JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – WJXT’s innovations and pioneering efforts extended beyond news to include the business side of broadcasting.
WJXT was one of the first television stations in the United States outside those owned by the networks to dedicate a staff person to do research. In 1961, Jim Landon began as the station's first research director -- predating most local television station research departments by 25 to 30 years.
The late Wallace Parker, dean of market research in Jacksonville, would recall that when he started at the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce in 1965, WJXT was one of first companies in the city to have a research department.
It was not until the late 1980s and early 1990s that television stations began to employ research personnel to fully analyze and disseminate Nielsen rating data and other primary and secondary research.
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The station management in the early 1960s had tremendous foresight to understand how research information could be used to grow the relationships with advertisers and viewers. Leveraging information translated into increased revenue and viewership to WJXT.
The other tremendous legacy of the research department was the establishing a continuous program of local consumer research studies that served both its advertising clients and station management decisions. A research report Landon presented in 1965 put this in perspective:
“Our continuous market survey programs have been conducted by the station since 1961. To our knowledge, we are the only local TV station in the nation that is conducting extensive market surveys on a continuous basis. Agencies and advertisers are quite impressed with this qualitative research effort, and their participation in this survey program has been extremely encouraging and rewarding to us. We offer portions of each survey to our advertisers and agencies as a service – they can use it as a tool for doing their own marketing research.”
The early Jacksonville Consumer Research Studies included these categories:
- Grocery Shopping Habits – October 1962 & May 1964
- Downtown vs. Suburban Shopping – July 1962
- Bread Study – April 1963
- Soft Drink Study – December 1964
- Pest Control Study – May 1965
- Milk Market – May 1965
In early 1960s WJXT pioneered the concept of using television to merchandise a store and product. The effort was led by the promotion manager of this era, Tom Mahaffey.
WJXT was effective in helping clients entice customers towards patronage and purchases. Some of these products are as follows:
| Ajax Alka-Seltzer Borax Bruce Wax | Byers Papaya Clarksburger Folger’s Coffee Heinz Tomato Ketchup | Maxwell House Coffee Riceland Rice Texize All Purpose Cleaner Trane | Uncle Ben’s Rice U.S. Keds Van Camp’s Pork & Beans Wrigley Gum |
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Another pioneering business approach that WJXT was a leading force occurred in the sales department. In 1975 under the leadership of Tom Frick, a co-op/vendor program was initiated. This turned into a retail development program, starting with department stores. The approach included developing vendor and retailer events that would grow the amount of dollars going into an advertising campaign.
What made this work was developing creative ideas that would tap various discretionary budget funds available to retailers and manufacturers. WJXT presentations in the early 1980s cited this vendor program as the longest continuous program in the country.
Some of the early clients included the following:
| Barnett Bank Furchgott’s Department Store | Haverty’s May Cohens Department Store | Stokes & Company Underwood’s Jewelers | Watson Realty Winn Dixie |
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It was my honor to serve as research director at WJXT from 1979 to 2011 and be part this tremendous legacy.