The Promotional Courage Of Cecil Heftel

A Message from Radio Ink Publisher Eric Rhoads

"Who is this guy Cecil Heftel?" I asked, trying to determine if I should take the job I'd been offered to be on the inaugural airstaff of Y100 in South Florida. No one knew him or the station. But that was about to change.

On August 3, 1973, a legendary station was launched, and at 17, I was thrown into the most competitive radio battle Miami had ever seen.

"Answer your phone with 'I listen to the new sound of Y100' and win $50,000." There were no state lotteries, and no media property other than The Price Is Right had ever given away that much money.

No radio station in history had given away $50,000, and at Y100 we did it several times.

Heftel's goal: Make a big impression fast. When we launched Y100, Miami-Fort Lauderdale was blanketed with billboards overnight. Everywhere you turned, you saw boards, bus benches and bus boards, full-page newspaper ads and TV spots.

Heftel once told me, "Don't do anything unless you can do it big." He spent millions to dominate media in the market, and Y100 become an icon overnight. He backed it up with the biggest money given away on the air anywhere.

Heftel said, "Double what the biggest competitor has ever given away, double their visibility, and hire air talent who are twice as good. When your competitor tries to match what you're doing, double it again. They can't keep up, and if we can cost them money, we're hurting them and they'll eventually back down. Nobody is willing to spend as much and for as long as we do."

Perhaps the best way to celebrate the life of a broadcaster like Heftel would be to see radio start promoting again and doing what we ask our advertisers to do.

No one I ever worked for had the promotional guts of Cecil Heftel, and I'm grateful for what he taught radio about promotion.

Eric Rhoads,
Radio Ink

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Comments

[Michael Dalfonzo]

I remember the morning Y-100 signed on. Miami radio was never the same. Heftel, Gene Milner (WSHE) and others were broadcasters who loved the business and loved to win. They treated their people well and demanded a lot and we gladly gave it to them. We wanted to win as much as they did. When I was doing mornings on WSHE at about the same time, Gene Milner came into the control room almost every morning to say hi and comment on the show. It's too bad people like Milner and Heftel are no longer around. Radio would be in a much different place if they were.

[Jim Spangenberg]

Imagine the Wall Street bean counters reaction to Cecil's plan.

[Mike Callaghan]

That sounds like when Wally Clark led KIIS-FM in Los Angeles. Billboards, bus benches, bus sides, TV Ads everywhere. We gave away a Porsche a week, and finally a Porsche Turbo Carrera with $ 50,000 in the glove box.
No one else came close.; KIIS was and is still an icon. Rick Dees and Wally made it the mose money-making station in the country.

[Fred Francis]

I am an engineer who has been around radio a long time and has seen what works and what doesn't. The stations that dominate the market always promote themselves well and have "LIVE" talent. Automation systems have simultaneously been both the biggest help and the biggest hurt to radio.

[Chuck Lontine]

Amen brother Eric...Amen indeed. For years, many of us played by these rules for a very simple reason. It worked.

For whatever reason, that winning formula has been lost within many of the current operators for various reasons (all of which you cover in your blog everyday).

I few years back, I brokered a $20mm plus radio sale to a media company funded to the teeth. At close, I asked its CEO what its plans were. His response, was to plug in the multi-million dollar asset into a T1 delivered automated format that had no ratings in any of the markets it was used. I almost threw up.

Today, that station is selling for less than a third of that initial value.

There should be a book about "Cecil's Rules" handed out with every purchase of a radio station or group.

Localism, research, promotions & big talent both on and off the air.

Its a real simple matrix.

[Bill Graff]

when heftel hired aku in the honolulu market, he also revolutionized Hawaiian radio...those two guys changed island radio forever... Mr. Heftel took KGMB to a whole new level!

[Ryan]

Amen, about Promotional guts. We don't practice what we preach and when we do we do a lousy job. Mr Heftel is and will be a rare breed.