Duty Calls

Duty Calls

by | Sep 25, 2023 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

When you are good at something and recognized as being good at it, but you’ve stepped away from it and now the challenge to return to it comes up, what’s your response?

That’s the position I found myself in earlier this month and it’s a position that I’ve been in before.

For nearly 10 years, I’ve worked for Federated Media in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I began as the 5th person on a 5 person sales team for radio station WOWO.

That was going to be my final job, however at the tail end of 2019, our company underwent some changes in upper management and my boss, Ben Saurer who had served as the General Sales Manager for WOWO radio was promoted to Vice President/General Manager of all of the Fort Wayne Federated Media radio stations.  This created a very important opening, actually a couple of openings that needed to be filled as Ben had been the General Sales Manager for both of our talk radio stations; News Talk WOWO & Sports Talk WKJG AND he was filling in as the General Sales Manager for WBYR, our rock station.

Even though I didn’t have ambitions to return to a management role, after careful consideration, prayer and encouragement from my sales teammates, I applied.  After a nationwide search was conducted, Ben offered me the position which I accepted to lead WOWO.

WOWO has been the “big dog”.  We brought in more revenue than any of the dozen stations in our company and we knew that we were also the leader of all the 25 or so local radio stations.

Honestly, as I was interviewing with Ben for his old job, I told him it was going to be a tough decision for him to make.

See in 2019, I lead not just the WOWO Sales Team of 5, but I was selected as the Account Manager of the year for the entire company.  1 out of 40 or so sales people.  Not bad for starting out at zero when 2014 began.

The decision Ben had to make was to take his top salesperson out of sales and put me in management, or keep me where I was.

The skill sets are similar but the application is very different between sales person and sales manager.  If you are considering a sales management role, or are in that position right now, I recommend you buy a copy of my friend Mike Weinberg’s new book The First Time Manager: Sales.  I was on his launch team and got a preview copy and it’s excellent. I bought a copy too which I am giving to Ben.

So Ben makes the tough decision and I took over as the General Sales Manager 1 month before the pandemic shut down our country in early 2020.  We are working remotely for 3 months and scrambling to figure out what adjustments to make because it wasn’t what they originally promised… a two week shut-down to flatten the curve.

Low and behold, when 2020 was over, WOWO and our other stations survived, better than had been expected. As I continued my position as the General Sales Manager of WOWO in 2021 and 2022 we faced what a lot of companies faced.  Shortages, but ours was the people kind.

About a year ago, one of our other sales managers moved to a sales person position because their talents were better than any of the candidates we’d been interviewing.

That manager was overseeing three stations and about a month after they joined my WOWO Sales Team, I took over as the interim General Sales Manager for those stations too in addition to WOWO.

This summer I went on a hiring spree to add two more salespeople to the stations I was temporarily overseeing.  Last month and this month those two salespeople began and will be selling for our rock station.

In the meantime, we also hired a new General Sales Manager for those stations I was overseeing for the past year and he begins in October.  He’ll do fine, he spent most of his 25+ years working in management and with Federated Media.

Another change, and this is the reason for the title of this today, Duty Calls, I am switching gears and returning as a Senior Sales Person for WOWO.  Try as we might, we have been challenged with having a full team of sales people on WOWO the past 18 months and it’s time for me to step in and fill that role again.  As far as I know, Ben is going to be doing both jobs of V-P/General Manager for Federated Media Fort Wayne; AND overseeing the WOWO sales team.

As Duty Calls me to help in a sales role again, I look forward to helping more businesses invite our listeners to become their customers and you’re likely to see me out of the office a lot more than I’ve been since 2020 and I look forward to it.

No longer will I refer you to someone else on the WOWO sales team, I’ll get to work with you personally just like before.

ScLoHo Changes

ScLoHo Changes

by | Oct 11, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

UPDATE on 2/28/2023:

Despite what I wrote and my intentions a few months ago when I wrote this piece, I am going to be updating more than once a month.  Maybe weekly again.  We shall see.  There’s just too much on my mind not to share with you.  Last night I felt the urge and wrote and published this: https://www.scotthoward.me/wheres-the-money-in-2023/

Now here’s the original article:

This article and the audio version which is podcast episode # 286 is to announce some changes. The short version is I am going to reduce the number of articles I publish and podcasts I record.

