DILIGENT IN BUSINESS DFO 1604 8/83
--Radio Shows Dropping Unfruitful Offers, Stations & Club Members
1. HAVE THY WAY, LORD, IN Jesus' name! Give us wisdom & give us love & patience too, in Jesus' name. I just learned this "nine names" offer's been going on almost since the beginning! We've been using this constantly, continually, for almost the entire history of both MWM & MCV Shows! God help us! God forgive me for not reading the reports more carefully! I can vaguely remember mention of that program at some time or another, maybe not more than once.
2. THAT'S A GREAT WAY TO PAD YOUR MAILING LIST--IT'S LIKE GETTING NINE COLD LEADS OUT OF ONE HOT LEAD! But anybody who's been a salesman can tell you that you've got maybe a chance in a hundred that you'll hit one that's hot! You're shootin' in the dark, you're probably wasting your time & most of that whole thing is probably dead wood, chaff & absolutely fruitless!--Which it has now proved to be!
3. SO IT'S BEEN GOING ON ALL THIS TIME, EVER SINCE THE BEGINNING?--MY GOD HELP US! No wonder we've got such a huge amount of mail to take care of! For every actual live responsive listener who actually writes in personally, we start out writing to nine more names that he could have pulled out of a phone book just to get a free gift! In the first place, we're encouraging'm to lie & deceive & cheat! I don't believe we should put that kind of temptation in people's way!
4. WHEN I FIRST HEARD IT I THOUGHT, "WELL, I GUESS THAT SOUNDS PRETTY GOOD--that Member is supposed to encourage the others to listen & thereby write in personally & we pay a reward of a little decal."
5. NOW I FEEL LIKE THE FARMER THAT SPILLED THE LOAD OF APPLES: I JUST CAN'T DO THE SUBJECT JUSTICE! It didn't dawn on me to what extent this thing had gone! I guess that's why I said I felt the burden to start combing through this stuff with a fine-tooth comb to see what's happening!
6. I'LL TELL YOU ONE THING RIGHT NOW, GOD WILL NOT BLESS WASTE!--And that sort of thing is just like an accountant padding his account or a salesman padding his expense list, to pad those mailing lists with 90% dead wood, people who have never written in personally, most likely never heard the Show & did not write on their own initiative whatsoever! Even if they write in later, it's because we wrote'm first, & there's no telling if they've ever even heard the Show! A few listeners who sent in their names might have been conscientious & really urged them, real friends who urged them to hear the Show & that's fine, but I think if they do that anyhow then they can write in on their own.
7. BUT I DON'T THINK WE OUGHT TO ANSWER ANYBODY WHO DOESN'T WRITE IN PERSONALLY, DO YOU?--I wouldn't even send them a test mailing! It would just cut out 90% of our work & probably weed out 90% of the so-called Members! Have they been counting these people as Members? (P: If they respond to the test mailing. The basic thing is, they get the 9 names in as addresses & cold leads & they send out a test mailing to those 9 people. If one of those people responds back, then they count them as a Club Member & they start them on getting the first mailing, second mailing, etc.) They only count them as Club Members if they respond? They don't just pad the mailing list with these 9 extra people?
8. IF THE FIRST GUY IS JUST DOING IT TO GET A GIFT, WHAT'S TO PREVENT HIM FROM TELLING THE OTHER 9: "Listen, I've got an easy way for you to get a free gift! All you have to do is pull 9 names out of the phone book & you can write in to this crazy outfit & they'll send you a free gift!" It probably has happened! I had no idea of the extent of that thing & how long that offer's gone on! I remember hearing it sometime or other vaguely, but it wasn't till I began reading these reports that I haven't had time to read for awhile, that that "9 names" business began to come up & I began to realise what we're doing! They have to have three girls who spend their full time just filing! Well, I know how to cut out about 90% of that filing & 90% of the mailing list, which goes along with about 90% of the work & 90% of the mailings, is just by dropping everybody who has never written in personally!--And I hope they kept good records so they know the difference!
9. THE MUSIC OFFICES SAY THAT THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE TIME TO GO THROUGH & WEED OUT THE ONES WHO DON'T RESPOND BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE TIME TO FIND OUT WHO HASN'T RESPONDED! (P: But they don't send those people anything. The problem is, they send out the test mailings & if 3 of those 9 people write in one time, they're added to our mailing list, they're called Club Members, we send'm the first mailing after the test mailing, & then if they don't write in any more, that's it, & we're stuck with these 3 names in this big mailing list! They never get anything more, but we're stuck with them & we have them on file & we have cards on them & they never write again & we continue to grow with these people who write once or twice!) I'd throw away the cards! That's the way you treat what they call a "dead list". (P: But the way we're set up, we're waiting in expectation for them to send their little card back in, & if they do, even if it's 3 months from now, then we send them the second mailing.)
10. YOU KNOW WHAT WE USED TO DO WITH OUR MAILING LISTS? Every 6 months we'd go through them--in fact, it got down to where we did it about every 3 months--& anybody who hadn't written in, in fact who hadn't sent an actual gift in our way of doing business, we just crossed'm off the mailing list completely!
11. ARE THEY ALL DOING THIS SAME TRICK ALL OVER THE WORLD--ALL 7 LANGUAGE SHOWS? Well, that merits some long distance phone calls to cancel that program immediately & not send out another piece of mail to that dead wood!
12. I WANT YOU TO GET IN TOUCH WITH ALL THE PLACES WHO MIGHT BE DOING THAT KIND OF A THING & CANCEL IT RIGHT NOW! We don't send any more test mailings, I don't care how many 9 names they send in.--Period! I don't have any faith in that kind of thing. You did get a response of 3 out of 10 from the dead wood, from the cold leads, from the 9 names? What's been your percentage of success on the second response? I want stats from MWM & MCV, & when I get those stats I'll tell you whether we continue any kind of test mailings to the 9 names they've already gotten, but not until then. I want to know how many have not only responded to their first test mailing, but have continued to respond, & we'll see if it's worth sending out any test mailings to whatever 9 names you've got left which you're not going to have any more!
13. NO WONDER THEY'VE GOT TO HAVE SUCH BIG STAFFS! The volume of mail they handle is just phenomenal & is ridiculous!--Including especially the volume of mail they send out, all these test mailings to these "9 names" people! Well, that offer is cancelled & we're not going to do it any more & no more of that sort of thing unless we get some kind of live response, personal write-ins as response to the Show, or of course if they heard from a friend or something & they write in--real live response! And then in response to response they continue that follow-up.
