AAR 'blacklist' is flawed, and here's why

[LTR]

I originally posted this on this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2789103

And a poster suggested I branch off into a seperate thread, so here goes.

Many in the radio industry know that 'blacklists' exist for many talk radio formats. Rush has one, and so did Howard Stern. Many advertisers tend to avoid polarizing or controversial programming. Others shun talk radio altogether (like the US Navy, which doesn't see talk radio as a popular format among the teenage listeners they're targeting).

Other companies prefer to concentrate on formats (including non-talk) in order to target whatever demographics they desire.

Some companies, such as REI and Office Depot, do indeed advertise on AAR affiliates.

The more I thought about it, and after seeing the exact memo, the more I realized that the memo was really no big deal. Though there are a few companies on it that seem to boycott liberal radio and advertise on conservative shows.

I wrote about it at my blog:

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2006/11/update-more-advertisers-respond-to-aar.html
http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2006/11/abc-rei-respond-to-air-america.html
http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2006/10/internal-document-reveals-air-america.html

And if you want to see who's advertising on your favorite stations, Yes.com is a website that is designed to show what stations are playing what songs, but for quite a few talk stations, it shows some of the national ads airing on them.

http://www.yes.com

Just enter the call letters of the station you'd like to see.

Again, no need to jump to conclusions over this list. This is not unusual in the radio business.

[DireStrike]

1. Good, I really want to buy stuff from Hershey's

Hard to live without peanut butter cups.

And I already sent off several emails. Gah.

[Ian David]

2. We're having Mahatma and Carolina Rice for thanksgiving! n/t

[rocktivity]

3. I think it's far more important to see if the boycotting advertisers

use right wing radio--are they LESS controversial and liberal radio, and if so, is it because they're more popular? Wait, that didn't stop Howard Stern from making money. Well, they're the minority party now--let's see what happens.

:headbang:
rocknation

[blondeatlast]

4. Can we get a few more recommendations? That other thread is on the home page...

Thanks--I told you I'd come through!

K&R.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. So can we get it off the front page?

[blondeatlast]

5. Thread regarding REI from one DUer who admits jumping the gun:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2539555

This is why we must tread carefully, gang. The last thing we should do is hurt companies that do make an effort for the good guys.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Why is it on the front page here?

How do OPs get on the front page? I tend to give more attention to front page items. But I wondered about this one right away since I listen to AAR on satellite radio and they run different commercials on XM.

[blondeatlast]

8. I actually alerted to let the mods know there was lots of "debunking"

already in that thread. I noticed that right after it appeared, the responses (especially those that clearly responded to the OP rather than read the entire thread) jumped dramatically. Sigh...

The last thing we want to do is hurt the good guys.

[greeneyedboy]

9. is there a link to this thread from that other one?

[drm604]

10. You should edit your OP in the original thread.

Add an explanation and a link to this thread.

[blondeatlast]

16. I linked this thread in the other--and took this golden opportunity for a kick!

:rofl: :kick:

[drm604]

23. Oh, I misunderstood.

For some reason I thought that you posted the OP on the other thread and had posted this thread to correct yourself. I see now that that isn't the case. Don't know why I thought that.

[mirandapriestly]

11. I don't understand

if it's "nothing", then of course I want to know. But, I live in Seattle, the headquarters for REI and M'soft well suburb Redmond) and I listen to over one hour of AAR every day. I have never heard a microsoft or REI ad. In fact, I remember thinking I should try to get Microsoft to advertise. Now, maybe this is just a bottom line decision, maybe the station doesn't have enough listeners or something (plus it cuts out everytime you go under a bridge and I can't even get reception in my house).
Can someone who understand radio advertising explain this to me?

[Eric J in MN]

12. The OP is suggesting that some companies avoid talk radio...

...altogether, and so the question is if Microsoft advertises on Rush Limbaugh while avoiding AAR.

[mirandapriestly]

13. So, it isn't "right" versus "left", but controversy in general?

I guess I could understand that, although I do not think Limbaugh is the same thing.

Thanks for answering my q. usually people don't on these threads, I've noticed...

[Eric J in MN]

14. It would be interesting to see which companies just avoid AAR...

...and which avoid all talk radio.

[OnionPatch]

26. That would be the thing.

If they advertised exclusively on right-wing radio but not the other side. Otherwise, I don't hold it against a company that wants to avoid controversial programming.

