Radio ‘Network’ : Talking Signs Fine-Tuned to Sell Property

Three houses along Entrada Avenue, a short street in Porter Ranch, had “for sale” signs in their front yards on Thursday.

Only one shouted, “Buy Me!”

That was the sign with the radio transmitter attached to its top. It was broadcasting a sales pitch to passers-by whose car radios were tuned to 820 AM.

A Northridge real estate firm has scattered low-power transmitters around the north San Fernando Valley at houses it has listed to sell. The transmitters are plugged into tape recorders that continuously play 90-second commercials telling how many bedrooms, baths and second mortgages the houses have.

The broadcast signal can be picked up on ordinary radios within 75 feet of the sign--the range for curb-side looky-loos who listen, too.

When the R. R. Gable realty company switched on its 150 front-yard radio stations five days ago, it immediately became one of this country’s largest broadcast networks.

Detailed Descriptions

On Entrada Avenue, the transmitter in front of a two-story, $290,000 home promised that “your guests will be very impressed as you greet them at the door and lead them through the marble-floored entry, past the spiral stairway, to the step-down living room.”

In front of a four-bedroom house on Sonoma Way in Northridge, another transmitter advised that “there’s also a maid’s room and an office room--perfect for conducting a business from this house.”

In Chatsworth the broadcast from a Lassen Street home told that “Bob bought this 3,000-square-foot house because of the quality lath-and-plaster construction and its many built-in features.”

The radio script is written from interviews that realty agents conduct with the home’s seller. A professional announcer delivers the taped message.

“We’re trying to find out what appealed to the seller when they bought the house,” said Roger Hance, R. R. Gable’s owner. “Sometimes people in real estate become insensitive about the emotions that motivate people to buy a house.”

Hance, a 32-year-old electronics enthusiast, said he has formed a company to develop computer and electronic technology for the real estate business. The company, called Gable Technologies, is working with two Arizona engineers-turned-realtors who developed and patented the curb-side radio system.

He is now looking for other uses for the radios, such as drive-in banks, car dealers and fast-food restaurants, Hance said.

Previous attempts at such broadcasting have generally failed because the short-range transmitters were placed inside houses, said John Cooper, one of the Arizona radio designers. That made them susceptible to electrical and structural interference that interrupted the signals.

“Putting the unit actually on the street overcomes all the problems,” Cooper said Thursday by telephone from his office in Tempe, Ariz. Cooper said the transmitters operate with one-tenth of a watt of power and are built to Federal Communications Commission specifications.

FCC specialist Grace Poirier of Long Beach said such low-power radio stations are not required to have licenses. She said they can operate on any broadcast band that does not interfere with a commercial radio station.

R. R. Gable agent Dotty Wiechman said sales people at the firm have been taught to install the transmitters, which are hidden inside a wedge-shaped piece of plastic attached to the post of the “for sale” signs with tamper-resistant bolts. She said tape recorders are hidden inside the house and connected by wire to the transmitters.

Touted as Timesaver

Wiechman said the radio system should save salesmen time.

“If people have driven by the house, they’ve seen it and heard about it, too,” she said Thursday. “It’s almost like having open house 24 hours a day.”

Marlene Friedman has has one of the talking signs in front of her $400,000 house on Amestoy Avenue in Northridge. She said Thursday that a “parade” of cars has stopped to listen to the radio message this week.

Her transmitter advises that her home has a maid’s quarters and “public transportation, for the kids and domestic help, is within walking distance.”

“It gives a good idea of what the house is like,” Friedman said. “At night, we can hear the motors and see the lights from cars parked out front to listen.”