THE RADIO REVOLUTION CONTINUED!        DFO 1629        9/83

       1. THE ENCOURAGING SIGN WAS THAT IN JUST THE ONE MONTH THAT ONE AREA HAS HAD THE LOCAL ADDRESS, THE RESPONSE HAS BOOMED!
       2. BY THESE REPORTS & STATS WE'RE ASSESSING & ANALYSING OUR EFFECTIVENESS IN ALL THESE PLACES. The worst thing you can do in some countries is to register the mail, because it then becomes a primary target for theft. They steal all the registered mail right out of the desk drawer before they've even logged it in & stuff like that.--Inside jobs of course. They catch'm at it all the time, but there's so many of them it's just almost an insurmountable problem. Give us wisdom, Lord, & help us to make the right decisions, in Jesus' name.
       3. YOU HAVE THE REPORT FROM THE MWMI OFFICE & I HOPE YOU'LL HAVE A CHANCE TO ANALYSE IT & SEE WHERE THEY'RE AT. I hope you realise what we're trying to find out, because if you don't know what the question is, you can't very well come up with the answer! Be sure you make those stats simple & clear so that we don't have to re-analyse. I don't like to have to analyse a report of a report of a report, I like to come up with simple answers to begin with! Lengthy reports don't do me very much good--I prefer to have something just to analyse simply & tell us approximately where we're at. You guys can deal with the details in the final exact weeding out of stations & listeners & all that sort of thing, at least "niners" & whatnot, but I want to get the overall picture, & a simple picture at that, of just exactly what has happened & what hasn't happened & where we're at now!
       4. I DON'T LIKE TO MAKE THESE DECISIONS PERSONALLY ON MY OWN! Even if I am a dictator in a way, I like to work together & get agreement & counsel & advice from you. I like to get your reactions of what you think & if these decisions are right or if these suggestions are good & what we should do about the situation as of right now.
       5. I'M WONDERING WHY SOME OF THESE STATIONS HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO GO ON & ON FOR MONTHS & ALMOST YEARS, STILL SENDING THEM TAPES EVEN THOUGH YOU GOT NO CONFIRMATION CARDS. It seems that after sending tapes to a station for a year, either we would have decided to discontinue the tapes or insist on some kind of confirmation! (S: They were supposed to send a confirmation card back, but as there were more complaints from the field or from the overseers there that tapes weren't reaching them or the cards were sent but didn't make it back to the office, there was a greater & greater leniency shown.) A whole year? Some stations went two years with no confirmation, no sign from the station whatsoever that they ever got the tapes or they were running the show or anything? (P: I think that definitely exceeds the leniency that should have been shown.) I do too!
       6. I THINK THAT'S GOING A BIT TOO FAR! That was far beyond the original rule that we established. In fact, as I recall, we laid down the law on that & that actually is a violation of the rule! I realise you can always make exceptions, but when nearly every station becomes an exception, then they're not exceptional, they're not rarities, they're a general thing! And when so many stations were still being sent scores of tapes costing us hundreds, in fact thousands of dollars without any sign whatsoever that they're even on the air, no confirmation card from them or anything, I think this is stretching the leniency a little too far!
       7. WE'RE DOING SOME CRYING OVER SPILT MILK, but of course that can't do the spilt milk any good now, except to perhaps teach us a lesson not to let it happen again in the future! My law in the beginning was that we didn't even trust the local bookers to confirm the show. Even if the local booker did it, we had to get a station card signed by some station official that they were booking the show. Then after we sent'm the tapes, as I understand the system was we sent a card with the tapes asking for confirmation. In other words, that was strictly without the booker, establishing direct communication with the station.
       8. THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WARNED ON THAT CARD if we didn't get that card back before the next tape mailing, they wouldn't be mailed any more tapes! Well, where did we go astray on that, that we kept mailing tapes to stations for a year or two without any confirmation? (S: I think in most cases the confirmation card was returned once, at the beginning, but since then there hadn't necessarily been reconfirmation, although they did originally send one confirmation card.)
       9. THEREFORE I THINK WE NEED TO ESTABLISH A POLICY ON CONFIRMATION. We don't want to pester the station with too many because they may be annoyed when they've already sent one & it's being programmed weekly. We don't want to make ourselves a nuisance & insult'm by asking for reconfirmation too soon. What do you think the period should be, reconfirmation in six months or a year? (S: Six months.) We should send a reconfirmation every six months from the date of the original confirmation card, the first actual genuine bonafide valid station-signed confirmation card that we have received direct from the station. We send them another one at the end of the first six month's period. (P: Would that go for every station or for only unmonitored stations?)
       10. OF COURSE IF WE'VE GOT THE STATION ACTUALLY MONITORED, WE'D JUST AS SOON NOT BOTHER THEM EVEN WITH A CONFIRMATION CARD. If we have it monitored & we know we're on & we know the day we're on, the time we're on & it's really being listened to, fine! I would say in that case we don't need to send reconfirmation cards. We don't want to annoy'm & pester'm, & maybe we don't even want to remind them it's on & give them a chance to reconsider!
       11. AND FROM NOW ON WE'RE NOT ONLY GOING TO DEPEND ON OUR LOCAL HOMES & FAMILIES TO MONITOR THAT STATION! I want you to get this down, Son, with no ifs, ands, buts, maybes, one-year leniency, two-year leniency, nothing! I want every single Listener Response Card to bear the call letters of the station they heard it on & the day & the hour they heard it!--Every card they send in, every time, every month or whenever, so we have constant, continual, known monitoring of that station & we know by the listener response exactly what station it is, what day it is, what time of day it is & that it's on the air! No more of this fiddling around with uncertain Family monitoring. Let's get the facts from the people that heard it so we'll know!
       12. ONCE I SET UP THAT SYSTEM I NEVER DREAMED WE WERE GOING TO ESTABLISH EXCEPTIONS & LENIENCY FOR ALMOST HUNDREDS OF STATIONS, extending the original grace period from the time of booking from a month or two to two years! Well, you got yourself a little off the hook by saying the stations did send in the first confirmation card. Okay. But from now on I think we need to know we've got an official monitor there, somebody who is steadily listening to the show, a Family Member, & those monitors need to send us in confirmation cards every month!--Name of the station, the day & hour that it's playing & that it has played at that time, & they send in the card & they confirm it. We want that from the local people & we can require that of the Family.
       13. I SUGGEST THAT WE SEND ONE OF THOSE CARDS TO EACH OF THE LOCAL HOMES IN AN AREA & REQUIRE THEM TO RETURN THE CARD! Maybe it'll do several goods!--It'll not only monitor the station, required monitoring, but it will also get them a little bit more interested in the local show & its results & its promotion & its follow-up--not just casually say, "Oh yes, I heard that it's on the air here" & not even be interested.
       14. LET'S SIMPLY AS A MATTER OF COURSE HAVE THE LOCAL IHC SEND MONITORING CARDS TO EACH OF THE LOCAL HOMES IN EACH OF THE AREAS where the show is supposedly playing & have them send them back each month with their TRF. We collect TRFs locally at the local NRO, so that shouldn't be any big task. If we had any more room we could put it on the TRF itself, but we don't have room for that much information. Maybe we could call it the Monitor's Confirmation Card, on which they confirm the fact that the local show is on the air & they are listening every time! Maybe we ought to make'm put it right down on the card that: "We listened to the show at such-&-such an hour on such-&-such a day all month, or someone in our Home did"--& then have it signed with their name & Home number. They can slip the card right in with their TRF, & on that they've got the name of the station, the hour & day & any other comments regarding whether the station's doing any promo or whether it wasn't on some day or any other exceptions.
       15. SHALL WE CALL THEM HOME MONITOR CONFIRMATION CARDS? Maybe they need to give somebody in each local Home the job, to make them conscious of the show, concerned about the show & concerned about its local follow-up. Appoint a local Home Monitor in each Home in an area where it's playing, & it is their job to monitor the show. Let's make it their job, okay? But let's make it voluntary at first & see if we can get it out of them voluntarily at least. They ought to be concerned. If we at least send them a card & require them to return it from each Home that's in that broadcasting area, they can be mighty ashamed if they don't & we'll jerk'm up for it! If worse comes to worst, we can threaten them with excommunication if they don't monitor the show & send us a return card! Tell'm: "We'll have to suspend your mailings until we get that card back!" We've got some clout with the Homes!
       16. NOW THAT'S ONE SUGGESTION!--HOME MONITORS! Appoint in each Home an official Monitor who is required, it is their duty, to listen to that show!--To see how it went & be sure it's got the quality, the volume, the fidelity--or clarity in other words--& all the information we need from such a Monitor.--Whether it had any promotional announcements other than just introducing the show & whether the local address was clear enough & on it, or was it clipped off or was it inside? You guys figure it out--I don't have to tell you every little detail, do I?
       17. FOR THE FIRST MONTH THE LOCAL ADDRESS HAS BEEN TACKED ON THE END BY MWMI, not the announcer, we put it on ourselves. Okay, we got results, five times the usual results in one month's mail. Now whether that will keep up or not I don't know, maybe it'll get even better! But maybe that was just a rare phenomenal exception, who knows? We don't know until we get the law of averages & we've gone on for a few months.
       18. YOU GUYS NEED TO GET SO FAMILIAR WITH YOUR STATS THAT YOU CAN RECALL THEM FROM MEMORY! As you notice, I usually can, but that's because I'm so damn slow!--But I'm thorough & I almost memorise your reports & some of the figures; some of them I don't & I have to ask you for. At least memorise the significant parts.
       19. NOW HOW ARE WE GOING TO LICK THIS MAIL PROBLEM, SINCE WE'RE PRETTY DEPENDENT ON THE MAILS? When we first get their confirmation, do we furnish the station with any kind of emergency card? We could give'm two or three or half-a-dozen cards & say that if at any time the tapes do not arrive on time, please send us this airmail card immediately to notify us, or even phone us collect at this phone number. Have we got some kind of system by which the station is encouraged to let us know when the tapes don't come? (P: When the tapes are sent, a letter is sent independently to those stations explaining that tapes have just been sent to them, & if they haven't received them within a reasonable time period to please contact the office.)
       20. WELL, IF YOU'VE BEEN IN AS MANY OF THOSE STATIONS AS I HAVE, BROTHER, hundreds & hundreds of them at least in the U.S.A., you realise how busy they are!--Most of them are little rinky-dink, one-horse, 100-watt stations with the manager, the salesman, the DJ & the program director all one man, & he's also the owner & he's running the whole show! He's like a one-armed paper-hanger with the hives trying to run that station! You think we don't have time to hardly answer all of our correspondence, imagine the kind of junk mail they get!--All kinds of junk mail & promotional material from thousands of record promoters & business promoters & all kinds of promos & offers & blah blah blah blah blah!--Few enough actual advertisers interested in buying time.
