Wrong said Fred! Air Media disputes RRB claims

Avid radioinfo reader, Fred Armstrong, was livid when he rang us in response to an article quoting the Regional Radio Bureau’s Mary Martin saying: “The Regional Radio Bureau has worked hard at developing initiatives with the advertising industry to make it easier to buy regional radio through one point of contact at the Bureau.This gives RRB a unique position in the market that has been embraced and is delivering returns for advertisers“.

Armstrong, who runs Air Media, the largest independent rep company with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, believes the statement wrongly infers that RRB is, “A one stop shop for regional radio. Not true!,”said Fred. “They don’t handle all the radio stations in regional Australia. We have 70 of them.”

Although RRB is by far the largest, representing more than 130 stations, the list of rep companies includes Robert Eckton’s Back2Media and Grant Broadcasters’ Countrywide.

Air Media’s major client is Bill Caralis’ Super Network, which operates 31 stations throughout NSW and in southern Queensland. In a letter to Martin, Armstrong wrote, “Bill Caralis has instructed me to inform you that under no circumstances were RRB to do any work on behalf of the Super Radio Network. And she’s blatantly ignored that”.