The first radio broadcast of sports was on KDKA in 1921. A Jack Dempsey boxing match, Pirates baseball game, Davis Cup tennis, and a Nebraska college football game were each broadcast for a limited audience beginning in the summer of 1921. It was radio history. But, the most critical developments in radio happened 100 years ago this summer.
Business people figured out how to make radio pay off, and WFAN was in the middle of it.
One hundred years ago, radio broadcasting wasn’t a profitable venture – like streaming today. Most radio companies get 10-15% max per spot for streaming commercials, and it can cost more than that to provide the technology. But radio, like streaming today, was and is a great promotional tool.
Department stores led the way for creative promotion in the 1920s. Retailers like Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia started their own radio stations broadcasting right from the store. Several others around the country did as well. Of course, the department stores also sold radios so customers could listen to the broadcast and smartly merchandised other departments on the air. They featured radio programs around specific types of merchandise, advertised their parent company, and drew consumers into the store.
The original remote!
But, it was AT&T who knew how to package and sell the most valuable commodity of all: time. Bell Telephone and parent AT&T owned a radio station in New York, WEAF. Unlike the department store model, WEAF wasn’t broadcasting to promote itself. It was designed to trade time for cash. The same model they used to sell telephone service. You may recall that we used to be charged by the minute for long-distance phone service. WEAF would sell time to anybody who wanted to talk about themselves. The station’s first customer was the Hawthorne Court Apartments in Jackson Heights, New York. The company bought 10 minutes for $50. That’s about $860 in today’s dollars. Not bad! Now, that’s yield management.
The apartment developer bought more time, then an oil company followed, and American Express came. By the Fall of 1922, WEAF had sold more than $550 of time sales, or $9500 in today’s numbers. They called it ‘toll broadcasting.’ Four years later, AT&T sold WEAF to NBC and left radio for good. But the legacy of time sales was established and is still followed to this day. WEAF would become the flagship station of the NBC network. It became WNBC in 1946 and disappeared in 1988. You know who took their place. WFAN moved from 1050AM to 660AM. As for Hawthorne Court, it is still thriving, selling condos in New York. I wonder if they advertise on WFAN?
Jeff Caves is a sales columnist for BSM working in radio and digital sales for Cumulus Media in Dallas, Texas and Boise, Idaho. He is credited with helping launch, build, and develop Sports Radio The Ticket in Boise, into the market’s top sports radio station. During his 26 year stay at KTIK, Caves hosted drive time, programmed the station, and excelled as a top seller. You can reach him by email at jeffcaves54@gmail.com or find him on LinkedIn.