       21. IF YOU WERE THE GUY WHO OWNED THE STATION & WAS DOING EVERYTHING, WHO WOULD YOU GIVE FIRST PRIORITY IN ANSWERING MAIL?--The guys who are asking about buying time! And probably with all the rest of your jobs, that would be about all the mail you'd have time to answer & the only thing you had to answer to keep alive! Offers of this, that & the other & blah blah could wait! Free records from the record companies, which is something that's done all the time, of course they accept & they play! Why not? Some of them have a policy of, "We'll let you play this record on the air without being pestered by BMI & ASCAP etc., providing you play it so many times & read this promo with it for sales at the local record shop. In other words, we send you the record free & you get to play it free, no royalties & no commissions, providing you promote it, advertise it." That's a common practice. They have all kinds of promotional gimmicks for promoting record sales & even promoting hits.
       22. THIS TOP 10 & TOP 20 IS A REAL RACKET, because it has nothing to do with the quality of the song or the music or the popularity of the record! It entirely depends on which company has the most money & millions to back it & saturate the market with it, even up to the point of paying the DJs to play it so many times so the people just keep hearing it & hearing it & hearing it & hearing it & they can't get it out of their heads & finally decide they might as well go down & buy the record if it's so popular. Besides, when it's supposedly in the Top 10 or Top 20: "Well, I want to keep up with the Joneses & everybody else & my peers & not be without this particular record, because if it's that popular, I've gotta be in on the most popular music, blah blah!"
       23. --EVEN TO THE POINT THAT AT DJ CONVENTIONS IT'S BEEN QUITE A POPULAR SPORT WITH THE RECORD PROMOTERS that the disc jockeys or managers or whoever's the top official from that station there at the convention gets a knock on his hotel door during the night from a pretty girl in her dressing gown, & she throws open her dressing gown & here's a big record painted on her tummy: "Gift from Decca Records!" Very common! They only have to pay the girl maybe $25, & that's a hell of a lot cheaper than you can do a lot of other promos. Maybe the price has gone up since I was there due to inflation. But anyway, they'll do almost anything to promote.
       24. YOU'VE GOTTA PUT YOURSELF IN THEIR SHOES & SEE THINGS FROM THEIR STANDPOINT! They are pestered constantly with salesmen & promos & mail & every station that's listed in anybody's station-listing book gets a flood of mail! Even the little podunk one-horse 100-watters are just flooded with all kinds of promotional junk mail of every kind & description!--As well as the mail that they live on, which is offers of time-buyers etc.
       25. SO WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO IS GIVE YOU THE PICTURE OF THEIR SITUATION: Here's this flood of all kinds of mail, they get a stack in the mail every morning. And what little 100-watter who manages to just sell enough advertising to keep his head above water & make a living & pay his expenses of broadcasting is going to be able to hire a secretary, receptionist or typist to even sort out the mail?
       26. I VISITED MANY STATIONS EVEN IN THE RICH UNITED STATES--little 100, 200 or 300-watters--where I knocked on the station door or buzzed & I heard on an intercom a voice saying, "Please come in & wait a minute!" Sometimes he would throw the switch on because he was right in the middle of an advertisement & I could hear his voice announcing to warn me that he was on the air. But then he pressed the button which opened the lock on the door & I walked into this little tiny reception room just outside the control room window, where they were doing well to have a chair in there for me to sit down!
       27. HE'D WAVE & I COULD SEE HIM BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! He'd hold up two or three fingers or something like that, meaning "1 or 2 minutes & I'll be with you", & then he'd quick stick his head out the door. Well, at least I usually had an appointment. I never went to a station without an appointment & they knew what I was there for when I gave'm my name. Sometimes he'd make me wait till they had a recorded show on that lasted at least 15 minutes or something, then he'd grab my tape & slap it on in a big hurry & listen to maybe five minutes of it just to get an idea of the quality & the fidelity etc., & he'd say okay or no--usually okay!
       28. I'LL TELL YOU, THE PERSONAL APPROACH, PERSONAL FOLLOW-UP, PERSONAL SALESMANSHIP & THE LORD REALLY DOES THE TRICK! They seldom said no when you came to them personally like that. And besides, it was a good show! It had good music, they liked the idea, it was free, all they had to do was carry it & let us put our address on it. We promised no plugs for finances on the show--we didn't say anything about the mail follow-up. That's Fred's show I'm talking about, "Church in the Home". We promised no appeals for money on the show & it was mostly music--a half-hour show with 20 minutes music & maybe a little 10-minute inspirational talk, blah blah. And they said, great, it would fill in their gaps on Sunday morning! They'd carry it public service, free of charge, "We pay the postage, you keep the tapes!" Well, it worked! I booked it on about 1100 radio stations.
       29. BUT PUT YOURSELF IN THOSE GUYS' SHOES & THINK OF ALL THE MAIL THEY GET! When it comes to the bigger stations, of course, they can hire more help. They've got an owner & a manager & a program director & a salesman & a secretary & receptionist. How many of you ever watched that TV show "WKRP Cincinnati"? You've never seen that funny half-hour comedy? That is the average medium-sized station. They had an owner, a program director, a salesman, a DJ, an office receptionist & secretary & that was about it. Well, they had two DJs, one was for the news, serious stuff & interviewer, & the other was the strictly far-out half-drugged disc jockey!--Half-a-dozen people on the average-sized station. Well, even the average-sized station, being from one to 5,000 watts, even there with all that help, considering it's a bigger station & the kind of station everybody wants to get on, they have a larger volume of mail, a flood of mail! It's a fulltime secretary/receptionist's job just sorting out mail & trying to answer mail & letters etc.
       30. OKAY, IN THE MIDST OF THIS BIG FLOOD OF MAIL--maybe they get 100 pieces of mail a day, half of it junk, half of it stuff that's important & they have to answer or something--here comes our little request for confirmation! Are these things sent out just to the call letters of the station or are they sent out to the name of the person who signed the booking card? (P: To the person who signed the booking card.) That individual, okay. So the secretary sorts that out without even maybe opening it & puts it in his mail for him to answer, but he's busy as can be, running around with all the work he has to do & the programming & everything else.
       31. SO HE GETS A STACK OF MAIL ON HIS DESK & HE OPENS IT & MAYBE SEES THE LETTER OR THE CARD, & maybe he has time to read it then, maybe he doesn't. If he does like I do, he puts it aside because it's not urgent & his life doesn't depend on it. It's something that's free anyhow & they run it public service & don't make any money on it & don't even know whether it's listened to or popular or not or any good for the station! The free stuff they get around to eventually when nothing else is pressing, which may be never!
       32. THAT'S ONE REASON YOU NEED TO MAKE SOME OF THESE CARDS & LETTERS EYE-CATCHING! Maybe on the outside of the envelope put: "Last Chance Warning!"--Something to arouse their curiosity & shake'm up!--And then on the card the same thing: "You're going to lose the popular Music With Meaning Show if you don't sign this card immediately & get it in the mail!" Shake'm up! Get something shocking, interest-grabbing, some kind of something there to make'm open the envelope. Maybe it would be better if there's no I.D. or no return address that shows it's even from MWMI, because the minute they see MWMI they think, "Oh, I know what that's about." Maybe just have a box number on the back flap, plus a stripe across the upper lefthand corner: "Last Chance Warning Or You'll Lose Our Show!" They don't know what show it is, so even curiosity will make'm open it up & see what it's all about. Then on the inside you can have on your card: "Last Chance Warning or you'll lose the popular MWMI Show if you don't fill out this card & mail it immediately!"--Something to wake'm up & shake'm up that they've gotta answer!
       33. ALL THIS FORMAL STUFF IS NOT GOING TO DO IT! You've gotta be revolutionary, radical, shake'm up, wake'm up & shock'm!--Do something to get their attention to even make'm open the letter! Maybe this poor program director gets the piece of mail from the receptionist, but he hasn't got a secretary to even help him answer it or anything. And in some of these countries, nine times out of ten there's one guy that's everything--except in the big cities or big stations. So you've gotta do something to call their attention to it & get'm to open it at least, & answer it if possible! And make it shocking & big enough & glaring enough that they'll get the point right away that they're going to lose something if they don't mail this card!
       34. MY LORD, BY THE TIME WE GET THESE STATIONS TRIMMED DOWN TO WHERE THEY OUGHT TO BE, WE COULD AFFORD TO STAMP THAT CARD! You'd be surprised how many people would rather save the price of a stamp, especially in a poor country where a few cents will buy a cigarette, you know what I mean? Or maybe the guy just hasn't got any stamps handy, or maybe he just doesn't want to have to actually pay out money to put a stamp on the card even, he's that poor. I wouldn't be surprised. After all, so many cards come & so many people wanting to know this, that & the other & "return this postcard & we'll tell you about our offer, blah blah blah blah!" He'd soon go broke having to put stamps on'm all!
       35. IT WOULD BE WORTH IT TO US TO STAMP THE CARDS! My God, what's a few cents to even one tape mailing that we could save? That is really an attention-getter, I'll tell you, when they see you're willing to pay out money to put a stamp on it! That always impressed me to buy those magazine offers in the United States that provided postage-paid cards. I probably never would have dropped the card in the mail to find out what it was all about if it hadn't already been postage-paid, the difference of three cents! It used to be two, then three, I don't know what it is now.
       36. I WOULDN'T SAY THAT WE NECESSARILY NEED TO STAMP THE BOOKING CARDS OR CONFIRMATION CARDS, HOWEVER IF IT'S CHEAP ENOUGH, MAYBE IT WOULD PAY! Maybe it would make the difference & tilt the scale in a mass of mail between whether they mail the card or not or how soon they mail it, if the stamp's already on there. I used to feel like, "Well, if I don't mail this card when they've already paid for it, I'd almost be wasting money! Here's a good stamp on here, I'd be wasting stamps!" Be sure you stick it on good & tight! You've got to stick your stamps on tight even on postcards in some countries! In the States you could buy postcards with the postage already printed on the card so that they can't cut it off & stick it on something else! Let's find out if you can get'm in some of these other countries! Come on, Boys, let's get to work & find out!
       37. I'M SORRY TO BOTHER YOU ON THIS, BUT WE'RE ESTABLISHING A SYSTEM & A POLICY FOR THE WORLD! And I would say that if the postage is cheap enough, it's a Hell of a lot cheaper than tapes! It's going to almost guarantee you'll get the card back at least, if they are concerned about the show at all. They'll see that you're concerned & it's not just a cheap piece of cardboard that you sent'm which didn't cost you much, but you're concerned about your tapes & your show. My Lord, what's a few cents compared to the cost of those tapes? Even one tape mailing usually costs us a couple dollars, doesn't it? (P: It's at least $2.50.)--Just the cost of the tapes alone, not counting all the trouble & the cost we've got of tens of thousands of dollars for the music & office staffs to handle it & everything else! I want you to figure that up for me sometime--considering all the tapes we mail out, what does each tape actually cost us?
