Originally published on March 03, 2006

Jeff Dashev

Sales Interep
Former President

In a business full of change, some people don't have the opportunity to decide their own fates. Not Jeff Dashev. After 35 years with McGavren Guild and, in recent years, its parent company, Interep, Dashev recently decided he was ready for his next challenge and announced his resignation.

 

Getting into the business: "I worked at the New York Daily News in the travel bureau after I graduated from college in 1967. People would come in off 42nd Street, asking how to get to different locations. After three months a guy in training for the space program was looking for a shorter route to Niagara Falls. We were talking, and he said, 'You have a good personality; you should think about sales.'

 

"I got into the Daily News' sales training program and worked there for about a year and a half, then decided to move to Los Angeles. I packed everything up and drove cross-country. I wound up in Los Angeles and stayed at the Howard Weekly Apartments in Van Nuys, surrounded by divorced women. I was very depressed, but within a couple of weeks I got a job for a newspaper rep firm called the Branham Company."

 

Moving to radio: "I did that for a year and didn't like it. A friend of mine, Gerry Sachs, bought a radio station in Bakersfield, KIFM — the call letters are in San Diego today. The format was soft Rock. It played James Taylor, Seals & Crofts — very mellow music. I came in as GM.

 

"It was a very small operation located in a shopping center. Two weeks after I started, the deal fell through. I didn't know what was going on, but Gerry asked me to stay on for a couple of months until they could get out of the deal. He said, 'Do whatever you want,' so I became a DJ. I was on the air for about 3 1/2 months."

 

Joining McGavren Guild: "One of the partners at the radio station, Kenny Miller, was a former Blair rep. Monte Lange, then at McGavren Guild, asked him if he knew any sharp young men to hire. Ralph Guild had just sent him out to run the Los Angeles office. Gerry and Kenny were desperate to help me find a job because they felt so bad about the deal falling through, so they introduced me to Monte, and he hired me as a salesman."

 

On 35 years with one company: "I've had many different jobs within the company. I was first there for four years and then decided to take a sabbatical. I went to Vail, CO for six months. Ralph persuaded me to come back in '74 to work in the New York office. I did that for about six months. I got my first promotion, to Manager of the San Francisco office, so I moved back West. Then I came back to L.A., where I've been ever since.

 

"I was Manager of the L.A. office from '79 to '86, working under the great Les Goldberg. In '86 they named me Executive VP of the Western Division of McGavren Guild. In 1989 I became an Interep employee and was named Regional Executive for Los Angeles. In '93 I became President of Interep West, and in 2003 I became President/Sales for Interep."

 

His responsibilities: "My job was to create strategies for Interep that would increase overall share for the company, strategies to help agencies include more radio in their media plans and upper-level initiatives that would help develop new business out of agencies focusing on core radio accounts — from SBC to Verizon to AOL to Fox — using all of the resources of Interep and all of the individual rep firms.

 

"The individual rep companies have individual presidents whose focus is on their individual stations. Sheila Kirby, George Pine, Mark Guild, Ralph Guild and I were the corporate element, and our job was to use all the resources of Interep to create strategies that would increase the overall share of the company."

 

Deciding to leave Interep: "It was a very difficult decision. I discussed it with Ralph. The bottom line is, 35 years is a long time. You get to a point where you feel there's really nothing more you can do. I'm still fairly young and in good shape, and I have the ability, thank God, to take a little break.

 

"I don't know if it's going to be two months, three months or six months, but, as I have said to many people, I'm ready for a second act. My first act was a very, very long act, and most people have two or three acts. I'm going to sit back for a while, ski a little, travel, and then I'm going to see what I want to do. I assume it will be something in media, but I'm going to keep all my options open."

 

The next step: "My only definite plan is to take a break, and then, in time, who knows? I am definitely not retiring. I'm retiring from Interep, but to do something that I have a real passion for. And I want to do it with people I like and respect. I found out that I have a lot of friends in the business. I have had a good career.

