Reviewed by Peter Berk, President and Chief Media Strategist, Berk Marketing · Last updated 9 September 2026
About the agency
Berk Marketing is an independent radio and television media buying agency. We plan, negotiate and place airtime for advertisers, and we represent the advertiser only. We do not own stations, sell for stations or hold inventory.
No cost, no obligation. Or call (866) 747-4707 and speak with Peter Berk or one of his Berk-trained partners.
Berk Marketing is an independent media buying agency for broadcast advertising, founded by Peter Berk in 1999. It buys radio, satellite radio, streaming audio and television time for businesses that advertise, rather than selling it for the companies that own it. An engagement starts with an audience, a goal and a budget, and ends with a negotiated schedule on air, a commercial produced in house, and a way of reading the result.
The independence is the entire proposition. Berk Marketing holds no inventory, so there is no station it is obliged to favor. Peter Berk has been in radio since 1978 and spent roughly two decades on the station side before switching to the advertiser’s side of the table. He is a Certified Radio Marketing Consultant, certificate no. 589, from the Radio Advertising Bureau on December 2, 1980. The agency is paid by standard media commission built into the buy, split with Hybrid Media Services on most campaigns. There is no retainer.
The problem
Most advertisers meet broadcast through the people who sell it. That is the normal way to buy, and it is also why so many campaigns disappoint. Every recommendation is written by someone with time to move.
Not sure who else is advertising in your category? We will run a competitive monitoring report for you at no charge, through our strategic partner Hybrid Media Services, and show you where your competitors are running before you commit a dollar. In many cases nothing shows up at all, and that is worth knowing too.
Get the ReportWhat we actually do
“Media buying” gets used loosely, so here is the work itself, function by function. A station seller does one of these rows. An independent buyer answers to the advertiser for all six.
| Function | What it means | How we handle it |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Deciding which medium, stations, dayparts and weight, before any money is committed. | We start from who the customer is and what one is worth, then work out whether the frequency you need is affordable at all. Sometimes the answer is no. |
| Negotiation | Turning an opening rate card into a real price, and a bare schedule into added value. | We put stations, networks, SiriusXM and television in competition for the same budget, which is only possible because we are not one of them. |
| Placement | Ordering the specific spots: station, program, daypart, week and length. | Written schedules confirmed with each seller, so you know what you bought instead of being told you will be rotated. |
| Creative | Writing and producing the commercial that occupies the time you just bought. | Scripting, voice and production in house, after we ask who you are targeting and what makes the offer different. Radio and TV creative is included. |
| Trafficking | Getting the finished audio or video to every station in the right format, on time, with correct rotation instructions. | Handled across every station on the buy, with copy changes and offer swaps mid-flight. One point of contact throughout. |
| Measurement | Establishing what the schedule returned, and what to change next. | Dedicated numbers, call tracking and codes, read by station, daypart and week, then budget moved onto what works. |
No single row of that table is a campaign. Advertisers get hurt when someone does one and calls it the whole job.
The media we buy
Broadcast AM and FM, local and national, bought by market, format and daypart. Still the cheapest way to build reliable repetition.
SiriusXM talk, music and sports channels bought nationally as one buy, with no market-by-market assembly.
Internet radio and streaming platforms, where targeting and reporting beat broadcast, at a higher unit cost.
Cable and broadcast television, bought nationally or market by market, for products that must be seen rather than described.
National cable inventory through DirecTV and DISH, often a lower entry point than network spot.
Connected television such as Hulu, reaching viewers who no longer watch live, with digital targeting attached to the buy.
Most campaigns end up weighted across two or three of these. Which two is a question of audience and budget, not of what we have to sell.
Background
Berk Marketing exists because its founder spent the first half of his career selling airtime and the second half buying it. Knowing how the sell side prices and defends inventory is the advantage an advertiser is hiring.
