“Doggone it, every time
I turn around, you’re asking for more money.
A new tube, a replacement headset.
An HD to SD converter. What the
heck is that, anyway.”
That’s the GM or owner
when the station’s having technical problems.
Yeah, the tech side is definitely looked at as a “loss” center rather
than one for profits.
So how do you turn that
around?
I’ve touched on this
before but it’s becoming more important every day as broadcasters scrape the
sides of the bowl for more revenue.
Well, first, in the
course of daily operation, show how you’re saving money. Let management know. It may take a little of your own time but put
together a periodic (weekly?) status report.
In it you can list where you are on various projects. As a part of that, how are you saving money
on them?
“X equipment has three
broken fahnestock clips. Checked with
manufacturer. $2,000 each, minimum of
5. Found at scientificdirectonline.com
at 10 for $1.00. Ordered. Expected arrival date 12/10/15.”
“Saved $600 cost of new
CD player for production room by cannibalizing two non-working units from
storage.”
“Found reliable ‘cloud’
FTP server provider which will cut storage costs by $60 per month.”
Keep going. Don’t forget
to list projects which are stalled…and give reasons. But that’s not what this post is about. What you’ve done is help management
understand how you’re trying to save
money. Now you need to go one step
further and show how you can help the company make money.
The low hanging fruit:
What services can the
station offer that management doesn’t know about?
- A company that provides free dialup to listen to station streams? There are some and at least one has provisions for a :10 preroll that the station can sell – in addition to the in-program blllboards and spots
- The possibility of leasing tower space to cellular or other business services
- Rental of a subcarrier or even leasing of an HD3 channel
When you present them,
try to attach some value to them. You
can pretty-easily determine the value of tower space by checking the web and
calling around. For prerolls, you may
have an idea of how many people may use it but you can always assume one based
on listening – if you have an AQH of 5000 and you can add 100 listening on the
phone, what’s the value ‘round the clock.
Then what’s the value of the preroll?
Button it up in a
one-sheet. That’s right. One
page. No more. Tell them what it is, what it does and what
you think it could generate in revenue.
Any cost involved? Don’t leave
that out.
After you’ve picked the
low-hanging fruit, what else can generate revenue?
Think outside your own
station box and see where you can generate some dollars. Then put together those one-sheets and sell ‘em. You start looking more like a profit
center. Just as important, you show you’re
part of the team, working to move the entire business forward.
