Undaunted, three Eastern ski areas ventured into the TV medium with their own home-produced snow shows “live from the slopes” with remarkable success. These shows were paid for as commercials, but had the effect and impact of regular news features.
Corky Cayton, the ski area operator who pinoeered the effort, says if the concept was unprecedented, so were the conditions which precipitated it. Bristol Mountain, where Cayton was then manager, had come off two disasterous snowless seasons and had expended $150,000 to double its snowmaking capacity.
“In preparing for the 1974-75 season, we didn’t count on natural snow,” comments Corky. “It was a possibility — not a probability and with the snowmaking expansion, Bristol had the potential for a successful ski season without it. What we didn’t have was an effective means for convincing our market (Rochester, N.Y.) that there was excellent skiing whether or not there was snow in the air. We needed proof and the ‘see for yourself’ television snow report met that requirement.”
The Bristol project might not have been possible without the conviction of both the ski area and the television station (WHEC-TV, Rochester) that the undertaking was bound for success. Hours were spent with station marketing chief, Steve Kronquist, anticipating and solving problems. Bristol purchased a used 16 mm television camera, which was located by WHEC and Cayton received instruction on filming.
A price was agreed to for the purchase of five 30 second spots Tuesday through Saturday at about 6:15 p.m. during the evening news.
Every morning, Cayton filmed on the slopes and sent the results by courier to Rochester (a 45 minute drive) where it arrived no later than 1 p.m., allowing time for editing. With the film went a tape cassette of exactly 20 seconds of comment, preceded and followed by a five second lead-in and out. “What appeared to be a formidable, if not impossible task became, after a week or so, very routine. We showed the ski slopes” stressed Cayton, “but always the emphasis was on showing snow conditions for the day. Occasionally, I’d hike across the road and shoot back at the slopes to prove there weren’t any bare spots on the mountain.”
Feedback was excellent. Skiers were tuning in daily to see the report and in a season of a new record-low snowfall, Bristol boasted record-high skier visits.
By mid-season of ’74-75, Kissing Bridge ski area near Buffalo, N.Y., was producing its own reports on WKBW-TV evening news Wednesday through Friday. According to Director of Skiing Bobby Foster, the mechanics and success of the effort were akin to Bristol’s and Kissing Bridge noted a measurable increase in night skiers attributable to the report shown at 6:15 p.m. “Viewers could be on the slopes 30 minutes later,” commented Foster, who continued the television reports through the ’75-76 season.
This year, Kissing Bridge won’t be on television. “We still believe in the concept,” says Foster, “but we’re moving it to radio. In two seasons of television, we firmly established our credibility and with price increases — from $225-$275 a spot last season to $325-$400 this season — it made sense for us to switch. Now, we’ll have live reports six nights a week on WGR radio at 5:15 p.m. — prime drive time.”
At Jiminiy Peak in Massachusetts, General Manager Brian Fairbank adopted the concept, but changed the thrust, format and mechanics. Jiminy initiated its report last season, purchased a longer spot (60 second) on WRBG-TV, Albany, N.Y., and ran it once weekly on the Thursday evening news for 10 weeks. Cost for the spot alone ran $500 and Fairbank hired a professional to film the action which was planned, scheduled and rehearsed prior to filming on Thursday. Weather didn’t always cooperate with the script and Fairbank says it was sometimes difficult to justify the time and effort expended.
“Nevertheless,” comments Fairbank, “from an image standpoint, it was very successful in our Albany market and beyond that, we have something tangible to show for our efforts, a top-quality, but low-cost 15 minute promotional movie made from the film clips.”
It should be noted that Bristol, Kissing Bridge and Jiminy Peak ski areas are within driving range of population centers which reach into the millions. Each has both day and night skiing, each does heavy “program” business with students and adults enrolled in eight-week ski sessions and all three rely on extensive snowmaking systems.
One must ask, then, is there a future for the television snow report and/or does it have limited application? Brian Fairbank answers, “Very definitely a future — but at this time, it is most practicable for the day-hop area with variable weather conditions.”
Bobby Foster says, “It must be done strictly on an individual area basis where it can be custom-tuned to the situation.” Corky Cayton, commencing his second year at Loon Mountain, N.H. is exploring means to utilize the “live from the slopes” concept to reach the Boston market. “It will require considerable revision to suit considerably different marketing goals, but the potential is there,” he says.
Television snow reports are currently the subject of an investigation being conducted by NESAC, (New England Ski Areas Council), the major ski reporting network covering in excess of 90 per cent of the skiing activity in New England. NESAC has asked its media specialist, Henry Nachman, to study the feasibility of such an effort and to make recommendations.
NESAC is currently producing its own ski condition report for daily broadcast in 31 radio markets. Whether or not it could undertake the production of television snow reports with similar success is a question Henry Nachman is not, at this time, prepared to answer. Phil Camp, executive director of NESAC, speaks with cautioned optimism recalling that “four years ago, the problems of producing a live radio ski report seemed insurmountable.”
“The problems are immense, compared to radio,” comments Nachman, “namely logistics and cost. It’s not just a matter of shooting, transporting and editing the film of participating resorts, but of setting up an entire studio complete with video equipment by which to transmit the report to participating television stations, and then of getting those television stations to agree to a time slot during which their equipment would be made available to receive the report. Production costs would be extraordinary and that means looking to the stations or to sponsors who would pick up the air time. It’s not an impossible undertaking, but it’s enough to boggle the mind.”
One western operator says he can’t imagine going to such lengths to sell a lift ticket. But then an eastern operator confesses there would be little challenge or satisfaction in providing skiers only with a lift up the hill. “We live and die ski conditions,” he says. “We live to create them and die if we don’t get them reported.”