14. I DARE SAY WE'RE GOING TO WEED OUT ABOUT 70, 80, 90% OF THIS USELESS, WASTED, FRUITLESS MAIL!--And to prevent any more of that kind of stuff going out, let's stop it right now! According to that, for every live response they get to a Show, they're literally sending out 10 times as much mail as they need to! That's going to kind of cut down the volume of mail. And I want you to give me stats on that!--How much it's going to cut down on the volume of outgoing mail to cut out all the test mailings to the "9 names" people!
15. THEY'VE GOT AN AVERAGE OF 1500 LIVE RESPONSES A MONTH--CAN YOU IMAGINE TEN TIMES THAT? They've got to send out 15,000 test mailings! Well, of course maybe not all of them send in 9 names.
16. WELL ANYHOW, NIX IT, THE WHOLE WORKS! Stop it now, even if you have to phone long distance! Tell them to cancel that immediately & weed out all those dead names & throw away the cards, burn the files! That'll be one weight they won't have to carry! Throw away the cards, because if they're going to write in again, we'll get their name & address, right? We're not going to write'm again. If they haven't replied, I don't care whether it's been 1 month, 2 months or 3 months, throw'm all away! If they're going to reply, then you'll get their name & address. In other words, throw away all the names & addresses & cards of anybody who has not actually written in. Maybe that'll help them clean out about 90-some-percent of their files!
17. WHY KEEP THEIR NAME & ADDRESS AT ALL?--Whether you just mailed them a letter yesterday! If they're going to respond, they'll respond, & you'll get their name & address later on the coupon they send in, which also designates which mailing they should be sent.
18. YOU CAN SURE LEARN HOW TO FORSAKE-ALL WHEN YOU HAVE TO MOVE! I know how big & heavy card files can get! With the thousands of names they've got, Brother, it takes a box that long to hold 500 cards & dividers usually, & all-told MCV's got something like 18,000 names of supposedly active Club Members--36 boxes! Maybe they just hate to throw things away. Well, maybe the kids can make paper airplanes out of them or a house of cards!--They're that useless!
19. WHY DON'T WE CUT OUT A LOT OF THIS FILING BUSINESS? Let's cancel all the "9 names" business, forget that, & that's going to save us about 90-some-percent in the first place. Then the people who write in will be actual live responses from the radio Show or even from a friend suggesting it. It's at least a live response if they write us. If they write us first, I'd call that a live one! I don't consider them all that live when they respond just because we wrote them personally.
20. A LOT MORE PEOPLE WILL RESPOND TO YOU IF YOU WRITE'M PERSONALLY, IF YOU GIVE THEM SOME KIND OF A FREE OFFER: "Send us in 9 names & we'll give you a free gift, blah blah." Or do they only offer the free gifts on the second time they respond? In other words, they respond to the first test mailing, then you respond by sending them an offer: "Send us 9 names & we'll send you a free gift." Well, of course they'll get the second response! They got an offer of some kind of a gimmick the first time, & the very second time you wrote'm you offered'm another gift if they'll send you 9 names--which they can get out of the phone book or anywhere! (P: Maybe that's why we've got so many people who never respond back after the second time.) Of course!
21. I WAS SITTING THERE THINKING & PRAYING ABOUT THIS 4% SALVATIONS STAT--4 out of 100 Club Members that ever send in a Salvation Card! Well, I got so fed-up with that I even refused to read all their reports, charts or anything! I chucked the whole business & you got it back! I'm not interested in reading false stats, padded accounts & inflated figures! That's just so much smoke & no fire as far as you know!--But four out of the original 10 is not bad.
22. I TOLD YOU WE NEED TO RE-THINK A LOT OF THESE THINGS BECAUSE WE GET IN A RUT & A HABIT! If you'll do this thing right, you won't even have to keep any kind of a filing card at all! You only write them when they write you, that's all, & if you never hear from them again, forget it! We're not going to write anybody twice! Why should we?
23. IF YOU'RE IN A STABLE STATIONARY SITUATION, MAYBE YOU CAN AFFORD TO KEEP FILES LIKE THAT, but we couldn't while living in a camper with a half-a-dozen other people! So all I did was keep my live current files, that's all. Of course, I didn't have these nice little pretty cards the Music Offices got printed up that I could tell where they were at when they wrote back in, so I had to keep card files. But if they have to send you back one of those cards to get another mailing of any kind, then you know exactly where they're at! They've got their name & address on there, so what do you need with a file card?
24. THEY'VE GOT THREE GIRLS WHO DO NOTHING BUT JUST HANDLE THE FILING CARDS FULLTIME! There's 3 people they can do without now!--Fulltime filers! Brother, we are gonna clean'm out!--Clean out the files & the file clerks & all the rest of the people we don't need! We need to cut down & save money! Tell'm to throw away their files & don't answer anybody any more unless they get a letter from them, period!--Except for the people they've already gotten letters from that they haven't answered yet, that's all. And all they have to save for that is their letter!
25. (P: IT WOULD CERTAINLY MAKE IT MUCH EASIER NOT TO HAVE THE FILE CARDS, the only thing is you wouldn't know who hasn't responded. If we're going to make it an on-going policy to glean our files, we don't have any reference.) Why do we have to glean? Why do we have to know? That's like the "not raising hogs" business! (P: If they're going to do a report about how many people they're sending mailings to.) Only count how many people you get mailings from this month, that's all, & that's how many people are in the Club!
26. WE'RE GOING TO SAVE SOME OF THOSE ASTRONOMICAL LINES ON OUR GRAPHS THAT ARE SHOOTING FOR THE SKY OF THE THOUSANDS OF MEMBERS! All of a sudden they're going to find that long line that has almost reached the sky has plummeted almost to the bottom when they find out how many actual Members we really have! I don't consider'm Members unless they're writing in. And since we are supposed to send them a response if they write in every month, we don't respond unless they do write in! And if they haven't written in that month, they're off the rolls until they write in again!
27. SO THE NUMBER OF MEMBERS WE HAVE FROM NOW ON IS JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE WROTE US THIS MONTH.--Not last month, & not 1800 more that never wrote us, but just how many active Members wrote us this past month, that's all! That's all the Members we've got, period! We don't need to keep filing cards on them for records, nothing!--Because the number of Members you're going to have are those people who write in & that's it!
