Karl's Telek Interview

(San Francisco, 1982)
It's important for a television station to project a positive image.
Karl Sjodahl has built a successful broadcast promotion career on that concept.
"I got a job as a disc jockey during college, " recalls Sjodahl, who is now president and creative director of Telesound, in San Francisco. I was having fun in radio for a couple of years, and people started telling me how I had it made. My future in radio seemed assured. But radio didn't seem to be challenging enough. And I hadn't even tried television, yet."
During the following years Sjodahl went to work as a producer/director for a fledgling UHF television station where he got his first taste of broadcast promotion, went into the armed services, worked with audio as a record and commercial producer, went back into television as a producer/director; and finally launched his own company specializing in broadcast promotion.
Sjodahl founded Telesound in 1976. Prior to that he worked as a producer-director at KPIX-TV in San Francisco. "That's where my romance with filmmaking began," he remembers. "We were doing most of our own promotion; however, whenever a really exciting project came along, where the station was going to spend some money to write a script or hire actors, they called in an out of town producer. I decided to be one of the people who comes in from out of town."
Following are excerpts of an interview with Sjodahl:
TELEK: How did you happen to get started in broadcast promotion?
SJODAHL: It was the result of a lot of things. You could probably dig back to my childhood, and find out that I went to a Walt Disney movie when I was 10 years old, and came out thinking about working with film one way or another. I produced my first play when I was in the sixth grade, and remember being absolutely certain that somehow or other I would be doing that kind of work when I grew up.
TELEK: Where did you grow up?
SJODAHL: I was born in Chicago, and grew up in Cincinnati. I went to the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, and majored in radio and television. That was part of a broader department which also included speech, theater and communication arts.
TELEK: How did you get into television?
SJODAHL: After being a disc jockey for several years, I spent two years at WCET, the Cincinnati Educational Station also during college, and in 1 968 I had an opportunity to go to work as a producer/director at WXIX-TV which was a new UHF independent station in Cincinnati. There were only five of us in the department. We did everything, and that included creating the station's image. By 1969, we were the top UHF independent in the country.
TELEK: Then what happened?
SJODAHL: I was "asked" to join the army, and worked in Armed Forces Radio and Television for a couple of years, including one in Vietnam. Afterwards, I went back to school for a few business courses, and produced records and commercials until I returned to commercial television in 1973. I think all of this was useful background for the work that I am doing now.
TELEK: How did you actually cross over from working at a TV station to working for them?
SJODAHL: I don't know if I could pin it down to one specific thing. I could see the need for stations to do something to improve their images, and do a better job of promoting themselves. I saw what people like Jerry Smith were doing. He was using film in ways that I never saw before. I spent hours speaking to Jerry (Smith) about this. Finally, I just made the decision to get started.
TELEK: What was your first account?
SJODAHL: KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. One of the things that I am most proud of is that the news open we designed and produced for them in 1 976 ran for five years. I believe that it is really important to think ahead and plan long-term image campaigns. In most cases, you can't keep changing your image every couple of years and expect to keep your viewers.
TELEK: Does Telesound specialize in news promotion?
SJODAHL: We did at the start. Now, we work in all aspects of broadcast promotion, ranging from total station images to promotional campaigns for specific program slots, with an emphasis on the news. We are a vertical organization. We do everything from planning the campaign to production, music, and editing. During the past couple of years, we have gotten a good reputation for our animation, which I think is very clean and straightforward. Now, a lot of stations come to us just to do animation, or music, or graphics.
TELEK: Is there one most important rule for successful broadcast promotion?
SJODAHL: Tell the truth. That sounds simpler than it is; because before you can tell the truth, you must know what it is. I'll give you an example. Last year; we were called in to produce a news promotion campaign for a station that was already number one. They felt themselves starting to slip, but it wasn't something that was showing up in the ratings yet. Our research showed that many viewers were watching the station out of habit. They didn't have a solid reason. What we did was find out what that station did best. Did they have the best anchors, the best visuals, or what? Then, we designed and produced a campaign which gave viewers an answer to why they were watching the news on that station.
TELEK: Once you know what you want to do, is there a Karl Sjodahl style for communicating that message?
