Radio: The Window To Success By Rob Dumke
Brothers Harley and Aaron Magden grew up in home improvement: Their grandfather founded Regency Windows in Cleveland, and their father ran the company until he sold it in 2005. That’s when the brothers decided to take their talents to Baltimore, where Window Nation was born in 2006. “My brother and I started the business 15 years ago,” Harley says, “but we grew up in the business. We opened our business with a little different model from my father. We started with one location in 2006, and now we have 16 locations.” Harley tells Radio Ink that once they got the systems and procedures in place in Baltimore, they felt the best way to grow was to expand to new markets. “One hundred percent of our growth has been organic, and it’s through opening new markets,” he says. “It’s kind of unique in our industry because most companies in our business are located in one town or they are franchise-based. We are the largest seller of replacement windows, residentially speaking, that isn’t tied to a franchise.” Radio has played a major role in the expansion. Harley says, “We use radio in every market, and in some we use it exclusively, like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. In those markets that’s our number one media spend. In our other markets we use radio to help complement and enhance our other media usage — newspaper, TV, etc.” Radio helped lead to success in their hometown of Cleveland, and that eventually led to Window Nation’s purchasing the assets of Regency Windows when Regency went out of business in 2012. Harley Magden says, “We liked radio, and more specifically Talk formats — News/Talk, Sports Talk, or a station with a morning Talk format, because people
Beasley Media Group Philadelphia. “Window Nation is the ultimate ‘radio’ client,” Blake says, “integrating endorsements, custom ideas, targeted digital, and event advertising to maximize their campaigns. They have a sophisticated measurement system to ensure accountability and effectiveness. It’s gratifying to partner with a company that truly invests in knowing that our campaigns get results.” Harley Magden, while working in the family business, studied at John Carroll Harley and Aaron Magden University with a double major in finance and marketing. The lessons learned then make it clear to him now that the ROI in are engaged. What we saw was that radio, for Window Nation, is well worth it. people were going toward satellite radio “We probably spend close to $5 million and streaming services to listen to their a year on radio. It’s grown over the years. music, but they want to hear local about We have used radio for 15 years because news, weather, sports. Listeners are very it is as effective today as it was years engaged and very loyal to those stations ago, despite the shift in where people get that provide those services. entertainment and information.” “We almost always find endorsers or He goes on, “Radio has other resources influencers in the market. We meet with we can use, things like streaming and them, we share our story, our experipodcasting; for us, that is very beneficial. ences. We get them involved and actively We find for us that radio doesn’t require a engaged. They spread our good word. lot of up-front costs for creative; you can “For instance, in Philadelphia, which is change things on a daily basis because probably our most successful radio market, there is a lot of flexibility. For these reasons we use Beasley for the cornerstone of our it has become a great vehicle for us.” campaigns. They have a lot of good staHarley says, “If you utilize radio correctly, tions with strong local personalities that it has a tremendous value. Radio has a lot have significant tenure in the market. of benefits other products don’t have. If you “We like working with Beasley because want to target specific groups of individuthey are not your large, national corporate als, that’s what radio does. The good thing radio owners. They are more personal; about radio is that you can buy for the marthey really want to be a partner with you ket you are looking to hit.” and make sure you are successful. The Thanks to Harley Magden, Window thing we like about them is that they are Nation: 443.577.3160, hmagden@ always willing and open to ideas; they help windownation.com us out when times are tough. They take Thanks to Paul Blake, Beasley Media more of a vested interest in us.” Group Philadelphia, 610.664.2000, The good feelings are mutual, according paul.blake@bbgi.com to Paul Blake, VP and director of sales for
DECEMBER 13, 2021 RADIOINK.COM 15 2RI_Ad Success 12-13-21.indd 15
12/1/21 12:37 PM
