Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1942)

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away at a piano, then tells the listening audience all about the instrument before he goes on with another song. A year ago his department consisted of a very small corner of the store. Today, we rent a separate three-story building for the sale of pianos (and musical instruments which we recently added) . We conduct piano sales in cities all over the state, using local radio stations to boost our sales. Luck? Not a bit of it! Results like this occur only when there is a plan behind the radio campaign. Every spot announcement we buy is used for a specific purpose. In the first place, we use them in a campaign over a period of weeks to build up a department or a particular service, and over the past few years we have accumulated every good spot we could acquire. In the second place, we use a mass of them to back up a sale, a fall opening, Santa's arrival or some other unusual event. For such an occasion every spot we use regularly, plus all the others we can buy, are thrown into putting over the one idea. And does it ever work! For ten Christmas seasons, for example, we have daily plugged the arrival of Santa Glaus by air. The campaign continues over WBRC from November 1 to Christmas. Santa first radios from the North Pole, then from Nome, Seattle, Denver and St. Louis. Finally, on November 7, he comes to Birmingham by airplane. Every year that Birmingham airport is jammed with 10,000 kids! (And Santa stays on the air for a halfhour each day right up to Christmas Eve.) But while we buy all the spots we can get, we buy only good spots. By this, I mean spots that either precede or follow a program with a large audience. Of the two, we prefer the spot which follows a show with a large audience. The public may be lazy dial twisters, but every last one of them are dial twisters nevertheless. We peg our spots to On opposite page ... As this family picture at the Birmingham airport itidicates, Edward Pi. Hunvald takes to the air in more ways than one, finds it smooth sailing. Below . . . When the PIZITZ DEPARTMENT STORE announced its Quiz Kids show, it had to winnow its way through a field of 1,000 applicants. For the finals held on the stage of the Alabama Theatre, the five brainiest moppets faced a packed audience of 3,000. Tommy McFarland, left, rated best, took all the honors. JANUARY, 1942