ScLoHo’s Media | The Genuine ScLoHo aka Scott Howard

The State of WOWO Radio Fall 2024 Edition

by Scott Howard | Sep 16, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

About once a year I share some insider information about the state of radio, specifically WOWO radio, the primary radio station I’ve represented since 2013.

Today’s the day for an update.

A lot has happened the past 11 years I’ve been here. WOWO had their 90th birthday in 2015 and we turn 100 next year. Most of those 100 years WOWO has been on 1190am and occasionally also on FM. 92.3 was the FM home for WOWO when I started and then we brought music back to 92.3 for a few years. Big 92.3 was a classic hits music station for a few years until May 2023 when WOWO returned to 92.3FM.

For close to 3 decades, WOWO has been a News/Talk radio station and when we put music on 92.3 a few years ago, we added two more ways to listen to WOWO on FM that are still available. Some of you can pick up WOWO at 107.5FM, that’s a low power FM signal with limited range in the Fort Wayne Indiana area and as vehicles started adding HD radio, we also included WOWO programming on 97.3 HD2.

So ever since May 2023, we’ve got multiple ways for listeners to listen to the News/Talk programming on WOWO including:

1190am

92.3 FM

107.5 FM

97.3 HD2 FM

and the streaming platforms including the WOWO app, Alexa, Google Home, your laptop, and others like iHeart, Spotify, and TuneIn.

Let’s take a look at what’s going on now and I’ll start with some public information from Nielsen, the ratings company that measures all kinds of data including radio listenership.

In Fort Wayne, we have two annual rating periods, Spring and Fall and then it takes a few weeks to get the results.

The public data is picked up by various news sources and I saw this graphic from Radio Online dot com.

WOWO is listed as the number one radio station this year with a 9.5 share. This means that of the 20+ radio stations listed nearly 1 out of ten people listen to WOWO.

Considering there are over 20, but I’m just going to count the top 20 stations, if listenership to each station was equal, each station would have a 5 share because when you do the math, 100 divided by 20 = 5.

According to this WOWO has nearly double the number of listeners, and when we step back to the Spring 2023 numbers, it’s an 86% improvement.

However, here’s what’s really important and while I can’t publish the numbers publically, I can share privately the exact data.

WOWO has 4 daytime shows we call primetime because the primetime for radio listening is during the day.

Fort Wayne’s Morning News with host Kayla Blakeslee continues to grow. It was 6 years ago that Kayla took over after the unexpected passing of our legendary beloved morning host Charly Butcher in 2018. Kayla has increased total number of listeners and they are tuned in longer compared to a year ago.

Next we have national syndicated hosts Glenn Beck and Dan Bongino in the middle of the day and they continue to win. Glenn’s listeners from 9am to noon are growing and the same can be said for Dan’s show from noon to 3pm.

What’s new is WOWO’s long time afternoon host moved to a Saturday only show and around the 1st of February this year, Casey Hendrickson took over the 3pm to 6pm slot. Casey is from our sister station in South Bend and currently does most of his shows from their studio but is increasing his time in Fort Wayne and using the WOWO studio to do his show that airs on both our stations.

Originally there was some loyal listener push back. Pat has been doing afternoons on WOWO for over a two decades and Casey also has been with Federated Media, our parent company for 13 years. When one of them would take vacation days, we would broadcast the other persons show for the last 10 years, so our WOWO listeners had a little bit of familiarity of Casey.

During the last couple of years of Pat’s afternoon show, there was some declines but he had a very loyal fanbase. When we got the rating information for Casey in the afternoon on WOWO this summer, it conformed that this was the right move to make. Listenership is up and like the rest of WOWO, loyalty measured by the amount of Time Spent Listening is also up.

WOWO continues to be a dominate radio station for listenership and also for advertising. The advertising is what pays everyone to keep doing their jobs and in turn the advertising has to produce a Return On Investment for the businesses that invite WOWO listeners to become their customers.

QR Code Mania

by Scott Howard | Feb 12, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Sometimes technology comes before it’s needed and then there is a triggering event that propels that emerging technology towards mainstream use.

This is the story of QR codes.

Do you use them in your business?

They’ve been around for quite awhile and some of the early uses left people wondering “Why?”

The triggering event that propelled them into the mainstream consumer world happened in 2020 and 2021.

You recall a mere 4 years ago when this coronavirus with the name Covid-19 created a huge upheaval in our world.

