I used to love those continuing education seminars offered by the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), the radio industry’s trade association which worked out of New York City. They provided the tools and training for its sales executives; if you paid attention in “class,” you and your station’s revenues would be enhanced.
Fortunately for me, the owner of our AM/FM station in Mount Vernon, Ohio not only believed in educational development for his salespeople, he backed it up by investing in these one day sessions usually held in the nearest big city like Columbus or Cleveland. When I returned from the training, I was fired up and anxious to apply the latest sales techniques.
Many of the trainers had Ivy League backgrounds and had been working in the broadcasting industry. They knew their stuff, and I was one of the eager-beavers who drank the Kool Aid.
‘Who hit the most home runs in baseball history?” asked Peter Romanov at a 1968 training session in Cleveland? I immediately raised my hand and was recognized. “Babe Ruth,” I shouted out.
The would-be proof quickly came back with another one. “Who struck out the most times?” he said. And, once again, he saw my hand raised and called on me. “Babe Ruth,” I answered confidently. “That’s right,” said Mr. Romanov. “It was the same cat.” He also asked me if I knew the moral of the story. I completed a 3-3 performance by theorizing you can’t make sales unless you’re willing to fail a lot of the time.
But it was at another session that I didn’t do nearly as well. We were being tutored on the pros and cons of newspaper advertising, radio’s biggest competitor for ad dollars. RAB schooled us properly on newspaper terms and why business owners invested in print. One newspaper feature favored by ad buyers was the section called the “Road to Gravure” – the special insert found in the middle of a Sunday or holiday edition. The only time I ever heard that term before was in the song and movie Easter Parade.
The photographers will snap us
And you’ll find that you’re on the Road to Gravure.
That’s what I heard and saw 20 years earlier. Judy Garland sang Irving Berlin’s words and Fred Astaire danced with her. They were adorned in their Easter best and on some sort of Road to Gravure, which I reasoned was akin to the Yellow Brick Road Judy followed nine years before in The Wizard of Oz.
For 20 years, I made the same embarrassing mistake. There was no Road to Gravure. What got into my addled thinking? Did I believe Hope and Crosby made a road picture with that name?
How stupid.
Fortunately, the ‘Gravure business did not come up in ad presentations. Good thing for me. But whenever I heard the famous song, to my tone deaf ears it was still The Road to Gravure. Not until I saw a phrase in print, did I finally realize my mistake.
The correct name for the special insert section of newspapers is the rotogravure, Bob. There is no other road whatsoever – in Oz or near Fifth Avenue in NYC.
The same smarty pants who had all the right answers a few hours earlier was strangely silent during the class on newspaper advertising that day. I kept my mouth shut. Likely too busy on some fanciful road somewhere.
Bob Goldstein is a retired broadcaster who has lived in South Florida for more than forty years. He is a veteran political activist (southdadedems.com) and a member of the South Florida Writers Association. If you’d like to comment on Bob’s columns, send your response by email to robertgrimm62@yahoo.com.
