Inquiry on the RSC Facebook page:
I have a Business that I can't seem to get to them (local marketing Dept.) Spent 2 plus years working on them! I KNOW a bunch of our listeners do business with this company! Their repair shop listens at work, and from time to time makes requests. They have over 10 stores in our listening area. Don't want to shame them, but wondering would it be taken as inappropriate to record a tasteful bit...
"Hey ...If you listen to us and shop at ABC store... Let them know you are one of our listeners and wish they would consider supporting our local radio station!" Yes...We are the only station in the local market. I'm strongly considering doing something like this. Have you? How did it go? Thanks.
Decades ago, I was working for KAGE AM/FM in Winona, Minnesota, getting ready to move to Washington. The Ford dealership, a regular advertiser, had changed hands and the new dealer decided to spend all his ad dollars on LaCrosse, Wisconsin TV. He wouldn't even give us the time of day!
Which led to this: we got everyone on the staff—the owner, managers, DJ's, salespeople, receptionist, accountant, as many as we could round up—to record a one-second spot consisting of the guy's name, nothing more. So, we dutifully lined up outside the production studio and one-by-one spoke "Bill Hutmacher" into the microphone. No two takes were the same. Some were serious, some matter-of-fact, some exaggerated, funny, etc.
Then we started airing them. Several times an hour. Always in the short window between the time check (fitting, don't you think?) and the (sung) call letters: "It's four fifty-five."—"Bill Hutmacher!"—"K-A-G-E-F-M" ...then segue into the next song. It was slick.
We wondered how long it would take before we got a response. Two days, it turned out. Longer than it took some listeners to call us to ask the same question he had his secretary call us to ask: Why is the radio station saying his name on the air so much? Whoever answered the phone told her we just wanted to make sure that our listeners would know how to pronounce his name correctly.
I do not recall if he eventually became an advertiser, but it did stimulate productive conversations and business from other advertisers.
And it was fun.
