My wife and I purchased the Wharf on Fourth in 2002.  The previous owners did some radio advertising along with a great deal of print ads in the local newspapers.  We always had the radio on and quickly decided that we would like to get more exposure through some kind of sponsorship.  Luckily, the sponsor for the Wheel of Weather has just relinquished that spot and we took it over.

My wife would write the basic ad copy and it didn't take long before our customers would comment on a specific item or sale that we had advertised, saying they had "heard about it on the radio"  About one year into our ownership, a gentlemen who had worked in advertising for more than thirty years came into our store and commented on the fact that he had heard our ad on the local station.  We took the opportunity, being relatively new in business, to ask the what best means of advertising was, in his opinion.  He immediately answered that local radio was the most effective and that if one could use their own voice that customers would recognize and begin relating to (as in they "know" the person) it could be the most powerful medium for getting one's message across.

My wife was already picking up the phone and calling Keith Ellert during his mid-day show whenever we had something come up (e.g. a fresh load of halibut, live King Crab coming, etc.) and often, within minutes someone would pull up to the store having just heard Jodi on the air with Keith.  Soon, Jodi began voicing our ads with Keith and that paid off in a big way.

People really liked the ads, often commenting that Jodi and Keith sounded like an long-married couple that gave each other a hard time and that they specifically listened for them.  We often heard comments such as, "I just love the ads you do with Keith..."  "You and Keith sound like you have so much fun in your ads".  If there was a sale we wanted to promote, a new product we wanted to introduce and or just general awareness of the quality of the product we were selling, we geared our ads in that direction and that never failed to pay off.

Eventually, we gave up print media almost entirely and did the lion's share of our advertising with CKRW.  My wife would often say, if you think people aren't listening, you are dead wrong.  It got to the point that she would say something in a restaurant or store and people around would turn and say, "Oh, you're Jodi.  You are the one that does those ads with Keith..."

We would not hesitate to recommend advertising with CKRW to anyone who wants to get a message out to the Yukon community.  The upfront cost is nothing compared to the immediate rewards one receives.

Mark Richardson

Wharf on Fourth (owner)