28. TELL ME, WHY COULDN'T YOU GUYS SEE THAT? You had to look at those stats & read those reports all the time. I haven't read the MWMI reports for months while I was doing this whole big GN series, I just now started reading them again. I'll forgive you, Peter, you've been real busy with lots of other business & emergencies & it's a wonder you have lived through it all! But that's supposed to be your speciality, Son, how come you never saw that? (Our Radio Manager)
29. I'M REALLY PRETTY SIMPLE-MINDED--I HAVEN'T EVEN GOT A TWO-TRACK MIND! I can usually only think about one thing at a time & you've got to make it pretty simple for me to even understand it, frankly! So some of you smart guys should have thought about this!--Especially when you have to work on it all the time & it drives you crazy, all this mountain of mail you're getting! Man, I am lazy! I will work harder figuring out some way not to do something & to get out of it than if maybe I did it!--Especially if it saves money, Brother! Maybe you guys aren't Jewish enough, I don't know! But that's one reason we survived this long, boys, because I don't take anything for granted. I take a good look at it every time & try to figure out: "Well, is it worth it?" Well, all I had to read was that report!
30. THOSE WERE THE FIRST ACTUAL REPORTS I THINK I'D READ ON MWMI OR MCV FOR ALMOST MONTHS! I've just been trusting you guys to take care of it. It does seem like you guys would have thought about that. When they were deluged with these mountains of mail that they didn't even have the staff enough to take care of there in Sri Lanka, why didn't they think of some way to get rid of it? They could have told one of the Singhalese it's Tamil mail & he could have burned it for them!--Ha!
31. IF YOU'RE GOING TO RUN THIS OUTFIT AFTER I'M GONE, YOU'VE GOT TO STOP & THINK & PRAY! All I had to see was that 4% figure that I asked for--which we hadn't even been getting stats on, I don't know if ever. I think once or twice from Indonesia or someplace we got some kind of stat on how many Saved Slips they got back, some little one-horse outfit, but here's big MWMI & here's gigantic MCV who are getting the thousands of pieces of mail & sending out tens of thousands of test pieces, & when I nail you guys right down to it, nobody knew how many people were actually getting saved!
32. OKAY, SO HERE'S THE SIMPLE LITTLE METHOD THAT EVEN MY SIMPLE MIND CAN UNDERSTAND, so certainly your smart office girls etc. ought to be able to understand. Somebody writes in as a result of the Show: "I heard your Show, I heard your offer, thanks a lot" or whatever. They write in for whatever reason.--Even if they didn't hear the Show but somebody else talked about it & they want to write in & find out where they can hear it or take advantage of the offer or whatever. Okay, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt on the first write-in. That's a fresh piece of mail.--We answer it.
33. SO YOU TURN AROUND & YOU SEND'M YOUR FIRST RESPONSE, WHICH IS CALLED YOUR T.M., YOUR TEST MAILING, enclosing whatever little card, & tell'm, "Fill this out & send it back" (no 9 names, let me tell you!) "if you would like to receive our literature." I don't mind giving little offers like decals. I wouldn't give them something like a valuable pin that costs money to make & mail till maybe they finished the whole course & sent in a Salvation Slip! Then it would be nice to give them a nice little pin to show that they're a genuine solid saved Club Member! Up to that time they can send them decals & stickers & what have you that are made out of paper or plastic & doesn't cost hardly any postage to mail.--No pins until they're full-fledged Members who have finished at least the 3 months course & sent in a Salvation Slip & then they get the pin! I don't know that it's too good an idea to tell them they're going to get the pin beforehand--we don't want them saying they're saved just to get a pin! Let'm find out afterwards.
34. THEY WRITE IN, YOU SEND THEM A TEST MAILING, THROW AWAY THEIR CARD & THEIR LETTER & THERE'S ALL THAT SPACE & BULK SAVED!--BURN'M! First of all you throw away all these deadhead cards, & as soon as you've sent them a test mailing, from the mail you got this month as it comes in, you add up a list of names, & when you're ready for the next mailing, they're the only people you send mail to--people that have written in this past month! You send them test mailings or whatever mailings they're due, according to whatever they've sent back.
35. THEY WRITE IN THE FIRST TIME, YOU SEND THEM A TEST MAILING, THEY RESPOND TO THE TEST MAILING WITH THE CARD THAT HAS "NUMBER 1" ON IT OR WHATEVER, & it's got their name & address again. So you don't have to have a filing card, you don't have to have their first letter, nothing! There it is, you start all over again. You send them some kind of a response to their second response. And if you hear from them again, you keep up this interplay going back & forth!
36. BUT ANY TIME YOU DON'T HEAR FROM'M, YOU DON'T WRITE'M, PERIOD!--No matter how many months. I don't care if you just sent them a test mailing yesterday, throw away their letter & throw away their card as long as you've got their name & address on the list for the test mailing. And as soon as you sent the test mailing, throw away the list!--As long as you're sure you covered it. Why not? You don't have any mailing list, you don't have any card file & you don't keep the letters, that's for sure! That really would fill up the trash bin--or does! Then you're foot-loose & fancy-free until you hear from'm again!
37. THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT CAN AFFORD TO KEEP BIG CARD FILES IN A WHOLE COMPUTER BUILDING FILLED WITH COMPUTERS FOR A MAIL MINISTRY ARE RICH GUYS WITH MILLIONS LIKE ORAL ROBERTS!--NOT US! They took me on a tour of his office in his university campus, blah blah, blah blah! This guy thought he was impressing me, trying to hire me to get me away from Fred. I thought to myself, "What a waste of money! What a waste of manpower, all this just to answer mail from a live radio show." They as good as offered double whatever Fred was paying me: "If you'll work for us & go out & get us free TV time like you do Fred!" You know what I told him? Oh, you haven't read the Letters!--Ha! We ought to nail you guys!
38. I SAID, "I'M SORRY, BUT IN THE FIRST PLACE, ONCE YOU'VE PAID MILLER & SONS THERE IN NEW YORK MILLIONS OF DOLLARS just to book your shows & paid millions of dollars for the time, there isn't a station in this country that'll give you free time! You have a commercial reputation. Sorry, it's impossible--I couldn't do it if I wanted to. Besides that, you haven't got the kind of message that I want to promote!" Ooof! Poor guy. At first he didn't mind too bad when I told him frankly that it was impossible. I told him I'd had years of experience in booking public service shows, & everywhere I go they say, "Where does this guy Oral Roberts get all this money to pay us so much to run his shows? We give him special rates, more than anybody, & he pays Miller & Sons 15% commission on buying time!"--Jewish time-buyers in New York, a commercial, secular, Worldly outfit. Once they bought the time, they get 15% of the price which the station asks for! Can you imagine that?
39. I SAID, "YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU BOOKING THROUGH MEN LIKE MILLER? In fact, they never leave their desk, they just pick up the phone or send a letter. They don't care how much you pay for the time! In fact, the more you have to pay for it the better they like it, because they get a 15% cut! That's insane! The first time I ever heard that you were dealing through an outfit like that I said you guys must be crazy!" Finally I had a chance to tell'm face-to-face!