This is due to a change in focus in my life and changes in the world around us.

Right now there are 1570 articles that I wrote and published on this website and most of them over the past 5 and half years have been captured in audio form as the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast.  When I began writing and publishing the articles, over 15 years ago it was the beginning days of blogging and I actually had multiple blogs.  Some were updated weekly, others 3 or 4 times a day.  This was not a full-time gig, it was a side hustle, but not quite.

Side hustles are usually designed to make money.  Writing and blogging never had a direct connection to making money for me.  This was a passionate hobby.  If I was an artist, I would have been creating dozens and dozens of pieces each week, but as someone who has spent a considerable amount of my life in the media and marketing world, writing about it has been my creative outlet.

For awhile, there were just a few of us in Fort Wayne, Indiana that were blogging consistently and then I realized I was the only one of those that started out around 15+ years ago.  Long time acquittance and friend Anthony Juliano started shortly after he joined the Asher Advertising Agency where he’s been for 18 years and his focus has changed and sharpened over the years.  Most everyone I know with a few exceptions have stopped.

First off, I’m not stopping.  I am however going to change the frequency.  My intention is to do a monthly article and podcast update instead of weekly.

Two reasons:

Time is primary for me.  In 2020, my position with Federated Media changed from being a member of the WOWO radio advertising sales team, to becoming the General Sales Manager of that team.  It has taken close to three years for me to minimize my selling role on our team. In 2020, despite my being in management, I was still the number 2 salesperson for WOWO.  In 2021, I was either #2 or #3 every month.  My goal for 2022 was to reduce my selling time even more, to next to none, and with some staffing changes the past few weeks, that looks very possible.

The beginning of October however saw some additional organizational changes start to occur and for at least an interim basis,  I am also managing 3 more stations along with WOWO for the rest on this year.  The time I need to devote to the sales teams and the individuals that make up these teams is more important than ever.

Years ago, when I was with another group of radio stations and was promoted to a General Sales Manager position, I asked my boss, which was more important, my own sales or the sales of the people on my team.  He took the easy answer and said both.  I decided that it was more important to be able to multiple my time than add.  8 plus 2 = 10.  8 x 2 = 16.

What that meant to me is instead of adding two more hours to my day, it was a better investment of time to teach, train, coach and mentor others to be their best.  That’s the multiplying principle.

Something else I’ve learned from a guy I just heard of this year, Mike Weinberg, is that that Sales Managers and Sales People should employ different skills and talents.  Sometimes they are opposites in those two positions.  Our companies outside sales consultancy has different online talent assessments that potential candidates take for different positions.  Some do well in Sales but are not so great in Sales Management.  Honestly, less than half the people we have taking any of our online talent assessments score high enough to be considered for employment.

Here’s why we put so much value in those talent assessments…

Talent is like your height, skill is like your weight.  Once we become adults, we stop growing taller.  Our core talents are what they are.  What we do have control over, all of our life, is our weight. Like skills, we can grow and develop over time with the right development.

So I said Time is one reason for my changing the frequency to monthly instead of weekly updates.

Reason number 2 is accessibility of information. You and I have access to more information that ever before.  You don’t know the answer to something?  Ask your phone!

If you want to know what I think about something, there are two ways to find out.  My website has a search feature powered by Google.  Having published so many articles on the subject of media and marketing over the years, you’ll likely discover I already answered your question.   Also you can reach out to me directly.  I don’t hide.  My personal email is Scott@ScLoHo.net and you can also find my phone number for phone calls and texts at my website too.  You can direct message me on the socials too.  I’ve been on Twitter since October 2008 and am on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn too.

Thanks for your time today, my next update will be in November

 

Getting Personal with August Reflections

Getting Personal with August Reflections

by | Aug 16, 2022 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo

I’m skipping my usual format for this week’s update and going to share some personal stuff instead.  Next week’s update is already ready but a few things have occurred recently that I decided to share right now.

When this article and podcast goes live, I will be getting ready to have a meeting with other radio managers as we sit on a boat in the middle of a lake in northern Indiana.

There are over 1500 articles on this website that I’ve written and published over the past couple of decades and this is also podcast #278. The Scott Howard Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing podcasts have been updated nearly every week since March 2017 and when I started the podcast, these articles became more business focused and less personal reflections.

