Find stations across the country and around the dial. There are few tasks that require as much patience as planning and buying radio. Visions of cluttered desks, broken pencils, dying calculators and
Chinese take-out abound, but did you know that there are a number of resources already out in cyberspace designed to make the process of planning and buying radio time a little easier? Here’s a quick
list of places you may want to turn to before pulling an all-nighter. The veteran Katz Radio Group (www.krgspec.com) reps more than 2,000 radio stations in 300 markets. Their site allows you to search
all stations by owner, rep, market, format, rank and population reached. The data on individual stations includes call letters, market format, and power/frequency. All available research is also
posted on the site. With free access, it’s definitely worth a click. The SRDS site (www.srds.com) is worth a subscription since they have introduced their online version of the Radio Advertising
Source. You can search by call letters, specific format or primary demographic, and find rep firms, networks, syndicators and group owners all on the site. You can even create contact reports and
email. Abitron (www.arbitron.com) provides local market consumer measurement services for radio stations and local U.S. radio audience measurement. Their Infostream service measures Internet audio and
video tuning across all webcasting stations. The downside? You have to be an Arbitron client to play. However, access to the “Arbitron Training & Support Center” is unrestricted, if you want to know
how Arbitron works or just need to brush up on your radio terminology. MeasureCast (www.measurecast.com) provides Internet broadcasters, advertisers and media buyers with third-party reports on
streaming audience size and demographics. Online reports are available to customers anytime, with updated information available the day after a webcast. The site includes a demo so you can check out
how they operate before becoming a member and, if you’re still not convinced, you can fill out an online request form for a free trial of their services. BuyMedia.com (www.buymedia.com) is a site
worth mentioning since they boast access to every commercial radio station in the top 250 Arbitron rated markets. Its BuyRadio division allows buyers to send their media schedules to virtually any
radio station in the country. And Electronic Data Transfer enables the uploading of data from most media planning software. A nice feature on BuyMedia is the StationTracker, which notifies you via
email upon changes of call letters, formats and network affiliations in your markets. In addition, BuyMedia.com provides free research from SQAD and The Media Audit. However, you do have to work for a
station or be a buyer or agency to play. MediaPost (www.mediapost.com), the companion website to this magazine, also offers an extensive database of radio contact listings. The Radio Advertising
Bureau (RAB) (www.rab.com) has updated their website to reflect the times with a “Radio on the Web” page, where you’ll find a listing of all radio stations across the country that maintain a website.
All of RAB’s research publications such as the Radio Marketing Guide and Media Facts, are also available online. You do have to be a member to access some of the information, but the guidebooks are
free. Broadcastspots.com (www.broadcastspots.com) is a site definitely worth a visit. They offer real time media buying and claim to be “the one site on the Internet that really can make your life
easier.” They may not be that far off. All you have to do is login – there’s no registration fee – and after a couple of clicks, you can complete a radio buy anytime, anywhere in the world. Just
choose the category you want to buy – spot, syndicated or block programming. Then select the market and demographics, and you get a list of avails and prices. If you’re also an Arbitron client, you
can get AQH ratings, average listeners and share. Check off what you want to buy and proceed to checkout. And, if after the demo on the site, you’re still not sure, they’ve got a great incentive – a
frequent buyer program (Spot Your Rewards). For every dollar you spend on a buy, you get one spot reward point. You can redeem these points for prizes ranging from a Cuisinart 5-speed hand mixer to
two tickets to the Super Bowl, including the Super Blast party and a private meeting with an NFL player.
