Commentary

Clickpicks: Best Broadcast Sites

For a dose of the traditional enhanced by the cutting edge, buyers can search radio and television buying opportunities on the Internet and even make transactions via the web. Some of the broadcast websites offer endless statistics and links, and others act as forums for business transactions. Here are a few of the best, most inclusive sites for traditional broadcast that we found.

National Cable Communications (www.spotcable.com) offers a straightforward website with everything from a company history to an NCC Business Process Chart downloadable in PDF. This site has a glossary of terms and a list of 1Q 2001 Network Schedules, including A&E, Cartoon Network, ESPN, and VH 1. The site also delves into NCC’s state-of-the-art research data and marketing systems, such as Nielsen GALAXY Overnight Ratings, Nielsen Total Activity Report (TAR), and CMR Ad-Extra/Market Manager.

Spotdata’s (www.spotdata.com) site has an Ad Agencies/Media Buyers/In-house Agencies tab on its homepage where buyers can review Spotdata’s electronic ordering and invoicing in-depth, searching the who’s, how’s, and why’s of the electronic service. Spotdata also has a "subscribers only" area with a login for secure e-business transactions. The agency sign up gives a fee breakdown and company information page where agencies can authorize a buyer to do business on the website.

Befitting its claim to be the nation’s largest full-service, radio-only advertising sales and marketing company, Interep’s (www.interep.com) homepage offers both flash and static versions of its site. The fast pace and energetic techno audio of the flash site swirls in electric blue and offers a variety of click tabs. The Advertisers/Agencies link takes you to a page with subsequent links to topics such as Interep’s "unmatched capabilities" in training, research, and promotions, among others. The site is thorough and entertaining—even the static site.

Audio Graphics (www.audiographics.com) describes itself as offering radio station services for radio advertisers, radio stations, and advertising agencies. The company’s site offers details on Audio Graphic’s PiggyBack Paging, a multiple-client website, and outlines the service’s benefits and no-cost availability to buyers. Registration for PiggyBack Paging is available on the site. The home page has links to relevant news and statistics, site rankings, and more.

From the Katz Media Group, Radio Resource Center (www.krgspec.com) is straightforward and easy-to-use. It allows a market search by area or criteria, a station search by call letters, a format search, a search by reps, and a search by owners. The site’s goal is to provide a "suite of research reports, tools, and services to plan, buy, and sell radio," and it does just that. The site even offers a library of abbreviations, definitions, and survey areas.

BuyMedia.com (www.buymedia.com) boasts an easy-to-use site with radio, TV, and cable tabs on each page for easy navigation. The site details BuyMedia’s products, which include the site, Marketron (a radio traffic and billing software), TvScan, and Cablescan (television sales and proposal softwares). Buy Radio, available for login and sign-up on BuyMedia’s homepage, is an Internet-based radio-advertising exchange, allowing buyers to purchase from, reportedly, any radio station in the United States. With free membership, buyers can get rates and invoices from stations that license Marketron, as well as receive electronic proposals and avails.

Petry Media Corporation’s (www.petrymedia.com) clients include FOX Television Stations Inc., Gannett Broadcasting, Hubbard Broadcasting Inc., and LIN Television Corporation. Its site’s homepage offers several links from a station search to a Fox Television Sales site with a company description, mission and management philosophy, contact, and client list. Additionally, 2001 Broadcast Calendars from Fox, Blair, and Petry are available in PDF. While, apparently, no business transactions can take place on the site, numerous sales contacts are listed, as well as an employee search and office locations link. — Bridgitte Arnold

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