 

"It was almost like one of my favorite movies, It's a Wonderful Life. I never realized I had such an effect on so many people. About a week ago some of my friends organized a reunion of people who worked at Interep with me, and we had over 100 people. It was amazing."

 

What he's going to miss most: "The interesting people I've met. A good friend of mine, Tony Durpetti, said the same thing when he left the business, and I never really appreciated it. He didn't miss the circus, just some of the clowns — people from the radio side, the rep side and the agency side. I have always had great respect for the agency side. I always felt they were our partners and friends, and I think they do an amazing job."

 

What he won't miss: "Sometimes you don't see the results of your efforts, and that's frustrating. I will not miss that. When I do something, I like to get immediate gratification and see results. Sometimes in our business, even from a management standpoint, you make decisions and don't know what the results are."

 

State of radio: "On one hand it's very interesting, and on the other hand it's extremely frustrating. Right now the rep business is a difficult business. The profit margin has always been challenging, and, with consolidation, there's more pressure to hire the best people. That costs money, and, with commission rates going down, it creates great challenges.

 

"It's important that the rep business figures out how to make their model more profitable, and it's important to have numerous strong rep companies. Say you have maybe 600 salespeople, including management, at these companies: They are all radio advocates. They're the ones who are at the agencies every day, promoting radio on a national basis.

 

"Radio is a reach-and-frequency medium, and you've got to keep relaying the message over and over. There are so many people bad-mouthing radio, saying it's an old medium and it's over and all that. People listen to Wall Street and see all the articles, so there has to be somebody voicing the other side every day. You have the RAB and the NAB, but you need the troops. That's what the rep industry is; they are the individual troops."

 

Most influential individual: "The guy who first hired me, Monte Lange. He had no reason to hire me, just a gut feeling. He taught me the importance of relationships in selling. He was one of the best sellers, and he did it through relationships. He was closer to the buyer or media director than anybody else, and he made me feel like I was in show business and that it was really fun and exciting. He taught me to be close to the people who have the money and to get to know them personally and professionally.

 

"Also, Larry Wilson. I watched him grow Citadel from a very small company. He grew it and grew it and grew it. He worked 24/7. He lived and breathed what he did."

 

Career highlight: "I solicited Larry's company into Interep, and that, along with my early efforts with KFMB/San Diego and so many other radio stations, are things I am really proud of."

 

Career disappointment: "One of the initiatives I worked on was direct business, in which agencies go directly to the radio stations. That takes a lot of revenue away from the rep industry. Over the years I tried to fight it and work with the stations, but the number of dollars going direct is the same or even greater than it was, and that's a real frustration and a real problem.

 

"Radio stations have to be better partners. They should realize that when they accept that business they are taking revenue from the rep industry, and that revenue could be used to hire more quality salespeople who would eventually affect their bottom line. They are being shortsighted by taking business direct."

 

Favorite radio format: "Jazz, and I listen to KDLD & KDLE (Indie 103.1)/Los Angeles."

 

Favorite television show: "Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld and 24."

 

Favorite song: "'Imagine,' by John Lennon, and 'Start Me Up,' by The Rolling Stones."

 

Favorite movie: "The Graduate, and I love Crash."

 

Favorite book: "Any book by Peter Mayle, and the book I just finished by Philip Roth, The Plot Against America."

 

Favorite restaurant: "Matsuhisa."

 

Beverage of choice: "Wine, scotch and tequila, in that order."

 

Hobbies: "I love wine, cycling and skiing. I'm a big Yankee fan, and I also love going to museums for impressionist art."

 

E-mail address: "jdashev@tmo.blackberry.net."

 

Advice for broadcasters: "Don't listen to everything you hear or read about how radio is on its deathbed. It's not true. If we just do the things we're doing and are more creative and more open, radio will continue on and on and on.

 

"We also need to embrace some of our key radio-agency clients. People like Kevin Gallagher, Kathy Crawford and Kay Bentley love radio and want to see it win. They seem to know our medium better than we do sometimes, and we should be talking to them more and view them as our friends and partners."