However the following year, I wrote about a couple of tragic event that occurred 4 years ago this month.  In August 2018, my friend Charly Butcher who was the host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO radio was on vacation and we got news that Charly has died.  It was totally out of the blue, as he was one of the more fit people we knew.  About the same time, one of my wife’s brother’s was taken to the hospital and within a couple of days, we knew that Mike was in his last days.  I was contacting funeral homes to make arraignments for my brother-in-law, my wife was at his hospital bed, the radio station was in shock and dealing with the sudden death of Charly and it’s both a bit of a blur along with some very sharp distinct memories of that week.

Fast forward to August 2022 and I’m getting reminders from Facebook Memories about events from years past in August.  First off, 2013 that same brother in law, Mike was in the hospital getting his jaw wired shut after being beat up and left for dead.  He survived that and stayed with us for a few weeks to recover.  Then the 2018 events I just mentioned showed up.  Charly passed away on August 15th, which happens to be my Mom’s birthday.  If she was still around, this week should would be 79.  Mike passed away the following week.

In the past couple of weeks I was also informed of deaths of three friends.  Mary, Dan and Jill, all unrelated have had their time on this planet come to an end.

Before you get all depressed or think that I’m feeling down, I’m not.  Sad, that I can’t talk to any of those people anymore, but more reflective.  9 years ago I wrote the following words:

Days that Count versus Counting The Days. Because we cannot accurately count the days or years we have left, my goal is to live Days that Count. Live each day with open eyes, ears, and an open heart.  Do not let opportunities to help, give, listen, serve to be pushed aside or ignored. Instead, weigh the opportunities and see how God wants us to respond.

Until next week, I’m Scott Howard, aka ScLoHo.

Is Generational Relatability An Issue?

Is Generational Relatability An Issue?

by | Apr 19, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

We’re going to talk about generational differences today and how they impact our relationships with others that are older or younger than us.

Last month, Mediapost shared a Quick Refresher on Demographics and that was part of the inspiration for this along with some stuff going on in my own life.

First, I’ll reveal me:

Baby Boomer, graduated from high school in the late 70’s.  I was alive when JFK was shot but have no memory of it because I was a toddler.  During most of the 60’s, I was not aware of the political turmoil or cultural revolutions that were going on.  I was just a kid.

Watergate was the first time I really noticed much about political stuff.  When Nixon resigned, I was becoming a teen and was more into teen stuff like girls and music than adult stuff.  Musically I was into Top 40 and those songs from the mid 70’s to mid 80’s were the foundation for a couple of reasons.  1st, was listening to the radio as a kid and then I was a teenage disc-jockey from age 16 to 25 on the radio for a decade before moving to the advertising side of broadcasting in Detroit in the late 80’s.

My wife is 8 years older than me and most of her friends are around her age, not mine.  We’ve been married for a couple of decades and I would tease her about stuff that happened “before I was born”.  Yet as we get older, we’ve realized that those 8 years are not as significant compared to other generations.

Our 5 kids (from our first marriages) were all born in the 80’s and most of them have kids so there’s another generation in our family now.

I recall 20 years ago when I took a break from media and marketing and learned how to run a thermoformer in a plastics plant that the people working for me were closer to my kids age than mine and that was one of the motivating factors to return to radio and get out of the very physically demanding factory world.

Now at the broadcasting company I work for, we are hiring people that are 10 years younger than my kids.  While it kind of makes me feel old at times, I’ve also enjoyed the role I play as a leader, mentor, and coach.  Plus I can still out perform many of the advertising account executives in our company, but that is not my focus.

So as you and I move forward in 2022 and the years ahead, it’s important to understand some of the differences in generational relatability that I’m about to share.  A dozen years ago I was a guest speaker on personal branding to a group of Huntington University students and realized that an example I used of TV personality Larry King was unrelatable, so the following year I updated my presentation to fix that.

Here’s the Mediapost story:

In 2018, the Pew Research Center determined that 1997 was the starting date for Generation Z. Anyone born from 1981 to 1996 is deemed a millennial, and anyone born since 1997 is a Gen-Zer.

At this point, the oldest Gen-Zers are turning 25 this year and the rest are teens or younger. (The cutoff for Gen Z births appears to be 2012.)

Among the differences between Gen Z and millennials (also called Gen Y) are:

–       Most Gen-Zers have little or no memory of 9/11. Instead, they grew up with lines clearly drawn between the political parties after the event.

