Broadcast Media Buyer
Bernstein-Rein
Kansas City, MO
OVERVIEW
The Broadcast Media Buyer is responsible for the planning support, negotiation, placement, stewardship, and financial reconciliation of local and regional television and audio/radio campaigns.
This role turns approved media strategies into accurate, efficient, and well-negotiated buys across multiple markets. The Broadcast Media Buyer works closely with media planners, account teams, analytics, finance, traffic partners, and media vendors to ensure campaigns are executed correctly, optimized throughout each flight, and fully reconciled.
The Broadcast Media Buyer will use Advantage and related agency systems to manage buying, stewardship, documentation, reporting, and financial reconciliation.
The ideal candidate is highly organized, comfortable managing budgets and deadlines, and motivated to find ways to improve value, delivery, and performance for clients.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Negotiate and place local and regional television and audio/radio buys based on approved media plans, budgets, target audiences, market conditions, and campaign objectives.
Translate approved media strategies into executable schedules that align with market-level investment, reach and frequency goals, timing, and flighting needs.
Review avails, ratings, audience delivery, cost-per-point, reach and frequency, competitive activity, market conditions, and historical campaign performance to inform buying recommendations and optimize investment.
Secure competitive rates, preferred placement, promotional opportunities, added value, flexibility, makegoods, and other terms that strengthen the client investment.
Build and maintain productive relationships with station representatives, network partners, rep firms, and other media vendors.
Manage the full buying process, including RFPs, avail reviews, negotiations, buy authorizations, insertion orders, station schedules, revisions, approvals, and post-buy documentation using Advantage and related agency systems.
Prepare and maintain accurate buy summaries, flowcharts, traffic instructions, budget pacing, cash-flow documentation, annual commitments, cancellation windows, delivery obligations, makegoods, credits, and billing records.
Monitor campaign delivery throughout each flight, including ratings performance, pacing, preemptions, missed spots, underdelivery, and schedule changes; proactively resolve issues and track makegoods or credits to protect client value.
Partner with media planners on market-level allocation, flighting, competitive activity, reach and frequency strategy, and post-buy recommendations.
Support television and audio/radio activity tied to new-market launches, promotional windows, and ongoing local-market campaigns, as needed.
Work closely with traffic and creative teams to confirm materials, instructions, rotation, deadlines, and station requirements are complete and accurate.
Provide timely budget pacing, cash-flow, delivery, and billing-reconciliation updates; flag risks, variances, and required decisions early.
Conduct post-buy analysis and reconcile actual delivery against estimates; identify variances and recommend optimizations or future buying improvements.
Review station invoices, affidavits, and proof-of-performance documentation; resolve discrepancies and support timely billing and job closeout.
Partner with analytics teams, where data is available, to connect media delivery and audience performance to broader campaign and business results.
Stay current on changes in local television, audio/radio, streaming video, audience measurement, ratings methodologies, and marketplace dynamics.
QUALIFICATIONS
3–5+ years of local and regional television and audio/radio buying experience, ideally within an agency environment.
Strong understanding of ratings, audience composition, CPP, CPM, reach and frequency, preemptions, makegoods, post-buy analysis, broadcast billing, and reconciliation.
Experience managing multiple simultaneous market buys, budgets, station relationships, and tight production or traffic deadlines.
Proven negotiation skills and the ability to balance cost efficiency, audience delivery, schedule quality, flexibility, and client objectives.
Strong financial-management skills, including budget pacing, cash flow, commitment tracking, invoice reconciliation, and identifying delivery or billing risks.
Experience supporting retail, multi-location, franchise, or other local-market advertisers is preferred.
Highly organized with strong attention to detail, sound judgment, and the ability to manage competing priorities.
Strong communication and relationship-management skills across media partners, planners, finance, traffic, account teams, and clients.
Proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint; experience using Advantage or comparable broadcast buying, stewardship, and reconciliation systems is strongly preferred.
ABOUT BR
At Bernstein-Rein, we believe retail intelligence comes from consumer insights, a true brand purpose, and a half a century of unrivaled experience. Our Retailigent® approach leverages consumer and B2B expertise to uncover insights and craft brand purposes that transform dreamers into disruptors. BR's core mission has remained the same since 1964: To impact the future of retail.
If you’re up for the challenge and want to join a team committed to accelerating our client’s growth, then we encourage you to apply!
Bernstein-Rein is an Equal Opportunity Employer
