From the archives - Cool article about my old business

Talking Head Hunter

Latter-day booking agent Cameron Gray gave up a successful career as a radio producer on G. Gordon Liddy's talk show to go it alone

Washington Business Journal - June 8, 2001 - by Greg A. Lohr - Staff Reporter

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It's been almost a year since Cameron Gray left the nurturing confines of G. Gordon Liddy's radio talk show.

Gray had spent the previous eight years booking guests and serving as associate producer for Liddy, whose show is nationally syndicated. Gray wanted to make a go of it on his own -- on the other side, though, pitching authors and other guests to producers like himself. Gray has become a contemporary version of that old show business mainstay, the booking agent.

He had the full support of Liddy, who at the time gave Gray a ringing endorsement: "I'm certain he's going to be a wonderful success, because he was certainly exactly that when working for me. I can recommend him to any prospective client, absolutely without reservation."

Slow start

A year later, Gray could use a few more of those recommendations. Although he's still plugging away and building his fledgling business, he readily admits that doing publicity on his own has been harder than he expected.

Gray works out of his home in Fairfax to save money on leasing office space. He supports his company, Cameron Gray Communications (http://www.camerongray.com), largely through side projects. He teaches radio production as an adjunct professor at George Mason University; he does voice work for radio and pitches in with WJFK's audio crew during Washington Redskins' games; and he brings in most of his revenue through his Web site, http://www.airport-parking.com, a list of ad links for off-site parking near airports around the country.

"Building a client base is much harder than I thought it would be," he says. "Without the Web site and the freelance voice work, I'd be a bartender somewhere."

Gray's experience proves that contacts and experience -- especially from a high-profile job -- can fuel an entrepreneur's dreams. His experience is also a harsh reminder that, once that fuel begins to run dry, an entrepreneur must act quickly to find alternative power sources.

Name recognition vs. independence

One of Gray's radio peers, Richard Strauss, has been down this path before.

Strauss is head of District-based Strauss Radio Strategies, which specializes in booking radio interviews. Strauss was the first White House radio director, managing and producing, among other things, the president's weekly radio address. He also got to know Gray during that time.

Strauss left his post in 1995 and formed his company early the next year. Contacts made while at the White House, he says, were "absolutely essential" to his company getting off the ground. Still, they didn't guarantee success.

"Before, I was calling and saying, `Hi, this is Richard Strauss for the White House,'" he says. "Certainly there's the question of when you say, `Hi, this is Richard Strauss with Strauss Radio Strategies,' if that's going to mean anything. You have to build on experiences that you had before, but that only takes you so far. You have to work very hard in building new business and keeping current clients happy."

Gray was banking on his contacts from the G. Gordon Liddy show to ease his transition into his own career.

"The reason I started the company is, I was hoping the name recognition Gordon Liddy gave me would help me," Gray says, "and it definitely has helped in a lot of instances."

One of Gray's first clients was Robert Atkins, author and creator of the Atkins Diet. His biggest clients now include St. Martin's Press and Free Press. Gray pitches their authors to radio shows only.

"I just don't waste time with TV and print outlets," he says. "I started out thinking Internet chat rooms would be a good format, but they're not. You just don't get an audience unless you're Britney Spears or someone else with a huge fan base.

"With radio, what happens is you get so much more time. A radio segment is at least 10, 15 minutes, unless it's a morning show. Long-form radio shows, like Gordon Liddy or Oliver North, there are tons of guests. They not only spend more time with them, the guest or author sounds so much more interesting when given time to talk. And radio listeners form a bond with the host. So if the host says, `Buy this book,' they're going to buy the book."

A one-man show

Gray says his biggest obstacle since leaving Liddy has been juggling his company's finances.

"At the end of the year, it was a little easier than I thought it would be," he says. "But the business side of it has been my biggest challenge, because I'm not a math guy."

Gray doesn't seem disheartened by this and other challenges he has faced in his company's first year. In general, he says, "the company is doing very well."

Strauss sees no reason for Gray to give up, either. He figures the economic slowdown could be delaying the growth of an otherwise viable company.

"I think it's a tough climate," Strauss says. "There is competition. I think Cameron is especially skilled, and I have high regard for him. But it is a tougher economy, and I'm sure over time he'll do well."

Gray, meanwhile, is taking his situation lightly enough to see the irony in his new perspective. He recalls that, while producing for Liddy, he would never return a publicist's call about a book he had no intention of featuring on the show.

"Now it's weird," he says, "knowing I'm not going to get a call back either."

Often, though, Gray foregoes the telephone and fires off an e-mail. "No one has time for phone calls," he says. Better yet is instant messaging, he says, if he's lucky enough to get the IM address of a show's producer.

Gray is looking forward to the debut of satellite radio offered by competing District-based XM and New York-based Sirius. Each plans to offer subscribers nearly 100 digital-quality channels, among them plenty of nearly commercial-free stations devoted to news and talk.

"I've got to say, I think it's the coolest thing," Gray says. "I'll probably get involved in the satellite stuff, because they'll need guests. There are some Internet radio stations that might develop, too."

But that's about as far as Gray plans to stray from traditional radio.

"I don't anticipate moving into any other type of media," he says. "I knew since I was a kid that I wanted to be in radio. Some people have called me short-sighted for not getting into TV, but radio's my love."

glohr@bizjournals.com Phone: 703/312-8344