[opendtv] News: Ads Slamming Satellite Radio Are Effective

My local Entercom station WSKY has been running the ads references in 
the stories below for several weeks. They may be effective, as the 
story claims, but they are also OFFENSIVE to my intelligence.

Each ad has several "actors" talking about the obscenities blaring 
from their satellite radios, and how they don't want their kids to 
hear this stuff. I wonder if these fictitious people (or the 
copywriters) considered the FACT that to hear this stuff the person 
doing the talking had to tune to the channels that are carrying the 
offensive lyrics? How is this any different that playing a CD with 
offensive lyrics?

And the ads say that every month tens of thousands of people drop the 
satellite radio service. The second story appears to set this 
straight.

You gotta live competition...

Regards
Craig



http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=120688&pt=InkHeadlines

Field: Ads Slamming Satellite Radio Are Effective

Entercom CEO David Field, who recently produced and launched 
anti-satellite radio ads to run on all Entercom stations, told Radio 
Ink, "We're already seeing results from the campaign. We've seen 
evidence in focus groups that the ads are working."

  Field told Radio Ink that the ads - which highlight satellite 
radio's flaws like foul language, signal problems and fees -- are 
effective at convincing people not to switch to satellite radio or 
not even consider trying it.

Asked if the ads will bring attention to satellite radio and increase 
subscriptions, Field said, "We're willing to take that risk."

  Radio Ink asked if he were willing to allow non-Entercom stations to 
air the ads. "We encourage every radio station to go to our website, 
download them and run them. Its good for radio."

  The ads can be found at http://www.radiotown.net/audio/.



http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1100904/posts

Radio Broadcaster Takes on Satellite Rivals
Reuters ^  | 3-18-04 | Paul Bond


LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Unhappy at the prospect of losing 
listeners to satellite radio, a company owning 105 broadcast radio 
stations has begun an ad campaign attacking the fledgling 
subscriber-based industry.

  Entercom Communications Corp. started running its anti-satellite 
radio ads March 10 in the 19 markets it serves nationwide.

  Several ads are highlighting what Entercom says are flaws in both 
Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, in particular the 
expense. At least one ad also suggests that customers face losing 
money should either satellite radio company fold.

  And, an Entercom executive said on the condition of anonymity, the 
company will make the radio commercials "available to anyone else 
that wants to use them."

  The executive said the ads are designed to counter what he calls 
misleading marketing efforts that exaggerate the benefits of XM and 
Sirius.

  "Satellite radio is a service that has hyped itself extensively; 
just one of those companies has eight or nine PR agencies," he said.

  Not quite, executives at both XM and Sirius said. "We don't even 
have eight or nine PR employees, let alone agencies," a Sirius 
executive said.

  One Entercom spot features the audio of a conversation among four people:

  "You know how your cell phone drops calls? Well, my satellite radio 
cut in and out just like my cell phone," one woman says. "I'd be 
drivin' along, and it'd be there, and then it wouldn't be there, and 
then it would be there."

  "Remember when cable TV came out?" one man asks. "Then the price 
went up, then it went up again. I bet satellite radio's gonna be just 
like that."

  An announcer ends the spot by telling listeners that "every month, 
tens of thousands of people who have it cancel."

  Sirius spokesman Ron Rodrigues, though, cites a monthly churn rate 
of about 1.1% "For a subscription service, be it newspapers, cell 
phones, whatever, that's about as low as you get," he said. "They 
used actors for those ads. That's because they couldn't find real 
people who have had problems with satellite radio."

  Rodrigues said Sirius is readying a few new commercials of its own, 
though for TV.

  "None will attack traditional radio," he said. "That doesn't 
preclude us from comparing our features to theirs. But we won't do 
what Entercom has been doing to us."

  Added XM spokesman David Butler: "Listen to these ads. They're 
painfully desperate. It certainly seems that someone is panicked. 
It's ironic that they're attacking us with radio commercials given 
that what attracts many people to XM is commercial-free music."

  The ads have even sparked a counterdemonstration of sorts in 
cyberspace. At one Web site run by fans of Sirius, for example, there 
resides artwork of the Sirius dog logo urinating on the Entercom logo.

  Pennsylvania-based Entercom operates stations in such markets as 
Boston, Seattle, Denver, Memphis, New Orleans, Milwaukee and 
Sacramento.

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