Radio Sales Café

Happy Friday, all!

Just talked to a client in Wyoming who's expecting five feet of snow overnight.  Yes, the station is located in a mountainous region -- but snowfall like this in June hasn't been seen since 1963.

So here's this week's poll question:

What's the worst weather-related incident you've had to deal with in your sales career?

You know, "Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow nor heat of day nor dark of night shall keep this carrier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds."  Those lines were written about a radio salesperson, right?

Looking forward to reading your replies -- have a great weekend!

The worst weather-related incident has been through the hurricanes here in Louisiana, but those hardware store with the generators sure do spend lots of $$$$$$$$ at that time!!!!!

The Blizzard of 78. Boston ground to a halt. I was working at WHDH (AM) & WCOZ (FM). Doug Limerick, now of ABC Morning News, was our WHDH news anchor at the time. Doug quit and headed south shortly after the roads cleared. Too snowy for a southern lad. I wonder how he fared during the recent snowfall that hit Washington this past winter. The bad news was we were stuck at the station. The good news is that we did a hell of a job covering the story. More good news is that the Copley Plaza Hotel was right next door and the bar was open. You know how everybody at your station "sells", well everybody at our stations became news people during the crisis. Come to think of it, we had a hell of a week.

After the blizzard of 1979, it was a cold but sunny day, so I decided to venture out. I had a car with Posi-traction, so I could get through snow pretty well, and there was a lot of it-so much that when I headed forward, it came up over the hood. I managed to make some calls on people who were actually in their businesses-I was the only person to see them on that day, and as I recall, and brought in 3 orders that day.

Have also had to deal with flooding, but nothing like that in the Gulf region after Katrina.....

In 2004, Pensacola, FL took a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan, and so did our stations. One of the stations was the EAS station so getting back on the air was imperative. A fantastic group of people lived at the station for weeks, broadcasting, programming, trafficking, and yes, selling. (Did I mention that it was also a political/presidential election year?) I've never worked with such a dedicated group of radio people before or since.

I live and work in Findlay, OH. In August of 2007, we had a flood which crippled most of Findlay and Ottawa. My husband and I both work for out stations and we were personally affected by this disaster. I still get emotional thinking about it or talking about it. Our radio stations are community leaders for news and informaiton, so we were broadcasting live from The Red Cross shelter, which was set up in our local rec center. We provided information on how to get supplies, food, etc for those affected. I've never seen such a community outpouring of support than I did during that time. We used our websites to list information that was accessible 24/7. We also talked to representative from the BBB to talk about all the out of town companies who showed up and went door-to-door handing out informaiton. From a sales side, we had many clean up and re-building type companies who advertised during this time. It definitely was a reveue generator!!

Okay I am dating myself 1986 the floods in California bridge washed out and roads as well. My 1984 jetta stuck in 2 1/2 feet of water!

Well fortunately our weather is usually decent, it gets cold, we get snow, we get rain, we get hot. The only thing we really have to look out for are Thunder Storms and Lighting!

Rebecca: It happened before I started my stint in sales but I know it had to be a challenge at our station because it was not a normal occurence. Kansas is known for its changing weather. However, on New Year's Eve 1979 we had nearly a foot of snow by midnight and ended up with nearly two feet of snow that stayed with us for the whole month of January. At one point that month the temp dropped to -23 degrees. Now that probably doesn't rate a yawn in Wyoming but for us in Central Kansas it was a nightmare. At one point I was being used as a taxi for station personnel that month. Tough on sales.

I was in college at WSU and home in Walla Walla for Christmas vacation. It snowed three feet on New Years Eve alone, on top of already two feet. The temperatures were ranging from 20 below zero to FIFTY below zero. A couple of days later, I headed back to Pullman because I had a shift on a commercial radio station (KPUL--now KQQQ/KHTR--same building, Rod.Leaving at 6am in my 55 Chevy with re-cap (do they even make those any more?) snow tires, I made it to the station at noon--just in time for my shift. So what is normally a two hour drive, took six hours. Two days later, I had worked an afternoon shift at the station and then had to sign on in the morning. I decided to spend the night at the station rather than try to get there in the morning, it was still around 20 below, so I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor of the control room. When I woke up the next morning, I was COVERED in spiders and also there was no working bathroom facilities in the building. Needless to say, the guy that owned it back before Bill and Susan was one strange dude.

I can't top that one. Rh in Kansas

Dennis:

Maybe we should review some of the worst trash heaps we we worked in. I could contribute.

The Big Freeze April 1st 1997. Working for WHUD-FM and WLNA-AM in Westchester County, just north of NYC. Woke-up in my new home with 4 inches of ICE on the ground. Fortunately then I was only one mile away from work. However the ice brought done trees all over including blocking the only road to Radio Terrace. I was the only sales associate of eight that could make it in that day. and the support staff was down to one. But the phones still worked and back then we could load in commercials as needed and the clients were calling to advise the consumers of the FREEZE SALES that were on .....

Does an earthquake count?
In the late 60s I worked for KWKO-FM in Anchorage, on the 14th floor of the only building on 4th street to survive the '64 quake. Our standing rule was, "If the building shakes, let the record run, get out and take the stairs."
Sure enough, we started shaking one night. I let the record run. I headed down the stairs. I must not have been moving fast enough because I got passed by a pregnant lady!

Joe:

I worked in a dump one time where the fire alarm frequently sounded. We kept "American Pie" for such occasions. The firehouse was a block away so we were in and out before the music ended. If it didn't, it might have been bye-bye radio station. Happily it never came to that.

In the early 80s, while working in Greencastle , IN...we had a "crippling" snowstorm (for West Central IN) and I was actually kind of pumped about being snowed in. I was living in a closed sorority house at the time and had wandered to the kitchen to get something to eat. I heard a horn honking and went to the back door...it was the local Chevy dealer who yelled "Get a coat on, I want my ads running!". So, I got a ride to the station...and was there for at least 2 days until somebody else was able to get out and give me a break. I have a problem with cup-of-soup to this day.

So - kind of lame replying to a 2 year old post, but I read Bill's account of the Blizzard of '78 and recalled my experience.

I was a sales guy and weekend jock for an AOR station in Tampa.  I had to fly up to Boston for a funeral the Sunday before the storm and - of course - was stuck when the storm hit.

My GM wasn't too pleased, but he asked me to do twice daily reports for the newscast down in Florida, to which I readily agreed.  It kept me from going bonkers from boredom, since we were stuck in the house every day for about a week.

Had an airshift that I couldn't miss on the next Sunday, so I managed to wangle a ride on a Boston Globe newspaper delivery truck (the roads were all closed to civilian traffic even 5 days after the storm) to travel the 30 miles into Boston.  They dropped me off at a T station near the Globe and I rode the T to Logan.  Since the shuttles at Logan weren't running, I dragged my luggage down to the terminal and camped out until the next morning when the first flight to Tampa left, with me on it.  I made it back to Tampa in time for my shift - and to hit the streets with a great story for my clients on Monday!

In a sad note,i just recalled, as we were all together during the storm. that our program director Al Brady Law and his music director got together during that week, which led to a wedding. He and Jane (Brady Law) moved on and worked at some of the big stations around the country. But I learned last week that Al was home in New Hampshire, suffering from cancer. I arranged to see him but I was too late. Al died last week.