SYNDICATION 101
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By Bryan Farrish
www.radio-media.com
Converting Your Show to a Per-Inquiry (P.I.), part 1
Some radio shows (mostly those that started out brokered) are
too much "infomercial" to have a good chance at barter
syndication. This is because these shows were originally created
to sell a product or service; since many of these shows well work
on the original (purchased) station, the hosts may want to spread
the show to other stations. The hosts run into a problem,
however, when they find that the only people who want to talk
with them are block-time salespeople from other broker-able
stations.
This is due to two reasons... first, syndication is just plain tough,
period. Second, almost every show that is created to effectively
sell a product or service is going to be too "pushy" to be
accepted by other stations on a barter basis (the stations will feel
they are airing an infomercial and not getting paid for it.) So the
hosts feel stuck... they don't want to buy time on other stations,
but they can't get anyone to take their show for free.
Enter the per-inquiry (P.I.) show. There are two forms of a PI... a
per-inquiry, and a per-sale. A PI show is basically a commercial
that is aired for free by stations, whereby the stations get paid
when people "inquire" about your product or service, or, when
people "buy" your product or service. You might think that the
second situation would be called "P.S." for "per-sale",
but that
would cause too much confusion; so both of them are just called
PI's.
Radio commercials, overall, are either "spots" (30 or 60
seconds), or "short form" direct response infomercials (1.5
minutes to 3 minutes), or "long-form" direct response infomercials
(30 minutes or more). Your current show is probably 30 or 60
minutes, and since we are presuming you are doing it to sell your
product or service (and not just to sell advertising), it is by
definition is a long-form direct-response infomercial. And this is
the reason that stations don't want to talk with you... they don't
give away the time for these things for free.... they sell it.
And that's how PI's bridge the gap between you and the stations;
you get your show (commercial) on for free, and the stations get
paid later... after the inquires or sales start occurring.
Why, you may ask, don't all commercials work this way? Why
would anyone pay in advance to air commercials when they
could do a PI instead? Answer: Nobody would get anywhere,
because PI's have a bad reputation. First, PI's shift the risk from
the advertiser (you) to the station. With pre-paid commercials
(like you are doing now with your brokered time), the station
benefits whether you sell anything or not. With PI's, you benefit
by getting your show on the air
whether the station gets paid or not. Plus, many people have
tried PI's in the past, and they got on many stations but NEVER
paid the stations after the inquires or sales started happening.
So, the pre-paid commercial or show (i.e., a non-PI) is going to win every time... it's going to go on when it's supposed to, where
it's supposed to, and it's going to air as many times as it's
supposed to. This is how it must be for products/services that
absolutely must have promotion going or else they will fold.
Your product or service, however, is either just starting out or is
being supported elsewhere, and you are just now exploring the
idea of a radio show to push it. Thus, you don't HAVE to be on
in a particular market at a particular time. Anytime/anywhere you
can get on is a bonus, and that's exactly how PI's operate. Next
time we'll cover more details about PI's.
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Bryan Farrish is an independent radio syndication promoter. They
can be reached at 818-905-8038 or www.radio-media.com
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