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

TELL CONGRESS TO PRESERVE LOCAL JOURNALISM

From investigative reports to breaking news and weather coverage, local radio and television stations invest significant resources to keep Americans safe, informed and connected.

Broadcasters provide the most trusted news to communities, but the overwhelming power of big tech gatekeepers is threatening Americans’ access to quality local journalism.

Tell your legislators how much you value your local stations and ask them to stand up for listeners and viewers like you by supporting the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act.

ACT NOW

JEFF SCHMIDT'S SALES TIP OF THE WEEK

CONSIDER LISTENING TO THE RADIO TODAY

“I considered listening to the radio today” was the way the text exchange with my son Carver began. Carver is a junior at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. In some ways Carver is a typical 20 something, and, here is proud Dad coming through, in many ways he’s exceptional. He loves to try and get under his radio-loving father’s skin, thus the way he started the text.

Practicing what we teach about handling objections, rather than take the bait and share all the research with Carver like the fact that 74% of people his age choose radio as their in-car audio choice, or the fact that 83% of adults his age tune into radio each week, (See Why Radio Slide deck at RAB.com) I instead asked questions. Here’s the exchange:

Carver: I considered listening to the radio today, didn’t do it, but I considered.

Dad: LOL. Thanks for sharing. What caused you to consider?

Carver: well, I run out of music to listen to, it’s a constant problem. I’ll put music on indefinitely when I’m doing work, but with the playlists start looping it gets repetitive and old fast. Radio wouldn’t necessarily solve that because if I listen to a station long enough, I’ll hear the music repeating, but it would be interesting to have someone come on every so often and say things. Radio has hosts that talk and make it interesting.

Dad: Tell me more…

Carver: Like a talk show all day, it’s like an infinite podcast. So that’s like the thing that radio has going for it, the hosts.

And there it is again, this time from a 21-year-old. The point of differentiation for radio among Spotify, Pandora, curated personal music playlists, is our talent. The “hosts” as Carver calls them who come on every so often and say things.

Because we work in the same building, it’s easy for us to take our on-air team for granted. To think they are nothing special, just other workers in the building. But to the audience, even a younger audience member, they are the key difference between all the other audio options out there. They are the stars that keep our industry fresh, current, relevant, and personal. They do amazing work connecting with our communities.

If it’s been a while, go down the studio hall today and thank the on-air staff for the incredible work they do. They make a difference, and for radio, talent is THE difference that sets us apart. Then have a conversation about how you can leverage their relationship with the audience for the benefit of your client’s in the form of live reads, endorsements, and appearances.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep working on Carver…

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development at the Radio Advertising Bureau. You can also connect with him by email JSchmidt@rab.com or on Twitter and LinkedIn.

NEWSLETTER QUICK NOTES...

ISSUE ADS REQUIRE PUBLIC FILE DISCLOSURES

By David Oxenford

Back in January, we reminded broadcasters that state and local elections, even those held in “off-years” like 2021, still fall within the FCC’s political broadcasting rules. Virtually all FCC rules, with the exception of reasonable access, apply to candidates for the local school board or town council just as they do for candidates for President – i.e., once you decide to accept an ad for a local candidate, then equal opportunities, lowest unit rates and online public file obligations all apply (see our article here for more information). But in that article, we did not focus on political issue ads, which also raise their own FCC obligations, particularly with respect to the public file and sponsorship identification. Click here to read more.

KBA SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE IS MAY 1ST

Applications are now being accepted for both the KBA High School Senior Scholarship Fund and the Harry Barfield Scholarship. The deadline to submit an application for either scholarship is May 1, 2021.

To lean more about KBA's scholarship opportunities and to submit an application, click here or find on KBA's website under the RESOURCES tab.