A month ago in this space, I shared my story from 50 years ago about how I got to the General Manager’s position of Big Apple FM station WRFM, which sat at #23 in the Arbitron audience ratings when I arrived. Now, here’s an Encore posting from a year ago, telling about how a year later, WRFM ranked #5 in radio listening in the New York City market … and we had begun to utilize posters in the city’s subway system to cement our position and continuing to focus on bringing new listeners on board!
Originally posted 07 July 2018:
Where did this advertising slogan come from? I’m not sure … one day it just popped into my head. I had never seen it used by another radio station, and I don’t remember ever seeing any other station pick up on it and use it anywhere else in the country.
The year was 1970 and this was not our first promotional campaign, yet it was our first real general market advertising, beginning with the rail and bus station posters shown below … then followed by the subway car poster you see above, along with the lighted signs on the top of the New York City buses.
Our initial promotional efforts were the FM dial cards, which I discuss at length in my book, RADIO … My Love, My Passion. During the second half of 1969, these cards along with our new programming had generated significant word-of-mouth … leading to the station moving in the audience ratings from “nowhere-land” to within the Top 10 most-listened-to stations in the Big Apple market, and, within the next couple of months, would rank Number 5 among all stations.
Now, it was time to cement our position with the radio listening population, using this slogan which many might consider unorthodox. Yet, I’ve never been one to necessarily do what’s considered normal or routine.
If you are not able to read the text beyond the headline, here’s what it says:
WRFM has been around for a long time. But, frankly, nobody paid much attention to us until last summer. We changed our image then. We decided to become a ‘listener’ station.
So…we began by playing only the finest stereo recordings of familiar favorites by the world’s top names … Henry Mancini, Andy Williams, Tijuana Brass, Mantovani, Ferrante & Teicher, Ray Conniff.
We allowed only seven commercials an hour. We kept the talk to a minimum … just the song titles and at certain times brief news, weather, or time-checks.
And we worked long hours to make it sound better and better.
We still do.
It still does.
And now everybody is paying attention to us, listening to us and loving us.
Well, not exactly everybody loves us. Some other radio stations are a little unhappy because, frankly, too many listeners are now a regular part of our growing WRFM family.
WRFM
Stereo-105
Radio You’ve Been Listening For.
Did it have an impact? I can’t say for certain … yet, a year later WRFM ranked #2 in the Arbitron audience ratings! My motivation for this message was that a couple of notable New York City stations, particularly WNEW-AM, had made significant “adjustments” in their sound and a fair chunk of their listeners obviously weren’t pleased. In WNEW’s case, a pioneer in the personality and popular music format beginning in the 1930’s, while not completely changing their musical sound, had taken it in a more contemporary direction, favoring the hits of the day. While WRFM’s instrumentally-oriented musical programming was nearly 180 degrees opposite that of what WNEW had offered, it was playing the familiar melodies those listeners loved and had long been accustomed to. At the same time, they found the improved quality of sound found on FM to be attractive.
On a final note, we carried the “Begin to like radio again” theme through to the business cards carried by our sales representatives … by adding one word: “buying.”
For radio industry professionals who are reading this, a question: Would there be a place in radio for such an advertising slogan today? What would a station need to do to justify or have credibility in using it? In what kind of format might it be relevant? I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments. Thank you.
