Creating Success with WOWO Radio in 2021

As much as we want to kiss the year 2020 good-bye and move forward as if it never happened, we can’t. And we shouldn’t.

12 months ago all of us were planning on a very different year than what unfolded in 2020.  The economy seemed to be moving forward after a market correction at the end of 2019, but unemployment was at record low numbers and it seemed like we were going to have a boom of a year.

It boomed alright, just not with confetti.  More like a nuclear explosion.

Here in Fort Wayne Indiana, that boom hit around Friday March 13th, 2020.  The Governor of Indiana was mandating restrictions on businesses that would take place the next week and suddenly we all had to determine what was essential and why.   Many of my clients and advertising partners on WOWO radio were essential but some had to shut down for awhile.  It didn’t seem fair that the small local business retailers were not allowed to stay open while the bigger national big box stores were still able to allow customers inside.

At WOWO radio and our parent company, Federated Media, we instituted a Work From Home Policy that was designed to keep everyone safe and healthy. In Fort Wayne, we operate out of two separate buildings.  The south building is where the studios for WOWO, WMEE, K-105, The Bear, Big and the Fan are located.  Our engineer was able to modify studios and set up equipment so our on-air talent was able to minimize the risk including broadcasting from home in several instances.

On the north side of town, Federated Media Fort Wayne Sales and Executive offices were also affected but differently.  Our usual weekly in-person sales team meetings for WOWO were suspended.  Federated Media had already instituted a work from home policy for their local sales teams over a decade ago, which meant instead of having an office or cubicle at the Fed Med office to report to everyday, if you were on the sales team for one of our local stations, you only had to come to the office occasionally.

When people asked me about my job, I would tell them most weeks I have two hours that I show up to the office, the rest of the week is mine to use as I see fit to do what I needed to accomplish.  As a result, I spent between 10 and 25 hours a week in coffee shops.

Something else that was new in 2020 were some management changes at Federated Media in Fort Wayne.

At the end of 2019, our former market manager Jim Allgeier left Federated Media. After a nationwide search was conducted, they promoted from within.  Ben Saurer, General Sales Manager for WOWO, WKJG & WBYR took over to lead Federated Media in Fort Wayne as our Vice-President and General Manager.  For those of us who had been working directly under Ben at WOWO, it was a mixed blessing.  We had a tremendous amount of respect for Ben and believed that he was the right person to step up and lead all of Fort Wayne.  Yet we also knew that if he was promoted, someone else would take over the General Sales Manager position for the 3 stations he was taking care of.

So with the announcement  of Ben’s promotion, came another nationwide search that Ben conducted to hire his General Sales Manager replacements.  Initially Kassie Taksey was hired to become the Sales Manger of two of our smaller stations, WFWI & WKJG and shortly afterwards also became the General Sales Manger of the Bear.  All three of these stations had great potential and Kassie was brought in to create a local sales team that would live up to that potential and she has done an excellent job with that in her first year especially with Covid and the ramifications.  She took over our sports station when live sports were being cancelled and two of our music stations when concerts and events were being postponed or eliminated in 2020.  Hat’s off to Kassie on her teams accomplishments!

The WOWO General Sales Manager position was (in Ben’s words) “The Most Important Hire I Make”.  Here’s why:

Back in 2013, when I joined Federated Media, WOWO was one of the top 3 or 4 stations out of a dozen in Federated Media which operates stations in South Bend/Elkhart and Fort Wayne Indiana.  The past few years, WOWO  (under Ben’s leadership) became the top station in the company with a local sales budget that is nearly double (or more) than any of the other stations in our company.

The new WOWO General Sales Manager would be tasked with… Don’t Screw It Up.

Federated Media General Sales Managers have many roles but carrying their own list of accounts is not one of them.  Only during certain circumstances does that happen and usually for a short period of time.

Coaching is the most important role I believe because if the GSM isn’t selling, then his/her team is and they need a coach to help them be their best.

Let’s look at the 2020 calendar again.

Right before Christmas 2019, Ben is told by the Chief Operating Officer of Federated Media that he will be promoted to VP/GM of Federated Media in Fort Wayne, leading the entire management team in the sales, programming, engineering, and special teams support staff effective in January 2020 which is when the announcement is made company wide.

In January 2020 Ben begins his nationwide search for his General Sales Manager replacements and brings back Kassie to take over three of the four stations that need a leader.

It takes 6 weeks and multiple interviews with candidates across the country before Ben pulls the trigger and promotes from within his WOWO local sales team and I am offered the WOWO General Sales Manager position the week after Valentines Day 2020.

Earlier in 2020, Federated Media had our annual awards ceremony called the “Feddy’s” and I had won a couple of awards for being the top salesperson in our entire company in 2019.  Which presented a dilemma… does Ben take his companies top salesperson out of a sales role since that would not be my job anymore?

Throw in a couple more circumstances that I was not initially aware of in January 2020.

WOWO’s legendary salesperson and former air personality, Art Saltsberg was going to go into full retirement.  A few years ago, Art scaled back his work load and was now only taking care of about 6 or 7 of his favorite clients.  Art was now going to walk away completely in the first quarter of 2020. I remember listening to Art on WOWO when I was a kid in the 1970’s.

At the end of 2019 one of WOWO’s other top sellers decided to leave to take care of some personal matters.  This lead to Ben recruiting two brand new salespeople to the WOWO Local Sales Team, a process that takes a couple of months before the decision is made.

The same week I was offered and accepted the General Sales Manager position for WOWO was the same week Ben added Andrew and Blake to the team to join the rest of us on WOWO.

A month later COVID hit and we all had to scramble to figure out what to do for the best interests of our advertising partners, our company and everyone involved.  As weeks became months, most of us learned new ways of doing things.  One member of the WOWO sales team who didn’t, left after 4 years.  Meanwhile the WOWO sales person who has been with us the longest, had her best year ever due to learning how to adapt to circumstances.

As all of us reflect on 2020 and put together lessons to implement in 2021 there are a few items I want to share with you pertaining to working with WOWO radio to create success for you this year.

1. We want to help your business be successful. Every member of my WOWO local sales team will focus on your success. 
2. We don’t just sell advertising schedules.  This relates to #1.  We want to partner with you and learn & understand your marketing, advertising and overall business needs and goals to craft a plan that we all agree on for the long run.
3. You are experts in your business.  We are the experts in ours.  It’s how we became the number one radio station in not just Federated Media, but in all of Fort Wayne with over two dozen radio stations.
4. We work as a team.  This is one of the things I am most proud of regarding the WOWO local sales team. Tracy, Rob and myself have made ourselves available and are lending ideas, experience and expertise to Andrew and Blake who are completing their freshman year with WOWO.  Now that Chris is back, he too is contributing to the collaboration that goes into the planning process for our advertising partners.  We also have learned some ideas from Blake and Andrew too!
5. We will be honest with you and only make recommendations we believe are in the best interest for you.  Want to sell Jordon’s on WOWO? We’ll connect you with one of our other stations unless you are a vintage collectors store that sells stuff our listeners would buy.
6. Advertising Partnerships.  That is our goal. We want to create a bond between you and our listeners and it takes a commitment from you and us to make that work.  If you want to “test the WOWO waters” with just a short term advertising schedule, you are not likely our ideal advertising client.
7. Flexibility. Or as I said last year, Pivot.  Doing business in 2021 requires that we all do things differently than we were at the beginning of 2020.  Yes, we can do Zoom meetings. Yes, we can change your message when circumstances change.  Yes, we can… was our motto last year and it still is.

Ready for our help?  Contact me: Scott@WOWO.com