I’m trying to determine if it would be cost effective to advertise my studio on local (Chicago) radio. Anybody have a ballpark idea about how much I can expect to spend?
I did a little digging on the 'net but I couldn’t find any info that was available that I didn’t have to buy a book or subscribe to a service to get.
Radio and TV stations used to publish their rates in a publication called Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS), which is available at many libraries.
In recent years, more of them have refused to pulish rates. If you call your station, someone will be happy to supply you with a sales kit that will tell you who their target audience is, what their ratings are (assuming they’re worth talking about) and what their rates are.
In a major city like Chicago, even bad radio stations set high rates because they have the potential to reach hundreds of thousands. If you don’t pull from an area-wide customer base, you might find neighborhood newspapers or direct mail packages to be more cost-effective.
Generally, the bigger and better radio stations are less flexible on their rates, while smaller and low-rated stations may haggle like a Moroccan bazaar.