The Story Behind the Changing Rep Biz

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Michael DeLierBy Michael DeLier


RBR+TVBR reported this week that Gray Television is saving a lot of money since the termination of their contract with Katz. That got DeLier Group President Mike DeLier ([email protected]) thinking about the representative business and what happened to it.

It really has nothing to do with the computerization of the industry. There has been computerization at stations much longer than at rep firms. But it does have everything to do with poor management, a lack of ethics, professionalism, integrity and most of all, succumbing to the pressure on rates from the national advertising agencies. It’s not a story about buggy whips but about stupidity. If you are new to the industry or have not worked with national before, I’ll give you the back story.

Once there were the Big Three. They were the Edw. Petry Co., Blair Television, Big and Little , and Katz. They controlled the largest stations in the best markets, bar none. There were a few lesser and smaller Rep firms that came and went, the Telereps, PGW’s, Storer’s… but if you were at a station and wanted the best national representation… you wanted one of the Big Three.

The Big Three hired executives. People who participated in rate card meetings, who traveled to stations on a regular basis, and to the agencies clients as well. The agencies didn’t like that but there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. To these three anyway, it was surely about money, but it was also very much about professionalism, pride, self worth. All those things and more.

If you’re reading this and you’re at a station can you imagine a world where there was rate integrity? Where you actually turned business away because agencies would not buy off your published rate card? If a station accepted Wrigley business from Meyerhoff, they were the lowest rated station(s) in the market. The same with JWT and Ford. To a lesser degree Gillette out of Grey. Gillette wanted sports and would pay for it. The smart stations would not sell them sports unless Grey agreed to news, prime spots, etc.

It took gumption and sales ability, but stations were in charge of the inventory, knew what they wanted, or at least where they had to be in  revenue. The National agencies competed against Local. It worked great.

About 45 years ago it all began to change. Ed Petry was succeeded by Marty Neirman at Petry. Petry started losing its best people and then stations. Great credit goes to Hubbard. They were the last to leave and it had to be painful for them. There were fewer and fewer top flight executives around like Phil Kirk. Val Napalatano, a good and decent man tried but so much was already gone of the company that it was hopeless.

About 30 years ago, Frank Martin and then Harry Smart left Blair. Blair hired a fired former network guy named Wally Schwartz from ABC who brought all of the ethos of cutting rates, bonus spots, guaranteeing ratings, all of the mind numbing crap that networks do to Blair.  Schwartz and Pat Devlin then decided to hire ex time buyers as AE’s rather than top flight sales people as a means to save on the overhead. It didn’t work. Katz was in no better shape elevating half-baked sales guys like Michael Speisman to elevated positions where they would remain over their heads. Katz was lucky to have an Ardie Bialek  around for a long time. Ardie always brought knowledge and professionalism to work with him every day. The same with Phil Kirk, Napalatano at Petry, and Dave Herman at Blair to name just a few of the people who brought value to their respective firms. No, it was not the fault of most of the people, but absolutely the fault of bad leadership with no vision other than the hustle. Too bad!!

Michael DeLier is president of The DeLier Group, a management consulting firm. Reach him at: [email protected].