40. THEY SENT FOR ME, PAID MY AIRWAY BOTH WAYS FREE OF CHARGE, put me up in the fanciest hotel in town & took me on the red carpet tour of his operation! I met everybody but Oral Roberts--his top businessman & all his top men at this conference in the hotel at his big computer center. And his computer center was huge & at least 6 stories high, with one whole floor filled with these big million-dollar computers! I mean, the place must have cost millions just to handle the mail response from his commercially-sponsored shows all over the place!
41. GOD HELP US NOT TO BE SO FOOLISH! Thank God we don't buy property! We certainly don't have to waste money on a lot of dead cold leads that probably aren't worth two hoots! If they got any response out of those cold leads, that's almost a miracle!--But I don't think it's worth it from what I see & considering the response they've gotten, only a 4% rate of Salvations!
42. WE DON'T WRITE ANYBODY NOW UNLESS THEY WRITE US! We don't offer to write anybody unless they write us voluntarily of their own free will & personal choice, not because some friend sends in 9 names! Now if some friend persuades them to write us, okay, we'll write'm & throw away their letter. Then if we never hear from them again we'd have no letter, no card, no nothing & we can forget'm! Why remember'm? Why stack up this glorious-looking list of Members who don't even exist because they never wrote again? That's what I call padding an account!
43. I'M SORRY, I'M THE BOSS & IT'S MY FAULT BECAUSE I SHOULD HAVE CAUGHT IT SOONER, but thank God at least I'm catching it now, which is better than you guys did! Sorry to take your time, but I was really teed-off & I figured there's no point in my yelling at Maria, she's not to blame! If I get upset about something I start hollering at her & it's not even her fault.--All because you're not there to holler at! But you're handy today, so praise God! Well, I'm not hollering at you. I'll take the blame too because I heard of that once-upon-a-time & I completely forgot all about it till it came up again in these reports. And boy, I'll tell you, that's the end of it! I had to sign a few of those things "Mad Dad"!
44. SO YOU SEND'M ANOTHER MAILING BECAUSE THEY WROTE IN & THAT'S THE END! You throw away their letter, no card, nothing, & if they don't write in again, you never hear from them again & they never hear from you again. Period! Sorry! We don't have time or money to take a second chance on these people. Why should we write'm again when we've already written'm once? Besides that, if they wrote us as a result of listening to the Show, well, they heard the Show. They had their chance. If they don't write again, forget'm! Right? We're not going to have any Members from now on unless we got a letter from'm this month, period!
45. LET'S FIND OUT WHERE WE'RE AT. WHAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED? What have we actually reaped? Where are we really? How many Club Members do we actually have? We have as many Club Members as have written us this past month! That's the way we do with our TRFs, don't we? If they don't send in a TRF that month, they're not counted as a Member. We only count as many TRFs as we get & that's the number of Members we've got. We do hold'm on the list for another month just in case their mail was delayed or something happened to it. In fact, we used to give them one more mailing, but we cut that out. If they don't send in their TRF, no mailing. We put'm on hold until we get it. I think we had a revolution in that once-upon-a-time when I found out how much they were sending out at WIM. They wanted to hold them on the mailing list for several months!
46. I GUESS I'M JUST HARDER-BOILED & NOT AS MERCIFUL AS SOME PEOPLE, HUH?--Or maybe I'm just a little more practical. "No tickie, no laundie!" I mean, that's like some stupid Gentile merchant who keeps a record of all of his customers he ever had in his whole history of business & says, "Look how many customers I've got!"--When he may only have one out of a thousand of those customers now! That's bragging about your has-beens & past history. Forget it!
47. IF THEY ARE NOT CURRENT MEMBERS, THEN THEY ARE NOT MEMBERS! It reminds me of some of these churches I went to where they bragged about how many thousands of members they had on their Membership List. One church said they had 20,000 members! I said, "Is that right? This building doesn't look like it could hold that many people!" "Oh well, of course they don't always attend." I said, "Well, how many do come to church?" "Well, we have about 300 people who come to church on Sunday, but these 20,000 people actually joined our church in our past 50 years of history. As far as we know they're still alive & still members--they never withdrew their letters!" That's like the churches, boys, counting all the dead wood & the cobwebs & the roaches & all the rest as members. "We saw that roach in church last week so he must be one of our members!"--Ha! Some of those roaches are probably more faithful attendants than some of the rest of their members!
48. I JUST CAN'T SEE ANY POINT IN KEEPING PEOPLE ON THE MAILING LIST UNLESS THEY'RE WRITING IN!--Unless you just want to pad your stats. They look great for awhile, but I'm going to shoot the thing full of holes right now & we're going to find out how many Members we've really got!
49. WE DON'T HAVE ANY MEMBERS EXCEPT PEOPLE WHO WROTE US THIS PAST MONTH! When the month comes to an end & you're ready to write your monthly report, we have as many Members as wrote in--active Members! We don't have any dead Members. We don't accumulate any dead files or inactive files! Boy, I got over that a long time ago & so did Fred. I'll never forget the time that he had a whole huge room as big as this whole wing of the house with these tables & tables with 400,000 filing cards, everybody that had ever written in.--His whole mailing list to whom he actually sent out his newspaper & was still sending out his newspaper every month even though he hadn't heard from some of them for months or even years!
50. IT SOUNDED GREAT! HE HAD A CIRCULATION OF 400,000! And do you know how many people it took to work on that mailing list? He had over 100 people working at some time filing those files, in shifts! Can you imagine how difficult it is to train that many people in your filing system & methods? They made the most horrible mess out of those sometimes! Some of them didn't even know the alphabet! Some of them couldn't even spell! They didn't even recognise cities or what state they were in or whatever! So some of those people made a worse mess out the files & they were a worse hindrance than a help! He finally just nearly tore his hair & got fed-up!
51. HE SAID, "I'M GOING TO SEND OUT A REAL URGENT MAILING PLEA TO EVERYBODY ON THIS LIST, & EVERYBODY WHO DOESN'T RESPOND WITHIN SIX MONTHS, OUT THEY GO!" He gave them more time than I would have! You know how many he wound up with?--50,000 out of 400,000!--And I think that was giving too much credit, all the people who had responded within 6 months. He weeded out that many & cut'm down to 1/8 of his whole mailing list! Then he went through the slow laborious process they had then of keypunching all their cards. That was our job, to take them down to IBM Data Processing Center & run'm through, get'm on tape, & then the Data Processing computers alphabetised them.