Initially at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 we were told it’s no big deal, just a few isolated cases in the world and if it came to America, we could isolate it. But a few weeks later a different strategy was urged. First we were told to stay home and shelter in place for a few weeks. Different government agencies and groups were giving conflicting advice and the whole thing turned political instead of just a health issue.

It was up to states and local governments to create and enforce rules, while solutions were being fast-tracked that led to millions getting vaccine jabs and others saying it was a hoax, or at least not as big of a deal as the media was portraying it to be.

A lot of confusion and upheaval but also a few changes in the way businesses operated.

One shift was the move back to one-time use items instead of reusable. For years, climate change advocates were moving us away from plastics and even some paper to old fashioned alternatives. In my life, the local Taco Bell that I would stop at for my breakfast burrito used to give me my food on a tray. When the pandemic hit they were drive-thru only but when they reopened the dining room, it was no more trays, here’s your food in a paper bag.

I’ve seen other restaurants switch from glassware and silverware to disposable in order to eliminate potential cross contamination.

And we’ve finally seen the rise of QR code use.

Useful QR Code use, not the silly QR code use from a decade ago.

Many restaurants and drinking establishments switched from having printed menus that would get touched by 100’s of people and were big germ spreaders to placing QR codes on the table so we can scan and view the menu on our phones. Some establishments also have a set up where i can pay my bill with QR code technology.

Let me be clear that in case you are unaware of what these QR codes do, they are simply a way for a consumer to get to a place online by scanning a QR code. This makes it possible for you and I to visit a website without typing in a URL or doing a Google Search or any of that.

A QR code is a tool that the camera on your smartphone or tablet can read and interpret as a hyperlink to something online. That’s all it is.

From a business standpoint QR codes can be a money saver too because instead of printing hundreds of menu’s and then tossing them when they have changes or simply are worn out, the business can update the online page. Someplaces update it weekly to reflect their specials. This was prohibitively expense when all we had was ink and paper.

QR codes can by a shortcut to trackable hyperlinks too which helps businesses but doesn’t look scary to the consumer.

In 2012, I wrote an article about Idiotic QR Codes that I’ve linked here. The Air Force Reserve was running a traditional billboard campaign that you would see as you’re driving and expected people to have their phones handy to be able to scan a giant QR code while speeding down the road. Talk about the dangers of multi-tasking distracted driving!

I’ve written other articles about QR codes in years past that you can find here.

A big challenge in advertising and marketing is the ability to track results. and while the use of QR codes is not a solution for everyone, everywhere, I discovered a marketing success story from URL shortening service Bit.ly that was used by cat food company Smalls in New York City.

Smalls recently launched an advertising campaign throughout the New York City subway system that scratched just the right itch for cat parents in the Big Apple. These adorable ads had the power to make even the most dogged commuter pause and purr with delight. according to the article.

Signage on the subway system included QR codes.

Knowing that this campaign marked their grand entrance into the world of big-city advertising, Smalls wanted to get the most out of their efforts by leveraging QR Codes to drive viewers to their website across every ad placement.

And what were the results?

By putting the spotlight on these irresistibly photogenic cats and pairing them with concise, compelling messaging, Smalls managed to not only create brand awareness but also guide people toward their ultimate goal—interacting with the brand on their website. With smartphones in hand, subway riders could easily scan the Bitly QR Code and enter the Smalls universe.

As a result, Smalls reached up to 3.6 million subway riders and 500,000 New York City cat parents, building more brand awareness and driving new traffic to their website.

I’ve used the free Bit.ly services for years along with Google’s URL shortening service. Both offer free and paid versions of QR Code generation. A couple years ago when I was looking to add people to my team, I created cards that I handed out at career fairs with a QR code that potential candidates could scan to go online and see our openings. We’ve also used them at a fund-raising event to make it easy to receive online donations.

Need help deciding if you should include QR codes in your business? Reach out and let’s talk. I’d also like to hear from those of you who are already implementing QR codes and how you’ve incorporated them.

Duty Calls

by Scott Howard | Sep 25, 2023 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

When you are good at something and recognized as being good at it, but you’ve stepped away from it and now the challenge to return to it comes up, what’s your response?

That’s the position I found myself in earlier this month and it’s a position that I’ve been in before.

For nearly 10 years, I’ve worked for Federated Media in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I began as the 5th person on a 5 person sales team for radio station WOWO.

