Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Are you a Jerk?


When interviewing with Ken Lucas, Vice President and General Manager of WMOR-32, he may just ask you this question. Now, he knows that most people are not going to answer yes, however he will be looking at your reaction to this question. Your reaction can say a lot about your personality.

And speaking of personality, you gotta have some! And “you have to have passion”, says Lucas. Being excited about the business is a must. It has to run through your veins. And you have to have thick skin!

Ken Lucas has been at WMOR-32 since 1996 but this hard working man did not just start at the top. Like many people in the industry he had to work his way up. And like Dr. Flanagan, professor at University of South Florida, says, “If they want you to sweep the floor in the beginning, you be the best damn sweeper there ever was!!”

However, Ken Lucas knew that his personality was not an on-air personality, but rather a sales man. He understood that in every business you have to understand the sales aspect of it. And since he loved the television industry and sales, he combined the two and now Ken Lucas is top dog at WMOR-32. But a top dog with a personality and a great sense of humor!

WMOR has three station, one of them being, “This TV”. It is a 24 hour movie channel, and it’s FREE! Unlike HBO or Showtime where you have to subscribe, “This TV” is available on digital signals. (Or otherwise you can get it if you have an analog box, once know as bunny ears!)

But “This TV” is not the best part of WMOR-32, there are great shows on air for ages 18-49. So why is this so cool? Well because when most networks affiliates (NBC, ABC, or CBS) are showing news between 5-8 pm, WMOR-32 is showing awesome shows like American Dad, Family Guy, and The Office. Cool huh?! Now, watching the news is important, but if you want to flip back and forth, then I suggest flipping to WMOR-32.

And don’t forget the web-site. Lucas did not talk too much about this just because he only had two hours to talk to the Broadcast Programming and Management class at USF, but he did mention it. The internet holds a lot of information about the stations programming, events, and give-a-ways.

Overall, Ken Lucas made a great impact on me and others in the class. In part because he was funny, but in whole, he gave us a lot of information about the sales aspect of the television business. It is important to understand all angles of any business so in the end you can be that “Go-To” person. And remember, “Don’t be a jerk!”

For some more information about Ken Lucas, check out these websites:

http://psg2000.com/partner.html

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ken-lucas/5/705/357