NBC Transmitter (Jan-Nov 1942)

OCTOBER 1942 13 GALA PARTY FOR WSYR ANNIVERSARY PARTY LINE— Novel stunt of WSYR’s celebration was gathering guests horn on each of the station s twenty birthdays. Here’s the group attending the birthday breakfast on September 15— one of several anniversary stunts winning wide attention. TRAIL OF THE DOTTED LINE (Continued from page 3) work five years or more, and 05 percenl have an unl)roken record of two years or more with us. d'hose figures easily speak volumes for themselves, hut there’s really more to the story than that. Every NBC salesman fairly radiates the indisputable fact that NBC is, today, the greatest advertising medium in the world, and he imparts the same feeling to his clients, keeping them constantly aware that, from the standpoint of top programs and public service offerings, to say nothing of its physical facilities, NBC heads all competitors in its field— and advertising contem]3oraries in other fields as well. And when 1 use the term “salesmen” 1 don’t mean just the 25 top men whose job it is to sell the network; I mean the entire NBC organization. The sales staff itself is hacked up by an array of advertising, promotion and research talent that deserves great credit for every sales contract and each renewal. Promotional experts, the copywriters, et al, are the “home defense” staff who back up the sales department. Finally, it’s the collective selling of NBC by the entire organization, from the president down, that sets the stage. Of course, the mere knowledge that we have the best advertising medium in the w orld is not sufficient to sell and resell network time to advertisers. That knowledge must be disseminated— not just once— but repeatedly. And it is done every time the network rolls up new and important achievements in listener surveys, in client results, in news scoops, etc. This happens often, and provides us with the best possible ammunition for new and repeated selling. To sum up, it is the combination of high-caliber stations throughout the country, the top-flight programs of our advertisers, our great public service programs and hard-hitting sales promotion and press activities, as well as the attitude of the entire organization, which keeps NBC on top as the network most people listen to most. STAFF WAR TALKS • Charles Laughton, the screen star, and John F. Royal, NBC vice-president in charge of international relations, recently addressed the NBC New’ York staff. Laughton boosted War Bond sales; Royal discussed his wartime London visit. ♦ From a fat-faced, one-year-old stuffing cornflakes happily into his mouth with chubby hands, to a cute co-ed of 20 eating luscious birthday cake, an unusual guest list helped WSYR to celebrate its twentieth anniversary on September 15. There were 20 honored guests and each of them had been born on the station’s birthday in one year of the 20 years of WSYR’s existence. Not a year was skipped, from Suzanne Gloger, born on the same day as the station — September 15, 1922 — right down to one-vear-old Frederick VanMarter, who turned out to be a mugger par excellence and just about stole the show at the birthday breakfast in the Hotel Syracuse last month. Colonel Harry C. Wilder, president of WSYR. was away, but the host was Fred R. Ripley, vice president. Each of the guests carried off a slab of birthday cake and a crisp, new fivedollar bill as a present, while 20-year-old Miss Gloger, installed as WSYR’s Birthday Girl, was given a new fall outfit on the Syracuse Lhiiversity campus, where she is a senior. In addition, every listener with a birthday on September 15, wbo wrote in at the station’s request, received one dollar in War Stamps. Pressing hard on the birthday idea to emphasize the station’s long standing in Central New York, WSYR made the first baby born in Syracuse on September 15 a lucky kid. He was Robert Earl Coon, born at 4:15 a.m., and during the day Miss Gloger went to the hospital and ])resented the babe w ith a S50 War Bond. These two stunts got space in both Syracuse newspapers. All day the station w as busy w ith birthday greetings and the tune “Happy Birthday” was played behind station breaks and became the theme of as many shows as possible. In the evening the station’s entire talent roster and civic leaders joined in a half-hour birthday show. Baby Robert Earl Coon, first baby born in Syracuse on ll SYR’s twentieth birthday, receives a S50 If ar Bond from the station. It is being presented by Suzanne Gloger, born the same day as the station in 1922.