       38. I'LL NEVER FORGET WHEN HO & I WERE TALKING ABOUT PUBS & THE LIT WE WERE PUTTING OUT ON THE STREETS ETC. & he told me, "Well Dad, you know this piece of lit only costs us a fraction-of-a-cent!" I said, "Did you count in my services, the overhead, support of several Creations Units, office staff to answer mail & everything it took to produce that little piece of lit? When you count up the total cost of everything, then you're going to find out how much that piece of paper costs!"
       39. NOW YOU GIVE ME THOSE STATS ON HOW MUCH ONE OF THOSE TAPES COSTS! You can at least get some kind of an average by figuring out how much the whole Radio & Musical program has cost us so far within a 3-year period maybe, & then figure out how many tapes we've sent out during this 3-year period. Divide the amount of money by the number of tapes, & then you're going to find out what the tapes cost. Don't tell me they just cost a dollar apiece! But even if they cost only a dollar apiece including postage & $2 a mailing, that stamp is worth it if it's going to make the difference between them mailing that card, whether it's a booking card, confirmation card or what! It'll show'm we mean business & we want an answer & we're willing to pay for it!
       40. THAT FEW CENTS OF STAMPS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE COST OF EVEN ONE TAPE MAILING! Even if we manage to keep 100 stations in one area, it's worth $10! My God, we give out tips almost that big sometimes! It would be worth $10 to find out from those stations for sure! And I'll tell you right now, with that stamp on there they're almost conscience-stricken if they don't fill it out & send it back. I mean, you've done everything you possibly can for them except what they alone can do, & that is write on it! All he has to do is quick write a few notes on there, he doesn't even have to find a stamp in his wallet or pocket or drawer or tear it off the sheet & lick it & stick it on, blah blah! If all he's got to do is just scribble on it & throw it in the mailbox, he'll probably do it!--Especially in these poor Third World countries where even a stamp means something!
       41. I CAN REMEMBER WHEN I WAS A KID BROKE ENOUGH THAT I DIDN'T HAVE BUS FARE HOME, I FOUND A FEW STAMPS IN MY WALLET & I WENT OUT & SOLD'M TO SOME GUY SO I COULD GET TEN CENTS BUS FARE! Even if they didn't need the stamps, they usually felt sorry enough for me, & I wasn't really trying to just panhandle, I was giving them their money's worth if they'd give me a dime for a few stamps. Well, they were worth something in those days, & those days are still here in some of these Third World countries where there is still depression, even worse than depression compared to what it was in the States in the depths of depression! So every penny counts! Every penny means something! If they've got to shell out money for a stamp, maybe that'll be the thing that'll sway their decision whether to bother to mail the card or not.--And not only just the cost of the stamp, but the bother of finding one & sticking it on there!
       42. WHEN WE WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING FROM THOSE STATIONS, I THINK IT'S WORTH PAYING THE POSTAGE! We're willing to pay the postage to the tune of dollars to send them the tapes, for God's sake, we ought to be willing to pay the postage to the tune of a few cents to get an answer! Right? All right, let's do! Of course if there's a booker involved & if it's a local situation where there're sufficient stations to print up in one batch a bunch of cards to give out to all the bookers, even postage-prepaid cards, maybe they could do that. But sometimes that wasn't the best kind of mail, it was called second or third-class mail, sometimes almost junk. There were types of prepaid postage cards that were perforated down the center, folded together & sealed with a stamp that we sent out sometimes. The one card had the message & the letter & everything else on it, the other card was self-addressed back to us again with something on the other side to fill out.
       43. WHEREVER THERE'RE SUFFICIENT STATIONS & ENOUGH LOCAL OFFICE STAFF ETC. & CORRESPONDENCE TO WARRANT IT--in cases where it's all within the same country where the stamps are the same & all the stations are in the same country--it would be worthwhile to get such postage-paid cards printed up, or to buy'm from the post office & then get'm printed. We used to do that too. They had'm in packs of 10, 50 or 100.
       44. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? THAT REMINDS ME OF ANOTHER GOOD THING!--YOU ONLY PAID THE PRICE OF THE STAMP & YOU GOT THE CARD FREE! They were so glad to sell the stamps! For example, there used to be penny postcards in the States--I don't suppose there are any more--but for 10 post-paid postcards with the postage stamped on the postcard, you paid 10 cents, for 50 you paid 50 cents, for 100 you paid $1. I thought that was a real bargain, so we used to buy'm for purposes that we needed to send out cards. I wouldn't be surprised they've got the same kind of thing in some of these other countries. We need to find out! Can you buy postcards with the postage printed on'm already & for how much? Then I used to take'm & run'm through my little mimeograph to put on whatever message I wanted on the card or my return address or whatever it was. Well, they can do the same by xerox or printing or whatever.
       45. DO YOU GET WHAT I'M DRIVING AT?--MAKE IT AS EASY FOR THEM TO REPLY AS POSSIBLE! And I certainly think that if that card may save a tape mailing, it's certainly worth it! All right! Let's go to post-paid reply cards! Let's go to that for booking cards. Maybe that would encourage the poor local Home booker if he doesn't have to pay extra postage & shell it out of his own pocket. Send him some post-paid booking cards. And of course if we're sending the station the booking card in a test mailing or something, all the more reason to have it post-paid, & then on the first confirmation card we send the station, have that post-paid. Make it as simple as possible so they don't have to even write too much.
       46. AND FOR GOD'S SAKE, MAKE IT BIG ENOUGH THAT THEY DON'T HAVE TO PRINT MICROSCOPICALLY! Some of those little cards you've been sending out, why do we make them that size? They're only about half the size of a normal postcard! That kind of stuff gets lost in the post office! That kind of stuff doesn't fit the cancellation machine! In order to do business in the post offices of the United States, you had to have certain pieces of mail of a certain required size, & it's even more so now that they read things like zip code numbers & everything else. You've got to have a certain size to be able to fit the cancellation machine & to go through without getting torn up, crumpled up or thrown away. And the little ones are the worst!
       47. WHY THE HELL DO WE MAKE THEM SO SMALL? THAT'S BEING PENNY-WISE & POUND-FOOLISH to have a little card so small that it's apt to get lost, torn, mutilated or thrown aside because it misses the cancellation machine or it messes it up or louses it up or is the wrong size. On the post office sorting table we not only had to face everything rightside-up with the address & the postage facing up & sort it into bundles & wrap a rubber band around it & quick throw it to somebody else who sorted it according to where it was going & that sort of thing, but we had to sort in those bundles only such stuff as would go through the cancellation machine. Anything smaller or bigger was thrown in a basket beside the table for somebody else to sort out & hand-cancel later on, whenever they had time, if ever, including under-sized cards, letters or envelopes & over-sized cards, letters, envelopes or packages. All had to go into what we called the "basket!"--Which meant a greater delay & often loss or mutilation or destruction or all kinds of things if it got caught accidentally in the wrong batch of mail & they tried to put it through the cancellation machine & the cancellation machine tore it up instead because it was the wrong size!
       48. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, LET'S MAKE OUR MAIL SIZES THAT ARE GOING TO ATTRACT ATTENTION--AT LEAST NORMAL SIZE, NOT HALF-NORMAL SIZE--& that are going to be able to go speedily through a cancellation machine, post-paid, standard post-office-required size for normal mail. So let's do that on our confirmation cards. Let's make'm a good, big, easy-to-read, easy-to-fill-out size & post-paid. I mean, if they're worth sending, they're worth sending post-paid so we'll get'm back! The information we want is worth a lot more than that to us, & it could be worth just that much to the station too, enough to make the difference as to whether they send it back or not! All right, we're making a little progress maybe.
       49. I DIDN'T BRING YOU IN HERE JUST FOR THIS SMALL TALK, BUT THIS SMALL TALK MAY GET BIG RESULTS! If you think little things aren't important, well, now you're finding out how important little things are!--They're the things on which God turns His omnipotence & can make the difference. As the Lord Himself said, "He that is faithful in these little things is also faithful in much!" (Lk.16:10.)--And if you're careless about these little things, you see what a mess we're in right now because a few people have been careless about things that they didn't think were important, such as keeping stats & records & analysing'm & finding out what good we're doing. Well, now I'm leaning on you & squeezing & I'm going to get'm & we're going to find out, & we've already found out to a certain extent.
       50. FROM NOW ON LET'S MAKE SURE WE GET CONFIRMATION CARDS! The expression I used a long time ago, Son, was: "No tickie, no laundie!"--& we're going to stick to it! We're not going to have any one-or-two-year leniency on these stations just because they sent in a first confirmation card, we're going to send them confirmation cards at least every six months. I don't think that's asking too much of any station, especially if we make it a post-paid card & big enough that they can read it & write on it. That microscopic print on some of those may make the difference whether the guy knows where he put his glasses so he can read it, or just throws it aside until he can find his glasses.
       51. FOR GOD'S SAKE, LET'S MAKE THE CARDS BIG ENOUGH TO READ & TO WRITE ON SO WE'LL GET ALL THE INFORMATION WE NEED ON'M AS WELL! It should be simple enough but complete enough & with spaces big enough that we can get all we need to know on the flip side of the card. Our return address is on one side & the other side should have big enough spaces. It'll save my time if you'll take time to work on this & then pass on the results to the others. PTL! TYL!
       52. AND THEN ONCE WE HAVE MADE SURE THAT THE LOCAL ADDRESS IS ON THE SHOW & ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS SEND TO A LOCAL ADDRESS, THEN I THINK WE CAN REALLY HONESTLY ASSESS OUR RESULTS! But I don't think we can until we do, especially when we saw this sudden increase in response that the local address made. I don't think we have really given the stations a chance--even those who failed to send in confirmation cards but who may still be playing the show--I don't think we're doing them justice nor the show justice nor ourselves justice if we don't wait now until we see what kind of response a local address can get.
       53. SO WE'VE ALREADY MADE ONE DECISION, WHAT WAS IT? (P: POST-PAID POSTCARDS!) That's one, & another, bigger cards, & another, envelopes that will attract their attention & warn'm to open it, big enough printing they can read, enough space to write, & make the message simple, short, plain & clear! Don't be wordy, try to make it simple enough that a child can read it, because that may be the extent of their English!
       54. THE LOCAL ADDRESS REALLY ONLY AFFECTS INDONESIA & THE PHILIPPINES AS FAR AS I CAN SEE, BECAUSE WHAT AMOUNTS TO A LOCAL ADDRESS HAS ALWAYS BEEN ON THE SHOW IN INDIA & IN LATIN AMERICA. Savvy? I don't think Latin American postage is that much that they hesitate to write Puerto Rico in response. MCV gets a lot of mail, so I don't think that's hurting our response. They feel like Puerto Rico's theirs, it's Latin America & the names sound Latin. Some of them probably don't even know it belongs to the United States! Anyhow, I don't think the mail or the postage or whatever has affected our response in Latin America, MCV response, & considering the tremendous response we've had from India, we don't believe that the postage has hurt our response there.
