Of Fathers, Birthdays and Presidents

Dad (in straw hat), his sister (in front) a cousin & their Uncle

 down on the farm in Southern Illinois   ca. 1918

Yesterday would have been my father's 101st birthday. Hard to believe. He was born in 1910,  very much a turn of the century time in this country. William Howard Taft was President. Neither the telephone, the refrigerator or the zipper had been invented.  The Titanic would sink when Dad was two years old.  The U.S. was changing from a predominantly agrarian society to a manufacturing one. People who could no longer subsist on farms were moving to the cities as were immigrants making their way to the "land of opportunity". My father grew up on a farm in southern Illinois on the banks of the Ohio River. He always remembered it with great fondness and longing. They were poor but not starving. His father was an anomaly in those days:  he had a college degree in horticulture. His mother had been a milliner in the city of Chicago but his father moved her to the farm. She was, by all accounts, not happy about it.

Dad moved to Chicago to work for Florsheim Shoes in the advertising dept. He worked as a "paste up artist" which meant he cut and pasted drawings and words to sheets of paper in the form of a print ad. These were given to the newspaper to be typeset. It was 1929; he was 19 years old. He vividly recalled the stock market crash. His workspace in the Florsheim building was below street level, with those tiny grated windows looking onto the sidewalks at people's feet.  He remembered a jumper landing outside.  He watched his money carefully from then on.

Dad put himself through colleg,e taking night courses at Northwestern University. He never finished and it always bothered him. He eventually went to work in a new industry: radio. He was selling national advertising air time to big ad agencies for a company that represented radio stations across the U.S. and Canada.  The business was in its infancy and he was there.

Dad smoking (he'd quit by the 

time I was born) ca. WWII.  When

I was little, I thought he re-

sembled Frankenstein's Monster!

The United States entered the First World War, "the war to end all wars" to which it was mistakenly referred, in 1917.  Of course, the war reparations act led to a second world war.  As a result, my father enlisted in the Army Air Corps for WWII. By then, he'd moved to Los Angeles to start his own rep firm.  He walked away from the new business and beginnings of stability at the age of 31 to defend our country. It took him quite a few years to recover what he'd lost.  By then, he'd been married and it had been annulled; a fact I didn't learn til my mother died.  He kept it a secret but it explained much about him and his breaking his engagement to my mother and his melancholy.  But, that's another story.

                                                                                               

Dad and Mom were married in 1950 and together til her death in 1997.  He lived another ten years without her, on his own, in the lovely quiet area of the Central Coast of California, where they retired.

He died during a lunch of take-out Chinese, sitting with his caregiver, a lovely lady named Isabel. He had a heart attack and could not be revived.  I remember all the times we ordered Chinese take out or he'd take me to China Town in L.A..  It was his favorite food and I was happy he was enjoying it at the end.

Mother and Dad at Christmas time  circa 1967

                            

I flew to CA immediately and set to work on funeral arrangements, along with my brother, as well as the celebration I wanted to have at his home.  The turnout to Dad's service was amazing.  My brother and I thought maybe twenty five at the most.  We probably had closer to 60 and a bunch of my friends made the trip up as well.  That meant so much to me.   My brother and I gave eulogies; mine was about how crotchety Dad was but how loving and kind too.  He was a mixed bag as are most of us.  We gave him the military funeral he'd planned for and it was so moving.  He had full honors with an honor guard, the flag folding, taps and a 21 gun salute.  I'll never forget it.    

 My sons pay their last respects to PaPaw

He and my mom left my brother and I, my two sons, his two daughters and, so far, a granddaughter.  My brother and I think of him often.  We can laugh now at things that were not so funny when we were young.  I wish I could tell him that. 

                                                                          My sons, my nieces, me, my brother out on Dad's lawn 2007

The Long Slow Death of Radio As We Knew It

This post was written as a comment in response to a recent post on Inside Music Media.

Early in my career, I was a national media buyer with the Fotomat Corp. They were, at that time, the 8th largest spot radio buyer in the US. I worked with incredible radio stations, both AM & FM. The Fotomat buying strategy was simple: 40 weeks of radio annually in 80 markets. Everything Fotomat did from a marketing standpoint was primarily dependent on the reps, the stations, the station personalities and the marketing partnerships we developed. Fotomat's marketing strategy utilized the best each station had to offer. Aside from having the requisite cpms to meet, the programs were individualized and they worked. Fotomat's marketing dept was smart enough to realize the strengths and unique aspects of each station with whom they partnered. There was no 'one size fits all". There were no clusters, no ownership monopolies and very little voice tracking other than the "Beautifuls". Stations were still personality-driven and formats were pretty much divided between: Top 40, Rock, Oldies, AC, News/Talk & Beautiful. Our national reps were the cream of the crop from Group W, CBS, Eastman, Katz, Blair, McGavren-Guild, Christal, Buckley and many others. Bill Burton was, indeed, The Man. It was a golden time.

To say that these days are gone forever and radio will never recover to these levels again is probably true. And yet, when you look at the amazing way it all fit together, the dynamics of the stations, their representatives, their advertising partners, their personalities...it all fused to deliver a great product with thoughtful marketing and strong content resulting in a fiercely loyal audience. What is so hard about that?

January 17, 2009

State of the Economy: It Ain't Necessarily So

My last entry discussed the state of the radio broadcast business and my recent escape from the downturn in that industry. The economy may not be as bad as everyone makes out but it seems the media have nothing better to do than harp on it ad nauseum. The presidential campaign occupied the press so deeply and so long, over 18 months, there's a huge void to fill. And filling it, they are, with gloom and doom and little to look forward to. Congress isn't helping. The $750 billion dollar bailout may be just the beginning of more economic woes, most of which will be heaped on the little guys: you and me.

