Russ Dodge
Article By Robert L. Flott, Managing Editor
Reaching out to the fastest growing community within Indianapolis requires overcoming many preconceived notions in the minds of the rest of the city. That is the challenge facing Russ Dodge and his staff at Radio Latina everyday.
The two stations under Dodge’s control, WEDJ 107.1 FM and WSYW-AM 810 AM, produce programming and advertising geared not just toward that 8% of the Indianapolis population that calls itself Hispanic. In fact, Dodge believes there is not a whole lot different doing what he does at Radio Latina than what he has done at other stations. “You want to get the word out, so you have a good street presence,” Dodge said. “You do a lot of community involvement. Then you put programs on the air that listeners want to listen to.”
Most recently, community involvement has meant Dodge and Radio Latina providing information to the Indianapolis Hispanic community on the H1N1 flu scare. Dodge doesn’t see this as anything but normal; busy but normal.
“We put programs on the air that people want to listen to. Every radio station would do that,” Dodge said. “We just happen to do it in Spanish.” Dodge insists that there is little difference in how he is marketing now, compared to how he marketed at other stations.
“Good marketing is good marketing,” he said. “I may say some things a little differently, but that’s it. We’re still striving for the same thing—you want more people listening to you, and those people who do listen to listen to you more often.” The two stations employ 19 full-time and part time people. “For two radio stations, that’s not very many people,” Dodge said. These include operations, sales, and engineering people with whom Dodge has worked before. Russ Dodge is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he also got his start on the campus radio station. After graduation, he began working at a South Bend station. In 1977, Dodge moved to Indianapolis, taking a sales job at WTLC. Dodge stayed with WTLC for 17 years, the last 11 in various Sales management positions.
From there, Dodge became National and Regional sales manager for Artistic Media, which operates stations in South Bend, Lafayette, Bloomington, Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne.
In 2005, Dodge became General Manager at WXLW, an ESPN affiliate in Indianapolis. He did not stay very long.
“A year into my run, I got a call from Radio Latina,” Dodge said. “They said, ‘we need someone with your experience. We know you can run a good operation, and we want your help building this thing up.’”
While the two stations — which reach out to about 50 miles around Indianapolis, including Lafayette and Bloomington — weren’t profitable when Dodge first took over, through hard work, a good staff, and strong research, Radio Latina is growing strong.
“It has been until now,” Dodge said. “The level of growth in the future depends whether the economy rebounds.”
Like everyone else in the business community Dodge has his concerns about the current economy. “Right now, it’s kind of unpredictable. If you live in a market where jobs are lost and they never come back, it doesn’t matter whether you’re Anglo, Latino, or whatever, you’re going to lose market.”
Dodge believes the Obama administration may help settle certain issues that will benefit the Hispanic community. “The one thing I do see happening is current administration nationally resolving some issues when it comes to immigration,” he said. “When that happens, we should see strong growth.”
The Hispanic community in Indianapolis is growing rapidly. According to Census figures, in 1980, Hispanics made up about 1.59%. That first inched forward to 1.78% by 1990, and then leaped to 3.53% by 2000. Currently the Hispanic population in Indianapolis is about 8%.
2000 to 2008, we had about 80% growth,” Dodge said. “I’m not familiar with the numbers from the 1990s, except that by the end of the decade they started growing like crazy.” Hispanic businesses are growing just as quickly. “What we have now is a thriving Hispanic business community,” Dodge said. “It’s not just Hispanics selling to Hispanics, but it’s also Hispanics marketing to you and me, its Hispanic businesses marketing to everybody. And some of those [Hispanic] MBAs out there have figured out how to go after those government contracts.”
Reaching out to the Hispanic Community itself would not be that difficult for Hispanic business owners. “If they open a restaurant, a small music store, or something else with little overhead, they’d be off to the races,” Dodge said. “On the other hand, if you want to go after government contracts, that’s a little bit different. You have to be certified, just like any other minority business.”
Educating the rest of Indianapolis to what the Hispanic Community can offer is the biggest part of Dodge’s job. First, he has to get people to overcome some basic stereotypes about the Hispanic community. “One [misconception] is that there is no appreciable money in the Hispanic Community, that there is nothing but tons and tons of poverty,” Dodge said. “That exists, but there is a quickly growing Spanish middle class, that’s growing faster than the middle class for everyone else. By that we’re talking about the $60,000 and $70,000 income level.”
The second biggest misconception is what may and does attract the Hispanic community.
“People don’t realize what the consumer habits are of the Hispanic Community, and that cuts across everything,” Dodge said. “We use Scarborough Research to basically educate potential advertisers on what Hispanics do and don’t do.
“It’s an eye-opener most of the time because there is this general belief that they don’t do this or they don’t do that. They do. Attending different types of events, it goes beyond just attending a soccer match. We found out that Hispanics like to go to plays, other cultural events, and even the symphony. The list goes on and on and on.”
Moreover, as Russ Dodge notes, “good marketing is good marketing. …We just do it in Spanish.”
Russ Dodge, GM – Radio Latina
1800 N. Meridian St., Suite 603
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-850-4343
317-860-0602
russdodge@wedjfm.com