| When | What happened | Why it matters to an advertiser |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Peter Berk starts in radio at KCHO in Chico, later KCHS-AM in New Mexico. | The starting point for every year count on this site, and where schedules are learned from the inside. |
| December 2, 1980 | Awarded the Certified Radio Marketing Consultant designation by the Radio Advertising Bureau, certificate no. 589. | Awarded after an industry examination under the RAB code of business practice. A grounding in marketing rather than in selling spots. |
| Roughly two decades | Station-side sales and management, including KABC and KMPC in Los Angeles, and 91X San Diego as general sales manager. | Twenty years of writing proposals means knowing where the margin and the soft numbers sit. |
| 1999 | Berk Marketing is founded to buy airtime for advertisers instead of selling it for stations. | A deliberate change of sides. From here the client is the advertiser, and no media company is owed anything. |
| January 2000 | Xtermite becomes a client, a San Diego termite company treating with orange oil. | Still a client twenty-six years later. Local radio, local TV, direct mail, billboards and online, all pointed at giving homeowners an option other than tenting. |
| 2010 | Power Sales University becomes a client, on SiriusXM. | Sales training from Jason Evans, who voices his own commercials. Satellite radio is his best source for growing the business. |
| 2011 | Big Lou Insurance becomes a client, on national radio and SiriusXM. | A direct response campaign still running, for a term life product aimed at people aged 50 to 60 with health issues. See Big Lou. |
| 2016 | Westminster Mint becomes a client, on national television. | Gold and silver coins sold on price, with Fox Business carrying most of the weight. |
| Today | Radio, satellite radio, streaming audio and television bought nationally and locally across the US. | One independent buyer, one point of contact, no inventory to protect. |
More on the career behind that table is on the Peter Berk page.
Why Berk Marketing
Never a station or rep firm, and no inventory. Nothing in a recommendation is there because we need to clear it. That is what an independent media buyer is.
Peter Berk spent roughly two decades in station sales and management, from small-market radio to KABC and KMPC in Los Angeles and 91X San Diego, before founding the agency.
Every proposal is scored against the same ten points: ours, and any you hold from someone else. If yours is a good buy, we say so and you should take it.
Writing, voice and production are handled here, not left to the station. Creative director and national voice talent Bruce Barker is the voice of the long-running Big Lou campaign.
Peter Berk works every account personally, from strategy through placement. Nancy Berk coordinates client services, and Jenn Berk handles client relations and business development.
Most campaigns are placed alongside Hybrid Media Services, led by Kevin Mannix, bringing national leverage a small agency could not reach alone.
The people
Every account is worked by the same small group. No account executive inherits your file, and there is no call queue between you and the person who negotiated the buy.
Founder & President
With nearly fifty years in the radio business, you could say that radio is in Peter’s blood at this point. Having been an on-air personality, an account exec, a sales manager, and everything you could think of in between, Peter knows the radio business inside and out.
His goal in partnering with his clients today is to use his wealth of experience to ensure that his clients are receiving the best rates in the most effective venues for their advertising campaigns.
Peter began his career in 1978 as a disc jockey at a California college station. His first professional DJ spot was on KCHS AM in Truth or Consequences, NM (Yes, there really is a Truth or Consequences, NM). After a stint in Wyoming as an account executive for local KEVA AM, Peter moved back to California and worked for a group of radio stations in San Luis Obispo.
Within a short time, Peter found himself in the major Los Angeles markets as a sales manager of one of the largest stations at the time, KABC/KMPC. It was in this position that Peter was able to implement many revolutionary advertising concepts that developed into strong direct response vehicles for his clients. In December 1980 the Radio Advertising Bureau awarded Peter its Certified Radio Marketing Consultant accreditation, certificate no. 589.
Since 1999, Peter has been working hard to build lasting partnerships with his clients and to help their direct marketing campaigns succeed. He brings his years of experience in the field to bear in order to help his clients get the most out of their advertising efforts.
If you’ve been in touch with Peter, or with Berk Marketing, you already know that phone calls and emails are returned promptly (usually within minutes).
Client Services & Key Account Relations
Nancy Berk is responsible for client services and key account relations. With a BS Degree in Advertising/Marketing, Nancy offers clients a level of customer service that is second to none. Nancy has previously worked in the marketing department for Vivitar Cameras and brand marketing for the Carnation Company.
Wally Berk is a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier in charge of corporate fitness. Wally loves long walks with lots of trees and fire hydrants.
VP of Client Relations & Business Development
Jenn brings expertise in social media and digital to Berk Marketing, but she also knows what works, and believes that radio and TV are as powerful and impactful as ever, when done correctly. When working with Jenn, you can rest assured that she will work diligently to put you in a position to succeed and accomplish your goals. She takes pride in her honest, candid, and client-first approach.
