Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

PROGRAMS & PROMOTIONS continued CHEESECAKE and pies were used by WHB Kansas City, Mo., last month to tell its audience story. The station used two models to distribute apple pies — which had graphs made with icing to indicate WHB's audience in the eight station market — to forty local agencies. The girls also pointed out, "When you eat this pie, just as in buying Kansas City radio, you get the big slice when you stick with WHB." Above, the models present the pies to (1 to r) Bruce B. Brewer, president of Bruce B. Brewer & Co., and Jack Kirwan, that agency's radio-tv director. KSTP-TV Offers Paris Evening Looking ahead to New Year's Eve, KSTP-TV St. Paul-Minneapolis is suggesting that viewers try to make it to Paris to ring in 1958. A night on the Parisian capital is the jackpot offering in a 10-week contest now in progress on the weekday Treasure Chest audience participation show. Between now and New Year's, interim winners each week get a $50 steak knife and carving set for correctly identifying the names of girls in songs titles presented on the show. Simone Salles of the French Government Tourist Assn., in a Treasure Chest visit, promised viewers a visit to the Folies Bergere and a champagne evening in a Paris night spot. WCFL Features Policeman D. J. WCFL Chicago claims the nation's only combined traffic-safety and music show with a policeman disc jockey. For the past year Arch Hignett has been emceeing Mayor Richard J. Daley's safety program each evening (7:45-8), directing traffic tips to teenagers and parents alike and answering listeners' questions. Policeman Hignett heads Chicago's 21 -man Traffic Safety Education Unit and has been on the force 23 years. WTIX Holds 'Appreciation Night' WTIX New Orleans reports that more than 50,000 people crowded the shore of Lake Pontchartrain in that city when it scheduled its annual "Appreciation Night" at the Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park in September. The station arranged to fly in nine of the current top recording artists in the country for the show. Pontchartrain Beach officials said the "spectacular" drew one of the largest nighttime crowds in the history of the beach. Among the stars attending were George Hamilton IV, Tommy Leonetti, Jerri Adams and the Everly Brothers. CJON-AM-TV Seeks Ideas CJON-AM-TV St. John's, Nfld., is using a staff suggestion board to come up with new ideas for the stations. All staff members are listed on the idea board and are given a blue star if they come up with one or more ideas each week. At the end of the month awards are given, in the form of gold, red and green stars, each worth $20, $10 and $5, respectively, for the best idea. An expense-paid trip to New York is to be the prize for the best idea of the year, with a second prize of $100. 'Terry' Giveaway Promotion A giveaway promotion tie-in featuring cutouts of characters in Terry and the Pirates has been launched by the Friedman Shelby Div. of International Shoe Co., St. Louis, in connection with the filmed tv series in about 40 markets. The program series is timed to coincide with the back-to-school buying period as well as Thanksgiving Day and bad-weather buying trends. Cutouts are given away at dealers' stores handling Red Goose shoes. The agency is D'Arcy Adv. Co., St. Louis. BRASS AND BRASSHATS WIN A WAR Quiet again reigns in Stockton. A peace treaty has been signed between Field Marshal Sherwood and the beleaguered California municipality. (Field Marshal Sherwood is, of course, commander of the famous Sherwood-Harper Liberation Expeditionary Force of the Greater Bay Area Inc.) The "peace treaty" culminated events that started from a casual, on-the-air conversation. Don Sherwood, disc jockey at KSFO San Francisco, and Hap Harper, an aviator who flies a daily weatherobserving mission for the morning Sherwood show, were discussing the possibilities of bombing Stockton. Several thousand listeners, according to the station, volunteered their services. KSFO's manager, William D. Shaw, decided the idea had possibilities as a promotion. Thus was born the Sherwood-Harper Liberation, etc., etc. All volunteers were issued admirals' and generals' commissions. Lapel buttons bearing the battle cry, "Scharge — on to Stockton," were distributed to 15,000 listeners. Distribution was taken over by neighborhood Shell Oil dealers and distributors for Burgermeister beer. Highlight of the campaign was a "daring" daylight bombing raid on the city. Sherwood & Harper dropped 30,000 "surrender or else" leaflets on Stockton's streets. A second raid was canceled when street cleaners protested. Fifth column groups sprang up in both cities. Listeners sent gifts to the "troops." A San Francisco firm printed one hundred thousand $ l.OOOVi bills for invasion money. All was ready for D-Day. Lon Simmons, head of KSFO's sports department, was on hand at Stockton's Courthouse Square to keep KSFO listeners informed of the invasion's progress. Marshal Sherwood, in an M-47 tank, led the parade of jeeps and sportscars to the treaty signing. Attendants were his three aides-de-camp (see below). To the roar of gunfire (blanks shot off by the U. S. Army's 767th Tank Battalion), the peace treaty was signed. Observers included pilots of 1 62 light planes, 240 sportscar drivers, several hundred teen-age fans and a score of pigeons that occupy the upper levels of the courthouse. THE conquering heroes (1 to r) : pilots Joe Galeoto and Fred Wienholz; Ken Tilles, bugler; Field Marshal Sherwood; "slave-girl hostage" Nancy Griffin, and Hap Harper, honorary general in command of Sherwood's Air Force. Page 118 • October 14, 1957 Broadcasting