A Question for Our Radio Guys

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No, this is not the STD.

We're all aware that the CTO have issued one of their periodic, and ultimately ignored, edicts about getting to scheduled breaks on time.  I've always been mildly puzzled as to why this is such a gigantic deal, although I guess if a sponsor has paid to have its ad played at a certain time in a certain hour, some effort should be made to do that.

The other day, something occurred to me.

During a Hardline ad break, I switched to RaGE.  Ads.

Flipped on down to Galloway and Co.  Ads.

Your Plainsman Searching for Sportsy-Talk Goodness at the Sod House

Which made me wonder whether The Ticket wants their ads on time so that people who are inclined to wander the dial aren't going to find anything because the competition also schedules their ads for this time.

There's a big flaw in this reasoning, in that The Fan and ESPN would not have a strong incentive to keep themselves on time, because it is in their interest to have broadcast content going on while the P1 is channel-hopping.  Maybe it's just that those stations are better at keeping to their ad schedule, and The Ticket is aping what they know the competition's schedule to be.

I suppose another possibility is that The Hardline (in particular -- it seems to be the worst offender, if offense it be) is so casual that if some discipline were not imposed, they'd end up having to scrunch segments into itty bitty intervals at the end of the hour to get all those hour's ads in.

In any event, maybe someone out there can tell us why it is so critical to "be on time" with breaks.

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