While studying Marketing at Cuesta College, Mira Costa College, and CSU San Marcos, Jenn interned doing sales, marketing, and promotions for K-JUG radio in San Luis Obispo, and CBS Radio in San Diego. She also worked as a marketing host, helping plan and host social events for concerts, night clubs, special events, and smaller local events, primarily using social media.
She ultimately found herself in a position to capitalize on her marketing talents with Berk Marketing and has become an expert in helping her clients implement strategies that work. It probably helps that her father is a marketing guru, Peter Berk, who has cracked the code to generate ROI with radio and TV advertising.
Jenn has been with Berk Marketing since 2015. Growing up, Jenn was an all-star athlete in softball, tennis, water polo, soccer, and surfing. She ultimately became more passionate about snowboarding and fitness. Jenn has always loved animals. In her spare time, you can find Jenn zipping down the slopes of Big Bear, Mammoth or Tahoe, working out at the gym, and volunteering to save her furry friends.
Advisors
Creative, production and national buying leverage, from people who have been doing this for decades.
Key Accounts / Creative Solutions
Tim Hackett has built award-winning promotions and events for advertisers both national and local for over 25 years. He consistently drives participation and traffic for clients through the creative use of media, publicity, email and social networks.
Radio & Video Production Supervisor
Bruce can be heard nationally on commercials for Pacific Life Insurance, Pro Flowers, Sony PlayStation, and more; he’s the voice of Speed Channel’s “Pinks All Out”; presently has fifty-or-so local radio and TV commercials airing; and on those rare downtimes you’ll likely find him tinkering under the hood of a late-’50s Ford.
Bruce entered the world of voiceover and production when he was just a freshman in high school, working in small-town radio in Western Alaska. In 1987 he followed the sun, and began performing numerous on-air and behind-the-scenes functions at a variety of Southern California radio stations.
By the late 1990s, Bruce was moving heavily into voiceovers for television and eventually broke away from “corporate radio” to devote his full-time energies to voice work and commercial production.
His company, RightAfterThis.com, produces everything from internet TV shows to live radio broadcasts, audiobooks to TV documentaries, all from a five-studio complex in North Hollywood, CA. He is the voice of the long-running Big Lou campaign.
Hybrid Media Services
Most Berk Marketing campaigns are placed alongside Hybrid Media Services, led by Kevin Mannix. The partnership brings national buying leverage that a small independent agency could not reach alone, while the planning, creative and day-to-day account work stay in house.
Is it a fit?
Not sure which column you are in? The test is on Is radio right for my business?, or call and we will tell you.
FAQs
Berk Marketing is an independent media buying agency founded by Peter Berk in 1999. It works for advertisers, not for media companies, and it holds no inventory of its own. It plans, negotiates, places and measures radio, satellite radio, streaming audio and television campaigns across the United States.
By standard media commission built into the buy, split with Hybrid Media Services on most campaigns. There is no separate retainer, no planning fee and no charge for a competitive report. If we place nothing, you owe us nothing.
No retainer and no ongoing agency contract. You commit to the media schedule itself, and only after seeing it written down with stations, dayparts, weights and prices. Nothing is booked before you approve it.
Peter Berk works personally on every account, from strategy through placement. Nancy Berk coordinates client services, and Jenn Berk handles client relations and business development. One point of contact from start to finish, not an account team that changes each quarter.
Radio, local and national, SiriusXM satellite radio, streaming and internet radio, national and local television, satellite television through DirecTV and DISH, and streaming television such as Hulu. We negotiate with stations, networks and platforms on the advertiser’s behalf.
Yes. Radio and TV creative is included: scripting, voice and production are done in house. We ask who you are targeting and what makes your offer different before writing anything, a question the station selling you the time rarely asks.
We tell you, and you keep your money. Because we own no airtime, saying no costs us a commission and nothing else. Every recommendation is measured against one test: if this were our own money, is this how we would spend it?
Keep reading
We come back with real availability, negotiated pricing and a written recommendation across radio, satellite, streaming and television. Or we tell you broadcast is the wrong home for the money, which happens often enough to be worth the call.
Or call (866) 747-4707. No obligation, and no pressure to buy through us.
Tell us who you want to reach and what you want to accomplish. No obligation, and nothing is placed until you approve it.
Ready to plan your radio buy?
Berk Marketing represents advertisers, not radio stations or media companies.
