Time Buyer

Day to day, you're purchasing broadcast advertising time — radio spots, TV commercials, sometimes streaming audio or video inventory — on behalf of advertisers or agencies. You're negotiating rates with station and network reps, comparing audience data across options, placing orders, and managing the execution: ensuring spots run as planned, handling makegoods when they don't, and reconciling invoices against confirmed placements.

The rhythm is campaign-driven. Media plans get developed, approved, and then executed across multiple stations or networks — often simultaneously. Rate negotiations happen at the front end of each campaign flight; execution management and post-buy analysis happen at the back end. Between campaigns, you're building and maintaining the station and network relationships that will affect the rates you can negotiate next quarter.

The core skill is negotiation with knowledge. Station reps are sophisticated sellers; buyers who know the market — ratings trends, competitive pressure on specific dayparts, upcoming inventory constraints — negotiate from a position of strength. Buyers who rely only on what reps tell them leave money on the table.