That was going to be my final job, however at the tail end of 2019, our company underwent some changes in upper management and my boss, Ben Saurer who had served as the General Sales Manager for WOWO radio was promoted to Vice President/General Manager of all of the Fort Wayne Federated Media radio stations. This created a very important opening, actually a couple of openings that needed to be filled as Ben had been the General Sales Manager for both of our talk radio stations; News Talk WOWO & Sports Talk WKJG AND he was filling in as the General Sales Manager for WBYR, our rock station.

Even though I didn’t have ambitions to return to a management role, after careful consideration, prayer and encouragement from my sales teammates, I applied. After a nationwide search was conducted, Ben offered me the position which I accepted to lead WOWO.

WOWO has been the “big dog”. We brought in more revenue than any of the dozen stations in our company and we knew that we were also the leader of all the 25 or so local radio stations.

Honestly, as I was interviewing with Ben for his old job, I told him it was going to be a tough decision for him to make.

See in 2019, I lead not just the WOWO Sales Team of 5, but I was selected as the Account Manager of the year for the entire company. 1 out of 40 or so sales people. Not bad for starting out at zero when 2014 began.

The decision Ben had to make was to take his top salesperson out of sales and put me in management, or keep me where I was.

The skill sets are similar but the application is very different between sales person and sales manager. If you are considering a sales management role, or are in that position right now, I recommend you buy a copy of my friend Mike Weinberg’s new book The First Time Manager: Sales. I was on his launch team and got a preview copy and it’s excellent. I bought a copy too which I am giving to Ben.

So Ben makes the tough decision and I took over as the General Sales Manager 1 month before the pandemic shut down our country in early 2020. We are working remotely for 3 months and scrambling to figure out what adjustments to make because it wasn’t what they originally promised… a two week shut-down to flatten the curve.

Low and behold, when 2020 was over, WOWO and our other stations survived, better than had been expected. As I continued my position as the General Sales Manager of WOWO in 2021 and 2022 we faced what a lot of companies faced. Shortages, but ours was the people kind.

About a year ago, one of our other sales managers moved to a sales person position because their talents were better than any of the candidates we’d been interviewing.

That manager was overseeing three stations and about a month after they joined my WOWO Sales Team, I took over as the interim General Sales Manager for those stations too in addition to WOWO.

This summer I went on a hiring spree to add two more salespeople to the stations I was temporarily overseeing. Last month and this month those two salespeople began and will be selling for our rock station.

In the meantime, we also hired a new General Sales Manager for those stations I was overseeing for the past year and he begins in October. He’ll do fine, he spent most of his 25+ years working in management and with Federated Media.

Another change, and this is the reason for the title of this today, Duty Calls, I am switching gears and returning as a Senior Sales Person for WOWO. Try as we might, we have been challenged with having a full team of sales people on WOWO the past 18 months and it’s time for me to step in and fill that role again. As far as I know, Ben is going to be doing both jobs of V-P/General Manager for Federated Media Fort Wayne; AND overseeing the WOWO sales team.

As Duty Calls me to help in a sales role again, I look forward to helping more businesses invite our listeners to become their customers and you’re likely to see me out of the office a lot more than I’ve been since 2020 and I look forward to it.

No longer will I refer you to someone else on the WOWO sales team, I’ll get to work with you personally just like before.

300 Media and Marketing Tips… Maybe

by Scott Howard | Aug 20, 2023 | ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

For those of you who are reading this and wondering what’s the deal with the number 300, I’ll tell you. If you are listening to this podcast, you already have a clue from the introduction I gave.

Since 2017 I have written, created, produced and published the Scott Howard Genuine ScloHo Media and Marketing Podcast and the audio version of what you are reading or listening to is episode #300. If you’ve never listened, that’s fine too. This is article #1584 that I’ve published on my website ScottHoward.me.

When I started publishing stuff online, on my own webpage it was in 2004, before Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any of the other social media platforms that are popular today were even launched. Google offered a free blogging platform and I created a personal blog, and a separate media and marketing blog. both of these were being updated daily. I created a couple other specialized blogs and by 2011, after 7 years I had created and published over 11,000 articles all under the online moniker of ScLoHo.

When my friend Kevin challenged me to create a name for myself online with a real website, I took a couple of months to plan and then purchase a domain and build out this website. Scott Howard dot com was already taken and so I used the dot me domain.

I imported most of the blog articles to the new website and continued writing and publishing every day.

Eventually I decided to slow down and focus more on quality instead of just quantity of content. None of this was for profit. Never made a dime directly from anything I wrote, and kept the content and webpages ad-free. The benefit I was getting was the creative outlet and I was able to get noticed online and offline, so it helped me build my reputation and community.

