Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Mike Nikolich (N9OVQ), who writes:
Hi, Tom:
Uncle Eric mentioned [this past weekend] on The Mighty KBC (6040 kHz) around 0145 UTC that they will be leaving the airwaves if they cannot attract enough advertising revenue.
I would really miss this radio station if it left the air.
[…]I’m sure Kenwood, ICOM, Ham Radio Outlet and C Crain have enough discretionary funds to advertise on this station and I can’t imagine a more targeted ad buy for shortwave listeners than The Mighty KBC.
Thanks for the message, Mike! Yes, I would also miss The Mighty KBC if they left the air–their music program, “The Giant Jukebox” is one of my favorites.
If you have any sponsorship leads or ideas, please contact The Mighty KBC via their website.
I guess we can kiss Mighty KBC goodbye, since the only programming that can raise funding for shortwave broadcasting is religious junk.
The reality is there is no money to be made in SW unless you have your own funding. No audience as well. Depending on region.
SW is a very tough medium to sell advertising on because the typical metrics aren’t available – there are no tools in-place to support listener numbers to justify advertising rates, resulting in ‘leap of faith’ advertising based on little more than the sponsor’s desire to sponsor a broadcast.
Last I looked into it, transmitter time on a decent US SW broadcaster ran about $25/hr – I assume that’s enough to cover operation of the transmitter and nothing else. Even at that low price-point, it’s hard to quantify the audience size an HRO, Universal, or other retailer would reach for that $25/hr.
Whoops – KBC is a European broadcaster, so a European sponsor/patron would make more sense I guess than a US sponsor would.
http://www.kbcradio.eu/
They’re also a radio/electronics retailer and run commercials for their shop and products on KBC. However, telling from the emails* Ron O’Quinn reads every Sunday in his show, it seems there are a lot (possibly even the majority!) of listeners in the US of A, so there is definitely an audience for US-based sponsors.
* When I discovered that station 2 years ago, I sent them a QSL email with some appreciation and info about how and where I listen to them, not knowing about the Ron O’Quinn show yet. Next Sunday I was driving around in my car, listening to KBC (my car stereo has shortwave!) and I almost ended up in a roadside trench because all of a sudden I heard Ron O’Quinn greeting me over the radio, answering my email. 🙂
I’m just wondering why the station does not have an advertising department aggressively running funding campaigns? They are the ones responsible for getting sponsors, not the listeners.
As a fan who listens to KBC weekly, I would miss their show as it has been a weekend staple for me for years now. To be honest, I’ve expected this for awhile, and the advertisers mentioned to assist seem to focus more on the Ham Radio side of the equation where they get a bigger bang for their dollars.
I do wonder just how many people know about and listen in to KBC on the weekends? Regardless, I’ll keep my fingers crossed hoping they stay on.