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Citadel-Memphis Radio Group

Change in the air

Radio marketer breaks gender barriers, targets ad streaming on airwaves

by Erinn Figg / Special to The Commercial Appeal

AT ANY GIVEN moment, Bonnie Chambliss could have Coldplay in her car stereo, Keith Urban on the brain and Beyonce on a meeting agenda. As the major accounts manager at Citadel-Memphis Radio Group, Chambliss, 62, helps advertisers navigate today’s broad landscape of music genres to determine which radio stations will strike the strongest chord with potential customers.

“For more than 35 years, I’ve been helping people brand and grow their Memphis-area businesses through radio advertising, sports advertising, promotional ideas and, most recently, interactive and streaming advertising,” said Chambliss, who represents WGKX-FM (106), WKIM-FM (98.9), WRBO-FM (103.5) and WXMX-FM (98.1).

To hear her talk tunes, it’s safe to assume she could probably give a few teens a run for their money in a music chat. To hear her describe her 35-year path to career success is even more impressive. “I’ve been in Memphis radio since 1974, beginning with WHBQ-AM. I worked with Rick Dees following him to his remotes. I’ve been fortunate to have worked through all the really wonderful, fun eras of radio.” A 1969 graduate of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Chambliss moved to Memphis in 1970. Although she had a degree in broadcasting, her initial career expectations in that industry were low. “At that time, the only jobs women could get in radio were as secretaries,” she said. Instead, she took a job as a manager at the former Memphis department store Levy’s. It was that retail experience that eventually caught the eye of managers at WHBQ, landing her not only a sales job, but also the distinction of being the first professional woman in Memphis radio.

Today, of course, that gender imbalance has drastically changed. “Now, out of the 13 sales professionals we have at Citadel-Memphis, only four of them are men, and all of our managers are women,” she said. The concept of advertising also has evolved in the industry, Chambliss said. Once almost solely relying on catchy jingles and dramatic voiceovers, now ad campaigns incorporate more out-of-the-box thinking and community involvement. For example, during a recent project, Chambliss worked with FunQuest Family Entertainment Center in Collierville in partnership with WKIM-FM to host auditions for Moscow Ballet’s “Great Russian Nutcracker.”

High technology also is a new key player. “We’re very involved in interactive advertising and Internet streaming. We also sell text messaging campaigns, also known as mobile media,” she said. “Our studies have shown that people are texting more on their cell phones than they’re talking.” She describes such a campaign as sending a text message to a radio station to enter a contest, for instance, and then opting in to receive future text updates from that station and its advertisers.

“Interactive advertising with radio stations is going to be the wave of the future,” Chambliss predicts. Advertising on Internet streams, to which most people tune in during office hours from 8a.m. to 5p.m., is another modern advancement with huge potential, she said. And what about satellite radio? Is she concerned that these commercial-free “choose your own format” options could eventually be the death of local stations? Not at all, Chambliss said. “You can’t get local weather, traffic and Amber alerts on Sirius. We offer immediate news to our listeners as soon as they need it. In Memphis, people want information about what’s going on, and many listeners love their favorite radio personalities. They grow up with them. They commute with them. “Our radio stations offer so much more than just music — they are the voices of Memphis. You just can’t get that on satellite.”

Hats off to Jimmy Ishii and Sekisui

Investment in restaurants, people pays delectable dividend

Gordon Buckingham tells the story of how he and his wife tried to gently discourage Jimmy Ishii when he was a Benihana hibachi cook with a dream of opening a sushi restaurant. “We told him, 'Jimmy, people in Memphis will not eat sushi,'" Buckingham recalled, laughing.

Earlier this month, Ishii celebrated the 20th anniversary of his first Sekisui restaurant and his 50th birthday with two parties. And while there are other restaurateurs who have shaped today's Memphis dining scene, Ishii is certainly prominent among that group. "I made an influence because I used a good product," he said. "Now other places, not just Japanese, are also using sushi-grade, No. 1 tuna."

Originally from Kofu, Japan, Ishii came to the states in 1978 to attend St. Louis University. While a student, he went to work for Robata of Japan and learned the art of hibachi. He ended up in Memphis in 1982, when management asked him to join the Benihana of Tokyo branch of the company. Ishii believes the only restaurants serving sushi in Memphis at that time were Sakura (the one that was on Mendenhall and is now closed, not the one in Germantown) and Edo. Yet neither was predominately a sushi restaurant, and that's what Ishii wanted.

In August 1989, that's what he got when the doors opened at Sekisui of Japan on Humphreys. He made the first of many daily treks to the Greyhound station to pick up fresh fish, sent in from St. Louis or Chicago, and took it to his new restaurant. On the first night, he was amazed at the crowd -- and shut the doors at 8 p.m. "It was too much. We had to start emphasizing reservations," he recalled. He was right: Memphis was ready for sushi. "It was easy. Memphis was getting more educated," he said.

Ishii hired a sushi chef and trained under him. For five years, he worked in the restaurant. The awards and the customers kept coming, and soon he had a spot in Midtown on Belvedere for the second Sekisui. The opening was delayed when Bernard Chang, the owner of China Grill and Ishii's closest friend, was stabbed by an employee. Ishii organized other restaurateurs and volunteers to run China Grill while Chang remained hospitalized for his injuries. Six months after being stabbed, Chang died from his wounds.