When I started blogging nearly 20 years ago I worked full time for a group of radio stations and stayed with that company for 8 years. I left to join a website development company and left that to return to radio and left radio again to work full-time in social media for a multi-million dollar international eCommerce company. That last job I got because of my 9 pervious years of doing this kind of thing on my own. Self- taught? Perhaps, but it was more of a process of self-educated, reading and learning and experimenting and talking with others.

Nearly 10 years ago I decided to return to the radio world and this time it was with Federated Media and WOWO radio.

I continued to write and publish but sometime ago decided to go from 7 days a week, to 5 days a week and eventually once a week.

It was Fall of 2016 when two of the Federated Media Sales Managers approached me asking if I had time and interest in doing a podcast on advertising. It was a new initiative at Federated Media and they were aware of my background behind the microphone as a broadcaster, my experience in sales and my current weekly writings on my own website. I suggested doing an audio version of what I was already writing and that set the stage.

Looking back I created the first 6 podcasts in December of 2016 but we had a management change and it wasn’t until a few months later the podcast was launched as a weekly companion piece to what I was writing and publishing.

At the beginning of 2020, my position changed and I stepped into management with Federated Media and then nearly a year ago took over two more stations in our company and decided it was time to slow down a little more. At the end of 2022, I announced that instead of weekly updates, I would publish monthly. Sometimes more often like this month, but once a month was going to be the standard.

Which brings us to today and the 300th episode of the Scott Howard Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast.

So many others have started an online project like I did and simply quit or lost interest. There are plenty of others who launched a podcast and then quit after a few episodes. My friend Steve was amazed at the longevity of my continuing to do this month after month, year after year.

Those 300 Media and Marketing Tips that I mentioned in the title… review the podcasts and you’ll find them, or search the ScottHoward.me website and there are a few thousand tips. For now, I’m going to start planning next months update as we continue

Timely Marketing Principles That Are Timeless

by Scott Howard | Jul 30, 2023 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

It’s been two full decades that I’ve been in the advertising, media and marketing world in Fort Wayne, Indiana, non-stop.

During the past twenty years, there have been a lot of changes in technology and how the world operates. However, no matter what the technological advances, there are certain principles that you can follow to be successful. You just need to see how to apply them to whatever your marketing options are at the moment.

First a little backstory. In was 25 years ago this month of August, that I moved back to my hometown after my Dad passed away and I thought it was going to be for a couple of months to help my Mom downsize and move to a smaller place. But I neve left. Instead I got married again, and my wife and I have moved a few times, all on the northeast side of town including our last move 9 summers ago that was half a mile from our old home.

My media and marketing background is much longer than 20 years. I was a teenage radio disc-jockey and pursued that career path for 10 years before moving my family to Detroit and working in the advertising side of the radio business. I left radio in the mid 90’s and know how to drive a fork truck, run a tool crib and operate a thermoformer. At least I did until technology changed and improved processes with automation.

April 2003 was my return to radio advertising and I took a whole, big-picture consultive approach. While I earned my money from the advertising I sold, I really wanted to help businesses succeed and that was more of a motivating factor than money for me.

The past two decades, I’ve worked in radio, also website development, a niche newspaper, and was the social media voice for a multi-million dollar e-commerce company. I mention my background not because I’m bragging, but to give some substance and add some credentials to what I’m sharing.

The Timely Marketing Principles That Are Timeless transcend the limitations of technology and get to what is the most important.

What is the Most Important?

Human Relationship Marketing Principles.

Your Reputation Matters.
People Need to Know About You Before They Will Spend Money With You.
It’s Best to Be Known BEFORE You Are Needed
That last one, it’s all about Top Of Mind Awareness.
Build Relationships With People, not machines.
We Want To Trust, so Don’t Blow It.
If You Do Blow the Trust Factor, Apologize and Make it Better.
Everyone is either a potential Customer or person that can refer potential Customers to YOU.
Value is the sibling of Trust.

Apply these 9 Principles to what ever you do to market your business and you’ve established a foundation for success.

Now here’s a few more Timeless Tips:

The environment of your message matters. Take the old-fashioned standby of roadside billboards. If you are a roofing company looking to sell metal roofs to homeowners, the wrong place for your message is probably the sign next to the 40 year-old apartment complex. A better location could be the road that the exclusive golf course is on.

The content of your message matter. Don’t yell and shout at your potential customers in a radio ad, instead talk to them as individuals, in a friendly trust worthy manner.