I work with people in business on a daily basis. Northern New England is a cautious region when it comes to spending money. I don't think we are anywhere near as vulnerable as other parts of the country but we are subject to the same network and cable network naysayers who raise their ratings and the rates with negativity. Pointing this out to my clients doesn't hold much water when every Tom, Dick, Cramer and O'Reilly won't shut up about how terrible things are.

If we have to tighten our belts, how bad is that? Perhaps we can all step back and take a break and wait for the tide to turn. I just wish Congress would step in and help the average person...yes, Joe Six Pack, you, me, instead of rewarding these guys who mismanage their companies then come crying to Washington for a handout.

New Job

Exactly two months ago, I left a group of radio stations for whom I'd worked almost six years to become Sales Manager of a small tv network station in the resort area where we live. I've spent 27 years in broadcast radio sales & management and it was not easy for me to make the decision to leave. I had watched radio broadcasting move away from the once-great AM stations of my youth to the edgy and groundbreaking FMs of my late teens and college years. Having grown up in the the Los Angeles radio market, I was used to great disc jockeys, great station jingles and fun promotions. As teenagers, we all listened to the radio via transistors. Most of us started with 45's of our favorite singles, graduating to 33 1/3 LPs when we could afford it. Music was the tie that binds in that every single event in our lives was associated with at least one song or another. To this day, I can pinpoint the year most songs released because I remember what I was doing at the time it was popular on the radio. Baseball was another great radio past time. Vin Scully, still going strong after 60 years as the voice of the Dodgers, was my sports announcer hero. Who didn't listen to their favorite team on the radio?

My father worked in radio for close to fifty years. He started out in Chicago during the Depression, working for an independent rep firm that represented radio stations around the country. His job was to present the features & benefits of each station to the big ad agencies on Michigan Ave. He went on to Canada, working with the pioneering families in Canadian radio, eventually settling in LA to open his own rep firm where I would cut my teeth.

But I digress. I loved radio and all it represented. I worked for Dad as a teenager. After college, I eventually started on the ad agency side of the business as a buyer of radio, television and print. Going into media sales was a natural step and I chose radio probably because of all it represented to me at the time. I enjoyed many years of great times with great people working for great and not-so-great stations. Little by little, the business changed and, as with so much of what has occurred in American business over the last 10-15 years, consolidation took over. As it did, the individuals were bought out and individualism was weeded out. Economies of scale became the norm and all the joy and originality went too. I got out for a few years, thinking I'd never go back as it was no longer the same.

I eventually needed to go back to work and radio was what I knew best. So back I went...a fifty year old woman, no less! I was hired by a three station cluster and hit the streets with all good intentions. The company for whom I worked was huge, fifth largest in the US at the time of my hiring; third largest now. Unfortunately, they know nothing about radio. This company has decimated the existing stations they own, all in the name of those economies of scale. Voice tracking is the norm, live shows the exception. Sales departments do not try to help or please their clients, there's no money in that. The CEO took the group public and ran the price of the stock down to pennies. This company is now firing middle managers, long time air talent, and anyone who isn't absolutely positively necessary to the day-to-day business. It's a bloodbath out there and I mourn the losses. But, boy, I did I get out just in time.

Starting Over

I have just been pursued and wooed to a new job at a local television station. After 27 years in radio sales, I am now going to be the sales mgr of a local station that broadcasts resort information to tourists when they visit. Am I excited? You're darn tootin'! I have been working for a major publically owned radio company for the past six years and I actually thought I'd end my career in broadcasting with them. Zzzzzzz. I now have a new challenge and opportunity to grow with a company that is expanding and entrepreneurial. How great is that?

I didn't have time to think it through...just three days. That is probably a good thing. When you get older, you tend to think too much. I reacted on gut. I liked the people with whom I interviewed. They asked me what I wanted (can't remember the last time THAT happened) and they gave it to me. I keep thinking I should pinch myself but that is my cynicism sneaking in to spoil my fun. It's okay to feel good about myself and believe I deserve this. My Baptist/Presbyterian upbringing doesn't allow for much self-congratulation. I always feel guilty. But, like Stuart Smalley always says,

"I'm good enough,
I'm smart enough
and, dog-gone it, people like me!"

Thank you, Al Franken.



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Right Wing Radio

Before reading my post below, double click the title "Right Wing Radio" for an industry trade opinion on Michael Savage:

When I TRY to listen to a Michael Savage or a Rush Limbaugh I get sad. I say "try" because I usually cannot stomach their content. I say "sad" because I realize so many people buy into their act. Many years ago, at the beginning of the Limbaugh/Stern wage & audience wars, I felt that Limbaugh & Stern were really two sides of the same coin...extremists on opposite sides of the middle using their shows to build ratings and attract listeners for one reason only: money. I didn't like either approach but I did view it as theatre. After all, weren't we trained to sell radio as "theatre of the mind"?
Nowadays the antics of a Limbaugh and Savage and Ingraham etc seem only to fuel the extreme views of the right wing and reinforce alot of crazy zealotry that polarizes the country. The dismal attempt of Air America to get out the opposite views never really reached a mass audience and has, therefore, failed. NPR is really the only true left leaning, mass appeal network with an opposing view. When we ask ourselves how could this nation have fallen so far so fast in just 7 1/2 years, we need only to look to the people with the platforms to influence the angry, the fearful and the dispossesd to know how very influential they truly are.