52. WE FINALLY WHITTLED DOWN THOSE STACKS & STACKS OF 50,000 NAMES--& you'd be surprised how many 50,000 names is! They had these print-out machines that could print I've forgotten how many lines it was per second, name & address on each line, what they called a chain type. Rrrrrrrr just like that! These print-out sheets all fit in boxes that the paper came in originally, & I think we had 14 of those boxes full!
53. HE WOULDN'T TRUST TO LEAVE THEM INSIDE THE DATA PROCESSING CENTER, so as soon as they got one box of print-outs done I had to carry them out to my Camper & put'm on the floor! So that when we finally finished the job, dear Mother Eve & I were climbing over the boxes & walking over boxes back to our bed! That whole floor was completely full & stacked up in the driving compartment & everything else.--And probably not even that many were worth keeping. Those were the print-outs. Of course, all of that was on one 16 mm tape about that big around, something like 8 or 900 feet. At that time they got on 800 bytes per inch--what's the score nowadays? (P: Now you can get 500,000 or more on a disc!) One disc, think of that!
54. YOU'VE GOT TO THINK IT THROUGH & SIT DOWN & COUNT THE COST!: IS IT WORTH IT?--AND I DON'T THINK THOSE "9 NAMES" OFFERS ARE WORTH IT! And I don't think the card file system is worth it! I think you might as well forget your card files & just answer the people who write in. And according to that nice little system they've got worked out--which is very clever--you'll know exactly where they're at when they write in! And that keeps you up monthly on an update of their address as well, so you don't even have to keep correcting the filing card & updating their address--they update their own when they send you in the card! That's a great system, I'll give them credit for that! But we shouldn't have to keep any records of people who never responded. I don't believe in giving them a second chance. Why should they hear twice when some people have never even heard once? Amen?
55. LET'S CANCEL THAT THING, LET'S STOP KEEPING CARD FILES & RECORDS! I simplified our whole TRF filing system, remember that? I said, "No more filing cards, forget'm!" I said, "Every month the new TRF is your new filing card & the first one actually is the only one that has to have the list of Members & you don't have to list any Members on the others but the changes." PTL! Amen! TYL!
56. I HAVE A FEELING WE'RE GOING TO HAVE QUITE A DROP IN MUSIC CLUB MEMBERSHIP!--Thank God!--Of all these people that are just dead wood & nothing! And we're going to save a lot of free gifts & maybe a lot of pins, who knows? From now on, we don't correspond with anybody who's not interested enough to write us. Just remember that! If they write in, we write them. If they don't write in, we don't write'm! We're not going to say: "Dear so-&-so: Where were you? We didn't hear from you this past 6 months! What ever's happened? We've been writing you every week or month & we haven't heard a word!" I'm sorry, we're not any long lost lovers! What have you done for me lately? Love me now or never!
57. "IT'S NOW OR NEVER" DEAR OLD ELVIS USED TO SING!--AND THAT'S THE WAY WE'RE GOING TO TREAT OUR MUSIC SHOW MAILING LIST! It's now or never! They either write in or they're not Members! And they either have written in this month or we don't list them as Members on this month's report, period! Now how much do you think we're going to save in the way of personnel that MCV thinks they have to move?
58. I WANT A REPORT RIGHT NOW ON MWMI! I want to know exactly how many so-called Members have actually written in this past month. I want to know the exact number of pieces of mail that they have received from listeners or so-called Club Members during the past month. And you think it's about 3,000 that MCV has actually heard from?--So instead of 18,000 so-called Members that MCV is supposed to have, they've actually only got what I would call about 3,000 Members! Boy, that's really going to cut down the Membership!
59. WELL, PTL! THAT'S ALL THE MEMBERS WE HAVE FROM NOW ON, JUST THE NUMBER WHO'VE WRITTEN IN THIS PAST MONTH! That's what I would call real active live Members! And of course they should have written in because you wrote them. Anybody we write that doesn't write back, I wouldn't say they were very cooperative or appreciative or an active Member. There may be a few times when they can miss, but you'll hear from'm sooner or later & that'll be on next month's chart, the stragglers, like we do with the TRFs. We don't have any more Members, as far as our Family's concerned & our stats that I know of, except those who send in their TRFs every month. Right? Isn't that what appears on the monthly stats? Just the number of TRFs we get, that's all the Members we have. We're not keeping them on the rolls: "Well, they joined 20 years ago so they must still be a Member!" My God, if we figured that way, we'd probably have 100,000 Members now! I wouldn't be surprised!
60. I'VE OFTEN WONDERED IF THERE'S ANY WAY WE COULD EVER FIGURE OUT HOW MANY MEMBERS WE'VE ACTUALLY HAD OVER THESE 15 YEARS, moved in & moved out, but I don't know if there would be any possible way of ever figuring it out! In other words, how many Members did we used to have? How many Members have been Members but are no longer Members? Well, I'd say it was probably ten times as much as we have right now, which would be 100,000 people. Maybe one out of 10 has stuck & that's our present 10,000. And that's all we count, & that's all I think are worth counting!--Not all the backsliders & all the Members we used to have 10 years ago!
61. I WON'T EVEN KEEP THEM ON THE MEMBERSHIP LIST & SEND THEM LIT UNLESS THEY'RE A MEMBER TODAY, this month, & we get their TRF & that's it, or they're no longer a Member until the next time we hear from them. "Fine, write us again, send us another TRF & you're still a Member.--Or at least you're a Member this month!--I'm not so sure whether you'll be a Member next month or not!" Our Members are just current Members, that's all, month to month. We never know whether they're going to be Members next month or not!
62. THAT'S THE WAY WE'RE GOING TO TREAT THESE CLUBBERS, BROTHER!--No more padded accounts of what membership we're supposed to have. This next month's chart line is going to take a nose dive from 18,000 for MCV & 12,000 for MWM--it's going to be a little embarrassing. I guess I'm going to have to write some kind of an explanation, although if you're recording this, maybe I won't have to! PTL! That sort of simplified the whole job real quick!
63. WELL, OUR ENEMIES HAVE TRIED TO PUT US OUT OF BUSINESS LYING ABOUT US, BUT WE'RE STILL HERE! And I'm sure it's because of the Lord & His mercy & our prayers & our faithfulness to be diligent & obey & also to watch & pray & keep a watchful eye on what's happening & what's going on & to see that we don't spend money we haven't got or use personnel on things we don't need or have stats that aren't so & Members who aren't there! If they're not there this month, they're not there!--Unless we hear from them later. PTL? Any other questions? Suggestions? Ideas?
