Tuesday’s Midwest Entrepreneur’s class was a lesson in both what is new and what has persisted in the face of change. It was based in hard marketplace reality and featured the NEED to plan for the future while simultaneously being ready to continually adapt to unexpected change.
If that sounds contradictory, it is. Such is the nature of reality in the hyper-dynamic context of communications technology and services.
Our guest was scheduled to be Vanessa Wetterling, President of Prairie Communications (operator of three local radio stations).
However, reality happened and Vanessa had to attend a meeting in Iowa City, IA.
In her place was Prairie’s local General Manager Larry Timpe, who, to our benefit, possesses four decades of diverse experience in the radio business. Accompanying the highly experienced Mr. Timpe was a newcomer to radio; Kyle McEwen, a 2013 Communications Studies graduate of Monmouth College who is Production Director and Afternoon DJ with the company (and one of six Monmouth College graduates working there).
Kyle’s dual role at the firm reminds me of another key lesson/theme of Tuesday’s class: The NEED to be versatile as both an individual and a company (which fits nicely with the need to be ready to continually adapt to unexpected change).
I now turn things over to today’s class blogger, Maisey Postin.
Below, Maisey does an excellent job of addressing the fact that although Larry Timpe and Kyle McEwen are not entrepreneurs, their presentation was nonetheless highly relevant for the class. This is mainly due to the fact that (1) 90% of Prairie Communications’ customers are entrepreneurs, and (2) Mr. Timpe has been observing entrepreneurial activities and catering to the needs, wants, and expectations of entrepreneurs for over 40 years.
Prof. Gabel
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The Midwest Entrepreneurship class was surprised to see Larry Timpe the General Manager of Prairie Communication stations Sunny 97.7 (http://www.977wmoi.com/), WAlK-Galesburg (http://www.1590waik.com/), and WRAM 1330 (http://www.1330wram.com/) there to speak to us instead of Vanessa Wetterling. Vanessa was just named president of the company and soon-after named Larry Timpe the GM. She was unable to attend our class today because of a meeting but it was a joy to listen to Mr. Timpe’s views on entrepreneurship.
Larry Timpe has been involved in radio for over 40 years now; he was fresh out of the air force when he started broadcasting games in Tennessee. He had described sitting on a grassy hill with a program in one hand and a tape recorder in the other explaining the highlights and scores of the game. The next day he would re-broadcast the game over the radio.
Timpe went on to describe the online business and the different pay outs that were required and necessary to play the radio online. He explained that the song writers were the ones that get paid whenever a song plays over the radio or online. It was the biggest “unexpected expense” the radio stations were hit with.
The station finds itself competing with not only larger local radio stations but also television and newspaper. It’s not a surprise for Larry Timpe to be asked, “How do you stay alive?” When there is social media, internet, and television, who wants to listen to the radio?
Prairie Communication persists by staying involved in the local community in ways that national radio and other larger communications services firms simply cannot!
It does this in a wide variety of ways. For example, the company holds promotions at the local grocery store, sponsors events including an annual Easter egg hunt and a farmer’s appreciation breakfast, and regularly airs public service announcements for charities.
In addition, Prairie’s persistent success is founded in large part on knowing and serving its customers.
Mr. Timpe informed us that surveys were sent out to the local farmers by the station to know what station they would rather listen to. After seeing the results Vanessa Wetterling made it a point to go straight to the farmers and ask what they could do to become their number one station for agricultural news. Her effort to reach out to local farmers and find a solution is a big part of the reason why she was named president of the company.
At one point in the discussion, Mr. Timpe asked the class “What does a radio station sell?”
Good question…
As correctly stated by a classmate, Prairie Communication sells audience; their product is providing listeners to businesses in the community who want to communicate something. In this regard, with Sunny 97.7, they average about 1000 to 1500 listeners at any particular time.
How does Larry Timpe find the right station for clients that will reach their prime target market? Again, it comes down to knowing the customer.
When he meets with a client they do a CNA or “customer needs analysis” that involves a series of questions that help discover the right station for them. He makes a point to ask them how they started their business and if they were at the point they thought they would be at when they started. He gets to know them and their personality; from there he can define their target market and find the station that will best suit their business.
Larry went on to describe the business relationships they have created between national sports teams and those royalties come into play. The station picks up the program off of their satellites, some require a quarterly fee for them to be played but others are bartered. The station only gets about 90 seconds/per inning worth of air time during the national sports broadcasts but during other programs they get around 13 minutes. Sports broadcasts are not allowed online unless an additional and significant fee is paid.
Along with learning about Prairie Communication, Timpe educated the class in starting a new business and to be aware of “unexpected expenses.” Many businesses fail because they spend the money they make in the first year and don’t plan for the next. The business needs to be more than a short-lived fad that can be replaced by the next big thing. He went on the compare MySpace and Facebook, MySpace was a short-lived fad that was replaced by Facebook. Will your business make a profit? How about the profit centers?
Larry Timpe and Kyle McEwen might not have been “actual” entrepreneurs but they did provide us with great insight on the changing business of radio (and on doing business in a very old-fashioned “local” way).
Maisey Postin
