Dotinga: Fewer Ads On San Diego FM Radio

Most recently, Clear Channel stations ---- including those in San Diego ---- have begun running five-second and even two-second commercials. (Their one-second offerings reportedly haven't sold.) Not everyone is a big fan of the miniature commercials, known as "blinks" or "adlets."

"They sound shoddy and serve only to annoy the listener," said Darrel Goodin, general manager of KSON, KIFM and FM 9/49.

And Sean Ross, a radio analyst based in New Jersey, thinks the mini-ads "feel like clutter to me ---- no matter how short they are."


I love reading the radio columns of North County Times writer Randy Dotinga. He seems to understand what's going on a lot better than most:

"There are plenty of annoying things on the radio, from nincompoop shock jocks to vapid play-by-play announcers.But nothing beats radio commercials, which tend to make eulogies look clever and witty. The good news: Your fragile ears are being bombarded with fewer and fewer of them, at least to judge by some new numbers. The J.P. Morgan Chase firm told The Wall Street Journal that the average commercial "load" per hour has dipped from 14.9 minutes in 2004 to just 10.8 minutes now. That's a decrease of a whopping 28 percent in just two years."