Be strategic and consistent with your message. A lot of business people are looking for instant results. When they think that something isn’t working they stop it and move on to something else. Or they are having an identity crisis and sending multiple messages out that don’t fit a strategic master plan. Apply human relationship principles of dating to your business marketing. Most of us are not going to commit to a long term marriage relationship on the first date. Or on the first attempt to get a date. You can date one person for 50 dates and get a better result than if you were to go on 50 dates with 50 different people.

And Finally…

Be where your current and future customers are so you can connect with them. If they are radio listeners, pick the radio station that has listeners that are a good fit to become your customer. If they are on social media, use the social media channels that are also a good fit.

Be prepared to try something new, but don’t stop doing what works, without a solid reason.

And if you need help learning how to apply any and all of this to your situation, reach out to me.

7 Considerations For Successful Advertising

by Scott Howard | Feb 13, 2023 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

As I write this on February 13th, not quite 24 hours have passed since I watched Super Bowl 57 and yet the impact of that game is reverberating in my world.

I had no skin in the game, even though the thought crossed my mind to wager since it’s now legal, but I declined.

Many advertisers, both national and local wagered that the game would be a good place to advertise and they ponied up the funds to do so. Despite my media and marketing credentials, I watched the game as a normal person, live and on the screen. I am going to review the game that my YouTubeTV account recorded for me, but for now, I’m just like you.

There are very few ads that I recall as being outstanding. I remember the Pepsi Zero ads, a couple of movie ads (but don’t recall the films they were promoting), and a T-Mobile ad.

Here’s why I remember them:

I’ve seen Pepsi Zero and Mountain Dew Zero at the store recently but decided not to buy, because I like my Diet Dew just fine. The T-Mobile ad was for $50 home internet service and it’s because I’m already a T-Mobile customer for our phone service and I’ve checked out their internet service before. None of the ads I saw prompted me to take action and it’s doubtful that any will in the future because, well like I said, none of the other ads are top of mind with me, less than 24 hours later.

Now I know there were other companies advertising, but some of the companies I had never heard of before and I don’t remember them now. Even the ones that I liked, I don’t recall who they were for.

Oh wait a second, I just remembered one more for Dunkin Donuts. They used Ben and Jennifer but gave me no reason to buy a donut or whatever they were promoting.

Super Bowl Advertising used to be considered the best place to buy advertising because of the tremendous number of viewers and the supposed impact it would have on your business or brand.

Not really, instead I’ll share with you 7 Considerations For Successful Advertising:

Reach. How many people will your ad reach? Not just anyone, but the people that are likely to be your customers. The greater the reach, the more it will cost.
Frequency. How many times will those people be exposed to your ad? During the Super Bowl all the national ads played only once so they get a frequency score of one. Some brands aired more than one ad like the Pepsi Zero ads I saw, so they get a score of two. The higher the frequency to potential customers, the better in most cases.
Messaging. A co-worker of mine has been getting a barrage of emails from a local company that have no purpose. He entered a contest this business has going on for several weeks and every day he gets an email from them, wishing him a nice day, or something like that but there are no offers or calls to actions. Most people would delete, unsubscribe or report this as spam. Your Messaging has to have a purpose.
Trust. Does your advertising build Trust in your company? Or is it detracting from your brand and image? If your advertising has to have a lot of legalese or fine print disclaimers, you are not building trust.
The Environment. Not mother earth, the environment of where your advertisement is placed. The advertising media that you are using has it’s own brand and if your brand and theirs are not compatible, that’s not good at all. I used to work for a group of radio stations that allowed ads for “Gentlemen’s Clubs” after 9pm at night. Unless you are running a business that doesn’t mind being associated with that, then you better not advertise on that station. Think about it this way. Would you want your businesses physical location next to them? If the answer is no, then consider the same concept for your advertising.
Human Relationship Principles. Do your ads mimic normal human relationships in their presentation? Or are they annoying ads that make you want to tune out? You can use humor, you can use music, you can even use a straight voice, but the very best ads are the one that flow the way our conversations do when we are talking with friends and family.
Trustworthy Marketing Consultant. The majority of advertising sales people are not trustworthy marketing consultants. Many are simply salespeople who are limited in their capabilities. This limitation is either because of their personality, their training, or both.

It doesn’t take a Super Bowl ad to make your business successful, it takes working with someone that can help you navigate and understand what I just mentioned and who has the competence to work with you to dig in and create what’s needed. Contact me if you want help, Scott at WOWO.com

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