John Caracciolo is the President and CEO of JVC Broadcasting, a company he formed back in 2009. Caracciolo has stations on Long Island and in Florida with an eye toward more growth. The JVC radio execution philosophy is to “broadcast, and present with the mindset that if we under-promise and over-deliver, have integrity in all of our relationships, and create an atmosphere of high energy fun and excitement, our results will be exceptional for our clients, listeners, and our families.” We spoke with Caracciolo, who will also be on a panel at Forecast next month, about the economy in his markets, how sales are going and what we should expect to see from political advertising when the election is over. He also has a different approach to sales than most radio companies, and he’s succeeding at it. Here’s what he had to say.
Radio Ink: What is the economy like in your markets and are you bringing in new advertisers?
John Caracciolo: The economy in all of our markets is good, but Florida is exceptional. Everywhere you look there is growth, construction and a ton of traffic on the roads, a radio guy’s dream! We are constantly looking under rocks for worms every day and our sales team is really good at finding new opportunities and new categories of businesses. Some of our senior people came from outside of the radio business and they brought with them new ideas and new ways of prospecting, and by empowering them to be the “boss” of their own business, it really opened us up to new contacts and revenue
sources.
Radio Ink: How have you been doing sales-wise? We hired an NTR coordinator that works out of our Orlando market but handles events and major sponsor relations throughout the company and her influence and idea planning really helped us overcome any shortfall from regular spot sales.
Radio Ink: How important were those sellers outside of radio to your success and what would you tell other managers about doing that?
John Caracciolo: It was extremely important to our success for two reasons: 1. They didn’t have the preconceived notions about our medium that sometimes unfocused good sellers do; 2. They were open to try to prospect nontraditional users of our medium. And some other really good traits they came in with… they like digital, did not fear it, and found way to use it to grow their radio buy. They always asked for cash in advance; one guy could not believe that we would ever offer credit for advertising, he still laughs at us about it!
I would tell other managers that a good seller is a good seller. Who cares what they were selling previously. If a seller has ego drive, that feeling that he/she has to make the sale no matter what, they need to feed their drive, they can sell anything. My best sellers are from real estate, a brokerage firm (ever see the movie Boiler Room?), a car F&I guy, and a former nightclub owner (you can’t insult this guy). We can teach them about radio and the buzz words to use, but you can’t teach someone to be a problem solver, talk about money, challenge the decision-maker, do the prep work, and have great follow-up. Have a person with those traits walk in the door and I would tell any manager to hire them immediately, they are going to make you a ton of money.
Radio Ink: What categories are strongest? Which are the weakest?
John Caracciolo: We have seen huge growth in the legal, medical, and financial fields. Auto is tremendous in Florida and always steady on Long Island. Personal services, like gyms and fitness, seem to have fallen off, as well as some of the wireless telecom categories
Radio Ink: How are you doing with political and do you believe the industry is going to be disappointed with political revenue when election day finally arrives?
John Caracciolo: There were very high expectations for political revenue in 2016.This was not the 2016 political that I expected. With stations in the powerful swing state of Florida and three very contested Congressional districts in our Long Island signals, I, along with many others in the market, thought we would be stuffing the cash in mattresses after this November. Boy was I wrong. We did okay but we had to work real hard to get it. We developed political NTR events that worked around the Presidential debates and we had all of our market News/Talk stations host local “meet the candidates” and live debates. Our sponsorship team did an excellent job of monetizing all of this into political revenue, but it was hard work and not the cake walk I thought it would be. This is really a testament to the creativity of the team we have developed at all of our JVC stations.
Radio Ink: It’s been awhile since you flipped WRCN on Long Island to all news. How is that station doing to date and has it been worth the investment?
John Caracciolo: It has been one of the best moves we made. The station is stronger financially as a News /Talk and we opened up new opportunities for revenue since we are the only News/Talk serving Long Island.
Radio Ink: What is your overall goal with JVC? How big would you like to get, and do you have easy access to capital to get there?
John Caracciolo: We continue to look for new opportunities for growth all the time. We would like to continue to add new stations or groups in markets that give us the ability to grow top line revenue and add to the synergies of our existing properties. I am very lucky to have a fantastic private equity partner in Northwood Ventures. They understand the radio/telecomm business and they like being in it. They are very supportive and the best partners you could ask for.
Radio Ink: Are you optimistic about 2017 or will it be another flat year for the industry?
John Caracciolo: I am always optimistic at the start of a new year, it’s an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start again. I think 2017 is going to be great for the industry. We embraced digital and we know how to work with it and not against it, print seems to reach a new low every year and its getting easier and easier to grab those dollars. and I see the country settling down after a tenuous Presidential super-storm and getting back to normal. I wake up every morning, and I am very thankful that I am in the radio business, and I look forward to engaging and influencing listeners and clients with new technologies, partnerships, and ideas. What other job can you go to that will have you meeting with your State Senator in the morning, a CEO of a new business in the afternoon, and having dinner with Darius Rucker that night.
Radio Ink: What would you say the radio industry needs to do better?
John Caracciolo: We need to tell our story better and we need to do what radio does best, find creative ideas and solutions to help our clients grow. We need to stop relying on third-party ratings or stats to tell our story. Nobody does it better than us…when we do it. This is the greatest medium in the world, we are the ultimate “grass roots, word of mouth” megaphone, and when used right, we move people.
Reach out to John Caracciolo at JVC Communications at [email protected] or come see him at Radio Ink’s Forecast 2017.
As an avid listener on Long Island I find the format refreshing. And yes, a spoken word, delivered correctly can have a lasting impact.
Good Article John,
You really hit the nail on the head when you said that you can teach new sales people about radio. Too many hiring managers feel they need to hire sales people with industry experience. The reality is that sales people rarely fail because of a lack of product or industry knowledge because these things are teachable. They typically fail because their personality traits are a bad fit for what the job requires.