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A brief thread about some of the little things that took Ron Chapman to the top of DFW ratings and the Radio industry. The little differences that he viewed as critical to his success:
Ron always did his show standing up and expected you to do your show on your feet as well. His view was that you should stand when your listener entered the room - and that if you sat you& #39;d slouch, and ultimately sound like you were slouching.
Phrases such as "over in Fort Worth" or "up in Plano" were firing offenses. The listener wasn& #39;t "over" anywhere. You were wherever SHE was.
On Day One you were shown a photo of KVIL& #39;s target listener. 35, professional divorced mother-of-two (it was actually a photo of Verne Lundquist& #39;s wife). Ron& #39;s words were "This is your listener and you WILL treat her like the lady she is."
At our height, KVIL owned 40% of the women 25-54 demo. Ron understood who made buying decisions in the family, and who controlled the car radio. We knew if we got "her", we got everyone around her. That& #39;s why at one point KVIL sold for more than the Cowboys.
KVIL& #39;s promotional budget wasn& #39;t the biggest factor in its success. It was the ability to make something out of nothing.
Once a local grocery chain had an extra truck of bananas, and asked Ron if he wanted them. Chapman and Jack Schell came up with "Banana Sunday" - a free giveaway that had cars lined up 3 miles down the street from the station. Didn& #39;t cost us a penny, made every newscast in town.
One year we gave away a new car every week for 10 weeks (imagine anyone in Radio doing that now). The grand prize was a new car every year for the rest of the winner& #39;s life. Whoa, right? Except this was the late 80s, and the payoff had a secret:
It was, of course, a lease - before leasing was all that common or widely known. Sandy Taylor of Weatherford, Tx got a brand new ride every year for more than 20 years until station owner CBS Radio finally bought themselves out of the deal. Of course...
"A lease" isn& #39;t all that stirring. But back then, "a car a year for...the...REST...of...your...LIFE!" was classic KVIL. The promo was bigger than the bit. Now for those unfamiliar...
Stonebridge Ranch in McKinney, Texas is now a densely packed area of neighborhoods and community. 30 years ago the only thing there was the big clubhouse developers had just built - and they wanted to promote it. Well...
Ron had been to the Kentucky Derby, and there attended a breakfast where they had fireworks at dawn. Fueled by that, one thing led to another and KVIL put on sunrise fireworks in a field (then) 10 miles from the nearest house. On Labor Day Weekend. On a Monday morning.
We had the Dallas Wind Symphony, 7-11 coffee, and Carl& #39;s Tasty Sausage for breakfast - and 90,000 people showed up in their PJs and bathrobes before sunrise in the middle of nowhere on a holiday morning. You& #39;ve seen Field of Dreams?
It was like the last scene. The line of headlights streaming up what& #39;s now Virginia Parkway could be seen backing up down US Highway 75. And it didn& #39;t cost us a dime. That was Ron, and the brilliant people he assembled. Stereo football? He& #39;d done it before...
...when the Dallas Mavericks had a Radio conflict and contractually wound up on KVIL. We had the Moody Madness/Sonics Game. It was Ron who thought it might be fun to hang a mic over each basket and put them in stereo. Doing it for football later was just as simple.
The Amazing Race? KVIL did its "Great Race" 20 years before CBS Television put their version on the air - and we did it TWICE. A. Radio. Station. The first time shortly after DFW International Airport opened, and all those airlines wanted to promote themselves. The second...
...when American Airlines was building new hubs worldwide and wanted to promote them. Although at one point we did have one team detained in Berlin by East German police, it cost us little. It was having the creativity to seize the opportunities.
When KVIL was doing its legendary "KVIL Cruises", cruise lines were exploding. One gave us 100 cabins and saw the promotional results, they offered us an entire ship for our own 5-day cruise. It dropped in our lap. How did Ron write the promo?
"And THIS time...KVIL has spoken for the ENTIRE ship!" Our entertainment on that voyage? Ray Wylie Hubbard. Imagine an entire vessel packed with 3000 crazy (then, younger) late 70s Texans on a boat for 5 days with open bars and the man who gave us "Snake Farm". Epic.
Most people know how one day Ron asked listeners to send KVIL a check for $20 with no explanation at all. In 3 days people sent a total of $240,000. A quarter-of-a-million dollars, on his say-so alone. The problem was, Ron hadn& #39;t planned on what to do with whatever was sent.
Short story, we decided to give to charity...and said whoever wanted their $20 back would have it (back when radio stations would actually mail you as opposed to making you come to us - another Chapman pet peeve). Only about 100 people wanted their $ returned. But...
...here& #39;s one that doesn& #39;t get mentioned, but provides much insight into Ron& #39;s capacity for vision: up until the early 80s, KVIL was hugely known around DFW for its legendary Happy Hours at various bars and hotspots around the area. Late 70s/early 80s? You KNOW why they rocked.
Height of the Fern Bar Era, they were where the Swingles were (ask your granddad). But then, at the peak of their popularity, Ron called & #39;em off - in spite of the great promotional value they brought to the station. Why?
Because in 1980, Candace Lightner founded an organization that established its headquarters in...Irving, Texas. That organization was...MADD. Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Which led Ron to ask...
If mothers are against drunk driving, and the people we most want to reach are probably mothers themselves, are we the station that really wants to be throwing Bacchanalian power-drinking hookups after work every Thursday night? Fun though they were, Ron said nope...
...and things like that are WHY those same moms sent him $20 when he asked out of the blue. They trusted him - because he trusted them first. It& #39;s an approach more current broadcasters should try, if only because it works. The point of all this?
I don& #39;t think I ever saw a principle Ron applied that did not work on multiple plane and in multiple dimensions, inside Radio or elsewhere Say you own a business. Know who, per Ron, is the most important person in your company? "Whoever answers the phone." Which is why...
...KVIL not only made sure all our contest info was taped to the Front Desk, but that the person who sat there was paid more than that position& #39;s average to make sure quality was always incentivized. That person had to be as good as anyone on the air, and Ron saw to it.
That works in any arena, and Ron knew it. Sadly, many broadcasters who have followed Ron have forgotten. I often hear "Jody, people just do not care (about that sort of detailed attention to quality) anymore".
Ron never bought that, and didn& #39;t think his listener did either. Thankfully, he was aware of the many untold content creators out there on every conceivable platform who demonstrate devotion to their work these days - and I think it warmed his heart.
So, whenever he& #39;d see a company or enterprise that "Gets it!", he& #39;d practically levitate. And what, exactly, is "It"?
Once Ron described himself as often being the only voice our listener would hear each morning before arriving at the office. Every morning, the same routine. Wake up, shower, coffee, kids (maybe), drive, work. And Ron would be there, every day, to break it up and...
...remind (her) that "It& #39;s a good day and you& #39;ve GOT this". That, daily, for 40+ years, is a big part of why Dallas changed how it saw itself after November 1963. Ron called that time he got each day with the listener "the most valuable real estate in the world".
