In a radio (illustration) - 20 MINUTES / SIPA

  • With the fall in advertising revenues, the Covid-19 has had a direct impact on regional radios, which live only on the campaigns they broadcast on the airwaves.
  • Today, the recovery is there, but the situation is far from having returned to normal.
  • To give a boost to local shops (and set an example), Occitania radios, which have joined together in an association, are preparing to offer 300,000 euros in advertising to local businesses.

Since the introduction of containment measures due to the Covid-19 epidemic last March, the advertising screens of regional radios have been desperately empty. The general fall in advertising revenues hit B radio stations, which live exclusively on campaigns broadcast on their antennas.

In April, in Occitania, ten regional radios united in an association, to sound the alarm bell: "We have lost almost all of our turnover from advertising campaigns, while the months of spring are among the most important in the constitution of our recipes, they lamented, in a letter to the institutions. Our businesses are going through an unprecedented crisis. "

"The recovery is there, but the situation is still complicated"

A month and a half later, some advertisers, including traders who had to temporarily close, resurfaced. But the situation is far from having returned to normal. "We feel a small recovery, but we are far from the level we knew before," says Jacques Iribarren, president of the association of regional radio in Occitania and founder of 100% radio, which broadcasts in 11 departments of the region, and in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. “In full containment, our screens were empty, or almost empty, notes Jacques Iribarren. We only had a few government campaigns, a few customer ads that set up drives. "

"The recovery is there, but the situation is still complicated, and the months lost will remain lost," says François-Xavier Delacoux, the director of RTS FM, which broadcasts from Vaucluse to the Pyrénées-Orientales. However, we have never suspended our programs, on the contrary, we have continued our services, we have multiplied local information. "Other radios have stopped their local antennas, but we have made a completely different choice," says Olivier Coquin, founder of Radio One, the radio of Agde and the Thau basin. The essence of our local radios is the link with listeners, with the territory. A link that has taken years to build. It was important not to break it, and continue to air, inform, entertain, reassure. "

"Our jobs are there in our territories"

Jacques Iribarren mentions "more than 50% loss of turnover in March", and a month of April "terrible". "Some radios suffer from a loss of at least 80% of turnover," he continues. An “unprecedented” crisis, which has strongly affected regional radio stations in Occitania, which employ 124 people, and are listened to by more than 2.5 million listeners. "We don't really have visibility on the rest of the story, we don't know what will be the summer, or if it will start again in September. "

In their open letter in April, regional radio stations also regretted that certain institutions allocated budgets to Facebook or Google rather than supporting their branches. "Our jobs, we are there, they are in our territories," recalls François-Xavier Delacoux. In crises like the one we have been through, we have to make different choices, a little economic patriotism does not hurt. "

To give a boost to local businesses (and set an example), Occitania radios are also preparing to offer 300,000 euros in advertising to local businesses. The businesses have been selected, the advertisements will soon be broadcast on their airwaves. "We have a duty to help," notes Jacques Iribarren. We have advertising space, so we might as well benefit local businesses. And it's also a way to demonstrate that radio media is effective. "

€ 300,000 in support for local trade with https://t.co/nSRwjOYvJN # listenlocal #radio # regional radio pic.twitter.com/JlWkuvPTAq

- LesRadiosRégionales (@les_regionales) April 10, 2020

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  • Languedoc-Roussillon
  • Publicity
  • Covid 19
  • epidemic
  • Coronavirus
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  • Radio
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