Online Gaming, Big Businesses,
Big Business
I did such a bang up job on cleaning up the half million dollar radio investment in 2000 that Shaun called me while I was still in Tampa the day after the Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and the NY Giants. I was nursing the hangover of Super Bowl week when Shaun informed me I would be their agency of record for radio and as much media as I could acquire them. Unlike US businesses the offshore gaming companies would say get as much as possible. Then you would do exactly that and often they didn’t have the money to invest in the early years. When you asked for a budget they were raw stating if something works they would invest. One had to get used to these communications because working with US businesses, most of them have a budget in mind. Back then if you were told to get as much as you could and submitted a budget for a million dollars most of the companies would back out.
My focus at the time was electronic but was not limited to that media alone. I was free to do billboards, print, etc. but electronic was where I felt the client was best served since there were limited competitors. One thing about the Ripners they were advocates of being at work early and got the jump on the rest of the industry preparing back in February for the 2001 season. Sports Books had a window for success in advertising; 80% of the customers sign up between late August and October that coincided with the start of football season with the first two weeks of September as the peak for new sign-ups. As the industry has evolved the public is more used to online gaming sites and sign ups are more spread out.
I dove into the 2001 campaigns with a greater passion than anything in my life including sports which was my lifelong love. I enjoyed the challenges in the upcoming months working all night to achieve a goal of putting together the best ad campaign the industry had ever seen, which I would accomplish. My strategy was to go after every major sports radio station in the United States starting out with the national shows than supporting them with local shows. I also had the ability to place media for other brands owned by BOS that included Millennium, Infinity, and Jaguar.
My immediate strategy was to lock up the largest national sports talk show in the country. The Jim Rome show. I worked tirelessly for the first few months making frequent trips from my home in Torrance, California to Sherman Oaks and other locations in the south bay to meet up with media executive Jerry Stehney. I convinced Shaun to budget $500,000 for the Jim Rome show and would get approval. The $500,000 commitment for 13 weeks was enough for Jerry to get me in front of Kraig Kichen, the President of Premiere Radio. I came into Kraig’s office one day dressed in total California business wear of shorts, loafers and polo shirt. I would never dress again like this for a major media executive but I was extremely confident and prepared to present to Kraig. I also wanted to portray the image of the industry which at the time was extremely laid back. Kraig is a brilliant businessman.
After all he is the leader of a company that put together national programming that includes Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Art Bell and Dr. Laura Schlesinger (who karate kicked me). I think the five foot tall Dr. Laura was taking a kick boxing class or something and wanting to see how high her leg could kick. I got a good giggle of out her playful aggression towards me in the building lobby as did she.
Kraig did his homework on BOS and I shared with him the short history of the industry and the importance of doing business with an industry leader as opposed to a non-established company that could be embarrassing had they failed to hold up their end of the bargain and pay winners. At the time I was sold on the legitimacy of BOS and I sold it to Kraig. I did this despite the default on payment one year prior to Clear Channel stations XTRA Sports 690 and 1150 in San Diego and Los Angeles respectively which were affiliates of the Jim Rome Show. I asked Shaun about this default and he claimed the agency kept the money and defaulted. Knowing Shaun now, I have to assume he lied to me. At the time I trusted Shaun and probably was blinded by my own greed too. Kraig knew about the default and was adamant about payment up front or no deal.
Kraig shared with me the reasons on why he took the business:
1. I provided him with precedence of working with a station that had previous prohibitions with assumed laws in the state of Florida with WQAM in Miami. In 2000 I broke down the barriers with WQAM and this laid a lot of groundwork to work with bigger and better programming.
2. I provided him with a legal document out of the Cornell University law website on the New Orleans Broadcasters Association versus the United States.
3. $500,000 up front.
4. I lived in Los Angeles County and if he had any problems he didn’t need to worry about international borders because he could easily locate me.
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