By Rick Griffin
After 30 years in television advertising sales, Rick Winet is now selling health insurance. Winet’s last day as account manager at KNSD-TV/NBC 7 was Friday, June 9. He starts June 12 as general manager of sales at McGregor Associates, a San Diego broker for the Voluntary Employment Beneficiary Association health plans offered to school districts, municipalities and public agencies.
“It was a fantastic opportunity and just too good to pass up,” said Winet, 58. “I will truly miss the people I have worked with in TV over the past 30 years.”
Winet worked with Time-Warner Cable, now called Spectrum (1987-2002), followed by KUSI-TV (2002-2008) and KNSD (2008-2017). He also has served as chairman of the Better Business Bureau of San Diego & Imperial County (1999-2001), Junior Achievement of San Diego and Imperial County (1996-1997) and the Social Services Advisory Board of San Diego County (1992-1993).
The career switch for the long-time La Mesa resident also marks the end of Winet’s 19-year run as an elected public official. Since 1998, Winet has served on the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District board, serving six times as board president and reelected to four-year terms in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. He resigned from his seat at the June 6 school board meeting.
In 1996, while at Time-Warner, Winet was assigned to launch the Roadrunner high-speed Internet service. After a few weeks on the job, Winet marched into his boss’ office and informed him, “This business is not going to work. Then, my boss told me that he had said the same thing to Craig McCaw about the cell phone business back in 1985. It took a while for Roadrunner to catch on, but now it’s a flourishing business.”
TV Station Exec Appearing in ‘Beauty and the Beast’
In the daytime, he’s the director of creative services at a local TV station. At night, he could be singing and dancing on stage. KUSI-TV’s Doug Friedman is playing Belle’s father Maurice in STAR Repertory Theatre’s production of “Beauty of the Beast” June 10-11 and 15-18 at the Lyceum Theatre at Horton Plaza in Downtown San Diego.
Friedman’s youngest son Robbie got his dad involved in community theater in 2006. “We had just moved from Los Angeles that year and Robbie was a freshman in high school and having trouble adjusting,” said Doug. “We encouraged him to audition for a small part in ‘Oliver’ at the Jewish Community Center. He got the part, made new friends and loved acting. A few years later, after Robbie aged out of junior theater, he asked me to join him in the cast of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ at a community production in Escondido. I was reluctant at first but then I got bit by the acting bug. It’s a lot of fun and rarely conflicts with my day job.”
Today, Robbie, 26, lives in Los Angeles working on a career in acting. And Doug typically appears in about three community theater productions per year. Doug has worked in TV for more than 40 years. He started in the mail room at KTLA-TV/Channel 5 in Los Angeles and later worked (1978-1981) as a writer and in production with producer Chuck Barris on such TV game shows as “The Newlywed Game,” “The Dating Game” and “Treasure Hunt.”
Fox 5 San Diego Touts May Nielsen Numbers
KSWB-TV/Fox 5 San Diego has reported its weekday Fox 5 Morning News show and weekday newscasts at 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. ranked first among San Diego viewers ages 18-49 and adults ages 25-54 during the May 2017 sweeps period (from April 27 to May 24), according to TV ratings company A.C. Nielsen Co.
The station said it was the eighth consecutive month for the morning show between the hours of 7 to 9 a.m. to draw the most viewers. Also, it was the third consecutive May sweeps period for the 10 p.m. newscast to rank at the top, and a repeat from the February 2017 sweeps period for the 4 p.m. newscast to be listed no. 1, the station said.
“Every day we think about how the stories we cover will affect our community and I’m proud of the Fox 5 team and their dedication in making us a leader in San Diego,” said Rich Goldner, vice president and news director at Fox 5.
AMA Hosts Integrated Campaign Planning Workshop
San Diego’s American Marketing Association chapter will host a two-day “Integrated Campaign Planning Workshop” from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday, June 14 and 15, at UCSD Extension, 6256 Greenwich Drive. Cost to attend is $151 for members and $250 for non members.
Speakers will include: Jeofrey Bean, strategic marketing consultant, educator and principal of Del Mar Research; Scott Robinson, founder of FreshForm, an experiential branding agency specializing in leveraging design, design thinking and customer experience to differentiate brands; Anetra Henry-Hunting, founder and principal of The Hunting Group, a boutique consultancy servicing agencies and nonprofit organizations with sponsorship strategies; Virginia Beneke, with more than 30 years of experience in organizational leadership, marketing, business development, strategic planning, and sales management in the technology and education industries.
AMA said this two-day, roll-up-your-sleeves workshop will feature a deep dive into steps involves in building a strong and effective integrated marketing communications campaign. Attendees will start the workshop with a blank slate and leave with a completed marketing plan. Day one will provide an overview of integrative marketing, give insight on iterative marketing, discuss the differences between strategy-tactics and business-project goals and examine case studies. Also included will be discussion of personas and effective target marketing to reach your target audience and customers.
Day two will cover the importance of customer sponsorship, develop strategic content and messaging, creating a seamless experience across all channels and examining ROI measurement and feedback. This workshop is designed for mid-level to senior-level professional marketers in both the B2B and B2C positions. To RSVP and for more information, call (619) 402-7825 or visit www.sdama.org/events.
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.