       55. WE NEED TO GIVE STATIONS SOME KIND OF A TIME PERIOD TO FIND OUT WHAT'S GOING ON! Stations who are just now getting shows with local addresses on, what would you say about giving them at least six months of a local address before we cancel? My suggestion is that stations that we're going on for the first time, new bookings, I think those need a year. Maybe after six months we'll find out we're getting such tremendous response from local addresses that we don't even need to give them a year. If some stations are getting tremendous response from the local address & other places in six months don't get one response, then I would just about say forget it.
       56. ON THE OTHER HAND, DEPENDING ON THE QUALITY OF THE STATION, the power, the audience, the potential, this can make us make an independent individual decision on each individual station as to whether the area's covered by any other station on which we know we're running at a good time or maybe a better day, better time, oftener or whatever. You have to make judgements on stations according to a lot of factors, especially when it's a multiple-station city or area & you decide you don't need five or six stations covering the same area, most of them running about the same time.
       57. AS I LOOKED OVER THIS LIST, I NOTICED NEARLY ALL OF THEM RUN OUR SHOWS ON SUNDAY. And the thing I was surprised at, was contrary to U.S. practice, not Sunday morning but Sunday evening, which in the U.S. is prime time--7, 8, 9, 10 o'clock Sunday evenings. Well, that's considered good prime time for television in the States, not radio. I guess one reason that it's not prime time on radio is because everybody's watching TV at night & not listening to radio. So that may be their least expensive time which they have a hard time selling, therefore they're willing to give it away. But that's when most of them run it, which apparently is their public service time, Sunday evenings, with a few rare exceptions.
       58. THE VAST MAJORITY OF THEM RUN IT ON SUNDAY EVENINGS, THE NEXT MOST POPULAR TIME IS SUNDAY MORNING, SUNDAY NOON OR SOME OTHER TIME ON SUNDAY. Most of them run it Sunday evenings. A few run it on Saturdays. They run it, of course, in any time slots that they're not able to sell. Naturally if they can sell that slot they're not going to run us for free! So therefore we are undoubtedly playing on the least popular, least saleable slots that station has. That's the only time they're willing to give away free because they can't even sell it! But they still have to program & they still want to keep their audience, so they throw in other stuff--public service stuff, station stuff or whatever. Well, there's nothing we can do about that, except make the show so good that it'll be so popular they'll want to keep it on & want to use it at those times that they can't sell so they can still hope to keep an audience until it reaches the next saleable time & they haven't lost listeners in-between.
       59. SINCE WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THE RESULTS ARE GOING TO BE YET, LET'S GIVE NEW STATIONS FROM SIX MONTHS TO A YEAR WITH THE LOCAL ADDRESS ON THEM. What about the old stations who were supposed to have been running us already for over six months, over a year, sometimes two or three years? How much more time are we going to give them with the local address?--If we know we've been on there, actually on, & it's been monitored & we know that they are using them & we are broadcasting. I would say if we have any audience there at all, the minute they find out they can write locally we should find out how much response we're going to get within the first six months of the local address. So old stations that we have already been on for a year or more before the local address, we will give them another six months grace period with the local address to see how much response we get, as to whether it's worth carrying that station or not.
       60. NEW STATIONS WHICH WE'VE NEVER BEEN ON BEFORE, IT'S A NEW BOOKING WITH A LOCAL ADDRESS NOW--particularly if it's in a new area or a new time slot or something--you have to build up an audience, so I would suggest that perhaps we give them as much as a year. I don't think they would consider it fair if they got a Last Chance Warning Card saying: "Because of lack of response in your area"--if we'd only been on six months! I would say give new stations a year from the time the local address first hit their market; old stations, six months. How's that?
       61. AND BECAUSE OF THE NEW FACTOR OF THE LOCAL ADDRESS, WE'RE NOT EVEN GOING TO BE ABLE TO COUNT FORMER RESULTS, ACTUALLY, UNLESS WE DID GET SOME. But what about all these stations which are nothing but a string of zeroes & have been for six months? We'd have to give them at least a year maybe even under the old plan when it was even more difficult to write. We could almost toss all those old stats out the window because we can't really tell anything by'm, except where we did get results. What about the stations that are just a string of zeroes where we've been on a year or more? We can't really tell what difference the local address is going to make, so I think we need to still give them a chance.
       62. WE DON'T WANT TO LOSE ANY STATIONS WHERE THEY'RE FAITHFULLY RUNNING US & HAVE BEEN! We're certainly not going to cancel stations that have booked us just within the last year, & we're not even going to cancel any old stations, even if they're nothing but a string of zeroes, results nil, where they're actually broadcasting!--For one thing until we find out if they're actually broadcasting, & we're going to find that out from our local monitors & listeners. I would say any station who confirmed & claimed to be broadcasting & we find out it's not on the air & hasn't been on the air for months, they deserve a Warning Card right now: "We understand that you are not broadcasting."
       63. EVEN IF THE LOCAL MONITOR DOESN'T HEAR IT AT THE USUAL TIME, HE NEEDS TO THEN CALL UP THE STATION & say, "We found that we can't get the show at the usual time any more, is it at some other time that we haven't been notified of? If so, why don't you tell your audience at the old time that it's on at a new time" etc. Make sure that it just hasn't switched times or days or something & that they might still be actually broadcasting it but the monitor just missed it. In other words, we don't want to cancel a station that's actually carrying the show unless we absolutely know for sure it is not carrying the show, therefore absolutely for sure we're not going to send them any more tapes, period! No more grace period, no more one-year leniency or anything. Is that clear?
       64. AGAIN THAT BRINGS UP THE PROBLEM OF YOUR LENIENCY BECAUSE OF POOR MAIL SERVICE. I think maybe we can partially solve that problem by having deliveries by couriers so we know the station got the tapes, & we can do that in quite a few areas. It would be worth the trip once a month or once every couple of months for a local courier to deliver them to surrounding areas just to make sure they get'm. Then the station has got no excuse & can't give any alibis & claim they didn't get'm when they did, because we have a deliverer that went right to their door & delivered'm to the guy they were addressed to, personally in hand! I wouldn't even trust just dropping them off with some chit of a secretary/receptionist at the door, or throwing them in their mailbox! Personal contact means a lot & we're going to have some good personal representatives now to go to the station personally & deliver them to the man in charge, personally, in hand, & have a nice little chat & good P.R.
       65. LET'S TRY PERSONAL DELIVERY OF TAPES WHERE POSSIBLE!--And they have that possibility where there's a local IHC office & where the duping & distribution is done. We have that possibility with missionaries coming & going acting as couriers. Even if we have a personal representative visit that station just once with the tapes, we know they got'm that time & we hope they created good P.R. at least once. But I grant you we're still going to have to rely on the mail a good deal. I don't care how much good these tapes may be doing the mail thieves, I don't think they're going to do as much good as if they were on the station. (P: The problems were mostly when the tapes were coming from outside the country.) They figured the package was more valuable. Well, let's hope it's going to be better mail service now locally.
       66. IF THERE'S NO EVIDENCE THAT THE SHOW IS ON THE AIR--NO MONITOR & NO RESPONSE--WE NEED TO SEND THEM A RECONFIRMATION CARD EVERY SIX MONTHS! Every station where we have no other evidence--no monitors, no listeners, no confirmation card--we need to send them a confirmation card, & they shouldn't be insulted at that when we don't even know if the show's on the air!
       67. DO YOU THINK I'M BEING PICKY?--WELL, I AM!--I'm pickin' away & chippin' away at this monolithic block of God knows what that we haven't known what we're doing or where we are & we're in the dark & it's time for us to find out! We have been on the air with MWM for years, MWMI now for three years & MCV for two years, so it's time we found out & assessed the results & sat down & counted the cost to find out whether we're able to finish the tower or the war or not! (Lk.14:28.) I'm sorry to have to take your time, but I'm taking my time so it must be important enough for you to take your time to make these decisions on future procedures & programs & assessments & efficiency & effectiveness so that we don't repeat the same mistakes again!
       68. SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO TELL THE IHCs?--FIRST OF ALL, DON'T DROP ANY STATIONS YET! What stations could they send a Last Chance Warning Card to immediately? (S: Any station that claims to be broadcasting but isn't broadcasting!) Right! What about stations we've had no results & no response from at all, that have been on the air supposedly six months, but we have no way of finding out if they are broadcasting or not? What are we supposed to do? (S: Do we send them a reconfirmation card?) Yes.--If they have been on the air at least six months. That's another thing they can do immediately, all stations which are not being monitored in any way & we don't know if they're on the air or not, we need to send them a reconfirmation card.--If they've been on the air at least six months or more.
       69. STATIONS THAT WE KNOW WE'RE ON THE AIR BECAUSE WE HAVE MONITORED OR HAVE LISTENER RESPONSE--we know what time we're on, what day we're on & we know it's being played--what do we do with them?--We do nothing! We just keep sending them tapes, now with the new address, until we find out what kind of response we're going to get in that area. We just keep sending them tapes if we know it's on, & we wait now for the local address response.
       70. STATIONS THAT WE KNOW WE'RE PLAYING ON, BUT EVEN WITH THE LOCAL ADDRESS WE'RE GETTING NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER, WE'RE GOING TO WAIT FOR AT LEAST SIX MONTHS TO SEE IF WE'RE GOING TO GET ANY RESPONSE AT ALL. Are we going to make a difference between new stations & old stations? (P: On new stations they're going to give'm a full year of new programming material with the local address.) Let's make the determining factor the local address, not whether it's new or old programming. We're going to give new stations a chance of at least a full year to see if we're getting sufficient response. (P: Whereas old stations will get six months.) What do we mean by old stations? (P: Stations that have been airing one year or more.) We consider them new stations if they've been on the air under a year. Stations that have been on the air a year or more, we're only going to give them six more months. Do you get the point? Old stations we're only going to give six more months, but new stations we'll give a year! That's at least our tentative decision now. We're going to wait & see what kind of response we're going to get from both new & old stations with the new local address on it.
       71. WE'RE GOING TO IMPROVE THE MAIL APPROACH, we're going to improve the delivery, we're going to improve the material, the booking & confirmation cards & Last Warning cards, postage-paid & shocking enough, something to call their attention to it so they've gotta answer it right away! In other words, we're going to improve our station response & make it easier for them to respond & imperative that they respond! And we're going to give them time to respond now with the local address. Are you agreed on those basic principles? Are you agreed on those tentative time periods, to give them time & a chance? All right.
