Broadcasting (Apr - June 1950)

flie Plant Budda Built' By GEORGE VOIGT NEAR the center of San Francisco's South-of -Market business section, at 13th and South Van Ness Sts., stands the gleaming, modern, block-square Marin Dell dairy, a million dollar plant and one of the finest dairy installations in the country. It's called by the company "The Plant That Budda Built" and it stands as a testimonial to one of the brightest success stories in San Francisco radio. The "Budda" to whom the company gives credit for building the plant is Dean Maddox, m.c. of Budda's Amateur Hour, Saturday, 8 p.m. on KFRC San Francisco. The show has been sponsored by Marin Dell almost since the company's inception 20 years ago. Thomas Foster, founder and vice president and general manager of the firm, who decided to gamble on radio back in the early days when every dollar expenditure was carefully weighed by the infant company, gives radio major credit for building the firm from a handful of milk routes to the extensive Bay Area distributing organization it is today. Ads Center on Show Marin Dell's success story is unique in that it has built almost its entire advertising campaign through the years around its amateur hour show. The company today spends in the neighborhood of $50,000 annually on this single program. Its newspaper and spot radio budget is practically nil. Newspapers and spot are used only infrequently on special campaigns for which special money outside the assigned advertising budget is used. Marin Dell spends only a few thousand dollars each year with grocery and dairy trade publications and on travelling displays, like street car cards. One of a Series Budda and his amateur hour are not the creatures of Marin Dell. The program and the company started within three years of each other but completely independently. Mr. Foster was a salaried milk wagon driver, and had been for 24 years, when he conceived the idea of Marin Dell, a wholesale distribution agency for independent dairy ranchers and independent retail stores. He started the company with three ranches and three milk routes. It worked this way: His company, officially the Marin Dairymen's Milk Co. Ltd., took over management of the dairy operations of participating ranchers. In return he guaranteed the ranchers year-round distribution of their milk. Thus the ranchers, whose dairy products were a lucrative though minor portion of their ranch output, were relieved of all bother and responsibility of management in this department and still were guaranteed a steady and reasonable profit from their dairy herds. Retail Cooperation A similar arrangement was made with retail stores. The stores were guaranteed supply for signing up as Marin Dell distributing outlets and they had no competition to face in the sale of Marin Dell products outside of the retail store field. No Marin Dell product was or is sold to chain organizations or direct to consumer by way of home delivery. Hospitals and restaurants, not in the business of selling milk, are also serviced by the company. The company was started in July 1930. Budda's Amateur Hour was started three years later. Dean Maddox, a radio man who entered the industry via the stage in 1927, started the program. After bouncing around the business coast-tocoast and spending a couple of years as chief English announcer for the Chinese National Radio in Peking and Shanghai, Mr. Maddox MARIN DELL's million-dollar modern dairy plant on 13th and South Van Ness Sts. in San Francisco is the nerve Jm center of its widely scattered ^ dairy operations. joined KYA San Francisco as an announcer in 1933. Within a few months after joining the staff he was named program director of the station. KYA The first amateur entertainer, a girl singer, who got to the microphone after those introductory remarks called him Buddha and the name stuck. It's still sticking. The spelling has been changed to Budda in deference to persons of the Buddhist religion who may object to a radio m.c. carrying such a title. Two months after the show went on the air Marin Dell took over Marin Dell Grows From 3 to 65 Routes With Its $50,000 Amateur Hour at that time was owned by William Randolph Hearst and one of the first suggestions passed down by "The Chief" to the newly appointed program director regarded an amateur hour program. Mr. Hearst said he thought such a program would go well in San Francisco. Mr. Maddox didn't even know what an amateur show should consist of or how one should be organized and handled. He went to the station general manager for direction and was told: "Don't bother me with details. Start one." He did. Beginning Plans He began announcements over KYA that such a program was being formed and any listeners with show business talent were invited to come down for the show. The listeners responded by the hundreds and Mr. Maddox brought his microphone out onto the street in front of the studios to conduct his first amateur hour program. A crew of policemen had to be called out to keep order. In describing the scene to his listeners, Mr. Maddox ad libbed: "And here I stand with my microphone like Buddha in front of a throng of pilgrims and I don't know what to do. I don't know where or how to get this thing going." sponsorship and ever since, with one brief interruption, has been completely satisfied to let Mr. Maddox, in the role of Budda, do its commercial talking for it via radio and to assign almost its entire advertising budget to the program. The one brief interruption came in mid-1935 when Mr. Maddox left KYA. Six weeks after he left the station, Marin Dell moved the program to KFRC, now the Don LeeMutual station in San Francisco, and reinstalled Mr. Maddox as m.c. Business Grows And Marin Dell grew with the program. By the end of 1935 its three routes had increased to 30. Today it services 65 routes and has some 90 dairy suppliers shipping their products directly into the South Van Ness St. "Plant That Budda Built." It draws from ranches throughout the Bay Area and reaches down into California's rich San Joaquin Valley for additional supply. Among consumers, Marin Dell is one of the best known dairy brand names in the area. Surveying this growth over the years, Mr. Foster today says : "I find no reason to regret my original decision to gamble on radio as I did 17 years ago. At first it was a hardship for our growing company to meet the weekly ex DEAN MADDOX, as Budda, in action during a broadcast of Marin Dell's Budda's Amateur Hour, aired on KFRC San Francisco each Saturday at 8 p.m. Program draws a large and enthusiastic studio audience. Page 26 May 15, 1950