Comments on: Small World! http://www.greaterfalls.com/index.php/2009/12/14/small-world/ A weblog ("blog") about Great Falls, Montana! Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:19:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Kirk Dooley http://www.greaterfalls.com/index.php/2009/12/14/small-world/comment-page-1/#comment-543550 Kirk Dooley Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:09:41 +0000 http://www.greaterfalls.com/?p=3357#comment-543550 Lou and his son Dan sold their dealerships to Wayne Huizenga (who used to own the Florida Panthers and Marlins, the Miami Dolphins, along with Waste Management and Blockbuster Video) some years back. The dealerships (along with several others Huizenga also bought) carry the Power (name the brand of car) moniker now, with John Elway as a spokesman. For those folks who've never been to Phoenix (and boy, are you lucky), Lou Grubb was famous here for doing his own TV commercials in a low-key manner that could have gotten him sued by the makers of Sominex for patent infringement. But it worked -- he sold a lot of cars that way, while other dealers were resorting to shouting and gimmicks (and one -- Evan Mecham -- was using his ads to sell himself and his political point of view; it was when he went off-script that he got into trouble, with the whole world watching since he was Governor of the state at the time). Good to see that Alex has made it into the broadcasting biz. When I graduated with my B.S. degree in Broadcast Communications from Northern Arizona University in 1986, I sent resumes to just about every TV and radio station in the Western US, along with some stations in Canada (this included KRTV, by the by). Got rejected by all of them. (The closest I got was the NBC station in Great Falls, which was just starting up, and the CBS station in Boise, whose news director told me to try a smaller market. I managed to keep from sending him a reply saying, "Timbuctu, Oregon is not hiring at the time." What really hurt was when KRTV's sister station -- KTVQ in my own home town of Billings -- replied with a very nasty FORM LETTER, telling me to quit wasting their time.) I have saved all the rejection letters all these years. It's nice to know I have no bitterness. ;-) Lou and his son Dan sold their dealerships to Wayne Huizenga (who used to own the Florida Panthers and Marlins, the Miami Dolphins, along with Waste Management and Blockbuster Video) some years back. The dealerships (along with several others Huizenga also bought) carry the Power (name the brand of car) moniker now, with John Elway as a spokesman.

For those folks who’ve never been to Phoenix (and boy, are you lucky), Lou Grubb was famous here for doing his own TV commercials in a low-key manner that could have gotten him sued by the makers of Sominex for patent infringement. But it worked — he sold a lot of cars that way, while other dealers were resorting to shouting and gimmicks (and one — Evan Mecham — was using his ads to sell himself and his political point of view; it was when he went off-script that he got into trouble, with the whole world watching since he was Governor of the state at the time).

Good to see that Alex has made it into the broadcasting biz. When I graduated with my B.S. degree in Broadcast Communications from Northern Arizona University in 1986, I sent resumes to just about every TV and radio station in the Western US, along with some stations in Canada (this included KRTV, by the by). Got rejected by all of them. (The closest I got was the NBC station in Great Falls, which was just starting up, and the CBS station in Boise, whose news director told me to try a smaller market. I managed to keep from sending him a reply saying, “Timbuctu, Oregon is not hiring at the time.” What really hurt was when KRTV’s sister station — KTVQ in my own home town of Billings — replied with a very nasty FORM LETTER, telling me to quit wasting their time.) I have saved all the rejection letters all these years. It’s nice to know I have no bitterness. ;-)

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