SJODAHL: If I have a style, it is in personality campaigns where we feature anchors or reporters. At times you'll see people on the air; and you just don't like them. Part of the problem is that you don't know them. You might meet these same people at a party, and see something in them that you like. Everyone is likeable. The trick is to get them relaxed and comfortable, so their natural appeal comes through. We try to find that warmth or genuineness in the people that we are working with, and make sure it's still there in the final product. It's a matter of establishing a rapport with them so they relax, and then being there during the magic moment when they forget the camera is rolling. If we're lucky, when we're shooting action shots, a story will break and there it is. They are all energy and excitement, and it is right there on film. You can see it in their attitude. The genuineness of their feelings. I love it when that happens. You can put another person in the same place, at the same time, saying the same things, and it won't be the same.
TELEK: Do you have a way that you like to shoot?
SJODAHL: In this kind of a situation, we'll usually expose a lot of film, maybe a 150:1 ratio. I don't think that there is any other way to do it. We'll usually work with an ARRI 16 SR camera. It's portable and flexible. There are no wires or cables. When you are trying to be unobtrusive or catch someone on the move, there is no better way. Just about all of our campaigns since 1978 have been originated on Eastman color negative IL film 7247. People come across as warmer and more natural on color negative film. That's really important for the kinds of campaigns that we do. We transfer the negative directly onto tape for post production. Since the introduction of the Rank-Cintel flying spot scanner we have been able to enjoy all of the advantages of originating on color negative film while still editing first-generation-quality video.
TELEK: How about animation?
SJODAHL: Our animation is all originated on 35 mm Eastman color negative II film. This is most often used for news opens, promo tags, station image campaigns, IDs, and movie opens. A station needs a quality look for this type of thing. First of all, we plan for the pieces to run for years. You don't want the look to wear thin. Also, the look is part of the message. You want it to say that this program you are about to see is as good as anything else on television.
TELEK: Are you finding that people in the broadcasting industry are willing to pay for this kind of image?
SJODAHL: There is an increasing awareness of the value of the service we provide. Our product isn't the film, the tape, or even the great music or pretty pictures. It is the results. I've had station managers tell us they have seen results from the moment we walked in the door; because it tells their people that management is proud of what they are doing. When you come down to it, we are in the business of helping to shape attitudes. Attitudes in the market as well as on the staff at the station.
TELEK: How about the economics?
SJODAHL: It depends upon the situation. An independent station that programs heavily with movies should consider spending the money to produce a classy, animated movie lead-in. An affiliate, which shows only off-network movies periodically, still needs a first-class lead-in, but maybe they can't justify spending as much. We have been syndicating some concepts, customizing them for use in different markets.
TELEK: Can you give us an example?
SJODAHL: For the last two years (1980 and '81) NBC has asked us to extend their fall campaigns, "NBC Proud as a Peacock" and "Our Pride is Showing," to include most basic local station uses. By building a package based on the main network theme, with the same basic look and sound, the affiliates get a closer identification with the network, and production elements that feature their call letters and logo for a very reasonable cost.
TELEK: How about cable television?
SJODAHL: I'm a believer. The impact of cable upon our business is going to be significant, and it is already happening.
TELEK: Such as?
SJODAHL: In many cases stations are moving away from channel identifications. Because of cable, you might be Channel 7 in one community and Channel 3 in another where there is a different cable system. We have seen the development of some very strong graphics using call letters or other designations. As more channel choices are brought about by cable, it becomes even more important for stations to have established identities, not only for their station, but also for their programs. People are going to think of specific stations as being the purveyors of particular programs. And that is going to require some very creative and challenging broadcast promotion.
TELEK: How do you feel about the future?
SJODAHL: I'm optimistic about television as a communications medium that can deliver more programs which can serve more people by providing more entertainment and more information. I believe that there are going to be many changes during the next decade. There are a lot of things to sort out, including the roles of the networks, local stations and cable systems in delivering different types of programming. Things are moving very fast, and I believe companies like ours have an important role to play.

Karl Sjodahl says that people come across as warmer and more natural on color negative film. Just about all of the broadcast promotion campaigns produced by Sjodahl and his company, Telesound, since 1978 have been originated on Eastman color negative Film 7247.