       72. SO NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO TELL THE IHCs TO DO IMMEDIATELY?--Number one, don't drop any stations yet. Number two, send a reconfirmation card to all unmonitored stations which have not confirmed within the last six months. But before you can do that you've got to get some new cards printed, not these ridiculous little half-size cards, let's forget that! You've not only got to get new cards printed, but you've got to find out if you can buy postcards at the same rate you can buy stamps. You could in the States, but I doubt it in some of those Third World countries. Everything costs money & they can't afford to give away even a postcard! In the States they could afford to give away a postcard for the price of the postage.
       73. BUT LET'S FIND OUT! LET'S GET THE CHEAPEST WE CAN & THE MOST EFFECTIVE!--Maybe not even necessarily the cheapest! It might inspire them to mail it if it's a special delivery card rather than some cheap 2nd or 3rd class junk mail return postage paid! We're a first-class show, let's make it first-class postage! We're a high class show, let's make it a high-priced postage, if necessary, to show them that we consider our show is important & we value it enough to be willing to pay to find out what they're doing with it! So why not pay for express cards? I'll tell you, if we had had this program in operation for the past two or three years, we would have saved a Hell of a lot more than the postage, I don't doubt!
       74. YOU GUYS WORK ON THE CARDS FIRST, & THEN WHEN YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT IT LICKED INTO LINE, JUST WHAT IT OUGHT TO BE, THEN SHOW IT TO ME & I'LL TELL YOU WHETHER I LIKE IT OR NOT! And when we get the card format determined, decided on & settled, then you can send it to the IHCs. In the meantime, they can find out if they can buy postcards with the postage already printed on them as cheap as the postage or almost as cheap, or maybe some printers have a license or something to print them including the postage, & they can run'm through with their return address & the postage on at the same time, whatever way is the cheapest & the most efficient & effective, but at the same time to show the stations that we mean business & we're willing to pay the postage to mean it!
       75. SO THE IHCS CAN'T DO ANYTHING, NOT A THING, EXCEPT NOT DROP STATIONS, & EXCEPT CONTINUE TO ANSWER MAIL UNTIL THEY GET THESE CARDS PRINTED. They can't even send a reconfirmation card. We want new reconfirmation cards, & eventually within the next six months they're going to have to have Last Chance Warning cards! You can stick the reconfirmation cards in the tape envelope, right? They'll certainly open the tape envelopes if they don't do anything else but want a blank tape! You can be pretty sure they'll do that. So if your card is inside I think it will get attention. So your Last Chance Warning card can be slipped in with the tapes, just to let'm know: "These are your last tapes unless we get this card back within a month or before the next tape mailing." (P: Sometimes we've found that if the tapes don't arrive, neither does the card.) Yes, that's a problem. If they steal the tapes, they throw the card away.
       76. FIRST OF ALL, I THINK WITH OLD STATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ON THE AIR A YEAR OR MORE, WE NEED TO IMMEDIATELY GET THAT CARD PRINTED & SENT TO THEM SEPARATELY, don't even wait for tapes or anything. Send'm now in some kind of cover that'll call their attention to it. On the face of the envelope or the return address corner say something that'll wake'm up! Don't give the name of the show on the outside of the envelope anywhere, just a return address. What shall we say up there that'll wake'm up? "You're going to lose our show if you don't open this envelope immediately & give us an answer!" Something like that. You guys can think it over. But it's gotta be shocking, it's gotta be jolting, it's gotta make'm open the envelope & see what the Hell's inside & shake'm up enough that they've got to drop the card in the mail or no more tapes! Any other suggestions?
       77. WE'RE GOING TO DO PERSONAL DELIVERY AT STATIONS AS MUCH AS WE CAN, & WITH THE REST WE'LL HAVE TO DEPEND ON THE MAIL, BUT HOPEFULLY WE'LL PRAY FOR IT THAT IT'LL BE BETTER THAN IT WAS. We'll start using postage-paid response cards. I don't think we have to do any postage-paid cards to listeners though, because the whole idea is how much they like the show & how bad they want to listen! They should at least be willing to write a postcard & stick a stamp on it! But we should make it as easy as possible for them to reply to test mailings. I think we should send them a postcard type of reply with a place for the stamp & big enough & clear enough to simply & easily be able to fill out the information, including the name of the station & its time of day, day of the week, when they last heard it, as well as their request for whatever is the number of their request. And I suggest you make'm different colours, if possible, at least with different good-sized numbers on there, a big black number to show any secretary at just one glance where it goes for what kind of response.
       78. OF COURSE THEN SOMEBODY NEEDS TO KEEP A STATION RECORD. Their return postcard can act as our filing card, so for God's sake, don't let the guys throw them away, keep them at least till we get the next one! That can act as a filing system: When the next ones come in they pull the old ones & stick in the new one. I don't think there are going to be too many to do that with now, having discarded the "9 names" program & all the rest. Each IHC will be small enough that they'll be able to handle the workload & somebody should be able to pull those each time--when they get a new one in, pull the old one. I know what you're going to say: "What about the old ones they don't get one in for?" (P: I was under the impression we were only going to call Club Members people who responded that month, therefore the month-before people, they just don't count.) That's right, we don't even have to keep those cards. Well, we'll know by the number & everything how long they've been on the list.
       79. (P: YOU HAD MENTIONED POSSIBLY HAVING THE FIRST CARD & THE SALVATION CARD HAVING A LITTLE BIT MORE COMPLETE INFORMATION.) Yes, I think we should by all means. We certainly need to keep them, because they're real hot leads, when they go through salvation & they're on the Basic Course, they're a really solid Club Member & it's time to have our representatives pay'm a visit & organise a Club if there are maybe two or more in an area. I'd say even two is the beginning of a Club! "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them!" (Mt.18:20.) And if it's in an area where the station is unfruitful, we can start pushing that follow-up program & giving the Clubbers the tapes instead, & try to get them to get local listeners. Well, that's another ballgame. It's part of the series but it's something that we're working on--the follow-up.
       80. WELL, WE'VE MADE SEVERAL DECISIONS THIS MORNING & I THINK THEY'RE WORTH IT & I DIDN'T WANT TO MAKE'M ALONE. The main thing is, we're not to drop any stations right now until we receive local response to the local address to see where we're really getting results. We need to notify all the offices of this! Of course, it doesn't really affect India where it's virtually all one station, or other areas already with a local address, but it'll sure affect others. But let's give'm a chance.
       81. SINCE INDONESIA HAS ALREADY HAD THE LOCAL ADDRESS ON THE ENGLISH SHOW FOR FOUR MONTHS, I would say that by that time, because of the fact that the English show has been virtually always associated with the other show on which they did have the local address & they knew that they were one & the same & they did have a local address to write to, & have had for about a year now, that we should make the response to that final show with the integrated address our last chance for the listeners to respond to the local address. By that time they've had a whole year--eight months of local shows & four months of it with the address right on the English show. Don't you think that's enough time to know if we're going to get any response to the local address or not? All right!
       82. WHEN IS THE NEXT TAPE MAILING GOING TO BE? (S: Roughly next month for two months' programming.) Why are you going to give them two months? (P: Because the IHCs can't keep up with it a month at a time with all the duping.) Why do we have to do that? On a local show in a local country, I think you're drawing greater chance of theft in a large package & more tapes, frankly, than if you just sent them out one at a time! We can hardly send them out one at a time, we pretty much have to send them two at a time to at least cover one month, but don't you think you're standing greater risk of theft with bulkier packages of four tapes for two months?
       83. PUT YOURSELVES IN A THIEF'S SHOES: IS IT MORE TEMPTING TO STEAL FOUR TAPES THAN TWO TAPES? Doesn't a bigger, heavier package look more valuable? Isn't he willing to take a greater risk to steal more money than less? Well, then aren't we actually risking security in sending such big packages? Not only that, but we're stretching out our grace period a whole two months instead of one. Now give me a good reason for sending them out four at a time. (P: In those smaller areas where they only have 100 stations or so it shouldn't really matter. I'd say for MCV it's a little more difficult.) Yes, that's a lot different where the distances are greater, mail is slower, different countries & a lot of things.
       84. BY GIVING THE STATIONS TWO WHOLE MONTHS OF PROGRAMMING IT MAY HAVE SAVED US WORK, BUT IT SURE AS HELL HASN'T SAVED US TAPES!--Instead of letting them know they're not going to get their tapes next month if we don't get some immediate results & some response out of them! (P: Right, but it guaranteed that they got their tapes & that we were able to keep up sending their tapes as scheduled.) Yes, but what if they got stolen, then what? (P: Well, they did have some that were stolen & they made other arrangements.) Then instead of losing one month, they lose two whole months' of tapes. (P: That's true, but at least we're not losing stations because the MCV office wasn't faithfully getting them out.)
       85. WE NEED SOME STATS FROM MCV REGARDING HOW MANY STATIONS CLAIM THEY HAVEN'T RECEIVED TAPES, & we need to get some average stats from the other offices of the same thing. How many losses do we actually have? I don't think any station's going to complain that it didn't get its tapes if it did. I think they're only going to complain if they really value the show & want to program it. So how many complaints have we had as to loss of tapes? Let's balance that up with how much we're losing by sending them out en masse like that.
       86. WE MAY FIND OUT THAT THE INSURANCE IS MORE COSTLY THAN THE DAMAGES, just like a good many big corporations did in the United States. Did you know some big truck lines started abandoning insurance?--Truck lines particularly, not buses so much, because they've got liability to persons. But truck lines & big businesses with fleets began abandoning any kind of insurance except what was absolutely required by law, when they found out the insurance that they were paying out was amounting to more than their average yearly damages! So why buy insurance when if they just pay their own damages it costs them less? That is a related factor.
       87. WE NEED TO FIND OUT FROM MCV HOW MANY STATIONS ACTUALLY COMPLAIN ABOUT LOSING TAPES. If the number is insignificant, I don't think it's worth the risk. Because from now on we're going to be judging stations according to response & we're not going to send them any more tapes than they need & are willing to confirm & willing to program &, finally, that we're going to get response from.
       88. I'M SORRY, I'M GOING TO CLAMP DOWN ON THIS & BE TOUGH ABOUT IT! We have wasted enough money & tapes already on being careless & negligent & too tolerant & too lenient & letting them go too far without really checking up on them! We can't afford to & we're going to stop it! We're not going to send out any tapes unless we know they're being programmed. And we're not even going to keep sending them to stations that program them if they're not getting any results!
       89. I DON'T SEE WHY IN A LIMITED AREA LIKE INDONESIA OR THE PHILIPPINES we've got to send stations two months' of tapes, when they're within even a phone call's distance of the IHC to find out if they got'm, or they can complain by telephone if necessary or by very short-distance mail. Why the Hell should we send out two months' tapes? I don't think we should when it's all within the same country.
       90. YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO BALANCE IT THIS WAY: DO YOU WANT TO RISK LOSING TAPES OR LOSING STATIONS? If you don't get their tapes to them you're going to lose stations; if you have too many thefts you're going to lose tapes. Well, in that case I agree with you that the stations are worth more than the tapes!--Especially since we're going to start clamping down with tighter control, tighter monitoring, more information from the listeners & making sure that the show's on the air & they're not just using the tapes for blanks!
