KBA'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

APRIL 29, 2021

"WE WON'T STOP"

FORCHT STATIONS RAISE MONEY FOR ST. JUDE HOSPITAL

Forcht Broadcasting Kentucky radio stations WSIP 98.9 FM New Country (Paintsville, KY) and WAIN 93.5 FM Hot Country (Columbia, KY) hosted their annual St. Jude Radiothons in April to raise money for the kids of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. WSIP and WAIN hosted a two-day radiothon that raised over $33,000 to help the kids of St. Jude. Due to COVID-19, the stations could not host their radiothons in 2020, but this year, the stations’ communities came out stronger than ever to support WSIP and WAIN and St. Jude! One young lady from Paintsville gave all the money in her piggy bank to help all the children of St. Jude. Forcht Broadcasting station WYKY Somerset 106.1 FM hosted their annual St. Jude Radiothon in February of 2021 and raised over 9,000 for St. Jude.

SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE IS SATURDAY

COLLEGE & HIGH SENIOR SCHOLARSHIPS DUE BY MAY 1ST

Applications are being accepted until Saturday, May 1, 2021, for both the KBA High School Senior Scholarship Fund and the Harry Barfield Scholarship.

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. If you have direct questions or need assistance, please email [email protected].

MILAM HONORED WITH ATHENA AWARD

Julie Milam of WNKY-TV was named the 36th recipient of the ATHENA Award presented by the Chamber and Martin Dodge Jeep Chrysler RAM. For over 12 years Julie has been part of the WNKY–TV Team. Julie created the motto of WNKY using just three words: “Because Local Matters.” Julie’s community and mentor leadership includes: Student Ambassador Mentor to Warren East High School’s Leadership Class and career shadowing to Warren and Barren County High Schools, as well as college students at Western Kentucky University. She is also a founding member of the Community Foundation of South Central Kentucky’s Women’s Fund. Julie became a Chamber partner in 2004, and throughout her years of partnership, she has served on the marketing committee for the Leader in Me Campaign, Small Business Appreciation Committee, retention committee, and currently sits on the Board of Directors.

The ATHENA award recognizes an individual for professional excellence, for providing valuable service to their community, and for actively helping women attain professional excellence and leadership skills.

WHOP BROADCASTS ROTARY AUCTION

71 YEARS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE

WHOP Radio in Hopkinsville wrapped up their annual Rotary Radio Auction in support of the Hopkinsville Rotary Club. A total of 722 items sold in the auction, and many cash donations were made, as well. This year, WHOP and the Hopkinsville community raised over $397,000 for the Hopkinsville Rotary Club. All proceeds from the auction help qualifying local high school graduates attend Hopkinsville Community College at no cost for two years and will help establish the new Hopkinsville Rotary Foundation. WHOP Radio Lite 98.7 and 1230 AM/95.3 FM have been the exclusive radio home of the Hopkinsville Rotary Auction for 71 years.

JEFF CAPPS EARNS LEADERSHIP AWARD

Eastern Broadcasting Company's Jeff Capps earns East...

HARLAN, Ky. (WYMT) - This spring, we are highlighting people and organizations who have gone above and beyond during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jeff Capps with Eastern Broadcasting is one of those people. For 22 years, Capps has held the reins at...

Read more
www.wymt.com

JEFF SCHMIDT'S SALES TIP OF THE WEEK

MAXIMIZING AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS

Like a local direct client with multiple layers, for instance a car dealership, the key to maximizing your ability to help them is to work with multiple layers. In a car dealership that would involve not only the general manager or new and used car managers, but the parts department, the body shop, and the service manager. With agencies this same philosophy holds true. The key to maximizing your revenue from an agency, and having greater influence and assistance is to work with all the various levels of the agency.

Recognizing that some agencies will limit with whom you can work, we’re going to share the ideal situation here. Too often we find ourselves in reaction mode with an agency by only working with the buyer when they call with a request for proposal or specs for an upcoming buy. Or if you call the buyer without an RFP (request for proposal) they are likely to tell you that there is no reason to talk today. Again, their specific function is to place buys when they are ready.

Agencies that are not located in your city are particularly interested in what is happening in your market. This can include changes in the economy, competitors, either local or regional competitors to the clients they handle, events that are particularly impactful for the community, any purpose-driven initiatives like disaster relief, feed the hungry, etc. All those types of things would be helpful for an out-of-town agency to be aware of.

One the non-intrusive, and generally welcomed practices could be you generating a monthly newsletter about your market. Updates from the chamber or the local news, competitive updates, any of the things we just talked about could be put in a one-page newsletter format and sent to all the leaders in the agency departments. We caution you not to use this communication as a selling tool, meaning we recommend that you not include station packages, or promotional opportunities, but limit your communication in this document to market information that may be relevant to them.

Your goal, as we’ve shared with local directs, is to be a source of business intelligence, and a resource to your agency partners. Sellers who are doing this now report excellent feedback and results. If you are the only seller from your market providing this information you will be seen as a resource that the agency can count on for non salesy type information that is helpful for their buying and planning.

It’s quite likely that if you were to call the account executive, planner, or creative group of an agency out of the blue, the results would not be appealing. They might even tell you that you need to work only with the buyer. This is why we suggest this approach of being a source of business intelligence. It’s non-threatening, and it can be very beneficial in helping you cultivate relationships at all levels of the agency.

Tammy Greenberg is our SVP of Business Development at the RAB and can be a great resource should you have any questions about larger accounts, advertising agencies, etc. Tammy is the author of many of the resources we have geared towards advertising agencies and larger accounts because that’s her area of expertise - business development for the radio industry. Feel free to reach out to tammy at [email protected].

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development at the Radio Advertising Bureau. You can also connect with him by email [email protected] or on Twitter and LinkedIn.

NEWSLETTER QUICK NOTES...

EFFECTIVE DATE SET FOR NEW RULES ON TELEVISION DTS

By David Oxenford

In January, the FCC adopted new rules for Distributed Transmission Systems (DTS) for TV broadcasters (the FCC’s order is available here). Last week, the rules were published in the Federal Register, setting the effective dates of these new rules as May 24, 2021 (except as they apply to Class A TV, LPTV and TV translators, where new rules are subject to further review by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act before they become effective). The FCC yesterday released a Public Notice confirming that effective date. Click here to read more.