Radio annual and television yearbook (1940)

PROMOTION DIGEST resulted in a tourney so much bigger than was expected that "we are still gasping." Two hundred boys participated last year with 14,000 persons viewing the fights. This year station had 300 contestants and a crowd of 32,000. Tourney, under the general supervision of Bill Brown, WHO sports editor, was held in the local Coliseum, Feb. 14, 15, 16 and 22. PRUNE SALE HYPO #T A potent store tieup with Hedda Hopper's ^» "Hollywood Discoveries" on V7TMJ for the California Prune Industry jumped a Milwaukee store's Saturday prune sales from 50 to 460 pounds, the station reports. Earl Tetting, Lord & Thomas special merchandising man, planted a girl in Gimbel Brothers' store to pass out hors d'oeuvres consisting of prune halves and Milwaukee cream cheese. The demonstrator, plugging California prunes and Hedda Hopper's opus on WTMJ, upped the day's prune sales for the store more than 800 per cent. The demonstration booth was surrounded with promotion advertising for the program. WMCA's NET SHOWS £[ PUBLICIZING the eight network daytime ^^» script serials aired between 8 and 10 p.m. on WMCA, New York, the independent station ran 8-inch ads in the daily press. In addition to giving time of each program, ads feature the slogan "dial Romance tonight — two hours of love, laughter, heartbreak, thrills!" KLZ WAR COVERAGE ^T TO promote 24-hour coverage of European ^* war news by KLZ, Denver, station made tie-ups whereby station's news services were publicized in four local motion picture theaters. Sixty-foot trailer, graphically illustrated by photos of troop movements and other war scenes, were shown in all four houses and were climaxed by flashing a photograph of H. V. Kaltenborn on the screen with appropriate block letter copy describing the KLZCBS-INS coverage. One theater gave station credit lines for news bulletins supplied at program breaks. Special service was announced by a screen slide with the news bulletins being read over p. a. system by a KLZ staff announcer. Theater featured this service in its newspaper ads in addition to a lobby display publicizing the stunt. HOT SOUP ^T A unique way of backing up the Camp^^ bell's Soup program was devised by KOY, Phoenix, which served bowls of hot soup to all its studio audiences throughout a week. Listeners were invited to come down and witness any of the daily programs originating in Phoenix and to have a bowl of soup. Thousands of bowls of soup were dispensed. MOVIE PROMOTION ^T "NEWS in the Air," 30-minute sound ^» movie, was shown to more than six hundred South Carolina Esso dealers meeting in Columbia as guests of Standard Oil United Press, and WIS. Film traced route of radio news from source to final airing by "Esso Reporter," then advanced suggestions by which dealers could promote program with greatest profit to themselves. "Esso Reporter" began January 30 at WIS on a four-a-day schedule for one year. WANTED: CHARM ^T A survey was made with Bill Treadwell, ^*» radio writer, as chairman and several prominent radio names as committeemen, to find the ten people in the United States who possess the most charm. Charms Candy Co., of Bloomfield, N. J., with promotion head W. W. Reid, 3rd, were in back of promotion with the results exhibited at New York World's Fair. DOURLE FEATURE ^T IN cooperation with a local theater, the ^^ bakers of Longview, Cal., arranged a "Big Radio Kiddie Show" to which children were admitted for five cents and five local bread wrappers. Children saw radio show in addition to regular theater feature and had the opportunity of appearing before the microphone during the half-hour airing from theater's stage. Kiddie show is a regular feature of KFRO. USES RAILROAD POSTERS ^T THE New York, New Haven & Hartford ^^» Railroad placed colorful posters in its stations and trains calling attention to its daily news program over WEEI, Boston. The railroad sponsors "Herald-Travel" news daily. RCA STICKERS C FOLLOWING RCA Manufacturing Co.'s renewal of its contract for "Music You Want," transcribed feature on KGO, the Leo J. Meyberg Co., RCA distributor in San Francisco and northern California, pasted small stickers on all its packages, calling attention to fact that show was heard over KGO six nights weekly at 11:15 p.m. Idea proved so successful in stimulating interest in radio sales, it is expected to be followed on a national scale by RCA dealers throughout the country, as the program is heard over key NBC outlets. Program consists of RCA recordings by world-famous artists. MOVIE SHORT ^T WFBL, Syracuse, is receiving widespread ^* publicity through a movie short recently completed by the New York State Conservation Department which is being shown throughout the state on request. The picture, which deals with the re-stocking of streams, shows 853