       91. I DON'T THINK IN THESE SMALLER AREAS WE NEED TO SEND THEM MORE THAN A MONTH'S TAPES! Because we certainly should be able to keep a tight enough control that they're either monitored or we get listener-monitoring results monthly, so that we will know, at least within a month or two, whether the show's on the air or not.
       92. ON THE OTHER HAND, WE NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT THE SITUATION IS, HOW MANY LOSSES, HOW MANY COMPLAINTS, & BALANCE THE SITUATION. I'd say the stations are worth more than the tapes, & if the IHC thinks they've gotta send out two months' tapes just to be sure, well, it's not going to be too many & it's not going to be too far. The stations we're going to be sending them to are going to be getting results, so it may be worth it.
       93. BUT I THINK IT'S TAKING A PRETTY BIG RISK! I would say from the standpoint of the thieves you're taking a much greater risk sending out four tapes at a time & greater risk of losses than two tapes at a time. But on the other hand, if you're standing a greater risk of lost stations, then the stations are more valuable than tapes.
       94. (S: THE REASON THEY SENT TWO OR THREE MONTHS' TAPES IN EACH MAILING WAS BECAUSE NEWER STATIONS WERE SCHEDULED TO RECEIVE EARLIER SHOWS like show numbers 6,7,8 & 9, while older stations would receive later-numbered shows & therefore it was more convenient to dupe large quantities of each show.) That's ridiculous! Why didn't you guys wake up about that a long time ago? I never realised what you were doing about things like that, it never dawned on me. You guys that have to work with the mechanics & the facts & the manual labour that you have to do, why in the Hell don't you think of some ways to save yourselves work without having to bring me into it to find out what the Hell's wrong? You'd think you'd be thinking up ways to save work & time & energy & money! I was first going by past experience & the way we sent our tapes with Fred. We had'm numbered so we didn't send the wrong tapes to the wrong stations that had already had'm & this, that & the other.
       95. BUT IF NOW YOU'RE NOT GOING TO NUMBER THEM & YOU'RE GOING TO SEND OUT THE SAME TAPES TO ALL STATIONS AT EVERY MAILING, THAT SOLVES THE WHOLE PROBLEM!--Instead of having to dupe a little of this & dupe a little of that! That must drive your dupers crazy, & it certainly must cost you more money that way. What did they do, just dupe big batches of each number each time? (S: You had to dupe a minimum amount of each, so what you didn't use at that time you had to put toward the next mailing.) So you kept piling up a stock, in other words, of different numbers.--Which meant we had to dupe a lot more tapes than we really needed to dupe. And we counted on stocking a backlog of all these different numbers. (S: To hopefully use them next time.)--Ha!
       96. MY LORD! MY GOD! WHAT WE COULD HAVE SAVED IF WE HAD USED OUR NOODLES & THOUGHT ABOUT IT! Now I shouldn't have to do all the thinking for this outfit!--All these little details of the kind of work you yourselves do & have to handle! You should be thinking of ways where you're working on how to save time & money & work! You should have thought of that a long time ago. Why the Hell did it take MWMI three years to figure that out? Huh?--That it would be easier to send the same tape out to all stations, the current tape, rather than have to start them on Number 1 & work up to Number 52? I shouldn't have to think about every little detail!
       97. YOU OUGHT TO BE THINKING ABOUT TIME & COST, EFFICIENCY & VIABILITY IN YOUR OWN WORK! Don't you think so? For God's sake, I'd sure be thinking of ways to save myself work if I had to do the job, & money too, & personnel! I'm sorry, boys, but I'm a little aggravated & irritated at how people just let things roll on without really getting in there & thinking & analysing & figuring out how to save time, money, work, personnel, postage & everything! It shouldn't have taken three years for somebody to figure that out, that it would be cheaper, easier, less trouble, cost less & everything else to send the same tape out to all stations at every mailing! God bless the guy who had that brilliant brainstorm! Thank God for people who think & try to analyse the situation & figure it out! (It was the man who now has the job of World Radio Supervisor!)
       98. WE NEED IDEA MEN, NOT JUST YES MEN!--Idea men who can think of things & tell me what to do, not sit there & wait to be told what to do! One of these days you guys are going to have to run this outfit & you'd better start thinking now so you'll be able to do it then! You say, "Well, then I'll get the anointing, Dad, & God will tell me everything to do!" Yes, well maybe. How come He didn't tell me what to do about this three years ago? He probably figured one of you guys ought to have enough sense to figure it out for yourself! I shouldn't have to think of everything!
       99. I DIDN'T BRING YOU IN HERE TO SCOLD YOU, I BROUGHT YOU IN HERE TO HELP ME MAKE SOME DECISIONS!--But when it's so apparent that you haven't been thinking & haven't been really trying to analyse the thing...I'm not going to blame you too much, Son, because you've got a thousand-&-one other things to think about besides MWMI, that's only a small part of your job. But brother, you whose whole job it was ought to have come up with something sooner than that!
       100. NOW SON, WE SHOULD THINK OF SOME OF THESE THINGS, HOW TO SAVE TIME & MONEY & WORK & LABOUR! Somebody should have called our attention to this almost fruitless, useless "9 names" thing a long time ago! Somebody should have called attention to the waste of trying to dupe different sets of tapes every time! Somebody should have thought of these things! At least I finally think of them when I have to stick my nose onto your grindstone to figure out what you're doing & aren't doing & clamp down under the pressure of a crisis of having to save money, & all of a sudden all the waste comes out! We find out where we've been throwing it away--& the time & the personnel & the work!
       101. I'M SORRY, YOU'VE BEEN GOOD BOYS & DONE A GOOD JOB, but you don't get fussed at for all the good you do, you just get fussed at for what you didn't do! I think I've given you enough credit for the good you've done, but it's time you get a little spanking once in awhile for your neglects & your negligence. Maybe if I spank you enough you'll get on the ball & start thinking how you can save time & money & personnel & work & security & a lot of other things!--Amen?
       102. THAT'S ANOTHER THING YOU'RE LEARNING, YOU'VE GOT TO BE UP ON YOUR DATA & YOUR STATS TO KNOW YOUR STOCK & THE STATE OF YOUR FLOCKS! God's Word says a good shepherd knows the state of his flocks, & you need to have these stats in mind. (Pr.27:23.) You need to keep up on these things & stats & stock & all of this sort of thing. You ought to be so familiar with all of that that you know where everything is at & what the stats are & what the state is & what the stock is & all the rest! And you certainly need to find out right quick!
       103. WE CERTAINLY OUGHT TO KNOW SOON HOW MUCH RESPONSE WE'RE GETTING WITH A LOCAL ADDRESS. If they can write in Indonesian, they can listen to the Indonesian Show & they don't even need the English Show!
       104. THE ONLY PLACES WHERE WE WITHDREW SUPPORT FOR A LOCAL LANGUAGE SHOW WERE NATIONS WHERE ENGLISH IS THEIR ONLY ACTUAL NATIONAL LANGUAGE, WHICH IS INDIA & THE PHILIPPINES. Therefore English is the only language we need to broadcast in in either place. Indonesia is another thing entirely--they don't speak that much English there. Only a few of the higher educated ones, the intelligentsia, learn to speak English at all. So frankly, I consider that the Indonesian Show is sufficient! I would rather take the money that we're wasting on supplying English shows to an Indonesian-speaking country & give it to the Indonesian language show to improve their show! They already have tremendous response in Indonesian & have a large mailing list, so I don't see any point in even continuing the English Show at all! Why should we give it any more time?
       105. WE NEED TO GET SPECIFICS ON THESE THINGS! You need to be familiar with these stats & figures--accurate! When you come to a conference you need to know these things that I'm going to want to know! Why are the Indonesians putting on just a 15-minute show? (P: Originally when it first started it was only a supplementary show.) Well, considering the 800-some shows we send there every month on 400-&-some tapes--which must be costing us at least $500 or more just for Indonesia--my Lord, I'd rather give them the $500 & let'm do a better Indonesian Show & increase their Indonesian Show on the condition that they start making it half-an-hour! This would appease the Stations, too, on losing the English Show, saying that from now on they're going to be getting a half-hour Indonesian Show.
       106. WELL, YOU TELL'M THAT WE'RE GOING TO WITHDRAW THE ENGLISH SHOW & WE WANT THEM TO BE PREPARED TO PRESENT A HALF-HOUR INDONESIAN SHOW to the Indonesian stations in time to have that show duped & delivered to those stations before they lose their first English tapes! Can you work out the details on how to do that, or do I have to sit here & figure it out with you? I mean, if they can't do anything else, they can send them two 14-minute shows temporarily until they cook up full half-hour shows. That's the way we make our English show & you ought to tell them to make theirs the same way, make the half-hour show in 14-minute segments so they can use it either way.
       107. AND BY THE WAY, WE'RE REALLY MISSING THE BOAT BY NOT SUGGESTING TO THE STATIONS ON THOSE STATION BROCHURES TWO THINGS: Carrying all these testimonials from listeners to show what a tremendous effect it's having on people, & telling them that they can get it commercially sponsored locally if they want to. A lot of them may be doing it already. In fact, if they have commercials before & after, they're doing it in effect. But a lot of programs don't want you to & they have selectivity about the type of commercials that they allow to be used before & after.--Particularly if it's considered a sponsored show & they use a commercial, for example, in that mid-point period. The show producers expect to sell the show & get a royalty or commission on the advertising, a percentage, a cut. Well, we're not asking that & we're even going to tell them they can get it locally sponsored if they want to. Merely say we prefer not to be sponsored by either liquor, cigarettes or pharmaceuticals, which by the way are the three main sponsors, the Devil's own products! We don't mind you getting a local sponsor as long as it is in keeping with the nature of the show & not contrary to it: No liquor, no cigarette ads, no pharmaceuticals & maybe you can think of a few more.
       108. WELL, THE STATIONS ALSO HAVE TO BE NOTIFIED AT THE SAME TIME. We have to give the station time to do a little program reshuffling. You could write'm a real nice diplomatic letter & tell'm: "We regret that due to the insufficient English response etc. in a non-English-speaking country such as yours, we are going to have to discontinue distribution of the English language show to you. However, we are encouraging the local Indonesian Show to increase their production & their broadcast time to furnish you with a full half-hour Indonesian Show in its place."
       109. SO WE'RE NOT JUST JERKING THE RUG OUT FROM UNDER THE STATIONS, WE'RE GOING TO GIVE THEM SOMETHING BACK BETTER! I'd say a half-an-hour in Indonesian is better than a quarter-of-an-hour in Indonesian & a half-an-hour in English! I think they'll appreciate it more. So they're not going to be mad or sorry or kick us off the air if they find out they're going to get a full half-hour Indonesian Show in place of half-hour English & quarter-hour Indonesian. (P: Plus, most of the Indonesian stations have a full year of English material that they can continue to program if they wish.) You can even suggest to them: "If you still want to run the English language shows along with it, you're welcome to re-use the tapes we've already sent you."
