Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

wishes for years now — and more than ever will go out next Christmas. That same chummy, friendly, human element is in radio. Radio is full of it. People like to talk about it. Do you use it for all it is worth? Do you perhaps pride yourself in being only on the mechanical side of this industry? Do you fail to interest yourself in the art side? Do you fail to realize that the art of selling canned salmon is a very different art from that of selling flowers, or pearls, or pictures, or radio? // / Operated a Radio Store What would I do about it if I operated a radio shop?" A fair enough question. Specifically, I don't know. Generally speaking, I'd try to get some of the atmosphere of broadcasting into my shop. I doubt if I'd do it by having a loud speaker over my door with its noises mixing with the street noises into a blend of discord. If I fancied the microphone work of Graham MacNamee or some other famous announcer, I think I'd try to have his picture in my shop. I'd expect it to start some conversation which might make a sale. If I had pictures about I'd have some good ones of announcers and artists. I'd make all the "hook-up" I could with the broadcasting side of radio. Separate parts of an industry are very prone to isolate themselves from each other to their mutual detriment. I believe I would employ a store decorator and tell him or her that I wanted a genuine atmosphere of broadcasting as well as of the mechanics of radio. I'd consult that decorator and try to work out something fine. If a manufacturer who sold me goods should also send me cheap-john lithographs I'd send them back and tell him what was wrong with them. I'd study the problem from all angles, consult authorities if I could find them, and try to work out something which gave to my shop the physical aspects of romance, the existent romance which radio still means. I'd show graphically, in any way I could, the news values and the educational facilities which radio offers as well as the art values. "Everybody knows all about radio." Guess again. Nobody knows all about radio, and the majority know but very little. It is easy to show most anyone how much more fun and profit he can have from radio. Keeping Radio Alive Don't let the romance of radio be absent from your shop! We will keep radio alive and growing by keeping its romance alive. We have to assume that our dealer knows the elements of retailing, knows how and what to buy, and how to mark up to make a profit. What we are concerned about particularly is the extra chance of business, maybe 20 per cent., Your customer's on his side interest is in programs. If you jump the gap and get of the ditch your influence with him will double maybe more, in which profits he. That extra chance lies in the personality of a business, its artistic and social good will, its ability to be friendly and instructive. Put an understanding of the fine points in human relationships on top of the knowledge which a radio merchant must have and his selling chances begin to increase rapidly. If I could give the radio man a phrase to remember about his business it would go something like this: "Commonplace and familiar to me, very interesting to others." I think our dealer is apt to know so much about his trade that he forgets the fact that others do not know so much, and that they can be interested easily in anything pertaining to radio. He knows much about it. If he keeps that knowledge all in his head he misses a big chance to use it at a profit. If he makes his shop a fascinating place to visit, more people will visit it. If they are shown things there more people will buy. Simple? Yes, but easily forgotten, and the radio dealer has this advantage to a greater degree than most others. He has a more interesting product to sell than most others. • JULY 1929 • • 135