With the decision on Keystone XL delayed, the focus has shifted to Enbridge's Northern Gateway project. But what are its odds?
Archive for November, 2011
Find out about the popularity, the usability and the latest funny commercial involving this open source mobile operating system
Good news: Alberta's projected fiscal deficit for 2011-12 has been trimmed, according to recent government estimates.
A link roundup of the biggest news when it comes to the text
Will stores that sell clothing, music and eyewear join video rental outlets and independent bookstores as casualties of online shopping?
How an Albertan retailer built a culture around its product and transformed an entire sport in the process.
From the Big Four building to the Winspear Centre we have the numbers
If you run a charity, there are better ways to raise money than bake sales and car washes
How Micah Slavens went from mom and pops to a Canada wide client base
Jason Gregor is building a sound empire, one broadcast at a time
Radio is a contradictory medium. On the one hand, we’re barely familiar with the people we’re listening to. On the other, some of us spend more time with our favourite radio personalities on an average day than we do with our own families. That’s certainly true when it comes to Edmonton’s Jason Gregor, the host of the sports-oriented Jason Gregor Show. His listeners – more than 50,000 of them each day, mostly men aged 25 to 54 – spend an average of 10.3 hours with Gregor each week, a figure that dwarfs the competitors who share his time slot.
Running Cross-Country: Radio host Jason Gregor has plans to take his show nation-wide
Photograph by Buffy Goodman
Unlike most radio hosts, the 39-year-old Gregor owns his own show through his company, Just A Game Productions Ltd. He leases a four-hour block of time from Edmonton’s Team 1260, hires his own co-hosts, procures advertisements and creates the show’s content. “I’m sure 90 per cent of my listeners don’t know that I run my own show, which is OK,” Gregor says. But while he understands the business side of his profession, he’s still more comfortable talking about the best strategy on the ice than in the boardroom. “I never had any business background,” he says. It’s that very humility, confidence and honesty that forms the foundation of Gregor’s brand. After all, he isn’t selling a tangible product or service to his listeners. “I am my show,” Gregor says. “I’m selling myself.”
It’s a product he has managed to sell successfully to advertisers, too. Gary Hill, the owner of Budget Car and Truck Rentals of Edmonton, specifically sought out the opportunity to advertise on The Jason Gregor Show. Hill, a fan of the show, approached Ryan Wilks, a salesman for Corus Entertainment, for advice on advertising with Team 1260. “He said, ‘The only guy I would recommend is Jason Gregor,’” Hill remembers. “So I said, ‘Well, that’s the guy I was thinking of.’” Hill recently extended his contract with Just a Game Productions for another year.
If Gregor appears to have figured things out, he’s quick to point out that getting there wasn’t as easy as it might look. “I have a dream job,” he says, “but it took me a while to figure that out.” For a long time, Gregor had a dream job of a different kind, working in the oilfields and making a good living in the process. But at the age of 26, he came to the realization that it wasn’t making him happy. “I woke up one day sleeping under a bathroom sink in Killam because my roommate snored like no tomorrow, and I remember lying there saying, ‘I’m better than this. There’s got to be more to life for me.’” He enrolled at NAIT, an experience that he describes as “a shot to the ego.” “You’re going from making $80,000 to $100,000 to all of a sudden going back to school and having to upgrade a few high school classes.”
Gregor graduated from NAIT’s Radio and Television Arts program in 2001 and went on to work with John Short, a sports radio host he’d admired as a teenager. Despite landing his own show within a year, Gregor still wasn’t making enough money to > survive. His mother gave him a $5,000 loan to start, and Just A Game Productions was established in March 2005. “I just sat down and made an Excel spreadsheet,” he says of his company’s humble beginnings. “I said, ‘This is how much it’s going to cost me to do the show, so I better have that much coming in.’ It was that simple to start.”
Things went better than expected, and Gregor was able to pay back the loan within a month. But Gregor remains thankful for the loan his mother gave him. “You need someone who’s willing to take a chance,” he says. “If you have a good idea, find someone who will believe in you.”
The company has since expanded beyond the dimensions of that initial Excel sheet. Through Just A Game, Gregor is a part owner of The Nation Network, a series of popular hockey websites that includes OilersNation.com and FlamesNation.ca. Gregor’s radio show, which originally ran from 11 p.m. until 1 a.m., now has a much more desirable drive-time slot, airing from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. He doesn’t expect any further changes to the time slot, but he doesn’t have any intention of resting on his laurels. He has been eyeing a national hockey show and has plans to launch it in four Western Canadian markets: Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
“The biggest mistake in any business is trying to grow too fast,” he says. “To say, ‘Let’s do a national show,’ and go from Edmonton to 15 markets in one day, you’re going to end up disappointing too many people. If you build a solid base … then you [can] slowly add one or two markets a year.” Regardless of how long it takes Gregor’s new project — tentatively called Nation Radio — to reach from coast to coast, he believes there is demand for a national sports show that covers Western teams as well as the Eastern and American ones.
The expansion will open up new opportunities for Just A Game Productions. What Gregor is most excited about, though, is the opportunity to expand the charitable projects he already champions on the Jason Gregor Show. Most recently, the sports host participated in the 2011 Rona MS Bike Tour, and “Team Gregor” placed 62nd on the list of the top 100 teams, raising $16,465. Gregor has already set his sights even higher for next year, hoping to bring in $100,000 for the charity.
Gregor attributes his success, in part, to his honesty with advertisers. “The last thing you want is to be dishonest – don’t over-promise and under-deliver. Really, you want to over-deliver and under-promise.” His success is also a product of the work ethic that he learned growing up on the family farm, where he still pulls calves in the spring. “The most successful people are the ones who work the hardest,” Gregor says. “When you hear that as a kid, you think, ‘Whatever. As if. If you’re good, you’re good.’ But watching athletes, you realize that the best ones are the ones who work the hardest. In radio, and in business, it’s the same way.”
Next Up is a series of profiles of emerging leaders in Alberta’s business community and public life.
