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Station Vans

S

SaltyDog

Last week I went by a parking lot housing a cluster of radio stations. I'm looking at this collection of old, and in some case very old, station vans, one per station plus a couple that were multi-logo'd.

It got me to thinking: When did it first become de rigueur for stations to have a van? I'm guessing the 1970's. And in a cost-conscious era, why do they maintain them? If you need to haul equipment to remotes, which these days wouldn't be very much equipment, you could have one or two for the cluster that serve all stations, and it wouldn't have to be very big.

There is the argument that the logos on the sides are billboard advertising for the station, but I'm always told stations don't need outside advertising which is why so few if any buy it anymore. Worse, what kind of image does it convey when your "brand" is represented by a 1993 Chevy van that's seen better days?

Do most radio stations still have a dedicated van or was this an unusual situation?
 
The 3 stations I'm involved with share 1 vehicle (Honda Pilot) and use magnetic clings depending on what station/stations are doing remotes. Keep in mind these stations are not in a rated market.
 
Our station van is more often used for hauling stuff than as a rolling billboard.

For example, each winter we do a coats for kids promotion & distribute some 40 barrels over an 8 county area. As well as collect the dirty coats, then distribute the clean coats to charities.
 
One Saturday morning, at the end of the shift that I absolutely HATED, I was getting ready to leave the station when I noticed what I thought was a coolant leak underneath my car. But upon closer inspection, I realized that that leak was NOT coming from my car, but had run underneath my car from the station's piece of crap van! :D Life was good! (For me, anyway)
 
We are going the small cargo trailer route. As noted before, mostly used to haul stuff to and from remotes, etc. and it still has plenty of real estate on both sides, front and back, for a nice wrap with the stations logo. We can still put blinky lights on it powered by a 12 volt battery, and a blow up mast when needed.

We weighed the actual use it would get vs annual license costs (trailers are much cheaper), no need for vehicle insurance (huge savings there), and very little to break down right before you need it for a big customers remote! Engineer (me) usually sets things up and I haul it with my pickup truck.
 
We use a trailer too for many of the same reasons you mentioned. Ours is a converted travel trailer with a retro studio inside it. (Collins turntables included.) Since we are in Texas, and it can get quite hot here, the air conditioner is a friendly part of the mobile studio. For that matter, the small kitchen with microwave is quite helpful. Best of all, there is a bathroom inside. No Porta-Potties required. ;D
 
Chuck said:
We use a trailer too for many of the same reasons you mentioned. Ours is a converted travel trailer with a retro studio inside it. (Collins turntables included.) Since we are in Texas, and it can get quite hot here, the air conditioner is a friendly part of the mobile studio. For that matter, the small kitchen with microwave is quite helpful. Best of all, there is a bathroom inside. No Porta-Potties required. ;D
Click to expand...

At LEAST a bathroom.....You never know where that van may end up!
 
The cluster I work for has a vehicle for each station, plus a multi-logoed remote truck. Often, each station has a separate appearance so one vehicle per station is necessary. We use SUVs to haul promotions stuff and staff. They're also helpful to transport staff in inclement weather and to get up to the transmitters.

Depending on the size of your market and the activity of your stations, multiple vehicles may be necessary.

I agree that old beat up vehicles are embarrassing though.
 
We have 5 stations that share a Chevy Trailblazer that's about 5 years old, and a newish Ford Escape. No clings, just window decals with the company logo (which includes smaller logos of the 5 stations.)

Much better than a used work van repurposed as a station vehicle.
 
What I wanted to do (but couldn't due to budget constraints): Get a good sized truck with lots of space on the sides. Instead of having a bunch of logos, I wanted to make it logo-convertible with panels that slide in and out and would be changed according to what station had it that day. The would mean one remote at a time but that would have been fine by me. Nothing creates demand like lack of constant availability. In addition to the station logo, maybe a sponsor logo as a cost-offset. Better yet, programmable electronic signs.
 
I saw a used truck on autotrader.com or maybe it was carsforsale.com that was a revolving sign truck. It had signboards on three sides that could display three different messages. I think it was only about $15,000. You'd have to pay for some good graphics, but it would be a great way to advertise your station. Just hire a college kid to drive it around town during rush hours. You are bound to get noticed. You could even sell some of the signage to your sponsors.

Back in the 1960's, Gordon McLendon's Dallas station, KLIF, had a mobile "News Cruiser." It was a Chevy van that had a ticker tape operated electric sign on the top that displayed breaking news and sponsor promos. One of my college friends was one of the drivers. This thing drew big-time attention! I'm amazed that stations don't do something similar today. I'll bet it would work.
 
One station I worked at had a van. It was one of those custom conversions with full windows and four rows of seats. The sales manager used it as his personal van and hauled friends and clients around.. We found horse racing tickets stubs in ti one time. This sales manager took it home every night and if we needed it for a remote on the weekends we had to go to his house to get it. It had two small logos for our AM/FM combo on the front doors, that's all.

Another station I worked at had an RV. It was HUGE! It went to remotes and Christmas parades. After I left that station got one of those "boom box" trailers.
 
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