Broadcasting (July - Dec 1940)

CELEBRATING her 14th birthday, this pretty 14-year-old miss, Winnifred Norma Althea Chamberlain, of Marblehead, Mass., on Aug. 3 will be a special guest of the Ruth Moss Interviews feature on WNAC, Boston. Winnifred's intials and WNAC's call letters are identical because her father, one of WNAC's most loyal fans back in the "cat's whisker" days, decided to name his daughter after John Shepard 3d's key station for the Yankee Network. Thus she has become the station's "Miss WNAC" without contest. the hilt is a major problem that has been successfully handled by Bernard Winn, director of radio, Edwards Department Store, Syracuse. Noticing that the buyers originally endeavored to dump all unmoveables on his shoulders, he held frequent meetings; demonstrated ,what radio had done for others as a medium; spent weeks and months I of considered, shrewd and diploimatic educating, and finally suc'ceeded in building one of the strongest bonds of cooperation to 'be found anywhere between the j store radio department and buying /personnel. I Other stores carry on in much the same manner as Mr. Winn. In I addition they do everything possible to plug the program within the store with cards, prominent dis jplay of radio-mentioned specials. 'They stress it in all media and at jail times. It's all part of the job that must be done until radio wins jthe acceptance on which to demonstrate its value. I Length of Contract j Though placed last in the list of I points to be followed for successful I department store use of radio, length of store contract with the station is tremendously important. I In fact, many department store radio failures can be credited to the , mere fact that radio was not given sufficient time v/ithin which to show that it could compete with all other media when it comes to effective selling and the building of goodI will between the store and the pubi lie. I WTIC was well aware of this I hazard when it began soliciting department store business. This sta I tion met the problem by flatly stating to one prospect that radio / couldn't do the job expected within a 13-week contract period. And, I while it was anxious to get the store's business, it would accept nothing less than a 52-week noncancellable contract. The store eventually agreed on WTIC's j stand. SUCCESS FORMULA Candy Firm Wins Ad Prize for Use of Spots GOOD, sound "selling" copy. A good station. A consistent schedule, persistently maintained. Those are the principal i-easons why Brown & Haley recently took first prize for general advertisers using spot announcements in Tacoma. The contest was sponsored by the Tacoma Advertising Club. Brown & Haley, makers of candy bars and Almond Roca, candy specialty, have used four evening spot announcements per week for more than a year. The announcen.ents were spotted at peak listening periods during the evening. All of them ran o" KVI, Tacoma. Except for seasonal changes, at Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter, copy has featured the flavor and quality of the bars and the fact that they were made by Brown & Haley, recognized throughout the Northwest as quality candy makers. Proof of the success of the Brown & Haley formula is shown not only in the prize recently awarded by the Tacoma Advertising Club, but in a statement from the company officials. They report that Mountain Bar jobbers and wholesalers are now telephoning orders to the factory, instead of waiting for salesmen to call. They also say that there is now scarcely a dealer in the territory which does not carry Brown & Haley bars regularly. Advertising for Bi'own & Haley is handled by the Seattle office of Erwin, Wasey & Co. On first thought this contract stipulation might seem both hazardous and difficult to achieve. But it must be remembered that when considering radio as a mover of specific items on the first few shows, it is competing with newspapers which have built an audience and reader acceptance during a period of from 12 to 100 years, depending upon the age of the paper. Also, readers have been educated to expect and look for their favorite store's advertising in the daily paper. The radio station must compete with this and many other conditions which have been developed and firmly entrenched over a period of years. The new program must (1) establish a time-listening habit; (2) be sufficiently interesting the first time heard to bring back the listener; (3) be commercirlly powerful enough to make the listener act promptly without further reminder. Peril in Short Contracts It was noted that in numerous cases stations accepting contracts for less than 52 weeks had, in most cases, invited disaster. And every short-term contract disaster is another black mark against radio's ability to sell department store merchandise from day to day and month to month even more effectively than any other media now being used by the stores. Frankly, station's will find their selling harder; their new department store accounts less than before, but the long contract term is merely a gesture of fairness to the station itself, the industry in gen Red for Red WHEN the brewers of Red Top beer signed foi' a new Bowline/ Time series on WSAI, Cincinnati, the station stepped out and hired a redheaded announcer to handle the program. He is Red Thovnburgh, for the last three years on the sports announcing staff of WCPO, Cincinnati. Until Sept. 1, when the new program starts, Thornburgh will take his turn on the regular announcing staff. eral and the department store in particular. Taylor's, Kansas City, had its radio shopper "Joanne Taylor" mention a radio hosiery special. No other promotion was used. As a result of one mention made on one day, Taylor's sold 1,830 pairs of hosiery. Broken down, this averaged 449 pairs sold across the counter and 951 telephone orders. The switchboard was swamped for two hours and each customer ordered approximately two pairs. More Case Histories Montgomery-Ward, Minneapolis, decided to conduct a radio test. It asked listeners to come in and ask to see the Ward Foothealth Shoe and asked for salespeople No. 142 and 143. Fifty pairs of Foothealth Shoes were sold on the day of the radio mention, and clerks No. 142 and 143 sold four times as many pairs as the total sales made by the other nine shoe clerks who received no radio mention. E. W. Edwards & Son, Syracuse, which sponsors both a juvenile amateur show and an hour cooking school, credits radio with (a) creatinti' a substantial amount of store traffic each week; (b) extending its trading area well beyond the normal boundaries; (c) expanding its boys department; (e) attracting customers from Canada and Northern New York to travel distances of 300 to 403 miles to trade in Edwards. J. L. Hudson Co., Detroit, sums up its thought of radio when Jof.eph Mills, director of publicity, stated, "I feel the pulling power of radio is so strong that if we priced a certain piece of merchandise attractively enough, we could sell out the complete stock in one day!" DON'T HIRE A HALL Halls went the way of the Dodo bird, since WAIR took up the job of guiding incomes into the pockets of WAIR SPONSORS! It's "fixed"! 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Inquiries should indicate planned frequency, number of turnstile bays desired, location and height of building or supporting tower. JOHN E. LINGO & SON, INC. Dept. B-8A CAMDEN, N. J. VERTICAL RADIATORS BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising August 1, 1940 • Page 151