I’ve often wondered if there is any limit to how annoying a radio commercial can be before the station manager says “Nope, we can’t run that. People will switch stations every time it comes on.”
For instance, there’s a local station that runs a commercial that includes loud, prolonged, incredibly annoying sounds of a person grinding his teeth at night. They even admit in the commercial that it’s extremely annoying.
Airtran (I think it was Airtran) ran a whole series of commercials in which they promised that your fellow passengers wouldn’t do annoying things, which they then illustrated with someone singing in a bad opera voice or worse.
After hearing them once, I couldn’t stand it and would lunge for the radio tuner when I heard them come on the air again. Then it would be half an hour before I realized I hadn’t tuned back to that station or turned the radio back on.
I know those commercials are the key to a radio station’s existence, so they wouldn’t be eager to say no to anyone with a check in hand. But is there ever a limit in terms of the annoyance factor? Do they even realize that really annoying ads will make people switch stations? Do they care?
I find all radio ads annoying. I switch stations with startling frequency.
I think the policies are driven by overall listener stats from the companies like Arbitron. I doubt that stations look at specific events that cause listeners to change stations. Ads aren’t the only thing that can cause people to switch. Sometimes I listen to the news station just until I hear traffic and weather then go back to music, or I’ll switch if I hear a song I don’t like. The revenue from any given ad probably trumps the concern that they will lose some listeners when it plays. It all averages out in the end, and it’s the averages that count.
The listeners aren’t the people you don’t want to annoy. The advertisers are the ones you don’t want to annoy.
Sure you don’t want to annoy advertisers. But if you annoy listeners, they switch stations or turn off the radio. Ultimately if you have fewer listeners, you can’t sell your ad time for as much or the advertiser doesn’t want to buy your time at all.
Obviously it’s a balancing act. I’m just wondering if station managers even factor that into the equation. If an advertiser wanted to buy a 30 second spot to run 15 times a day that consisted of nothing but ear-splitting screechy sounds of a rabbit dying, would the station say yes as long as he paid the going rate?
Or is there a line that can be crossed? Not in terms of taste, mind you, but simply the idea that “this is going to make people turn our station off, and that’s not good for business any way you cut it.”
I do know that at least one of the stations I listen to (WBZT, 99.9 Burlongton, VT) actualyl has a promo (aimed mroe at advertisers) that mentions they try their best to keep annoying ads off their staiton (but, subsequently, go through several examples of annoying ads, maing it annoying as well.) They also offer to produce ads themselves for businesses so that they are better geared towards the average “Buzz listener.” And, having listened to that station extensively, their ads are, on average, less annoying than your run of the mill Clear Channel station.
If the annoying ad causes you to remember the product name (as the OP remembered Airtran) it has done its job.
The factual answer is, it depends on the station and on the ad.
Some stations want their commercials to fit a particular sound that goes well with their format. For example, my local “smooth jazz” station wants their ads to fit their format and will reject commercials that don’t match their sound. Some, like some heavy metal/loud rock stations, actually want annoying ads. Finally, some stations don’t care. Money is money, and annoying ads are simply attention-getting ads. Besides, even irritation advertising works to the extent that listeners remember it.
Robin
Yes, irritating ads may work for the advertiser if you remember who annoyed you and they’re okay with that association.
But the advertiser and the radio station aren’t the same. Wouldn’t it be shortsighted to risk driving off your listeners if they’re tired of hearing that annoying sound every ten minutes? You got your money from that one advertiser, but you’re driving listeners away from the ads that all your other advertisers bought for the next half hour. If the Arbitron ratings eventually show that, nobody’s going to be happy.
But maybe my question is answered if the VT station actually tries to avoid annoying ads. Guess it depends on how much you want the immediate revenue from selling that annoying ad time vs. building a more stable audience and ad base.
Why wouldn’t they be? Most radio programming these days is annoying enough as it is. Crass bloviating or sports nerd-jousting on AM, noise-candy or audio pablum on FM. The annoyance threshold of the serious radio listener is probably at an all-time high.
Radio Production Director checking in.
MsRobyn scores closest. It depends on the station and the commercial.
It also depends on the General Manager and Program Director. I can’t count the shouting matches I’ve heard over commercial content over the years.
In most cases I’ve watched the money win.
In a few cases if it was clear that the commercial was too obvioiusly deceptive (“if you can name this song, call 1-800-xxxx within the next 10 minutes and win…” and they’d play the National Anthem or something similar) it would get kicked because it could get the STATION in trouble.
Not really, if it reminds you to avoid it.
A friend of mine sells ad space for a local radio station and is the rep for a client who has a particularly annoying ad (kids singing a jingle to the tune of EIEIO). The advertiser pays VERY well for the privelege of annoying the stations listeners.
The only concession they’ve worked out is that the ad can be moved to the end of an ad break- other advertisers refused to have their ads play after this abomination, since so many listeners switch when it comes on.
But everything’s included! 
Radio stations just need the money. Small independent stations are especially hurting. We had one in Philly where a host would go out to some natural health clinic and essentially run an infomercial for them during the lunch hour.
I hate ads in general and have since gone to the Tivo and XM Radio. But when I am on the broadcast dial I do think about the goobers that wrote these awful things. Perhaps there is work out there for those who finish dead last in marketing class.