Savvy Schmidt owner of Radio Luv, a radio advertising agency is interviewed by speaker, bestselling author and entrepreneur Ken Sherman of Go Pro Local.
Savvy is a broadcaster, DJ and facilitator for people interested in doing their own radio show. She is scheduled to tour with 1313 Records, and the band Motley Crue, and will be reporting live from the road. Her radio show is among a handful of shows being considered by a mass syndication and distribution outlet. Savvy, welcome to the show.
Savvy: Thank you very much, it’s nice to be here.
Ken: Savvy, tell us a little bit more about your business. What do you do at Radio Luv and how did you get involved in?
Savvy: At Radio Luv we’re a full-fledged advertising agency specializing in radio advertising and we also bring on hosts; we do the whole nine yards. We basically train radio show hosts. We air programming on our online Radio Luv network: Radio Luv Worldwide. You can hear our programming at RadioLuv.com. We offer the full gamut of radio advertising. So we do everything from making radio commercials to airing the final product, whether that’s on our Radio Luv network, or if you want it somewhere else, we can also get you on the air in different outlets, whether that’s regionally in your area, or anywhere in the United States or the world. We work directly with stations of all sizes, shapes and formats. Basically, we know that not one size fits all with radio advertising so we tailor make our approach and we customize everything down to the price and, again, where you want to advertise.
People need to know that advertising is the backbone behind most things in radio, even down to the shows that we carry. They are carried by sponsorship during that show which is a form of advertising. Essentially, when you break it right down to the brass tacks, we specialize in advertising. Then, secondly, in a very close second is the quality of the programming because we want to make sure we have the highest quality audio and that goes hand in hand with making sure that we’re delivering the highest quality end-result possible to the client. We want to make sure everything is going to be exactly what the client needs and so everybody’s happy with their placement and their airtime. Even if that means it’s not on Radio Luv’s station, like I said, we can get you broadcasted anywhere with high quality. We’re determined to make sure that you have a successful campaign.
Ken: You work in not just internet radio, but actually terrestrial radio too, right?
Savvy: Yes, in fact I worked for a while with the national sales director of iHeart Radio and we helped build campaigns for people worldwide. People don’t have to spend more money when coming through Radio Luv (as opposed to calling a radio station directly) because I have an agency rate that I work out with stations, so I’m able to give them exactly what they need for exactly the same price or even a little bit lower sometimes. And it comes with the personal touch of having my company that is very much determined to make sure that you have the best experience possible, whereas if you just call a regular radio station down the street you’re going to get a station wants to air you on that one place, but we have this approach where we handle all different stations and we work with them directly. To make a short story long, yeah, we do handle airtime sales with all different stations.
Ken: It’s a unique business, I’m curious how you got started in this. When was it that you realized that, “This is something I’m really passionate about, I’d love to be in this field.”
Savvy: It started when I was 9 years old. Back then I had no idea even how to get into radio. I would just sit in my room and listen to the radio and marvel at these far off stations that I could pickup. I had no idea how it all worked, I just knew that it was just magic to me. It wasn’t until years and years later as a young adult I got exposed to black mold and I got really, really sick. I’m okay now, thank God, but basically what happened at the time is, I was in and out of the hospital for about a year and I was really sensitive. I would get every cough that anybody had. I had to try to find a career that would put me away from people and I thought, “Okay, what about radio DJ?”
So, I went back to considering my dream from a long, long time ago. I knew that the American Broadcasting School was nearby where I was living at the time, so even though I had compunctions about joining because my own self esteem maybe was lacking a little and I thought, “Oh man, how could I even do this?” I took the plunge because I had to. Of course, it had been my dream already, so I put 110% into it and here I am 12 years later running my own business. I did work for 10 years in the industry in radio and TV stations before I ventured off onto my own and made Radio Luv.
Ken: That’s great. You were mentioning it was at 9 years old when you knew you wanted to be in radio. I was talking with you earlier and you were telling me about how you would tape antennas together to tune into distant radio stations. I can just picture a little 9 year old girl in her room taping radio antennas together. It’s clearly something you’ve been passionate about for a long time. If someone’s looking for a radio advertising agency, what are some of the challenges they might experience?
