Association Executives Air Message Via In-Flight Radio
By Donna De Marco
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 13, 2002 -- The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) is taking to the friendly skies in a new in-flight radio-marketing effort.

     The group, which represents about 25,000 association execs and suppliers, has partnered with California-based Sky Radio Network to develop an in-flight audio program highlighting the work of associations and nonprofits.

     The program, "Answering America's call: Associations at work" is part of a long-running public awareness campaign by the D.C.-based ASAE. This leg of the campaign is focusing on "promoting the value associations bring to society," says Courtney Gardner, ASAE's director of public relations.

     Mrs. Gardner says there's a perception that associations are just lobbyists but "we're trying to show what other things associations do" particularly their focus on volunteer efforts and education.

      The audio program will begin running on American Airlines flights in August. The program will feature an introduction with ASAE's president and chief executive, Michael S. Olson.

     The rest of the program will contain three- to five-minute segments featuring executives from groups like the Association for Information and Image Management, the Shrine of North America and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

     "It is ASAE's role to promote what associations do on a daily basis to better their communities and this partnership with Sky Radio enables us to reach a significant segment of the public with that message," Mr. Olson said in a statement.

     Sky Radio will begin production of the August program this month and already has association executives lined up for a new program in September, says Mitch Sodikoff, senior producer at Sky Radio, which produces in-flight business, technology, health and entertainment programs for American, United, Delta and Northwest airlines.

     ASAE's program will broadcast on the Forbes Radio Business Channel, which is available to approximately 3.6 million passengers on more than 23,400 American Airlines flights worldwide.
     
     FBI's most wanted
      The Federal Bureau of Investigation's two-week radio campaign targeting new recruits has resulted in a spike of more than 7,000 job applications online.

     Joe Bross, who manages national recruiting for the FBI, says there's no other reason for the increase in applications than the radio spots.

     "It was successful," he says. "Radio works."

     The FBI, which usually does most of its advertising in print, hit the airwaves during traffic reports in eight markets from April 22 to May 5. The ads, which appeared during drive-time traffic reports were read by announcers 300 times throughout the two-week period directing people to fill out an application online at www.fbijobs.com. The campaign ran in Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston and New York.

     The first week of the campaign drove in about 3,000 applications — up from the 1,400 applicants the week before, Mr. Bross said. The second week of the campaign about 4,000 applications came in.

     Since Feb. 8, when the FBI began accepting job applications online, the bureau has received a total of 31,000 applications. From October to January —before online applications were accepted —the FBI had received a total of 5,000 applications throughout the country.

     The government agency plans to hire 900 agents by the end of September.

     Mr. Bross says the bureau is looking for recruits that fit certain criteria including having critical skills in one or more areas like computer science, information technology, engineering, counterterrorism and foreign language proficiency. Those applicants are essentially moved to the front of the line, Mr. Bross says.

Contact:
Ann Given
Sky Radio Network
ag@skyradionet.com