Mickey Markoff With Hyundai Air & Sea Show

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Diaz Trade Law, your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio. We have Mickey Markoff with the Hyundai Air and Sea Show. Welcome.

Mickey Markoff: [00:00:33] Hey, thanks, Lee, for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:34] I am so excited to hear more about this great event. Tell us about the Hyundai Air and Sea Show. How did it get started and is it everything you dreamt it could be?

Mickey Markoff: [00:00:46] Yes, it is. And we’re excited about it. There is no better time than Memorial Day weekend to pay tribute to the men and women of our US military and those that protect us, those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom. Memorial Day become a holiday here in America where people are going out and buying a mattress or having a barbecue, or if you live up north, it was the first day of summer and people forgot about the fact that there’s over 2 million people that have paid the ultimate sacrifice, gave their lives. Kids that don’t have fathers and parents that don’t have children, also that we can have the freedom and freedom isn’t free. So that’s why we brought this national salute to America’s heroes, to Miami Beach. And of course, it’s taking place this year on May 27th and 28th. So we’re excited about the fact that we’re doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:39] Lee So what was kind of the genesis of the idea? Because it sounds very logistically complex to pull off an event like this?

Mickey Markoff: [00:01:48] Well, it’s a multi dimensional jigsaw puzzle for sure. It’s the largest gathering of military equipment in our country. It’s all free to the public to come down to South Beach off of Ocean Drive. We do reroute all the air traffic out of the international airport. We shut down miles of the ocean and we’re bringing in equipment from all over the country. Many of the items like the B-2 stealth bomber, the B-1 bombers, a lot of our fighter jets, they never land here. So they have to be time over target within six seconds. And so it is it’s definitely a logistical jigsaw puzzle. But, you know, we have a great team and we’re working really closely with all the governmental agencies. And, you know, when we all come together, it’s we’re you know, we’re baking quite a cake. But again, I think the reason we’re doing it is to is to make sure that people understand, as I told you earlier, that freedom isn’t free. And we just want people to come out and meet their military. You know, people don’t humanize the fact that these people are here. You know, you might see them in an airport and say thanks for your service or something, but here’s a chance to come out and see all of the most incredible technology.

Mickey Markoff: [00:02:57] Meet the people, five city blocks of military displays right there off of Ocean Drive between 10th and 14th Street. And then, of course, you can view the show all the way from, you know, government cut. They’re down at where the port is all the way up to 22nd Street where the one hotel is. The best viewing area, of course, is between 10th and and 14th, just east of that big display village that we have with all the equipment. And and then, of course, it’s televised, you know, internationally and nationally. We have three one hour television specials and 11,000 radio commercials promoting it. So I think, you know, it’s going to be quite the extravaganza. And again, it’s family oriented. It’s free, it’s wholesome, it’s patriotic. So, you know, it’s just I think it’s a it’s a signature event here for South Florida. And we’re just honored to be able to work with everyone to put it on.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:51] Now, you mentioned that all five branches of the military are involved in this. This isn’t just one branch. Why was that important to you to include everyone?

Mickey Markoff: [00:04:01] Well, you know, the Department of Defense and our military is, you know, the obviously the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Coast Guard. And then, of course, we even bring in homeland security. The purpose of this event is not like your normal air show you’d go see at some airport. Yes, it is a remote show and it’s located on the beautiful shores of Miami Beach. But the idea of this event is to show actual capabilities, exercises from each branch of the military. So the US Coast Guard is doing an air sea rescue demonstration. The US Air Force is doing a full para rescue demonstration. They’ll have all the big gun ships up in the sky. Then they’ll have the A-10 fighter jets at a lower level than they have the the the helicopters and their guys jumping out just as if they were saving a pilot in harm’s way. Then you have US customs doing a drug interdiction, good guy boat chasing the bad guy boat with the helicopters above them. Army is coming in with a special operations capabilities exercise. 54 people, they’re going to be dropping boats out of the helicopters, inflating them, coming right up on the shore, invading the beach. So each of these different capabilities exercises showcase what the opportunities are, what these people do to protect our freedom. And the reason we do it, Lee, is because the US military has incredible opportunities for today’s youth.

Mickey Markoff: [00:05:30] People don’t understand that. They think it’s like carrying a rifle or you’re going to war. That is not what these military is all about. You know, there’s 150 career opportunities alone in the US Army. And, you know, anything you want to do in your life, you can do it for real if you join the service. You know, you like playing with with drones or you like playing video games or you like, you know, doing sports things like, you know, um, you know, I have a son who does motocross. I mean, the type of stuff you can do with, with, with equipment that you can play with, you know, flying fighter jets. So there’s just incredible opportunities for the kids today to look at the opportunities that the military offers them, not only in the way of career, but education, health insurance and health benefits. They have signing bonuses now in the tens of thousands of dollars. And so there’s just real opportunities for you to meet your military and see if the military is the right thing for you to do. You know, great core values, integrity, excellence, incredible amount of camaraderie that if you join in the military. So a lot of good a lot of good people involved in the military. And they’re they’re just it’s a really good group of people to be involved with.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:50] Now, is there an opportunity for local business people to participate as well, or is this primarily a military function?

