I’m feeling like it’s about time to really get out there and promote the shop. Facebook has been AWESOME and we’ve done a couple of sponsorships and donations, but the time has come to do some traditional advertising – you know radio, print, (tv?)… With foliage coming on hard and the holidays not far behind, it is time to go for it and try to make the shop known to as many people as we can. So, today I recorded a commercial that will air on WEQX. It will start this weekend and I’m psyched. Remember the “Hi, this is Jesse from Center Hill Electronics,” and “Hi, this is Ron from Mother Myricks” type ads”? We’re going to do ads like those! (Who knows, maybe we can turn this thing into a Nina!)
Why start with radio instead of print? Well, first of all I love WEQX due to a myriad of incredibleness and amazing people. Second of all, I kind of like talking to people and telling a story – and radio ads really let you tell a story. I’m so damn excited about this bra shop, I just want to tell everybody! The idea of telling this story on the radio is beyond cool to me. And third, because music is freakin’ GREAT. And radio brings music to you. I love when a song that I dig comes on the radio – it’s like this great surprise with the bonus that you get to turn it up louder and louder. Yeah, no doubt, I Love music with a capital L.
I remember when I first realized that I loved music. It was around 1980 when I bought my first 45: Chuck Mangione’s “Give It All You Got.” I could listen to that song for hours. Probably still could. Albums like Harvest, Tapestry, In Through the Out Door, and Shadow Dancing got me through nights of homework and long winter afternoons throughout high school. The Rose (soundtrack) – oh Lord, how many times my cousins and I played that album and sang every word. I remember listing to “Friday Night All Request” on Pro-FM and talking to my girlfriends about it the next day. I tried dialing in a few times, but could never get through! Ahh..yes, I love music. And I guess, I like to tell a story too.
In college, my roommates and I set up a cassette deck in the bathroom so that when we turned the light on, music started playing. Appetite for Destruction and License to Ill were in heavy rotation if I’m recalling right. (There are some fuzzy times from back then…:)) I remember laughing and dancing to “Push It Real Good” in one bar and singing “Sweet Caroline” in another. Where DID I get the energy?!?
When it came time to get a “real job,” my first one was selling ads for a company that owned two radio stations: one was a classic rock format that could not have played more Eric Clapton and the other was a classic country format that introduced me to the wonderful world of Honky Tonk. I had a lot of fun. Years later, I landed a job doing sales and marketing in the music industry and started what ended up to be an amazing 15 year career. Every day, no matter what job title I held throughout those 15 years, I talked music. Yep, I got PAID to talk MUSIC for FIFTEEN YEARS! You know how some people like to talk about cars or baseball? I’m that way with music. Those paychecks along with the experience of working in the music business with a hell of a lot of smart, passionate, music-loving people have very much made it possible for me to open this shop. Yes, music has been very very good to me, indeed.
I had a good time today doing the voice-over for the commercial with Keller, one of the ‘EQX DJs. It just happened to be a day that my parents visited from Rhode Island so they came and watched. Pretty neat, right? I did my best to tell a 60 second story worthy of both the shop and of being on the air between the cool songs that ‘EQX plays. One of the best parts was when I got to chose the music bed that will play underneath my voice. It’s kind of a soul/funk mix – don’t get me started with how much I love soul music…don’t!
It’s almost too much that the shop shares a building with what else? A music store. The Manchester Music Store. I swear, you can’t make this stuff up.
You’ll see us in print ads and other places down the line, but for right now, we’ll be on the radio. As Barry White sang, “Let the Music Play.”
Turn it up. Enjoy the ride.
Thanks for tuning in.
