Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1954)

Record Details:

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of department store business, are radio naturals. Mr. Rash: "We had 156 Ruth original children's dresses, regularly $7.98 to $12.98, selling them at $4.98 to $5.98 depending on size. The first day we sold 100, using radio exclusively. The rest were sold in the next couple of days, proving how people listen. "July 15 we had a sale of famous label ladies cotton and bemberg dresses, regularly $8.98 to $10.98, for $6.98. We had 220 dresses and sold 73 the first three hours after Jane Dalton mentioned them on WSPA. We got 200 more and used Jane again. Another sellout. We never did that well in newspapers." Another department store standby — August fur sales. Mr. Rash: "We built up our August fur sale for a week on radio, plus a small newspaper announcement. In three days we sold $5,000 worth of furs. It was the best August fur sale within my memory." And note this: Volume has not dropped at all in the men's department despite the general economic situation. THE FUTURE After four months with only token space in the Spartanburg dailies, plus space in Textile Tribune, a mailed shoppers' weekly, The Aug. W. Smith Co. is thinking along media lines this way: Mr. McGee: "We're crazy about radio and don't know what we would do without it. We have learned that an established store can do without newspapers. If we sign a newspaper contract we will not use anything like as much space. After all, we know newspapers aren't as necessary as they believe. There's a happy medium between radio and newspapers. We know we had been overdoing newspapers before, having refused to let them run over us and cram a deal down our throats. We weren't pessimistic or upset about dropping newspapers last June. We just wondered how well radio would do the main promotion job. Radio has done an outstanding job for us." Mr. Smith: "I definitely believe we should use both radio and newspapers." Mr. Smiley: "Radio has risen in my estimation. We have learned important lessons. Department stores should be more selective in their use of radio, not just buying time." Mr. Rash: "Radio can do a primary job for department stores if you put over a particular item. Repetition is the secret. Get people aware of an item and aware of the store. Radio is the best answer to a big promotion, giving more advertising per dollar than newspapers, judging by our four-month experience. All media are necessary. Newspapers used to be supplemented by radio. Now radio is a basic medium." In four summer months The Aug. W. Smith Co. has discovered a retailing device that department stores have been slow to accept, possibly because most of their executives have been newspaper-trained and stick to the traditional, if old-fashioned, white-space formula. Spartanburg's newspapers, having ruffled the feelings of their best advertiser, have had the experience of watching a competing medium deliver effective promotion — and at lower cost. 25 YEARS ON THE CHILDREN'S HOUR' THERE must be virtually millions of New Yorkers and out-of-town visitors to the city who swear by The Automat, more formally known as the Horn & Hardart Co., as their favorite eating place. In turn, H & H upholds one institution it certainly must swear by over any other — The Children's Hour radio program (Sun., WRCA New York, 10:30-11 a.m. EST). Otherwise, why would the world-famed restaurant and retail store chain sponsor the well-known children's show continuously for 25 years, without even a summer hiatus? The Children's Hour plus a 15 -minute Monday -through -Friday news program over WABC New York represents about 75% of H & H's advertising budget. It's bread-and-butter, or better still, apple pie-and-coffee logic that has prompted Horn & Hardart to pick up the tab each week for the past 25 years for a program it believes to be the oldest on radio (not including some that suspend for the summer) . Cyril V. Farley, executive vice president of H & H, told B«T last week that year in, year out, The Children's Hour has proved to be a most sound advertising investment. It was 25 years ago the first week in October that The Children's Hour was launched on WCAU Philadelphia, under H & H sponsorship, shifting in 1931 to WABC New York (now WCBS New York) and in 1939 to WEAF New York (now WRCA). Mr. Farley, then associated with the company, said officials had one notion in mind: "Everybody loves children and will listen to them." This theory proved accurate, along CELEBRATING the 25th anniversary of The Children's Hour are (I to r) Hamilton Shea, general manager of WRCAAM-TV; Cyril V. Farley, executive vice president of Horn & Hardart; Alice Clements, program producer and president of the Clements Agency, Philadelphia; Evangeline Hayes of Warwick & Legler, Hoffman agency; Alfred F. Trell, assistant general sales manager of Hoffman, and Ed Herlihy, m.c. of The Children's Hour. with a related conviction that the program would help to sell coffee, pies, desserts, frankfurters and beans, and other items associated with The Automat. As a test, shortly after the program was launched, H & H offered a booklet to listeners. Mr. Farley insisted that at least 50,000 booklets would be sought, but some company officials were skeptical. Within a few days, more than 65,000 requests poured in. "After that," Mr. Farley recalled with a smile, "there never was any question about renewing The Children's Hour." Mr. Farley voiced the belief that children, after listening to the program, ask their parents to take them to The Automat. When they grow up and have children of their own, he continued, they follow in this tradition. Long before The Pulse's disclosures on the growth and strength of summer radio, Mr. Farley held the conviction that the season of the year was not significant — at least, so far as The Children's Hour was concerned. He said his company's research indicated that the program had a loyal audience at beaches and at summer resorts, adding: "We never worry about the summer." During the tenure of the program over the past 25 years, H & H has grown from 18 retail stores to 48 and from 18 restaurants to 45 — all in the New York area, according to Mr. Farley. Sales last year totaled $41,833,645, as against about one-half of that figure in 1929. Mr. Farley paid tribute to Mrs. Alice Clements, who conceived the program in 1929 and who still writes and produces it. It is Mrs. Clements' deep understanding of children, he said, that has played an important part in the success of the program. (Since 1949 the show has been simulcast on WNBT [now W R C A T V ] New York. Three years ago Hoffman Beverage Co., New York, became a co-sponsor of the television show with Horn & Hardart). On the anniversary program on Oct. 3, some of the program's alumni came back for a reunion. These included Robert Q. Lewis, Arnold Stang, announcer Guy Lebow, comedian Lee Goodman, Red Benson, bandleader Alvey West and comedian N e a 1 Stanley. "We're looking forward," Mr. Farley said smilingly, "to the next 25 years." Page 106 • October 18, 1954 Broadcasting • Telecasting