Radio showmanship (Sept 1940-May 1941)

Department Stores SANTA CLAUS "Our Santa Claus program was a definite appeal to the children in our trading area to visit our store. Of course, they were accompanied by at least one parent, thereby giving us a direct customer contact. "Santa talked to the children by a two-way radio hook-up, and though he was never seen, great interest was shown by the children in just talking to him. Tuesday was set aside for the little colored children, and it was an outstanding success in forming good will among our colored customers. "Children stood in line for more than an hour before each afternoon broadcast, and we were able to have Santa talk to about 25 on each program. We were so much sold on the drawing power of the Santa Claus show that we have again contracted for it this year." George Causey Belk's Department Store Greensboro, N. C. AIR FAX: (See Christmas Promotions, page 105.) Men's Wear ALARM CLOCK CAPERS "We are especially grateful to Ralph Powers of WFBR, who has done a splendid bit of work for the Bond Store in Baltimore. His cooperation at Christmas time when we put on a drive for books to be distributed to charity institutions is to be highly commended. As a result of Mr. Powers' personally supervising the collection of books, we were able to obtain approximately 22,000 volumes of various types, the distribution of which created a great amount of good will we could not otherwise have secured." D. A. Blumberg Manager Bond Store, Baltimore, Md. AIR FAX: Announcer Ralph Powers conducts a 3-hour morning variety show on station WFBR. Broadcasts consist of popular recordings, time, weather and news reports. Bond Clothes sponsors a daily 15-minute period on the show throughout the year. To add interest to the commercials, emcee ties in a brief anecdote about one of the store's employees. (Example: Employees' champ angling, golf feats, etc.) Broadcast Schedule: Monday thru Saturday, 7:458:00 A.M. Preceded By: Five-minute news broadcast (same variety show). Followed By: Time report and popular recordings (same variety show). Sponsor: Bond Clothing Stores. Station: WFBR, Baltimore, Md. Power: 5,000 watts. Population: 854,144 (1940). COMMENT: Shows of this type are much dependent upon personality, popularity, palaver of conductor. Power's pep puts punch in program. Most U. S. stations have a star salesman on a participating show who can be put to work at a minimum of cost to sponsor. Slim budgets can do a job on a co-op program. Drug Stores THE WFBR-READ'S TOY SCOUT PARADE "I can't express in so many words how much we all appreciated the efforts which Mr. Ralph Powers and the entire WFBR organization made on WFBR-Readjs Toy Scout Campaign last Christmas. We feel this did us a tremendous amount of good and are very happy that so many poor children received gifts at Christmas time who otherwise might not have received a visit from Santa Claus at all. In our opinion, the promotion was extremely successful and we intend to repeat it this year." Roy Goldheim Merchandising Manager Read Drug Company, Baltimore, Md. AIR FAX: (See Christmas Promotions, page 107.) NOVEMBER, 1940 A Ghost of an Idea may be the beginning of a successful sales campaign. In this issue there is a collection of some of the best tried and tested program promotions being used in the country today. One of them may be adaptable to YOUR business. We will be glad to furnish more detailed information on any of the programs listed. HI