March 6, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
If television and radio stations shift to around-the-clock news coverage in the event of war in Iraq, charities might find new opportunities to get their public-service announcements on the airwaves, according to a company that produces such ads for nonprofit organizations.
West Glen Communications, in New York, last month called 100 television and 150 radio stations — primarily in the country’s biggest cities — to ask them about their programming plans if the United States goes to war.
Many of the television stations said they expected to move to an all-news format and not run any advertisements in the first day or two of hostilities, according to West Glen. Stations anticipated that when they returned to regular programming, some corporations would continue to hold back, not wanting to appear opportunistic by resuming normal advertising too quickly.
“There’ll be an initial period where it’s going to be very difficult to get a message on the air, but then that should rebound and probably create more opportunities for messages to get out,” says Mark Dembo, West Glen’s chief operating officer.
Like September 11
Mr. Dembo says that the nonprofit organizations with which his company works saw a similar pattern after the September 11 terrorist attacks. He thinks that the same types of causes that saw an increase in their airtime then — including disaster relief, ethnic tolerance, mental health, and volunteerism — could see similar gains if the country goes to war.
Other organizations whose missions are not related to current events may have a more difficult time being heard, says Mr. Dembo. “If you’ve got a spot on organ transplantation,” he says, “that kind of message may be harder to get on the air, at least for a time.”
But whatever their mission, Mr. Dembo advises charities not to stop their media-relations campaigns out of fear of what may happen on the world stage. He recommends that nonprofit officials call television and radio stations in their areas now and ask them what they plan to do in the event of war and if there are particular types of public-service announcements that they would like to have on hand.
And charities that have spokesmen who can talk about issues affecting local residents during a time of war and fear of terrorist attacks, says Mr. Dembo, should let stations’ news departments know.
Says Mr. Dembo, “While you’ve got all the global news and all the national news that people are going to be getting from the national networks, local stations are going to want to focus on, How does this affect us in our local community?”
