Time to switch on your favorite station and crank
of the volume friends.
Today is "Radio Commercial Day!"
The very first radio commercial was broadcast on
this day in 1922. It was for the Queensboro Realty
Company and it was 10 minutes long!
The cost? $100!
Wow! The rates have certainly climbed a bit
since then! In 2011 more than 17 Billion dollars was
spent on radio advertising.
I'm not about to complain about that. After all,
for the first 21 years of my broadcasting career radio
commercials were what allowed me to pay my bills
and feed my family.
Of course I've seen radio commercials change
in a number of ways. Not just in length or cost.
When I started in the business Cigarettes were
still being sold on both radio and television.
But, back then, you never heard a spot for
doctors or lawyers! Today, they're all over the air
waves!
Now a days there are also what I like to call
"Asterisk commercials." You know.....the spots
for medications that use 20 of their 60 seconds
describing the drug and the last 40 admitting
the pills may cause complications...up to and
sometimes including death!
Or the commercial that includes some sort of
special offer.....then....a voice that speaks faster than
a mile a minute reciting warnings and conditions!
There are, of course, "non commercial"
stations. They don't broadcast advertisements.
Just constant mentions of how this or that program
is provided by a grant from.....name, address, and a
catch line or two.
Then there are the fund raising drives which
seem to pop up every two or three months. When
they're on the "non commercial stations" take big
blocks of time to ask for your money and tell you
how they don't interrupt programming with
commercials.
I often wish they'd cut into the fund drives
with a "Speedy Alka-Seltzer commercial!" I can
usually use some "plop-plop-fizz-fizz" about then!
Hope you're listening for the 'Deal of the
day" and that all your NEWS is good!
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