64. I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BE THE ONLY IDEA MAN IN THIS OUTFIT! You guys ought to be able to come up with a few smart brainstorms of how to save money, how to save personnel, how to save time, how to save labour! Go over your operation with a fine-tooth comb & try to figure out ways you can do without things.--Either that or you're going to come around with these reports telling me what you need & I'm going to explain to you how you can do without it, just like the missionary did! Amen? God help us to think & to survey & count the cost & think it through, analyse it, check it! I'm sorry I hadn't checked that closer & realised what was going on. But when I ran across that "9 names" thing, boy, I just practically hit the ceiling!
65. ARE YOU IN THE MOOD FOR PRAYER? A quickie? At least we've got something to be thankful for! We can thank the Lord this time for all the Members we don't have & all the hogs we're not raising, which is going to make us a lot of money!--Ha!--Or certainly save us a lot of money. PTL?
66. I THINK WE'RE GOING TO SAVE A LOT OF MAIL, a lot of postage, a lot of filing, a lot of office personnel & a lot of budget--which is exactly what we need to do right now, especially when some of these people are going to move. Amen?
67. AMEN LORD, HELP US & GIVE US WISDOM, GUIDANCE & INSPIRATION! Make us a little bit smarter, Lord, so that You don't have to say of us that the children of this World are wiser than the children of Light, that we're so dumb like some of Your disciples. (Lk.16:8) Help us to think things through & analyse things & weigh things & count the cost & figure out how to save money, & not have to wait till we don't have it to figure out how to save it, in Jesus' name. Do give us divine guidance, wisdom, skill & real concern for Thy work so that we will only do what work needs to be done.
68. WE'RE A REVOLUTION, BOYS, WE KEEP CHANGING! If there's any way we can improve, we keep doin' it! I'm going to ask you maybe daily from now on: "What did you improve today? What have you done today that you won't have to do again tomorrow?" Amen? PTL! This'll explain why the Club Membership has suddenly taken a nosedive. Maybe we can reduce the size of the charts now!--Ha! Do you agree? (Boys: Yes, Sir!) This is a democracy, I always want you to agree!--Ha!
69. YOU GUYS OUGHT TO HAVE IDEAS & MAKE SUGGESTIONS & ASK QUESTIONS--DON'T JUST ACCEPT IT BECAUSE THAT'S THE WAY IT'S ALWAYS BEEN! I told you about that office I worked in for the DA in Miami & all those forms we filled out. They always had these letters & stuff we had to type at the bottom, so I asked the head of the office, the secretary, "What's this for down here?" She said, "I don't know?" I said, "Then why do I have to keep typing this down here where it always slips out of the typewriter & is such a nuisance?" She said, "I don't know!" I said, "Then why don't you ask the judge!"
70. DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK WHY!--Why are we doing this? Why are we doing it that way? Why do we have to do this? I'm lazy! I want to know why I have to do it & I'm not going to do it unless I have to!--Amen? GBAKY diligent in business!
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71. IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, WE NOT ONLY DROP "9ers" WHO DON'T RESPOND, BUT ALSO STATIONS WHO ARE NOT PROGRAMMING OR WON'T CONFIRM & CAN'T BE MONITORED, & WHERE OUR LISTENERS' RESPONSE HAS BEEN ALMOST NIL. Surveys have been created--Listeners surveys & Nielson ratings & blah, blah.--Million dollar businesses that tell the advertisers where to put their money where it does the most good. Well, let's do our own little survey. Amen? Find out where we're getting results & where they aren't, & let's drop the Stations where we're not getting any results & let's put the money & the time & expense into following up the disciples we've got & good results. What do you think? OK? Praise the Lord! If after thinking it over & praying, you've got any further ideas, write me a note & tell me, OK?
72. THOSE MUSICAL UNITS & OFFICES HAVE BEEN THE MOST EXPENSIVE WE'VE GOT IN THE WHOLE WORLD & now we know why! God help us! Well, I'm not just blaming it on you or them, I'm just as much to blame as anybody. I have gone over time & again trying to figure out some way to save, but they said, well, they have this much mail & that's it. But it never really dawned on me before what a horrible proportion of that mail was this stupid 9-Name programme! God help us! Well, thank the Lord! We've solved that problem & we've saved a lot of money we need elsewhere, & maybe the Lord has given us an idea on how to save money on Stations as well & give us much better follow-up with a more personal touch in that area.
73. I MEAN IF WE'VE ONLY GOTTEN HALF-A-DOZEN REGULAR LISTENERS & fans in that area from that Station in six months, then that's probably all we're going to get. You say, "Well, if we stay another 6 months maybe we'll get 6 more." I say if we get that bunch together & start sending them the tapes & get them active, we'll get a helluva lot more than 6 more in the next 6 months by personal contact & personal evangelism & a Minstrel visiting pastor or evangelist! We'll get a lot more results with the personal touch with the hot contacts we've already got than to just keep on coming over the ice cold air waves!
74. LET'S TURN THAT MASS MEDIA EVANGELISM INTO PERSONAL EVANGELISM JUST AS QUICK AS WE CAN, & of course, I recommend that in all areas, not only where we've only got one or two or half-a-dozen disciples but certainly everywhere. That's the whole idea of the IHC programme, but this is the new recommendation I'm making, that in areas where we don't have much response, I think it's time to turn it from radio to personal follow-up. I think some of those people would be very flattered that we'd ditch the radio station for them. And another thing, it's much better security if we're off the air & they're just getting it privately personally secretly through the mail & they can have secret meetings & we won't be advertising it to the whole World, including our enemies, that we're still there. So it's even better security. I've always known that radio was dangerous because we advertise to our enemies as well as our friends.
75. THE QUICKER WE CAN TURN THAT MASS-MEDIA MINISTRY INTO A PERSONAL MINISTRY THE BETTER! I'd say in almost any field, whether we're getting few results or big results, that it ought to be turned into personal contact ministry & fellowship as quickly as possible, & that's what the IHC is for & what we're trying to do, so that by the time either they kick us off the air, which always comes, or we just decide to drop them because we don't need them anymore, we'll be getting more fruit, better results & more effective follow-up through a personal fellowship there & their personal labours than we could ever get through the mass-media scatter-shot of radio.
76. THE ONLY REASON WE WENT AHEAD WITH THIS RADIO MINISTRY AT ALL IS TO TRY TO REACH THE MILLIONS OUT THERE THAT WE CAN'T REACH ANY OTHER way. But once we have reached them & reaped those who have responded, who needs the radio anymore, especially if it's not continuing to prove fruitful. Like dear ol' Schultz's cousin said, "What have you done for me lately?" So maybe that will have to be our attitude with some of these Stations. We reaped the harvest, we got a lot of Listeners but we're only getting a trickle now or almost none lately, so what have they done for us lately? Maybe it's time to drop them. Maybe we can get more out of giving those tapes to local Listeners & local Clubs, getting them together in personal contact, fellowship, work, discipleship, membership for the Lord with the personal touch, personal contact & really getting something out of it, instead of to Stations who don't really push the Shows & get results. Amen?--OK! Praise the Lord.
