Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1941)

SPECIAL PROMOTION Short radio promotions that run but a day, a week, or a month yet leave an impression that lasts the year around. Sustaining WHO GOLDEN GLOVES TOURNAMENT In 1938, radio edged into another newspaper activity and emerged a titan. When Des Moines station WHO slapped precedent, announced sponsorship of an officially sanctioned Golden Gloves (amateur boxing) Tournament, experts pooh-poohed radio's pulling power in a heretofore exclusive newspaper sphere. But the smile froze on their faces, for the WHO tournaments clicked significantly before the first blow. Each year's meet has burgeoned forth with swelling attendance. Entry blank requests for the 1940 tournament totaled 1,000. And more than 200 lowan youths, thumped and pumped by attending physicians, were certified to enter the tournament. During three nights of preliminaries, mitts flew assiduously and simultaneously in three rings. Spectators won a battle with a 15 below zero temperature, and poured by thousands into Des Moines Coliseum. On February 12, big night of semifinals and finals, 6,500 eager, cheering spectators hugged the walls of the building. Hundreds of fans, unable to purchase tickets at the last minute, hustled home, pressed their ears to the radio. It was a complete sellout! WHO sports editor Bill Brown directs the tournament; program director Harold Fair wields production, acts as clerk of the tournament, is directly responsible for activities of a working crew of 52 men plus an aggregate of 39 doctors, judges, referees, and timers. House staff, comprising doormen, ushers, police officers, stage hands, box office crew, totals 76 workers. Des Moines swells its chest with civic pride over the Golden Gloves. As practical testimony of its recognition of the tournament's worth, the Chamber of Commerce volunteered cooperation through its Special Events Committee. Results: Streetcars displayed without charge a series of outside cards exploiting the tournament; Retail Merchants Bureau ordered two large display advertisements FEBRUARY, 1941 in local newspapers over the signature of the "Des Moines Hospitality Club;" a leading department store inserted 10,000 tournament pieces in their deliveries ; four banks used similar inserts in outgoing mail; leading hotels, at their own expense, printed cardboard easels for their dining room tables, and on tournament days put cards in mail boxes of all hotel rooms; a large restaurant chain rubber-stamped all menus a week prior to and during the tournament; even the newspapers cooperated with publicity. What about the profits? In other towns, Golden Glove Tournament sponsors turn the profits over to specified charities. WHO turns the profits back to young American manhood. Gymnasium equipment has been supplied to community centers, gymnasiums, settlement houses, even the Junior Chamber of Commerce gymnasiums in Winterset, Iowa. Practical, dubious businessmen shake their heads: What's there in it for the promoter? Neither Central Broadcasting Co., owner and operator of station WHO, nor WHO Radio Enterprises, Inc., which operates the Golden Gloves, has ever taken a penny of profit from Golden Gloves tournaments. True, undeniable is WHO's glow of satisfaction in helping maintain supervised gymnasiums for sturdy young fellows who cannot pay for such facilities. But more practical satisfaction is the boost it gives WHO as a sports station. As a result of the tournament, fans look to Bill Brown and company for news, reviews of all sports; sponsors do, too! AIR FAX: First Broadcast: 1938. Station: WHO, Des Moines, la. Power: 50,000 watts. Population: 142,559. COMMENT: Radio proves once again that it can hold its own in the face of any competition. 75