Low-Power Radio Ads Gain in Frequency
Dennis Hauswirth figures he can never get too much business.
Sure, his auto upholstery firm has redone car interiors for celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Arsenio Hall. But darned if Hauswirth could devise a way to reach those thousands of other potential customers who each day drive by his shop at a Westside intersection.
Then one day, click.
That clicking noise is the sound of a car radio turning on. No, Hauswirth didn’t start buying costly ad time on some radio station. Instead, he started his own. For $300, he installed a low-power radio transmitter to broadcast promotions for his shop 24 hours a day. Several large signs outside the shop advise drivers where to flick their radio dial to tune in. If you’re within eyeshot of his sign, you’re within earshot of his ad.
“In desperate times, you do desperate things to stimulate business,” said Hauswirth, whose shop, Markel’s Auto Interiors, has been at the busy intersection of Robertson and Pico boulevards since 1945. “If you’re stuck in traffic and you see my sign, there’s a chance you’ll turn on your radio to hear my ad.”
The 90-second ad has brought in several customers in just one month, he said.
Behind this unusual venture is Century City entrepreneur Andrew Milder, who operates what so far is the only outfit to install the low-frequency radio broadcasts at small businesses around town. Real estate agents are also hiring Milder to place the transmitters inside houses that are on the market.
The transmitters look like telephone answering machines and work in much the same way. Promotional messages can be changed at any time by re-recording them on the high-tech devices, which contain computer chips that store voice messages.
One of the first public uses of low-power radio broadcasts was at Los Angeles International Airport, which began airing them in the early 1970s. Signs on the freeway advise travelers where to turn for airport information. It has proven so successful that most major airports have since adopted the system, said Nancy Niles, a Department of Airports spokeswoman.
Milder is hoping that what’s good for airports is great for retailers.
Milder’s 8-month-old Century City company, Business Broadcast Systems, installed the radio link-up at Hauswirth’s auto upholstery shop. He has also sold the service--which he calls Talking Shop--to an accounting firm, a stereo store and a florist, among others. Most of his clients are on the city’s Westside.
“While I was driving through Beverly Hills a few years ago,” Milder said, “I wondered, how can I connect the retailers with all of these people driving around with money to burn?”
That’s when the concept of low-power radio hit him. Because the radio frequency is so low, it faces few restrictions from the Federal Communications Commission. “For the price of a transmitter, any company can be on the air,” Milder said.
His firm also set up a transmitter at Paris Blooms, a florist at Fairfax Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. Owner Alan Gabbay said the radio ads are especially good at helping to sell “impulse” items such as stuffed toy animals.
Skeptics, however, are not sold on this new radio twist.
“Few people are really that motivated to sit in their cars and listen to advertising,” said Michael Kamins, acting chairman of the marketing department at USC.
Meanwhile, several real estate specialists are also testing low-power radio broadcasts. Agent Terri McCall uses low-power radio to broadcast information to potential customers as they drive by any of four residential properties she is trying to sell in Playa del Rey.
All of the houses have signs out front advising passersby where to set their radios to get information.
“This is the way real estate will be sold in the future,” said McCall, who is an agent at Fred Sands Realty. “It pulls more people into the homes.”
On a somewhat larger scale, the concept is also about to be tested at the massive Ritter Ranch development in the Antelope Valley area of West Palmdale, where construction of 11,000 houses is to start this summer.
The Ritter Ranch developers will use low-power radio broadcasts as public relations tools.
“During construction, a lot of nearby residents are likely to get upset,” said Peter Wenner, general manager of the project. There will be plenty of road detours--as well as construction debris that gets neighbors’ cars dirty. “But what if people were able to turn on the radio and hear--as our way of apologizing for any inconvenience--where they can go for a free car wash?”
Briefly . . .
Marina del Rey agency Fattal & Collins has picked up the $9-million ad business for Venice-based Gold’s Gym. . . . Pasadena-based Southern California Region of Kaiser Permanente is searching for an agency to handle its $3.5-million ad account. . . . Newport Beach-based Mendoza, Dillon & Asociados has been hired by Nabisco Biscuit Co. as its Spanish-language ad agency. . . . Los Angeles agency Fraser & Associates has picked up $3 million in ad business from 411 Inc., a consumer information services marketer. . . . Los Angeles agency Muse Cordero Chen has picked up the $2-million Spanish-language account for Snapple Beverage Corp.
