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If you like to read, there's a lot to like in each day's St. Louis Post-Dispatch...at a price that's hard to beat.
After all, the daily Post-Dispatch can be purchased for fifty cents...and the Sunday edition is a buck-and-a-half.
Even if you disagree with the editorial content within each day's paper, that's quite a bargain. Especially when you consider that home delivery is often included in the price.
Of course, a substantial fraction of a newspaper's revenue comes from its advertisers.
And perusal of a week's worth of P-D's reveals that the Famous-Barr chain of department stores does a lot of advertising in St. Louis' major metropolitan daily.
In fact, on certain days, entire sections of the Post-Dispatch consist of Famous-Barr inserts.
Why does Famous-Barr choose to advertise in the Post-Dispatch?
Well, at least to this reader it makes sense that the St. Louis area's best-known retailer would choose the area's most widely-read newspaper...to spread the word about the latest sale on, say, comforters.
After all, each day's newspaper includes TV listings, weather reports, marriage announcements, obituaries, movie listings, an occasional recipe, as well as local and national gossip, general news, editorials and opinions, and sports.
And although the P-D's circulation is down, even its most fervent critics would have to admit that each morning's edition has something for just about everyone...including upwardly mobile St. Louis-area females (a likely Famous-Barr target audience), who make a majority of the purchases at stores such as Famous-Barr.
So the next time your spouse brings home an oh-so-soft comforter that was purchased at Famous-Barr, remind yourself that a penny or two of your hard-earned dough ends up in the pocket of, say, P-D sportswriter Tom Wheatley.
Which brings us to sports radio.
In particular, sports radio in St. Louis.
Accurately billing itself as "St. Louis' Only All Sports Radio Station," KFNS-AM 590 beams a lively (if a bit uneven) mix of sports news and updates, mostly St. Louis-based talk shows (which rely heavily on listener phone calls), and a fairly healthy dose of live event coverage...to a small but loyal audience.
While the KFNS programming schedule seems to change on a monthly basis, over the years the list of companies that choose to advertise on the station has remained relatively constant.
Among the sponsors of KFNS' standard call-in shows are a brewery, a soft drink company, a casino or two, a law firm or three, cellular phone companies, car dealerships, cigar stores, golf-related companies, and certain establishments that collectively are known as the "East Side Ballet".
Which leads to the following question: how accurately have KFNS' advertisers targeted their audience?
In other words, are KFNS listeners people who, when not attending sporting events or talking about sports, spend most of their time drinking beer, guzzling soft drinks, gambling, getting divorced, committing traffic violations, talking on car phones, buying cars, smoking cigars, playing golf, and ogling naked women?
In other words, is the garden-variety KFNS listener an older version of Beavis and Butthead...with money to burn?
Yikes!
A week or two ago, this listener had a KFNS listening experience that provided at least some answer to these questions.
I'm pretty sure (but not positive) that this listening experience occurred during the mid-morning show hosted by Bernie Miklasz and Frank Cusumano...a show sponsored (in part) by a St. Louis-area law firm.
Much of the morning's discussion centered on the controversy surrounding 22-year-old Ryan Tucker, the Rams fourth-round selection in the just-completed NFL draft.
Tucker, who comes highly credentialed as far as his football ability is concerned, also has had several run-ins with the law enforcement system in these United States.
If press reports are correct, most, if not all, of Tucker's legal problems have occurred at, in, or near establishments that serve liquor in open containers during the night-time hours.
Well, a rather well-known caller (an extremely opinionated bloke from Maryland Heights) who has managed to antagonize and/or entertain just about every KFNS host and producer over the past several years, wanted to put his two cents worth into the question of whether or not the Rams should have drafted Tucker.
The caller accurately pointed out that Tucker was still a young man...and that a lot of young men make mistakes when it comes to alcohol...and that most young people deserve another chance to straighten out their lives.
Then, to illustrate his point, the caller used himself as an example.
"Look at me," he said. "When I was younger, I was arrested nine times in incidents that involved alcohol."
Bingo...it looks like law firms and KFNS sales staff have targeted their audience pretty successfully, eh?
Here's one final note.
The following suggestion is for all KFNS afternoon drive-time listeners out there who occasionally visit the East Side Ballet.
If you've ever wondered whose pockets are lined as a result of your favorite dancer's hard work, remember two words while you're tucking a couple of dollars into that lovely lady's garter belt--
"Carpe Diem."
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