Mickey Markoff: [00:06:59] Yeah. So what we’ve done is we’ve created this national salute to America’s heroes, and we have these corporate partnerships and corporations get involved and they’re able to salute the men and women of our military. And each of the activities that we have, that we bring in to build the event, we allow a corporation to put their name on it. So, for instance, Monster Energy Drink has come on board inside the display village. We’ve got their monster energy motorcycle team and they’re doing motocross, they’re doing jumping 300ft. We’ve got guys doing double backflips on motorcycles in that area. So if a corporation wants to have a display space where they can sample their products or showcase their products or talk to people, you know, tens of thousands of people walk through that display area. Other corporations get involved because they want to entertain their clients or their employees. And we have these corporate chalets where you’re sitting there, right there in the private area of the beach, right at the landing zone, You know, air conditioned restrooms, fully catered, you know, food and and drink right at the like I said, right at the landing zone. So it’s all, you know, beautiful corporate chalet. We’ve got skyboxes that corporations have. We have little cabanas for 14 people. If a corporation wants to entertain, you know, some employees, you know, maybe they have veterans that they want to bring out in their families. So you’ve got the opportunity for either hospitality, for display and then like different corporations can own different activities. We have companies that own the the Beach club area.

Mickey Markoff: [00:08:38] We have companies that have, you know, different names, for instance. Cigaret offshore powerboats. They’re a major partner of ours. They’re doing a whole offshore powerboat racing demonstration with all their state of the art race boats and they’ll be running through before the air show portion of it starts. And they have a corporate chalet where they’re entertaining, you know, people and it’s called the cigaret offshore powerboat racing demonstration. We’ve got veterans. Florida has gotten involved and they’re doing the fireworks show. The Veterans Florida fireworks extravaganza. So, you know, the show takes place both Saturday and Sunday. And all of the activities surrounding the event have corporate partners that are attached to them. So, you know, you’ve got Yuengling beer and you’ve got Jack Daniel’s and you’ve got, you know, Coca Cola products and you’ve got so all these companies, there are about 35 corporations. There’s certainly room for more. And they all get an incredible amount of benefit because we have they get radio, they get newspapers, they get PR, they get social media, they get, you know, just an incredible amount of media exposure as well as all the value on site, you know, signage and PR announcements and the big screens. And so there’s a lot of value for corporate America to be involved in this. Um, the return on investment is very, is very, very large compared to, you know, other events that of course we produce major events all over and this is probably the highest return on investment of any event in the sense that we have so much value that we can offer.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:20] Is there going to be music as well?

Mickey Markoff: [00:10:23] Yeah. So I’ll tell you what’s really exciting. You know, as we were starting to grow this event and not only be Miami Beach and the military and and and Memorial Day weekend, but then we started to add music. And, you know, last year we had concerts with three doors down and we’ve had flowrider. But I’ll tell you what’s really exciting and you’ll be the first to know is that the US Army has joined us now and we’ve created a new leg on the stool, so to speak, and it’s called the US Army Salute Fest and the US Army Salute Fest. It’s going to have three major musical talent acts throughout the day and into the evening, mixed in with the RNC show. And like I say, we’re going to be televising it. We have Peter Berg, you know, arguably one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood, and he’s going to be producing a television special from the event. And we’re going to be airing that right after the event. So it’ll be live to tape and it’s going to be really exciting. So it’ll be some very, very significant musical talent here this year. And, you know, with the Army, maybe it’s the Golden Knights jumping in and introducing the act or the Apache attack helicopter pilots introducing an act from their helicopter while they’re sitting off shore, you know, staring at the crowd. So there’s going to be some pretty big excitement going on with major music. And then we’ve added a major drone show this year. It’ll be 500 drones doing a nighttime drone show going into the big fireworks extravaganza as well on Saturday night. So, um, you know, it keeps getting bigger every year. And this year, of course, with the, the US Army. A salute fest is part of the Hyundai Air and Sea Show and part of the big music Explosion concert on Sunday night as well. So it’ll be two nights of concerts and fireworks and a whole lot of added attractions besides the Hyundai Air and Sea Show during the day.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:19] And then if somebody wants to learn more, maybe get the event schedule so they know when to come and what interests them. Is there a website?

Mickey Markoff: [00:12:28] Absolutely. It’s USA salute.com. Usa salute.com. You can learn all about the event there. Tickets will be going on sale for that whole VIP beach club area for anybody who wants to get some general admission tickets to be right there by the landing zone. You can do that. You know, we’re really honored to have Hyundai coming back for their seventh year as our title partner. They really authentically understand that, you know, they probably wouldn’t even exist. They’re back due to the Korean War. You know, our military was so supportive there in the Korean War. And so there have been a big title sponsor of ours. And like I said, with all the other partners that we have, every time we bring in a new partner, we bring in a new activity. And it just makes the show bigger and better and exciting. So incredible opportunity for corporate America again, public can come out and just have an incredible family day out there on Miami Beach. There’s no place better. The city’s been incredibly cooperative. The county, of course, very, very cooperative. All the governmental agencies have been just a pleasure to work with because everyone understands that, you know, we’re doing the right thing. I mean, what what what better than to say thank you and recognize that, you know, we live in a great country and freedom isn’t free. And these are the people that are at the tip of the spear protecting us and keeping us so that we can do just the freedom of speech we have right now being on this radio station with you. So.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:53] Well, Mickey, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you one more time. The website USA silhouet.com. Mickey Markoff making it happen. Thank you again for sharing your story.

Mickey Markoff: [00:14:08] Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:10] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on South Florida Business Radio.