The Greatest Business Advice I Ever Ignored

While it is true that I am not a full-time freelancer - that is to say, I have a day job, and I use freelance work to augment my salary - it is still true that the cratering economy affects me, and even more all my friends that ARE full-time freelancers.  And while my day-job is at a statewide public television network, I actually got my start in TV at a commercial station, the ABC affiliate in Orlando, FL.  Back in the early 1980’s, Orlando was still in the early part of the Walt Disney-fueled population explosion, and in the six years I was at WFTV, the market grew from #38 to #26, which is astonishing growth (it is #23 now.)  I consider it my great good fortune to have run across a few mentors in my time there, and one lesson I learned comes to the top of my mind on a daily basis.

I was lucky to land at WFTV,  a place that at the time that still did a lot of local production.  I worked on an early-morning live variety/news show, a movie strip/game show called “Dialing for Dollars,” many, many newscasts, and I got to work in the field on live remotes and on single-camera shoots of commercials, promos, and all kids of programming.  What I was blissfully unaware of, however, was the relationship between the production department and the sales department.  I could never seem to grasp why we couldn’t produce some of my epic programming ideas, like live coverage of a 100-mile bicycle race, or a nightly all-field-tape documentary series based on WCVB-TV Boston’s outstanding “Chronicle” series (that is still running to this day.)  Once in a while, I would drop into the office of the local sales manager, a great, friendly guy named Bruce Baker.  For whatever reason, he took mercy on this callow kid, patiently explaining - over and over again - the relationship between producing a local extravaganza and being able (or, more often, unable) to sell ads within it. 

One day, I plopped my butt down on his couch, and waited for him to get off the phone.  It was then I noticed something on his desk I had never seen before, a very small sign with a very big message.  It read:

“In good times, you should advertise.

In bad times, you MUST advertise.”

Wow.  That is a really important concept, and is especially true in the brave new world of the Web, where everyone can look to be as big as anyone else, if you build the message right.  Of course, it is a lesson I have stubbornly refused to take to heart - if you need proof, just surf over to www.ppmm.com, which has been un-modified in several years at least.  I guess the old saw - you can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think - is true in spades for me.

While I haven’t spoken to him is over 20 years, I have watched Baker’s career from afar, thanks to the World Wide Web.  As befits a man of his knowledge and affability, Baker has risen through the ranks of WFTV’s ownership group, Cox Communications.  It seems that he will soon assume the title of President of Television Stations for Cox, after stints as general manager at WSOC, WSAN and WSB-TV and executive VP for stations with Cox.  This is one of those times the old saw “it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy” fits like a glove.  And the message I noticed on his desk over two decades ago is as true today as it was then.  Sounds like I have an early New Years resolution to fullfill.

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