WTTE-TV28 Columbus, Ohio
After a couple of years in the Quad Cities I moved to Columbus, Ohio and got a job selling for another independent station. We started an on-air kids club and told our viewers to send us their names, addresses, and birthdates and we would send them an official plastic Kids Club card and a monthly newsletter. We were bowled over by the response and had tens of thousands of kids in a real short time.
I got involved in the beginning and was promoted to National Sales Manager and made manager of the Kids club. Right away, one of the other sales people wanted me to come up with a pitch for her client, Donatos Pizza. They were opening their tenth restaurant and the son had just taken over from the father. I went with her and pitched a coupon that gave the members a free piece of pizza if they brought their parents to one of the stores and showed their card. The day after it mailed kids were lining up at all of his restaurants with their coupons and card in hand. He called me and we made a deal where he was the exclusive pizza of the club. After that, we got another dozen clients in the club and our membership grew to almost ½ of all the kids in the market. Donatos ended up opening over 200 stores and then years later sold them to McDonalds for untold millions. I always like to think I had a little part in that deal.
After two and a half years at the station, I found out that I had to find a job in Chicago. Fox was in its earliest of days and I decided that is where I would go. I went home every night and wrote my pitch on a legal pad, I spent weeks going over it and revising it until I had it perfect. The only problem was I didn’t know who to pitch it too or how to find them. This was before the Internet. I was sitting in my office, trying to figure out whom to call when the phone rang.
“Chris, This is Jamey Kellner, President of the Fox Network. Your boss told me that if I had questions about the kids club I should call you.”
I didn’t miss a beat and went in to full pitch mode. By the time I was done I had a job as an Account Executive in the Chicago office. Nobody can ever convince me that we don’t make our own luck.