When it comes to businesses that advertise on local TV stations, you probably wouldn’t think one that buys junk cars would be among them.

“I had not ever thought about television before he called,” says Matt Wangelin, owner of Wangelin’s Auto, a company that picks up junk cars in addition to selling used cars and car parts. “So it was kind of exciting. We had talked a little bit about pricing, and I thought wow, I can afford that.”

The ‘he’ Wangelin, refers to is Alex McFarland, an account executive at WQAD, Tegna’s ABC-MyNetworkTV affiliate in Moline, Ill., serving the Quad Cities area of northwestern Illinois and southeastern Iowa.

Wangelin says McFarland called on him in 2020 about doing some TV advertising on WQAD.

“I think he saw my advertising on Facebook,” Wangelin says.

McFarland says when met with Wangelin, he asked him what his capabilities were in terms of picking up junk cars, and discovered that if Wangelin got a call before noon, he could a car that very day.

“So I said why don’t we run a campaign that we play it in the morning and say if you call us right now we will come out today,” McFarland says.

 “It really works well for my type of business,” Wangelin says. “I give them a price right there over the phone, if they agreed to it, we set up a time, and pick it up. So it made sense to spend the money to get the calls because maybe getting just a few vehicles would pay for the advertising.”

McFarland says the plan was to run a 15-second spot from 5 to 9 in the morning.

 “The hook was we will haul it away if you call us today,” he says.

WQAD has been trying to get testimonials from its customers to play on air to help drive new business, McFarland says.

So when they asked Wangelin if he would do on, Wangelin agreed.

“They have treated me well and I really like Alex and I said, if it helps you I will do it,” Wangelin says.

The testimonial has just started airing so it’s too early to report on any results.

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