Radio Mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

RADIO MIRROR (Continued You can't always be sure of such offers even when they are made in the name of some commercial firm, unless you personally know the firm. Some stations make up fake names for non-existent firms, and put on programs supposedly sponsored by these firms. Let's take a special case, in order to make this racket clearer. You hear a program sponsored by a firm calling itself the Eiffel Tower Hosiery Co. The announcer says: "As a special introductory offer, we will send listeners to this program three pairs of fine Eiffel Tower silk stockings, a flask of Toujours Vous perfume, and a beautiful hand-embroidered linen handkerchief — all for the introductory price of one dollar!" When the money starts to roll in the racketeering station manager hustles out to the nearest wholesale district, buys the cheapest and shoddiest hose, perfume, and handkerchiefs available, and mails it out. For her dollar the listener gets about forty cents worth of pure and assorted junk. The point rs. of course, that there is no Eiffel Tower Hosiery Co. It's just a fictitious name the station has thought up to lend credibility to its own racketeering scheme. Do you think that every time you hear something on the air you are hearing live talent unless the announcer says, "This is an electrical transcription," or otherwise tags the program as a recording? Yes. I know that according to law that is what he is supposed to do. but in practice this law is frequently violated outright or neatly evaded. This is how it is evaded in some stations: The announcer says. "You all know Bing Crosby from his radio broadcasts and his records. Here he is." The word "records" is included in the announcement, you see, and presumably that makes everything all right, even if the listener is left with the impression that he's listening to Bing in person. UAVE you ever heard your local an■■ nouncer. at the end of a network program, cut in and say that the program you just listened to was sponsored by So-andso? And have you thereupon been pleased because one of your favorite sustaining artists had gained a commercial? You shouldn't be. The network doesn't knowabout it. the star doesn't know about it. What has happened is that your local station has turned a non-commercial program into a commercial one by selling it to a local advertiser and keeping the money. You must always be on your guard against false and misleading advertising claims on small stations. The penalty is loss of a station's license to operate, but the advertising claims are sometimes so difficult to check on that it is hard to stop the practice completely. One case is typical. A clothing company was advertising over a western station, something like this: "Add one dollar to the price of any garment from SI 5 to S50 in our stock, and from page /7) receive two instead of one. And upon entering our store, mention this broadcast. If you do that, and make a two-garment purchase, you will be given two seats to next week's prize fight absolutely free!" Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? It was. Investigation revealed that the store in question not only failed to include some of its suits in the two-for-one offer, but that the prices marked on the clothes which were included, were exactly one hundred percent higher than they should have been — in other words, twice the proper amount for a single suit. Moreover, if a customer mentioned the broadcast upon entering the store he was really tipping off the salesman to charge him top prices — because he was a sucker! QUESTIONABLE accounts carried by small stations include advertising for medicines and remedies which have been condemned as worthless by government investigators. Astrologers and fortunetellers are also heard, promising to reveal your past and future life — even though the law clearly states that such people are not to be allowed on the air. Then there is the inevitable involved and complicated dodge which appears to an observer to mean so much hard work that the racketeer would be better off earning an honest living. Some performers go on the air for months absolutely free, taking not a cent of money from the small station they're heard over. Their racket is to ask listeners for letters containing little incidents which may be incorporated into the program, or for letters on some other subject, perhaps. What the racketeers want are the letters. In time, they collect an immense list of names and addresses. Then they quit the air, get themselves a suitcase full of cheap books, and start out on a house-tohouse canvass of the people who have written in. They have no difficulty getting to see their prospects, because the latter already know them by name, and are more or less flattered to be receiving a visit from a radio "star." Rackets — some of them petty, but all of them big enough to gather in hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal money. Radio is infested with them, and for its own sake it must clean house. Probably there are other rackets of which I know nothing — new and ingenious schemes for trapping the unwary. That is why you who read this, all over the country, must be on your guard for new tricks as well as those I've told you about here. Wiping out the rackets is too big a job for radio and the F. C. C. to handle without your help in pointing out where to attack. Have you too suffered — either at the cost of your money or your time — at the hands of the racketeers? If you have, or if you should in the future, write to the editor of Radio Mirror or to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington and help to prevent others from being victimized in the same way. HOW ABOUT A DATE WITH ONE OF RADIO'S RICH AND HANDSOME BACHELORS? Do you think you could qualify or make such a good impression you'd be asked out again? Check up on yourself by reading the fascinating revelations in the February Issue of RADIO MIRROR Learn to Make $30.$50.*75aWEEK fMioam i/ouai harm m Apa/m il/nub Do you want to make more money? Broadcasting stations employ engineers, operators, station managers and pay up to $5,000 a year. Spare time Radio set servicing pays as much as $200 to $500 a year— full time servicing jobs pay as much as $30, $50, $75 a week. Many Radio Experts own their own full or part time Radio businesses. Radio manufacturers and jobbers employ testers, inspectors, foremen, engineers, servicemen, paying up to $6,000 a year. 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