77. MAYBE THAT'S GOING TO GIVE US SOME GOOD INFORMATION TO PASS ON TO THE FAMILY, at least to the people involved in radio & follow-up & IHCs & Minstrels & all the rest. Amen? It's a rather radical approach, huh? But I think it's practical, I think it's sensible, I think it's common sense! I don't see why we have to keep blowing in the wind when we're not getting any results! Let's get rid of the Stations that don't give us any results & let's follow up what we've got, personally! In Jesus' name, amen. Praise the Lord!
78. AMEN. HELP US, LORD, IN JESUS' NAME. Help all our folks to see we're not trying to do less, we're not trying to cut down on the work, we're not trying to cut down on the results. We're not trying to cut down on ministries but we're trying to increase efficiency & effectiveness & fruitfulness in order to accomplish more with less to get a bigger job done, Lord, with fewer people working more efficiently & effectively & fruitfully & profitably by doing a better job, a more efficient job, a more effective job, Lord, working harder with fewer to get more done, because indeed the labourers are few.
79. "THE HARVEST TRULY IS PLENTEOUS BUT THE LABOURERS ARE FEW" (Mt.9:37), so we have to get what few labourers we have got, Lord, to be more efficient harvesters & be able to reap more with what they've got or even less. Help us, Lord, to understand that, because we have so much to do & so little time to do it. The field is so great, Lord, & the labourers so few. Every labourer has got to accomplish more with less in order to get the job done, so help us to do it, Lord. We can spread our finances around further, thinner but further, to reach more & win more, train more & save more, Lord, so that we'll have more sheaves to lay at Thy feet when You come, Lord.
80. HELP US, LORD, TO BE DILIGENT IN BUSINESS & to count the cost & to be saving & wisely invest Thy talents so that we will get from them more talents & more fruit, so that You can say, "Well done thou good & faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" when the final day of reward comes. (Mt.25:21)--In Jesus' name, amen. Thank You Lord. GBAKY busy!
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81. SOMETHING WE CAN DO RIGHT NOW & IMMEDIATELY THAT'LL SAVE US A LOT OF MONEY, TIME & TROUBLE IS TO SEND A LITTLE NOTICE TO THE STATIONS, because we have all the information we need right now to know what stations to drop. All the offices have to do is go through their station list, & in the case of each station, then go through their membership lists & find how many names they've got in each station area. I would say they could do that very simply in the case of big well-known cities. In the case of small towns where the listener may actually hear'm in another town in the same state or province, then they can compare the listener response with that province, & if possible if they've got a good map, even look up the town that the listener is actually in, the actual mailing address, to see if it's in the radius coverage-area of that station. Now that's the only part of it that's a little technical. They're going to have to comb through their lists.
82. IT CAN SAVE US, I BELIEVE, MAYBE EVEN HUNDREDS OF TAPE MAILINGS RIGHT OFF THE BAT! Because I have a feeling we're feeding a lot of stations where we're getting no results. And the big cities will be easy to locate, the main cities where they have these shows. Just do it to the best of their ability! If they will comb through their lists & compare the station addresses with the listener addresses, they should be able to find this out right away, what stations get results.
83. WHEN THE IHCS SEE THIS, THAT WE ARE GOING TO BACK THEM UP EVEN MORE, WE'RE GOING TO GIVE THEM MORE SUPPORT FOR FOLLOW-UP ETC., I THINK THEY'RE GOING TO REJOICE, because if the program's taken off the air in that area, they're going to even feel under greater obligation to get in there with the tapes that we're going to give them & call Club Meetings to hear the tapes & even leave'm with the tapes, give the tapes to'm. I'd rather give the tapes to real good Club Members than the stations, wouldn't you, when they've only got a half-a-dozen Club Members in the whole area!
84. SO WE'RE PLANNING TO DROP UNFRUITFUL STATIONS.--As soon as you can survey the results by comparing listener response from each station. All stations who have generated no more than six responding listeners in six months or more will be dropped, with a cordial letter. How's that? Then if there are CMs in that area, we'll write'm & offer to send them the tapes if they'll have Club Meetings & listen to'm or share'm somehow & send a Minstrel to them to see they do & make personal contact for solid results!: Members, disciples & Homes! Amen? Once the field is reaped, I'd rather give them the tapes than the Stations! Amen?
85. BUT WE DON'T WANT TO JUST LEAVE THE STATIONS FLAT. If we give'm another month's supply of tapes, they've got a chance for a quick emergency appeal to us that they're going to give it a better time slot or play it at a better time for better response, please don't cut it off! There are always exceptions. See, if the office gets back an urgent appeal from the station: "Please, we'll try to do better & more often, better time, blah blah, don't drop the show."--We'll consider continuing.
86. WHO KNOWS, MAYBE WE'LL GET SOME RESPONSE ALL OF A SUDDEN FROM LOCAL LISTENERS AFTER WE'VE CUT'M OFF! Could be there's a time lag. After we cut the unfruitful station off, then if there are any Club Members in that area, we'll write'm & offer to send them the tapes if they'll have Club Meetings & listen to'm or share'm somehow. Really, I think even a better way would be to offer to send somebody with the tapes to organise a Club Meeting to play'm. Send a Minstrel to'm to see they do, & make personal contact for solid results--members, disciples & Homes. Amen? Once the field is reaped, I'd rather give them the tapes than the stations.--Amen?
87. ONE OF THE SIMPLEST WAYS TO KEEP AN ACCURATE RECORD OF LISTENER RESPONSES IS LIKE FRED & I USED TO DO: KEEP A MAP with red pins for the stations & white pins for the listeners that have written in.--Then at a glance you can see where the stations are & where you're getting the most listener response & where you're getting none! Savvy? And while they're going over these two mailing lists, they could have somebody standing at the map almost as easy as not, & sticking pins in the map.--So that in this very next tape mailing they'll be able to slip this note in between the tapes & tell'm, "That's it, this is your last one, because you haven't had enough response."