       110. IN THE PHILIPPINES I would say after six months of local addresses, if a station has had absolutely no response & no listeners, no indication that anybody's listening there at all, we should can'm!--Send them a Last Chance Warning & say: "Unless you give us a better time, day, more promotion & we get better response & you return this card with your plans for such, these are your last tapes!" Maybe we could send that at the same time as the next tape mailing. Then if we get back encouraging response from a station, we could even tell'm on the card: "If we get back sufficient response with your plans of what new day & new time you suggest & that you're promising to give it more promos & announcements throughout the day, we will continue to send you the show until further notice."
       111. WE'LL JUST CONTINUE THE SHOWS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, & THAT MAY MEAN NOTICE FROM US OR THEM, EITHER ONE. And then we'll see how they do. We're not going to promise them six months for nothing, we're going to wait & see if we get any response. I'd say maybe the time limit on that ought to be about three months. If the stations have had absolutely no response at all after six months, & three more months of promos or whatnot & still no response, I'd say forget it!
       112. BUT IT'S TIME TO SIT DOWN & COUNT THE COST THEN AFTER WE'VE GIVEN IT A FAIR CHANCE WITH LOCAL ADDRESSES FOR A FULL SIX MONTHS. Then when the stats are all in we can make an assessment & that will be the great station-dropping time, at least the time to send them Last Warning notices after they've had a chance. That way all the old stations have had the local address for six full months & we can start sending out Last Chance notices right away. We may send new stations some kind of a jerk-up notice or something: "We're not getting any response from your area." On the other hand, maybe send them a First Chance Warning, tell new stations: "We are not going to be able to carry your station more than another few months unless we get more response from your area." Well, we'll know exactly what to do by that time, I'm sure.
       113. NOW WHAT ARE WE GOING TO TELL MCV? They've had what amounts to a local address now for two years, & the local Club Members are getting local IHC addresses. The show has what amounts to a local regional address at least, so I don't know that we have to give them any more time. They've had that address a long time & the stations have been getting good response, been getting it a long time, so what is it time for MCV to do when they have made up their stats & assessed the results? They've had a local address for two years, they've had response, so they should now know, if not what stations, at least what areas. It's too bad we didn't have the stations on every listener's response card already or we would have been knowing all these two years, & three years on MWMI & more!--If we had insisted on every single listener-response card having the station, day & time they heard it on.
       114. WE CAN'T JUDGE A STATION THAT DOESN'T PROGRAM THE SHOW, & if it's not on the air, of course we're not going to get any response! If our show has supposedly been on their station for a year & still no response, I would begin to doubt whether the show's on or not, wouldn't you?--If it's unmonitored & we have no listener identification of stations. Let's take a one-station town & say for one year there's been no response, what do you think about that? It's just one station & we know that's the only station they can get it on, & it's been on a whole year & there's been no response. I'd say it's time for a Last Chance Warning!
       115. I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU NOW, BOYS, WHAT TO NOTIFY MCV THAT THEY NEED TO DO RIGHT AWAY, NOW!--No further waiting period for that at all, because that's another area, like the Philippines, where we're going to really sift the stations. But unlike the Philippines, they've had what amounts to a local address & there's been no problem about postage or mail or anything else that's hindered response. We know what the response is, at least from the various areas, towns & cities with the same name if nothing else. Towns that have only one station on which we've supposedly been programming for a year or even 10 or 11 months, I think it's time for a Last Chance Notice sent out with their last tape mailing for the 12th month.--In other words, a warning that: "We're going to have to get some response back from you that you're going to do better, program better, promote better, or we're going to have to discontinue the show." If we get back a good response, then we'll continue past the one-year period & see what happens.
       116. BUT I'D SAY STATIONS THAT WE HAVE BEEN ON IN A TOWN FOR A WHOLE YEAR WHERE THEY'RE THE ONLY STATION & STILL NO RESPONSE, not one hot lead, not one person in the whole area that has written to show they're a listener, I'd say either they're not programming the show or the area is totally unresponsive, & in either case, what's the use of carrying on? Let's send them a Last Chance Warning--an LCW!
       117. WITH STATIONS WHERE WE HAVE BEEN ON WITH MCV FOR SIX MONTHS & ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSE, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ABOUT THEM? Shall we give them any kind of a warning? Couldn't we write them a nice letter, at least? Maybe not a real stiff LCW, but a First Chance Warning with a nice letter & say: "We have been on your station now for six months & have had absolutely no response from your area. We're wondering if you're programming the show at a good time or the right day or giving it sufficient promotion?"--Kind of a gentle little nudge. "We wonder if you could do any better? For if we continue to carry your station for a few more months & still have no response, we're going to be compelled to discontinue." You don't even have to specify the number of months.
       118. I THINK STATIONS WHERE WE'VE BEEN ON FULLTIME FOR A FULL SIX MONTHS WITH ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER NEED A LITTLE NUDGE! Wanna call it the nudge letter?--A little First Warning! That would shock'm up to open the letter, at least, if you had up there in the return address space: "This is Your First Warning!" They'd sure want to open it up & see what it was a first warning about! Like that newsboy on the corner who always yelled: "It won't be long now! It won't be long now! It won't be long now!" Everybody rushed up to buy his paper to see what it wouldn't be long till! It was right in downtown Los Angeles. "It won't be long now!" That's all he had to say & everybody rushed up & bought the paper!
       119. MAYBE PUT SOMETHING ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE TO GET THEIR ATTENTION TO OPEN IT UP, AT LEAST, & SAY: "THIS IS YOUR FIRST WARNING!" On the Last Chance Warning card you can put up there in that corner: "This is Your Last Warning!" No sign on the outside as to the show name or what it is or anything. If they see the show name they just may toss it aside & forget it. (Maria: Maybe to save space we could just put "First Warning" & "Last Warning"--or do you want the words "This is your"?) You've got a whole half of the envelope practically, you could put a lot on there! In the United States they allow you to use up half the envelope with a message, or half the front of the card, what they call the facing of the piece. You can use half of it for a message if you want to, as long as you have the other half completely reserved for only the name & address. Of course, what it is in each individual country, I don't know. But anyhow, you don't have to worry too much about space.
       120 OKAY, JUST GREAT BIG BOLD LETTERS: "FIRST WARNING!" That ought to get them to open it up just out of curiosity! Wouldn't you open it up? First Warning of what?--And then a nice note inside to tell them what it's their first warning about. And then a little stiffer note about the Last Warning.
       121. I'D SAY IT'S TIME FOR THEM TO SEND OUT A FIRST WARNING TO ANY STATION WHERE THEY'VE BEEN ON SIX WHOLE MONTHS & HAD ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSE. One-year stations I'd say maybe we could start with First Warning also. I mean, we haven't given them a First Warning, how can we give them a Last Warning? We can give them the Last Warning the next month. Most people would think you're being a little abrupt & not giving them a fair chance if you only gave them one warning, the Last Warning. How about a First & Last Warning? With six-months stations we'll be more lenient, in other words. We could send exactly the same warning, First Warning type, to whether they're six or one-year stations or more. What about sending all stations that have been on for six months or more with absolutely no response from that area a nice gentle First Warning? Now that's gotta be single-station areas though, because we're going to have to wait for listener-response with these new cards identifying the stations they're listening to before we know which stations to drop in a multiple-station area. Savvy?
       122. I WOULD SAY IN AN AREA THAT HAS TWO OR MORE STATIONS WHERE THERE'S BEEN ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSE FROM EITHER STATION, THEY'RE DUE FIRST WARNING CARDS!--If we've been on there six months or more & had absolutely no response, even multiple-station areas, no response. I don't think you'll find too many of those in Latin America. We've gotten such good response there you're going to find a lot of multiple-station areas where we've had response but we don't know from which station, & with them we've got to wait to find out. But I'd say you'd be free on single or multiple-station areas, if there's been absolutely no response after six months or more, to send them a First Warning. And then, depending on their response to our warning, we will be more lenient with six-months stations than we will with one-year stations etc., savvy? For example, we don't need to tell them, but if six-months stations give a positive response, we could maybe carry them another six months. With one-year stations we wouldn't carry them that much longer--unless we get a good response within the next three months, we'd probably send them their Final Warning.
       123. SO WHAT CAN MCV DO RIGHT NOW? (P: THEY CAN SEND THE FIRST WARNING TO ALL STATIONS THAT HAVEN'T HAD ANY RESPONSE AFTER SIX MONTHS.)--From their areas, whether they're single or multiple-station areas. If there's been no response from that area, there's no station getting any response, it's time to send them First Warnings right now. Whether they're single or multiple-station areas, we send them this First Warning if they've been on six months. If they give a positive response, they'd like to keep it--which amounts to a confirmation & promise of a little better time & promo--we'll be more lenient as to how much more time we give'm.We'll probably give'm another six months. Stations where we've already been on a year, I doubt if we should give them more than three more months.
       124. (S: WE COULD EVEN SEND THE LAST CHANCE WARNING WITH THE NEXT TAPE MAILING.) If they've been on a year, put the First Warning in, & then if there's no positive response, put the Last Chance Warning in the very next tape mailing. In other words, if they don't send back the card with their plans for better promo, time etc., if they don't even respond to that, which amounts to a confirmation & encouragement to us, then we send the Last Chance Warning along with the very next tape mailing. So that's their last mailing if we don't get that one back.
       125. BUT IF WE GET BACK A POSITIVE RESPONSE TO EITHER ONE, THEN WE'LL GIVE THEM MORE TIME, DEPENDING ON HOW LONG THEY'VE ALREADY BEEN ON. I'd say if they've only been on six months, we may give them another six months, but we don't have to tell them how much. We can make it indefinite & just say a few more months. But stations maybe that have been on a year & there's still no response, another three months I'd say & give them their Last Chance Warning & that's it.
       126. IF WE'VE HAD A MULTIPLE-STATION AREA WHERE THERE HAS BEEN RESPONSE BUT WE DON'T KNOW WHICH STATION IS GETTING THE RESPONSE, we've got to wait a couple months for listener response to see which station it is that's getting the audience, & then we'll decide on whether to drop the other ones or not.
       127. EVERY LISTENER REQUEST CARD IS GOING TO BE A STATION SURVEY CARD!--Because every card is going to have the station call letters that they listen to & the hour & the day that they listen. So every single card we get back from those listeners is going to be a survey card. Every card that you send to them saying: "If you want the next offer or you want the next mailing, return this card" is going to have a space for station I.D. on there. So every single batch of cards you get in every month from the listeners will be another station survey.