[blondeatlast]

15. Another kick, and I'm afraid Skinner hasn't seen this one.

Let's not be reactionary, DU.

[blondeatlast]

17. I'm going to try to kick this one above the other. The OP (thankfully) followed

web protocol and didn't post in all caps so this thread gets passed by.

:kick:

[blondeatlast]

18. Sigh, sigh, sigh... and kick. nt

[blondeatlast]

19. Not as SEXY as that other thread, but it needs to be read... nt

[enigmatic]

20. I'll kick this as well n/t

[MonkeyFunk]

21. How did they "blacklist" AAR?

There are millions of companies that don't advertise on AAR. Are they part of it?

Ironically, if some of these companies DID advertise on AAR, we'd see threads here complaining about AAR taking money from them. Damned if you do...

[A wise Man]

27. Seems to me that

AAR has some rights to sue ABC for slander or blacklist targeting without warrant or reason.

[MonkeyFunk]

28. Yes

they do have the right to sue. Winning is another thing.

[Skinner]

22. OK: So, could someone please explain what the memo ACTUALLY IS?

I have read the three blog entries linked in the OP, and it is apparent that the message I'm supposed to take away from them is: "the memo was really no big deal."

I don't know squat about the radio business, so I must depend on the judgment of FAIR and Media Matters when they tell me the memo is a blacklist. Now I am being told that this is not what it appears to be. I have read in the other thread that some of these companies (reportedly) have advertised on AAR. I have no reason to doubt the claims of DUers who say they have heard these ads.

I have removed the post about this from the homepage, pending some sort of explanation.

So, could someone please tell me what this memo is? Because it sure *looks like* a list of companies that don't want to advertise on AAR.

Thank you for your help.

[LTR]

24. It's kinda complicated, but not really

More like many shades of grey.

What this memo really is, is a set of directions for the traffic department of the radio station (the "traffic department" is the one that schedules on-air advertising spots). See posts #5, #55 and #71 on this thread for more on this.

Also see my blog postings linked in the first post of this thread.

I know, I know. This stuff can be pretty confusing. When I first saw the memo, I thought this truly was a blacklist. Then, I realized that I had indeed heard some of these advertisers on AAR affiliates. And I knew that some of these companies don't advertise on talk radio anyway, or, like the US Armed Forces, stick with music formats to hit the teen audiences (teens don't really listen to talk radio). I then realized that what this was is a traffic memo, merely telling the traffic department not to run the ABC slate of ads on AAR affiliates. Another possibility could be that some of these companies already have their own deals with AAR's network, so this would keep them from 'doubling' the spot load. I do know Office Depot is a main sponsor of Ed Schultz' show. Schultz even voices some of their ads. And guess what? Office Depot is on this memo! Go figure.

All in all, after digging more into this whole memo nonsense, I am convinced that it does not give even close to the whole story. I've been doing some digging myself, to see if these companies will support conservative radio but not liberal radio, based on ideology. So far, the only real blatant example I've found was eHarmony, which is run by hardcore fundies. The other companies' association with RW media is vague, though I did find out that quite a few of the companies on the list do advertise on FOX News (but that's pretty vague association).

AllAccess, a radio industry web site, said that this list was basically similar to the ones that conservotalk and shock talk stations get.

As for berating sponsors over not advertising on AAR? I would personally hold off on it. The best list to use would be from BuyBlue.org, since we do know that these people do support the same ideas that many of us do.

[KharmaTrain]

25. I've Tried Various Times Since This Came Out...

I've posted numerous times since this memo came out...and ran this memo past several people I know in "the biz" and posted several times on what was happening here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2789103#2789143

These are called "Traffic Instructions"...an internal memo from the network to ABC affiliates about which advertisers will be in their programming during the week and to keep these commercials. First, ABC does not operate any Air America affiliates and this is sent to the handful of affiliates that carry the 5 minute ABC Newscast at the top of the hour. It's a general memo and policy and many of these advertisers ask to avoid being place in certain types of programs (political...and it's generally any type of political show...right or left) or format specific...such as not having a Depends commercial run on the Urban Contemporary station.

I'm not good with the search engine here, but if you look back on my posts you'll find various aspects of this memo being discussed going back several weeks when it was released by Peter B. Collins.

[blondeatlast]

29. Kicking for some further debate. nt