Marketing Costs Money

It's amazing that throughout my five decade broadcast career radio owners - who aggressively sell the blessings of advertising to prospects every day - tend to feel that radio is exempt from this fact.

It's always been true, but it became conventional wisdom in the mid-90's when consolidation created huge station clusters with total reach as big as television.

However, cross-promotional announcements asking someone who is listening to one station to listen to another one simply doesn't build brands or turn the levers which drive loyalty and usage.  Then, with the advent of social media a decade later, that has now too-often become the no-cost panacea for brand-building. 

Radio World's Mark Lapidus calls it all "Make Believe Marketing."

Sure, do the cluster cross-promotion, word of mouth, events and as much interactive and social media as possible, of course, but don't expect the impact and timely results that traditional mass media can deliver.