NEW YORK — Never More Than 2 Minutes of Commercials at a Time.
That was the pledge presented to listeners of the Alternative music station serving the nation’s largest market, implemented in August 2019 — well before COVID-19 and the pandemic led to advertiser cutbacks. And, it was a sign that Audacy Inc., was prepared to address the No. 1 listener complaint at its “ALT”-branded stations: the length of its commercial breaks.
Now, nearly 28 months after the “2 Minute Promise” even got its own hashtag, Audacy has abandoned it. The reason? Rising advertiser demand.
The practice originated at KNDD-FM “107.7 The End” in Seattle, a heritage Alternative Rock station. In 2014, it decided to limit its commercial breaks to 120 seconds. The result? A rise in the ratings.
This led WNYL-FM “Alt 92.3” in New York, a station that had been Top 40 until November 2017, to follow The End’s lead. According to then-SVP/Programming Mike Kaplan, now leading sibling KROQ/Los Angeles, “We asked you, our fans, to help us understand what would make Alt a better station. You told us the No. 1 issue was too many commercials that seem to go on forever. So, to meet your expectations, we created the 2 Minute Promise – we’re giving you fewer commercials overall and in shorter segments.”
As of Monday, Nov. 15, that promise is gone from WNYL. At approximately 2:45pm, a commercial break of nearly five minutes in length was heard. The commercials came roughly 30 minutes after the prior break.
Another commercial break began at 3:13pm, with commercials from Pep Boys, Stop and Shop, SuperJeweler, Optimum Mobile, Bounty, and O’Reilly Auto Parts among the sponsors. The total length of the break was approximately four minutes and 30 seconds.
And, with two breaks an hour outside of the Cane & Corey morning show, the adjustment may not seem as big of a deal as some radio industry trade journals are making it to be.
Furthermore, the decision was made to adjust the length of the commercial breaks due to higher spot inventory demand.
What about that quote from Kaplan? The webpage where the message had appeared now yields a “404” error and the following words: Oops, something is broken!
In that 2017 posting from Kaplan, the senior-level programmer stated, “You’ve told us short commercial breaks are easier to sit through. They also help highlight our sponsor partners who make it possible for us to play less commercials than other stations play.”
So, why didn’t Audacy raise its rates while keeping the stop sets at levels equivalent to the free-version of Pandora or Spotify, which ALT stations likely share audience time with given the shared demographics? RBR+TVBR asked a company spokesperson for comment.
According to AllAccess, KNDD has retained the two-minute pledge. Other stations that had adopted it, including KROQ in June 2020, and properties in Dallas, Miami, San Diego, Sacramento and Kansas City, among other markets, have nixed it.
When KROQ embraced it, Kaplan explained, “We’re reflecting how our fans consume media today. They expect shorter interruptions from their favorite content and succinct messaging from our client partners. The 2 minute islands create an overall better listening environment for everyone.”
Today, that’s no longer the case at Audacy, which in March 2015 registered “2 Minute Promise” as a trademark.
