Radio showmanship (Sept 1940-May 1941)

came up with a show called Rock-a-bye Lady. We called in a young lady by the name of Margaret Hootman (Kalamazoo College) and put her on the air. Her stock in trade are the week's birth announcements. Congratulations are extended to the parents, and the infants' names proclaimed. Rock-a-bye Lady is now in its thirty-fourth week on the air. Our diaper service is not the most profitable branch of our business, but it's not losing money either; within a year I'm confident that it will prove a marked addition to the all-around service we offer. The only assistance we gave the program was to include the name of it along with the station and the time it was on the air in our newspaper advertisements. But whatever growth our diaper service may have will be due entirely to the radio program. But Rock-a-bye Lady was merely an addition to our regular radio schedule. For over a year now, ever since I finally got around to noticing the importance of newscasts and what a flock of listeners (and customers) they attracted, we have been sponsoring the one o'clock news period on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. (With Rock-abye Lady on the air Wednesday morning, that schedule gives us a full five-day week of broadcasts.) Do our programs have listeners? Are we getting our money's worth on the air? I had often asked myself these questions. Sure, business was up, but could I honestly point to radio and say, "Mister, that's what did it?" We have had any number of good shows on the air, daytime and nighttime. One of them was Ida Bailey Allen, the home economics expert's program (via transcription) for 26 weeks. Add to that, the fact that I know small town listeners are more critical of radio presentations, as a whole, than resi dents of larger cities. (That's one of my pet theories and is based on personal observation. Small-towners, for example, travel three times as much as residents in bigger towns, are looking toward the larger centers constantly. Everything they see or hear is compared to their own standards of taste and living.) I felt that perhaps a survey would give me a fair indication of just how many people heard or listened to The Kalamazoo Laundry message on the air. We conducted a telephone survey (non-coincidental). We learned that 46% of the people called had heard or knew of The Kalamazoo Laundry program! We've since conducted two other surveys. In each, we found that by the standards of our own community, we were putting good programs on the air, and that our customers and prospects were listening! You know, the progressive businessman is easy enough to convince. That's why he is called progressive, and it's two-to-one his place of business (and his books) show it. But it's the fellow who sticks his head in the sand and yells, "Business is bad," that's tough to convince. In the first place, a man can't see if he doesn't look; in the second place, even after you get him to look, he may have one eye shut. We were the first in the U. S. to go into the rural laundry business ; we now operate 28 trucks and just can't afford to miss any bets. Radio came along and looked like a good bet ; I put my money on it. Sure, we've had a few stumbles. But it wasn't the fault of radio, any more than it was the fault of the receiving set. We just picked the wrong kind of a program and put it on the air at the wrong time. Plan the right program for you — and you'll get business from radio! FEBRUARY, 1 941 49