88. A LITTLE BIT OF WORK THERE IS GOING TO SAVE A WHOLE LOT OF WORK & A PILE OF MONEY THAT CAN BE MUCH BETTER USED SOMEPLACE ELSE--if nothing else but for tapes & mailing tapes to actual clubs, local clubs, or supporting a Minstrel to go there with the tapes, which I think is even surer. Follow up the real actual members, hot leads, saved members, & say, "We've cancelled the show on your station, but I've got the latest tapes, & if you'll come together in a meeting in one of your homes, I'll play'm for you. And if you like, I'll come up every month & play you all the latest tapes.--And if you bring your tape recorders you can make copies!" Work like that. There's a lot of ideas you can follow up on that. But if they'll go to work on that, & that's going to be a job, it may take'm a week, but it's worth delaying the tape mailing & save tapes & a lot of postage. Right? Okay, let's do it now!
89. FRANKLY, I THINK THE QUICKER WE GET THE SHOWS OFF THE AIR, WE NOT ONLY SAVE TIME & MONEY & WORK & EVERYTHING ELSE, BUT THAT'S BETTER SECURITY! Because if it's an area which is that hard that we're not getting any response, we ought to get off the air! The Lord apparently doesn't want us on the air there & it's dangerous to be on the air where we're not getting any response. As far as I'm concerned, the fewer stations we're on that are not getting response, the better. I mean the sooner we get rid of them the better. I'd rather have fewer stations with better response than so many stations with such poor response! Amen?
90. REMEMBER TO NOT CUT THE STATION OFF UNTIL THEY'VE HAD AT LEAST A 6-MONTH-RUN CHANCE. Don't judge them too soon. We'll keep'm 6 months, but if they haven't had more than 6 live respondees from their area within 6 months, out they go! PTL? I mean, we just cannot afford any longer to carry either stations or so-called Club Members who are unfruitful & unprofitable servants. Amen? The Lord talks about unprofitable servants, & we want to get rid of them like He did. He said they'd be cast out into outer darkness, with weeping, wailing & gnashing of teeth. (Mt.25:30) Well, we'd better get rid of them before we lose out somehow. Amen, PTL! TYL!
91. AMEN, GIVE'M WISDOM, LORD, GIVE'M SKILL. Give'm Thy divine guidance, anointing & leading & inspiration to know just how to do it & figure out some real easiest-possible way to do this to cut these stations off as soon as possible to save Thy money & time & tapes & personnel & everything, Lord, in Jesus' name. We'd rather put the money into visiting ministers rather than just this waste of tapes on stations that are unfruitful. So bless & help us & give us wisdom how to do it, & strength to do it & courage to see it through, Lord, in Jesus' name. PTL!
92. THAT'S NOT GOING TO REDUCE THIS NEXT TAPE MAILING, BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO GIVE THEM AMPLE WARNING, slip the notice in with another whole month's tapes, which will give them a chance. If they're really concerned about it, the minute they get those tapes they're gonna squawk! And if it really means that much to'm that they write us & offer to do better, that they really want it that bad, OK. But if we don't hear from them, let's set a deadline.--By the next tape mailing. They just don't get a tape next time. And they'll just have to judge who are exceptions & who can be given a little more leniency or time or whatever. Maybe if it's not doing anybody else any good, maybe it's doing the station manager or the DJ some good or a few listeners who haven't responded.
93. MAYBE THE STATIONS WILL GET ON THE BALL & REALLY START PLUGGIN' FOR LISTENER RESPONSE! They can do it if they want to! They can come on with spots & ads. They can come on & promote a show if they want to & promote, & beg for listener response. "Please write in if you like this show because if you don't write in, we're going to lose it!" See? You might add that to the note to the stations.
94. ANY STATION THAT'S GOT THAT MUCH AMBITION & THAT MUCH PUSH TO TRY TO SELL IT & GET SOME RESPONSE, I THINK THEY'RE WORTHY OF KEEPING ON. Even if they write us & tell us they're going to do it & beg to please keep them coming & say "We're going to push it & put on spots promoting the show begging for listener response," I'd give them another chance, maybe a month or two or something. What do you think? I mean, each case has to be weighed on its own merits & what the station response is, how they respond to the notice. Maybe the DJ will get his wife & kids & everybody in the family to write us a letter. Well, if they want it that bad, okay, fine. We'll keep sending it. I'd say if they show any real interest at all in keeping the show, why, fine. But if we don't even hear from'm, obviously they're not interested.
95. SEE, WE'RE NOT ONLY GOING TO CULL OUT THE MEMBERS, BUT WE'RE GOING TO CULL OUT THE STATIONS THAT ARE UNPRODUCTIVE. Amen? I think we're going to save something. I wouldn't be surprised that maybe we'll get a 10% reduction in stations. But even if it's only 10%, it's worth it.
96. I WOULD SAY IF WE DON'T GET SOME KIND OF RESPONSE FROM THOSE STATIONS RIGHT AWAY, THAT'S IT! Did you say something, Honey? You're downright awesome you're so speechless lately! I love it, Honey! I get my way all the time now. Ha! But, Honey, I miss your presenting the other side! You're our counterbalance. (Maria: If it needs it, I will.) So far you've agreed, that's good. TTL! She's the Mother Mary who pleads for mercy for you. That's her usual job, mediator between me & the Family.
97. ALL RIGHTY, PTL! LORD DO BLESS IT & HAVE THY WAY, IN JESUS' NAME! Help them to figure this out immediately, Lord, so we know what stations to give these notices to & save money--at least on the next mailing, as well as wasted tapes etc. Give the boys wisdom how to work this out & how to get this communication to all the Music offices, in Jesus' name. And help the offices to understand. PTL! Do you think you can put that across? OK!
98. AS FOR THE LOCAL LANGUAGE SHOWS, you remember that was a question in my mind before, whether it was necessary to accompany those local language shows with the English language shows just because they liked to have them both. But when it comes to a financial squeeze, they can be thankful they're still getting the local language show, & I don't think they need any more English shows if we're not getting any English response, no matter how much they like the tapes & the music. I think we can just cut out that. They can figure out what stations we're actually getting listener response from. Let's find out where those guys are & what stations they're listening to, & then we'll ditch the rest. So here's a suggested warning letter to the unproductive Stations:
99. DEAR (STATION CALL LETTERS):
We thank you for your community-spirited public service in carrying (MWM/MCV) for the past few months, but we shall no longer be able to supply you with the Show due to lack of sufficient listener response in your area, so this may be your last tape mailing, unless this response should increase immediately. Perhaps a better time slot or more local promotion on the air would help.
Meanwhile, thank you so much for carrying (MWM/MCV), & we hope that perhaps, should the situation change & warrant it, we may again be of service to you in the future.--God bless you for being a blessing to your radio audience & community.
Gratefully & sincerely yours,
(MWM/MCV)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family