–       Generation Z is the most ethnically diverse generation in U.S. history. The next most-diverse generation is millennials. Some 52% of Gen Z is white, 25% is Hispanic, and 4% is Asian, again according to Pew.

–       The iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen-Zers were 10. They came of age as social media, mobile computing and constant connectivity were part of the landscape.

–       According to a 2021 survey, the top brands for Gen Z were Google, Apple and Amazon. Netflix, Chick-Fil-A and Vans came in after that. But that survey is far from definitive. Others have put Nike at No.1, Netflix at No. 2 and YouTube at No. 3.

For millennials, the top brands were Apple, Nike and Amazon, according to marketing firm Moosylvania. Google was No. 8.

In other words, there doesn’t yet appear to be a deep divide between Gen Y and Gen Z.  That contrasts with the divide between Gen X and Baby Boomers, which was driven by some big differences. Baby boomers currently comprise 70 million people, versus 65.2 million for Gen X, according to Insider Intelligence. That doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but Gen X was marked by a “baby bust” mentality that sported attitudes of cynicism and skepticism after the euphoria of boomers.

Baby boomers also had a clear starting point (the end of World War II) and ending (1964, when the birth rate began falling). Since then, the delineations between generations seems somewhat arbitrary. As a result, those expecting a huge chasm between Gen Y and Gen Z may come up short.

Some additional insight as you consider all of this is to not make broad assumptions about someone because of the generation they were born into.  I am much more active than my son when it comes to online behavior.  I was also an early adopter compared to folks 10 to 20 years younger than me.  I had to push and pull some of my former co-workers to move forward with certain things that they thought were just a fad, but clearly were much bigger and longer lasting.  Twitter is the example that comes to mind.

Want to know more or do you have some insights to share?  Contact me.

The Giving Time of the Year

The Giving Time of the Year

by | Dec 7, 2021 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Blessed to be a blessing is a phrase I heard a long time ago and right now I see a lot of it going on.

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon as I compose these words for this weeks featured article on my website and podcast and I’m thinking about a multitude of things.

It’s now been 8 full years that I’ve worked for WOWO Radio, the first 6 as one of the Advertising Account Executives and for close to 2 years, as the General Sales Manager.

I grew up with WOWO, as thousands of others did too.  In 2025 WOWO will turn 100 years old and when people hear I work at WOWO, nearly everyone has a story about WOWO to tell me.

It happened a few times this past Friday during the All American Stores #PumpForPennyPitch event.

But please, this is not about me, it’s just my personal story and the impact that WOWO and our listeners and our airstaff and all the supporting players have at this time of year.

Look, I started working in radio as a teenager and worked for our parent company, Federated Media in my 20’s, on the air at WMEE.  WOWO was not owned by Federated Media back then, so while I’ve worked for our company a couple of times, it’s just been the past 8 years that I’ve worked for WOWO.

In between, I worked for other radio stations and some of them would do something nice around the Christmas Holidays for listeners.

But what struck me during my first week here in December 2013, was something that occured on a Friday afternoon when we were having our annual #PumpForPennyPitch event.   I saw how at other stations, they gave cash and prizes away to listeners as an extra incentive for them to listen.  But at WOWO, it was the listeners who were giving their cash to help others in the community.

The contrast, stuck with me and now every year, I make a point to come out and support our on air staff during the Penny Pitch events that occur over a 4 week period this time of year.

This year we kicked things off with a live broadcast of Christmas On Broadway and the lighting of the 40 foot Christmas tree on November 19th.  Over 4000 people came to the event hosted by Steve Shine and it was our first opportunity for people to give to Penny Pitch this year.

Penny Pitch has been around for over 70 years and began when WOWO radio personalities Bob Sievers and Jay Gould received a letter requesting funds to purchase a special typewriter for a handicapped boy and they in turn asked for listeners to contribute their pennies. Penny Pitch evolved from helping individuals to helping local organizations that in turn help individuals.

My first Penny Pitch in 2013 was for the benefit of Turnstone, a local organization that wanted to raise funds to build ramps for handicapped individuals would needed them at their homes.  I got to talk to Nancy, their CEO at the time along with some of the listeners who gave and hear the stories.  As you can imagine, it was eye-opening.

