Actually, it's just radio, but I will consider TV if I ever get to that point and can service a larger market. As it stands I'm about the same distance from champaign urbana and bloomington normal, and the local radio does reach both. The programing is dreadful, easy listening, (why do they call it that when i can't stand to listen to it?) but alot of people around here listen because they are always on about my wife being "on the radio." Old folks mostly, but that's where the majority of the property money is around here. I've gotten some work from it, but a lot of folks say they hear the commercials. They just did put a new multi-color, computer controlled sign out front on the main strip, so that doesn't hurt either.
She got her start in the quads as a dj on 98.9, which was a pop hits station at the time. Then she got a nice morning show gig in champaign and that's when we met. Then she went to a station in mattoon, then back to the quads for a job that they gave her when I was sitting there and then we moved just in time to listen to the gal they really hired (who sounded dreadful) a week before she was supposed to start. We settled in for the year and had our first daughter. Then she worked a station in pekin where she was reporting on 9/11, while I was rolling back from a morning run to dubuque. We then came back here where she came home to have and raise our kids. That's the short of it.
She started last year real small helping this local station and now she's got her own office and works too much for too little, but we are building an in home studio and she's going to start freelancing. She's networking and making a lot of radio friends and revisiting old ones from the champaign market. So words getting out that way through some back channels that will benefit both of us.
She is excellent at marketing, promotions and creating commercials. If you want one, let me know. She's going to help us drum up an arbor day event here in town next year. She goes to all the city council meetings for the local station, but her presence and the knowledge of our company has already had an effect on the current tree policy. The local "tree cutter" has had a hourly contract ($100+/hr) sewn up forever and he drags his feet, no chipper. Some of his "connections" tried to get it reconfirmed by hard writing his business name into the policy and it hit the fan. Half the alderman referred to her and our business as a potential competitor. She was just there to report the events and found herself in the middle..lol. So now it's up for bid to anyone and the policy reads "tree service." We are going to be working with some of those council members about reinstituting the tree committee and revising further. I don't care if I get the work or not, just want a pro. Ever since then I have a visit from the ole boy a block or so away about noon. I almost never notice, but the ground crew does. It's a long story, but he's his own worse competition, everyone's tired of his nonsense, his prices are as bad as his personality. They are getting better though, he underbid himself by thousands as the only bidder on the last batch. Sad, but every bit poetic.
So I guess to say "just radio," is an understatement, she's practically a secret weapon, sometimes I have to throttle her back. For instance, I don't know if Paula Sands still brings Jeffrey Leving over from Chicago onto her show, but my wife got that started out of thin air (it ran for a couple years after anyway) when we were up there while we were in the middle of building a custody case for my son. I got my book signed, had dinner in Bettendorf with him and his assistant, and had an awesome in depth discussion on father's rights in general. I couldn't discuss my case as I had council, but what a moral boost. We were thinking of switching to Jeffery's office. He is perhaps best known for his work in the early stages of the Elian Gonzalez federal case. It was cheaper to just read his book and use his game plan.
It worked, thank God.
In any event, she'll even put on the ppe, drag brush, chip, and rake with the best of them, so she's not afraid to get it done at the job site either.
Recently, I'm getting ransacked with internet company's calling to put me on their multi-site programs for "x" amount. No, I'm good, thanks. Having free listing everywhere is working for now, I get a little business from it too, but word of mouth is still king, especially when your wife makes a living at it.
