Radio Ads Cost: Seattle KIRO

COVID 19 is an unprecedented global event that has affected business on many levels and local radio media companies are no exception. "Deep discounts can be had on advertising on radio if you know where to look.” notes Ed Steenman, owner of Steenman Associates, a Seattle area media buyer that specializes in purchasing radio advertising. “Media companies set their annual advertising revenue projections months ago and are now literally gasping for air and getting only hydrogen at this point. Since many are publicly traded, they will adjust pricing on their inventory as needed to keep shareholders happy and thrive.” In April and May, Steenman reported price discounts of up to 40% off the usual cost of this radio media. Notes Steenman, “this is a fantastic opportunity for advertisers to get their messages out at prices that we will never likely see again.”

One way is to phone or email the radio station such as KIRO or KQMV here in Western Washington State. From there, ‘your radio account’ will be assigned to an ad salesperson from that radio station. Your “rep” could be highly experienced but is more likely to be a mid-level or even a brand-new hire and you have little to no say in who is ‘assigned’ to you. Next, this salesperson will typically ask to meet with you to do a needs analysis and recommend a program based on the products his/her particular radio station sells. Sometimes your rep is allowed to sell other radio stations owned by their same media group, but may also be limited to selling only one particular station they’re assigned to represent. Each salesperson will show you audience ratings combined with metrics like CPP (cost per point), TRP’s (total rating points), Indexing (percent of audience most likely to purchase your product or service) as well as data on overall reach and frequency of the proposed ad schedule. Typically, this information will be presented in the way that best favors that radio stations’ own offerings which mean each proposal will include different metrics; ratings periods, unit lengths, viewer audience demographics and other information – making it difficult to easily compare proposals. You repeat this process with each radio station in your market, and then it is up to you to sift through all the data provided to try to decide what station or stations to use, how many ads to put where, what are best days or weeks to air them, and what the cumulative effect is to your overall budget and goals.

An independent radio buyer is able to work across ALL available Western Washington State stations in a market and quickly provide an optimal package based on your needs and budget. Unlike a salesperson that works for one station, an independent buyer is not going to favor one media company over another and will instead choose the best alternatives from all the offerings out there.