       128. HERE'S A GUY WHO'S BEEN LISTENING THIS PAST MONTH TO THE SHOW, HE WRITES IN & SAYS HE'D LIKE TO RECEIVE THE MAGAZINE OR A MAILING OR SOMETHING. That has no card because the first response is some kind of original letter without a card. So the first thing you do is what? What do you send him then? (P: They get a test mailing magazine, 16 pages, & they'll get a request card coupon which they need to return, as well as a little decal or logo sticker or something to that effect.)
       129. ALL RIGHT, THERE WE'VE GOT A DECENT TEST MAILING & SOMETHING IN IT!--And the new card with the space for the station & all the information we want. So the very first response card that he sends in is going to have the information on it we want from a live responder who wrote in as a result of listening to some station, or he wouldn't have written in. So we are going to get an immediate live monitor of a live station & we'll know what station it is with the very first response to our very first test mailing! Every single card is going to be a survey card from now on. Every mailing is going to be a test mailing, or a special survey card when every card we get back is going to be a survey card!
       130. SO DO WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO IN EACH OF THE FOUR MAJOR AREAS NOW? Just to see if you got your lesson, what are we going to do in the Philippines? (S: We're going to first tell them not to drop any stations right now & ask them if they want their next tape mailing to be for one or two months. Then we will wait until sometime later when we can check the results of the stations that are broadcasting the integrated address.) Sometime later we'll be able to decide what stations to drop. Are there any stations they can drop right now? (S: Stations that claim to have been broadcasting the show but aren't.) How are they going to know? What if they have been broadcasting the show for a year or more or whatever? (S: If they've been on more than six months & haven't confirmed it within six months, they're going to get a reconfirmation card, but we're not going to drop anybody no matter how long they've been on.) We're not dropping any stations until when? (P: Nothing before a few more months.) Then we'll make our final decisions on what stations are not getting any response, providing we know we're on those stations.
       131. ARE WE GOING TO SEND OUT ANY KIND OF CARDS BEFORE THAT? (P: The only card we were going to send was reconfirmation cards, then later with that final tape mailing we would send them the Last Chance Warning.) I don't think we can really justly judge the Philippine stations until the local address has been on at least six months. We can't judge'm by past performance because that was our fault, let's wait till we've had a local address for six months, then we'll know.--And Indonesia needs to start making a half-hour Indonesian Show & we'd be willing to increase their allotment so they can do so. I'd be willing to give them another $500 immediately, wouldn't you? We're going to save that much on tapes right away, so we're not losing a thing.
       132. MWM WILL WRITE A DIPLOMATIC LETTER TO THE STATIONS EXPLAINING THAT SINCE THERE'S BEEN SUCH A LOW RESPONSE FROM A NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING AREA, that we're therefore going to have to discontinue the English Show, but have encouraged the local Indonesian Unit to produce a full half-hour.) You could even say in that letter: "Which you have probably already received, or if not, will receive within the next few days, the full half-hour Indonesian Show."
       133. BE POSITIVE! START OFF WITH THE GOOD NEWS: "You'll be happy to know that your next tape mailing will be a full half-hour Indonesian Show, from now on, from your local Indonesian A.S. Office" etc. Be positive, like it's good news!: "You'll be happy to know you're not going to get any more English tapes!"--Ha! Make it sound like good news, OK? "Therefore, of course, it will not be necessary for us to send you any more English-language tapes. Thank you very much for your courtesy & kindness in carrying the show & we trust that you will enjoy even more the new full half-hour Indonesian A.S. Shows in your own language." Make it positive!
       134. WHEN YOU HAVE TO GIVE PEOPLE BAD NEWS, TRY TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE GOOD NEWS! THAT'S SALESMANSHIP! I've been telling the Family a lot of bad news lately about our radio ministry, but I have couched it in positive language. First of all I softened them up with how much we've accomplished in the last few years & where we're at & that everything's going great, which it is. In other words, that this bad news isn't that important, because it's good news that we found it out, & that therefore we're going to improve & do a lot better. So in other words, it's all good news! Even the bad news is good news because it's good news we found out the bad news so we can get rid of it!--Right? Be positive! Be a salesman! That's important, Boys!
       135. OUR BUSINESS IS SALESMANSHIP--FOR THE GOSPEL, FOR THE LORD'S WORK & FOR THESE SHOWS! We've gotta sell! We've gotta be salesmen! PTL? I think I'm a salesman, I try to sell you & the Family on a lot of things. I may not always succeed, but usually I do. But that's the way the Lord made me & that's the way I have to do & that's what has to be done if you're going to get anywhere. Salesmanship is persuasion! Salesmanship is soul-winning! Salesmanship is mind-winning, heart-winning, soul-winning! That's our whole job--salesmanship! "Go ye into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature" is salesmanship! And if it's not going to make any sales, if it's not going to get any results, if it's not going to win any souls, then it's no good! So let's get out there & sell!
       136. EVERY LETTER TO A STATION, EVERY COMMUNICATION, EVERY BUSINESS COMMUNICATION TO OTHER UNITS & FAMILY, MAKE'M SALES TALKS! Accentuate the positive! Even if you've got bad news to tell'm, make it sound like good news! It is good news if it's going to be the last bad news & you're getting rid of the bad news! You're telling them the good news, & that is that you're going to get rid of the bad news! My goodness, I went another half-hour over, but anyhow, maybe that little sales talk was worth it!
       137. MCV, I THINK WE'VE HAD A LOCAL ADDRESS THERE LONG ENOUGH WE CAN DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW, SEND FIRST & SECOND WARNINGS TO A LOT OF STATIONS.--First Warning this month, & if we don't hear back from'm, Final Warning! If we hear back, then we'll carry them a little longer. So what are we going to do with MCV? (P: The stations that have been on six months or more with no response are going to get a First Warning.) How do we know? What if it's a multiple-station area & we've had some response from that area? (P: We have to wait on those.)
       138. WE ONLY SEND THIS KIND OF A FIRST WARNING TO AREAS WHERE THERE'S ONLY ONE STATION, OR AREAS WHERE THERE ARE MULTIPLE STATIONS & STILL NO RESPONSE FROM ANY OF THEM. Then in that case we send those notices to all the stations in the area from which there's been no response. (P: So we see what their response back is, & the stations responding favourably that have only been on under a year, we would probably carry them six more months. But stations that have been on over a year that don't respond back favourably, in the next mailing we say "this is your Last Chance!")
       139. AND IN WRITING THESE LETTERS TO THESE VARIOUS UNITS, WILL YOU TRY TO MAKE THEM SHORT & SWEET & SIMPLE? Remember, these guys are just as thick-headed as you are & it's just as hard for them to grasp what we've been talking about as it has been for you! And why don't you number it? Here's the first thing you do, number one. Number two is the next thing you do. Number three is the next thing you do, & make it specific, brief, to the point & as simple as you possibly can! Try not to make it wordy. Try to spell it out very very simply.
       140. WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT INDIA? (P: The main station needs to be assessed, & also they have a few other stations in miscellaneous parts of the Mideast & Africa that they need to assess.) Okay, so they need to apply this program to those stations, whatever station to which it applies. But what's the main job that India's going to have to do?--Prune out the dead members, keep the real members! The things you prune out are the dead limbs & things that you cut off, you keep the good ones. You prune out the dead ones & the deadheads & the dead wood & the unresponsive members. How are they going to do that? (P: By only replying to those who respond, & the whole "9 names" program has already been dropped.) Right!
       141. THE OFFICE HAS ALREADY RESPONDED TO ALL THE REST OF THEM PREVIOUSLY, SO THE ONLY ONES YOU OWE A RESPONSE TO NOW ARE THOSE THAT WRITE IN THIS PAST MONTH. The office there has already raved about what a tremendous blessing it's been & what a lot of work it's saved & what a solution it's been to the whole works! So PTL! We're publishing those right at the end of the "RRR" Letter so they'll know it's working & how happy the people are to hear it! So it's done! They prune themselves out if they don't write in this past month.
       142. WE NEED FIRST WARNING CARDS IMMEDIATELY FOR SOME STATIONS, WE NEED LAST WARNING CARDS WITHIN A MONTH FOR SOME STATIONS, & WE NEED ALL REQUEST CARDS, ALL NEWLY PRINTED WITH STATION INFORMATION! I think we should get sex, age, occupation, nationality & religion on a couple of those cards. I don't think they should object to telling us that, as well as the station on which they heard it--what time & what day of the week. So that if we are sending mailings to that station, which apparently we are, we should have that on our station file according to the call letters & be able to know which station it is.
       143. ANY QUESTIONS? SUGGESTIONS? DO YOU THINK THAT'S CLEAR WHAT WE'RE TO DO IN ALL FOUR AREAS RIGHT NOW? Don't forget that as soon as you've notified these guys of what to do immediately & get the information, you need to go to work on those station notification cards, those First & Last Warning cards & letters to go with them.--And almost as quick as that you need what you call Request Cards with the new information. And these people, whoever's going to send them out, need to get the models immediately so they can get them started printing, & if possible, send them out in their next mailings. So those cards are urgent, we needed them yesterday! We need to send the models out to all these areas immediately so they can get'm printed so they can use'm as quickly as possible! PTL!
       144. AMEN, LORD, WHATSOEVER WE DO IN WORD OR IN DEED, HELP IT ALL TO BE TO THY GLORY & FOR RESULTS, Lord, what we're here for, to preach the Gospel & win souls, in Jesus' name! And we know if we do Thy will, You'll support it! TYJ! PTL! And we believe the Family will support it too, because they know we're doing the right thing, in Jesus' name. TYL!
       145. AMEN, DO YOU THINK THIS CONFERENCE WAS NECESSARY? Do you think it accomplished anything? Do you think it was urgent? I think it was urgent to have to make these decisions immediately so we can tell these people what to do! I'm sorry, I was just going to ask you a few questions, but that's the way it always works out, it seems questions lead to more questions! But at least I think we've got a pretty well-organised plan now, a concrete plan to present to each of these areas of what they should do about the whole thing, & what to do immediately & what to wait to do later. PTL!
       146. WHY ARE YOU GUYS SO SLOW ABOUT THESE CONFERENCES ANYHOW, HOW COME THEY TAKE YOU SO LONG? It doesn't take me long to figure this out, it just takes me a long time to get it knocked into your heads! Ha! Don't blame it on me & walk out of here saying, "All these long boring conferences, Dad just wore me out & starved me to death with four hours of conference!" Don't blame it all on me! If you want to blame somebody, maybe you can blame it on the Lord. (P: We're thankful, there's no one to blame!) Okay, boys, God bless you! TTL! Let's get it done, shall we? PTL! I appreciate all your help, & if I sound like I'm scolding you it's because I am scolding you!--Because I want you to do a better job! You're doing a good job but you need to do a better job, amen? You're getting the job done, but we need to do it better & quicker & keep revolutin'! Amen? PTL! God bless you & thanks for all your help!--Will you help us rev'r up?--Give to Radio!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family