Every year a different local charity is selected by the Penny Pitch Board of Directors.  This is my second year serving on the board and it is not easy selecting from the numerous charities that apply.

The 2nd event each year to raise funds for Penny Pitch is the Bob Chase Memorial Hockey Game played on Thanksgiving evening at the Memorial Coliseum with our world famous Fort Wayne Komets Hockey team.  WOWO and the Komets have a 60 year history together and the late Bob Chase was the voice of the Komets on WOWO until he passed away just a couple of years ago.

Event #3 is the gas station event that took place on Friday.  We actually had it at 3 different All American stores in the area including on Lima Road on the Northwest side of Fort Wayne, just east of Fort Wayne at the All American store in New Haven and our live broadcast of the Pat Miller Program from 3 to 6 was at the Ossian All American store, just south of Fort Wayne.  I decided to visit all three locations and got to talk with listeners and donors.

This coming Thursday and Friday is our big grand finale radio-thon for Penny Pitch. Both days, December 9th and 10th, our two local shows, Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Kayla Blakeslee and the Pat Miller Program will be broadcasting live from Sweetwater Sound, just like we did last year.  Four hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon each day with nearly all the program content focused on this years Penny Pitch recipient charity, the local Gigi’s Playhouse that needs to raise over $80,000 to purchase transportation to expand the services they provide as a downs syndrome achievement center. I bet we raise over $100,000 this year from our listeners.

When I titled this piece The Giving Time of Year, I know that WOWO listeners who can give a few cents will give again this year, just like the donors who give much bigger amounts.   If you want to join them, here’s a direct link to give online: https://pennypitch.ejoinme.org/donate2021 

Or perhaps you have other organizations you support.  Perhaps it’s individuals that you give to.

All of us have something to give; time, money, an encouraging word, let’s all participate and you too will be Blessed to be a Blessing

Can You Stop For A Moment?

Can You Stop For A Moment?

by | Nov 22, 2021 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

As the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I lead a team of advertising sales people and marketing consultants and on Thursdays we gather for an hour for a Local Sales Team Meeting.

Naturally we will skip this week because Thursday is Thanksgiving and our company has added Black Friday as an additional paid holiday, giving everyone a nice long 4 day weekend.

However last week’s WOWO Sales Team Meeting had a focus on the Final 40 days of the year and what we needed to do.

40 days on the calendar in reality is more like around 20 business days this time of year.

Now if you work in retail, every day counts because it’s that traditional make-it or break-it time of the year. The origin of the term Black Friday was that was the day of the year that retailers finally stopped operating in the red financially and started making real money or being in the black.

Regarding the title of this piece, Can You Stop For A Moment?, for some of us that moment is now, for others it will be in a few weeks after Christmas, others may need to wait until the beginning of 2022.

What and why do I even ask that question?

Because we seem to be running at an incredible pace these days.  Even if things do slow down in business right now, your lives will be filled with other events like family gatherings and parties, and well, somehow we manage to fill all 24 hours of every day, don’t we?

How long is a moment?

Depends, of course.

I know that there are some parents who would long to have an hour each week that is entirely theirs with no expectations.  Some even long for 15 minutes a day.

Same is true with so many people.

As you and I wind down this year and prepare for the new year, I urge you to add something else to your schedule.

Call it what you want, but it’s basically time for YOU.  It’s a time that you give the very highest priority and spend it on YOU.

It could be daily, it could be weekly, it needs to be something that you can negotiate with your family, partners, whomever you need to, to set up for you and you alone.

Here’s a couple of examples of how I’ve seen this work.

I have a friend that is very busy trying to get things done at work and at home with a new baby coming and both parents working and, well you get the picture.  They are struggling a bit at work and what I see is a lack of focus.  I encouraged them to take a step back and stop for a moment.  Last week instead of the running around we had planned for the day, we took a few hours and started the process of planning for the new year.   A story about Abe Lincoln came to mind, that if you have say 5 hours to chop down a tree, it’s better to spend the first 4 sharpening the axe than to wack away for 5 hours with a dull blade.

My wife takes time daily for prayer in the morning and evening, and she also taught me the value of taking breaks.

I have found that by spending some time in the morning observing nature a few times every week, it keeps me centered.

The answer to the question, Can You Stop For A Moment really is Yes.  How you implement this is up to you.