When Interep collapsed earlier this year, Clear Channel’s Katz gained a near-monopoly in the national radio rep business. With that position comes a special obligation to operate in an open and honest fashion. But I now question Katz’s commitment to those goals. Katz now places 100% of the national business in many radio markets, and close to that in most of the others.
And now Katz appears to be trying to kill off the RERs that for decades stations have used to judge the effectiveness of their rep firms. Without RERs, stations cannot measure performance of their rep, which apparently is what Katz wants. Could it be that Katz no longer really cares because in so many instances it will ultimately get all or nearly all the commissions?
In other words, Katz may not want broadcasters to know the facts. Having accountability goes hand in hand with performance. If there were never a score in football or basketball game, would the teams play as well?
With all the challenges we face in radio today, let’s not let any national rep firm withhold information that we have always used to drive shares and rates. I urge all broadcasters to contact their rep firm today and ask if they plan to continue reporting to RER’s. And then make it plain that we need those reports!
–Scott Seidenstricker, Reno Radio Representatives
[ Editor’s note: RER (Radio Expenditure Report) is a report tool that each station/rep reports per station so they can evaluate a station’s share of the total market. It reports total market spend per month and then each station’s share of that total spend. ]
