Where The Rubber Meets The Road

[Laurence Glavin]

Steve Bailey is a business columnist at the Boston Globe, and in his column for Friday, February 15th, he gave overall rate-card figures for four prominent Boston stations: (part one, morning drive) during WEEI-AM's D&C,  $1,500 per minute; during WBZ-AM's  News with Ed Walsh, $1,300 per minute;  during WRKO-AM's "Finneran Forum", on which Mr. Bailey is a regular, $400 per minute;  and during "Imus in the Morning" on WTKK-FM, $250 per minute...(part two, PM drive)  Glenn Ordway & Co. on WEEI-AM, $1,500 per minute (the same as morning drive); WBZ's afternoon news with assorted hosts, $625 per minute;  WRKO's Howie Carr, $600 per minute; and here's a SHOCKAH...WTKK's Jay Severin, $350 per minute.  Dan Kennedy, at his Medianation blog, notes that rate cards can almost be described as works of fiction, but this account gives some kind of picture on how the stations are doing during critical hours (financially, not technically).

[riverboatman]

The rubber ain't hitting that road.   You can buy the two EE! shows mentioned for $500 .  There's NO ONE paying rate card to WEEI, not even close!!  Not sure why one would pay the biggest rates in town for a spot that will run in the endless commercial breaks.  I know, I know, there's plenty of willing lemmings who pay their way into the Fenway luxury box with "lost in the sauce" ads during Menace and Scallywag, as well as The Big Dough show, but for my $500, I'm going elsewhere to sell my widgets, and I do.

[radiodouble]

The rubber ain't hitting that road.   You can buy the two EE! shows mentioned for $500 .  There's NO ONE paying rate card to WEEI, not even close!!  Not sure why one would pay the biggest rates in town for a spot that will run in the endless commercial breaks.  I know, I know, there's plenty of willing lemmings who pay their way into the Fenway luxury box with "lost in the sauce" ads during Menace and Scallywag, as well as The Big Dough show, but for my $500, I'm going elsewhere to sell my widgets, and I do.

agree. steve bailey has been a major league hack for much of his 'reporting' and broadcast career.
'rate card' is something you frame and put in a museum. no one uses the term anymore.
his numbers come from a fortune cookie at a chinese buffet. advertisers use contracts, not rate cards. if you buy multi-week, multi-station, frequency and placement, you get additional savings which per spot don't even add up to the numbers he's quoting. the guy is a tool. the anti-wrko blogger and commie dan are right on with this one.