Play Meter

money is, because of the income. But you have to
look also at your cost of doing business. And, I've
found that many operators only look at the income
side of the ledger. If they had taken the time to
analyze the cotton-pickin' thing, they would have
found that although the games business produces a
large income, it also produces an enormous
expense. Operators should remember that they
shouldn't separate the expenses of their operation
because if they do they won't realize the value of
the jukebox. I think this is why many operators
have begun de-emphasizing the phonographs. They
have been looking at the wrong end of the ledger.
They have looked totally at the income.
PLAY METER: How can an operator promote
jukebox play?
VAN BRACKEL: Well, all the little gimmicks that
the manufacturers come up with will help some, but
that type of help, I've found, is short-lived. The
biggest thing that helps the jukebox stay in
prominence is programming the phonographs
properly. And that, again, is something a lot of
operators don't do. I've been told by a lot of people
that I spend too much money on records, but I don't
believe it. We put, on an average, five records on
every jukebox every week. That means that if the
stop is checked once every other week, that
jukebox will get anywhere from ten to twelve
record changes. And if it's a phonograph that's
checked every third week, then that jukebox will
get anywhere from fifteen to eighteen records.
That doesn't mean all those records are brand new,
but there will be on the average five records
changed in that phonograph. So, as you can see, we
really believe in programming. Proper program-
ming is one of the keys to making money in this
business. I really don't think an operator is
programming properly if he's changing only two or
three records a week. I think if an operator is trying
to cut his expenses by shortcutting his music
programming, he's making a big mistake.
PLAY METER: On what do you base your
conclusion that operators should be paying more
attention to music programming?
V AN BRACKEL: One of the main reasons I feel
this way is that in the past ten years we have
bought fourteen companies, and the first thing we
do when we buy a company is switch it over to our
way of programming. And with twelve of the
fourteen companies we've bought, we have
increased the music income anywhere from
twenty-five to one hundred percent. I know that
sounds big, but I'm not exaggerating. We get that
much of ari increase in earnings, and we do it totally
by programming. The next thing we do is get into
the area of updating our machines.
PLAY METER: Who does your music program-
ming?
VAN BRACKEL: Our head programmer has been
with us for 28 years, and when you have a man with
that much experience you have a definite
advantage. He'll use the trade charts and all other
available information, including radio plays. And he
also goes pretty much by the meter. He has carte
Continued on page 138
Don Va n Bracke l, far left , was one of the members of the governmen t relations committee for the A.M. O .A. who
testified at hearings before th e Copyright Royalty Tribunal . Others , from left , Fred Granger, Garland Garrett, and
Nicholas Alle n .
PLAY METER , November, 1978
17