It was during this time that Ishii met Patricia Schwarz, whose husband, Earl, was Chang's attorney.

"Jimmy is being modest," Schwarz said. "He has been very generous with his expertise and his knowledge, helping other people get started in the restaurant business."

Sekisui Midtown opened in September 1995, and shortly after that Ishii started investing in other restaurants, even as he continued to grow his empire. In 1996, he stepped up to help River Terrace Yacht Club, where he met Shyree Palmer, who was to become his right hand. The same year, he invested in Erling Jensen: The Restaurant (he no longer has any ownership of Erling's). He opened a travel agency in Memphis and Nashville, took over Ichiban Japanese Restaurant in Nashville from a dying friend, bought Puck's, opened EJ's Brasserie with Jensen, invested in Melange in Cooper-Young, then started expanding to other states. The list of restaurants he owns or has invested in is long. Locally, Bari, Dish and Bluefin are among those. "He has helped a lot of people in town," said Jensen, who also partnered with Ishii at the now-closed KoTo. "He is the nicest guy. He would give you the shirt off his back."

Today, he has seven Sekisui locations in the Memphis area, three Sekisui Pacific Rim restaurants (Memphis, St. Louis and Birmingham), Sekisui Samarai in New Orleans, and a Sushi Hana in Greenville, S.C. Some he fully owns and in some, he's a partner. There are four Sekisui locations around the South, including the one Downtown, that he's no longer part of. Other places have come and gone over the years, too, including the Cajun-influenced EP's Delta Kitchen. "I love Cajun food," Ishii said. "Gumbo."

Right now, his interest is in bringing Japanese people to Memphis on music tours through his travel agency, Sekisui International. He considers it a cultural exchange. "Japanese food is our culture and we brought it to you," Ishii said. "Music is your culture, and those are two things I get excited about."

Palmer, who handles everything from scheduling to spouting off a name of an electrician when the kitchen lost power during the VIP party, says to bring on the tourists. "Jimmy has a lot of hats, and when he changes his hat, we all change our hats," she said.

fred's smallmart: Bartlett's new Fred's store was buzzing recently with an energy usually reserved for the fever of last-minute Christmas shopping. People streamed up and down aisles quickly scanning their lists and the shelves. But the store wasn't open yet, and those inside weren't shopping. Instead, the team of Fred's Inc. employees was stocking nearly 12,000 individual products, getting ready for the new store's grand opening.

And it wasn't just any grand opening -- it was the opening of Fred's Smallmart, a prototype store the company said will likely serve as a model for new stores and renovations. "People come to us for things they've run out of during the week," said Dave Muller, Fred's senior vice president of marketing and strategic initiatives. "Now we've given them the tools to make that a little bit easier." Those tools include wider aisles, lower shelves, in-store signs that are easier to see and related products that are closer to each other. But the biggest changes are to the store's pharmacy, food section and clothing department. The pharmacy, typically relegated to the back of Fred's stores, has been brought to the front in the prototype store. The pharmacy counter has been lowered and the glass wall around it has been removed. Mueller said Fred's already competes against the top drug stores like Walgreens Co. and CVS Corp., and the new pharmacy concept is expected to make Fred's more competitive.

"One of our top priorities continues to be leveraging pharmacy operations as a competitive advantage over our small-box, discount competitors," Fred's CEO Bruce Efird said recently.

Fred's has nearly doubled the food section in the new store. Candy, for example, now takes up two sides of an aisle as opposed to one. Customers, Muller said, asked for more food in the store and the marketplace told him why. "Consumers today are a little challenged on what they buy," he said. "Food is a staple and it does drive traffic into our stores."

The most notable change in the clothing section is the tables. Jeans, shirts and jackets sit folded on a waist-high tables, which should look familiar to members of Costco or Sam's Club.

"We stole a page from the clubs and right away people think (the clothes) have got to be a great deal," Muller said. "But we're not just putting them on tables; we're making sure it is a good price and product."

BB&T Capital Markets analyst Andrew P. Wolf said the new store looks better and it layout is more logical. Wolf said it's evident much consumer research and thinking went into its design. But the proof of its impact on market share will be the top line. "The key thing will be the sales and profit lift they get," Wolf said. "If the net result of this activity is positive, then they know they won the vote from the consumer because they, after all, are the ones that matter."

Fred's will follow the opening of the 18,000-square-foot Bartlett store with a 12,000 Smallmart in Tupelo next month.

Efird said Fred's plans to open six to 10 new stores and nine to 15 new pharmacies in 2009. Also, he said 30 stores would undergo major remodeling. 20-25 new stores are expected to be opened next year.

September 2009

MEMPHIS REDBIRDS LOSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: The Memphis Redbirds wild season came to a wild end Tuesday night at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark with a 5-4 loss to the Durham Bulls in the Triple-A National Championship Game.

MEMPHIS REDBIRDS WIN PCL CHAMPIONSHIP: The Memphis Redbirds claimed their second Pacific Coast League Championship Friday night at Raley Field with a 6-0 shutout victory to complete a series sweep.

The win also extended the 'Birds longest win streak of the season to six games and kept the team perfect in the post-season. The championship is the second in Redbirds franchise history. Albert Pujols delivered the club's last title in 2000 with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 13th inning to beat Salt Lake.