Radio showmanship (Sept 1940-May 1941)

in a 30-mile radius of Hartford, but during these 13 years, we have accumulated questions from all parts of the world. Some of our regular listeners have been contributing since the program first began. Just before Valentine's day of last year, Jack mentioned an 87-year-old lady living in a convalescent home in Hartford. He told listeners he was planning to send her a valentine, and that this would probably be the only one she would receive unless some of the listeners remembered her, too. As a result, she found 636 valentines in her mailbox on February 14th, and in addition, letters, poems, handkerchiefs, quantities of candy, cookies, and cakes. At times, we have offered various premiums to re-stimulate interest in our family of question-writers. This last winter during just one of our programs, we offered a photostatic copy of the Declaration of Independence to all who would send in questions. Fifteen hundred listeners responded. Mail power is only part of our long story. Certainly, all these letters would have been hardly worth receiving had not sales climbed along with mails. Thirty years ago, we had just one small store, with just one service car and a few helpers. Today, business has expanded to include two large stations, 10 service cars, and 62 helpers. When radio salesmen approached W illi am H i c k e y , president of Jack the Tire Expert, they didn't have to sell him on the idea of advertising and radio. A former Lord & Thomas advertising man, Hickey left there to become assistant advertising manager of the Miller Rubber Co. When World War I came, Hickey enlisted, came home to set up a sales promotion department at Miller's and handle foreign advertising. Four more years in Akron, and then to Norwalk, Conn., to become advertising manager of the Norwalk Tire & Rubber Co. In 1925, Hickey took over Jack the Tire Expert in Hartford, Conn., and in the past 16 years has watched his company blossom into a Connecticut institution. The last sentence in his story on this page is no afterthought. William ''Bill" Hickey believes in showing personal interest in his customers, encourages initiative among his employees. I wouldn't say it's all due to radio. We've always tried to be first with new merchandising ideas. We were first to offer Hartford automobile owners free air, first to give road map service, first with the five-in-one station, first with budget payments, first with practically all the new servicing equipment. But radio has done its part! When we started our quiz show, radio received about 10% of our total advertising appropriation, with newspapers getting the lion's share. Today, 40% of our advertising dollars are spent in radio, 40% in newspapers, the rest in direct mail ami outdoor signs. We specialize in General Tirbs, and we start oft our program by dramatically illustrating the quick stopping, non skid feature he tire with surprisingly realistic sound tS. 'I he middle of our pro-ram is usually a dramatic skit featuring two or three aCtOH ami a sound efterts man. It leads into our commen ials. ngle point w< stress m all our commercials is how easy it is to buj under our income furchau tervict (budget paj inrii! One of the favorite characters who appears each year on the program is Zike Pick's parrot. (Zike and his parrot are featured on a popular rural show on the same station.) As the parrot rattles off a commercial for us, the listeners are asked to write in and interpret the parrot's gibberish. Hundreds of different sales messages are sent in by enthusiastic listeners. In many ways, I consider the close tie-up between store name and program name an outstanding factor in our success. The part of Jack on the radio show is taken by Jack Whelan, a veteran tire man. around whose personality our store name has been built. Jack is an unaffected character ami carries the program along with a pleasant, folksy manner. What we have accomplished in 13 \ears isn't difficult to duplicate. It's based on a sound merchandising plan, a sound advertising campaign, ami perseverance. Success happens overnight only in story hooks! 136 RADIO SHOWMANSHIP