In the days before iPods and satellite, people listened to music via the radio. Stations that played music over the radio used to subsidize their existence by selling advertising. Can you imagine?

Back in the late '90s I partnered with two other guys and created Sixty Second Airborne - a radio advertising agency that wrote and produced humorous radio commercials. We had the brilliant idea of building the space ourselves, as my partners were both handymen. By building the space out ourselves we stood to save a ton of money.

One thing we didn't completely realize is that literally building your business at the same time your were building a business is a terribly stupid, time-consuming thing to do. Installing cabinets, drilling sheets of metal, painting and putting down flooring is great - if you're Bob Vila. But if Bob Vila also has to write, cast and produce three radio commercials for a client by Wednesday, then Bob Vila is not making the best use of his time.

Nevertheless we had a nice run - especially during the dot-com days when clients, pumped with millions in venture capital, simply did whatever they pleased at whatever cost. There were great clients, good clients, bad clients and clients that didn't pay (Pollak, Levitt & Partners). And we had a lot of fun. We shared our space with other businesses, including a recording studio - which meant interesting visitors were always traipsing through.

Recently I discovered imeem.com, which could be described as a YouTube for audio, so I took the liberty of uploading some of our favorite work lest it all languish on a hard drive.

Some of the voices may be recognizable: Space Ghost's George Lowe, Seinfeld's John O'Hurley and Ken Hudson Campbell.

©Brian Sack | Filed under: Work | 3 Comments | Email to a Friend
Tags: Marketing | Radio | Sixty Second Airborne | Work