Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1942)

able amounts of merchandise on the installment basis. Special promotion: an annual free picnic at which some 3,000 picnickers recei^e pop, balloons and cracker jacks. Men, women and children also run races, eat doughnuts off a string and w^hathave-you to compete for §150 in prizes. Members are also invited to studio parties, ser\'ed with two and a half hours of entertainment plus refreshments. AIRFAX: Recipes, birthday and wedding anniversary greetings, and a daily transcribed hymn are the airdiet prescribed for members of the club. First Broadcast: January 25, 1939. Broadcast Schedule: Monday through Friday, 3:454:30 P.M. Preceded By: CBS Press News. Followed By: CBS Press News. Sponsors: Cavender Furniture Co. (installment store) ; Collins Department Store (credit clothing for men, women and children); O. J. Morrison Co. (for Electrolux Refrigerators); Magic Manufacturing Co. Washing Solution). Station: WCHS, Charleston, W. Va. Power: 5,000 watts. Population: 80,996. COMMENT: Resistance to sales appeal for high cost merchandise (usually sold on the installment basis) is at its lowest when a prospect is in actual need of the household equipment. Not always does the sponsor know when this psychological moment arrives. Sponsors on this show are provided with an easy way to acquire just such information. The pledge to buy sponsors' products w^henever possible also has its psychological ad\antage. Women's Wear STYLE TRENDS Xews Flash: A national representative of one of the leading furriers in the United States is here at Xelms and Blum today to advise customers. That Style Trends announcement made on one program sold merchandise valued at more than S2,000 in one day for its sponsor. It was the banner-head in this five-minute news progiam heard six times a week over WJPR, Greenville, Miss. XhLMs AM) Blum, a store for women, with a department (Tot to Teen) for children, slants its news program at feminine listeners. Featured are news items of especial interest to the ladies. Each Saturday morning Aunt Peg takes over for the kiddies with a story for them and a message to their mothers from the Tot to Teen department. Commercials are usually of an institutional nature. Special Promotion: tags on all city telephone directories call attention to the show\ Mrs. L. A. White, advertising manager and super-saleslady for Nelms and Blum is heard on 5^)'/^ Trends following her seasonal visits to the New York markets. Listeners are told of styles-tocome, given a peak into what the store has for them in the season ahead. La White (as she is known to style-wise listeners in the Delta) found that the show had it. Result: a renew^al contract for another year effective Nov. 17. AIRFAX: While it is supplemented from other sources, most of the program material is gathered from the United Press news feature, The Woman's World. First Broadcast: November, 1939. Broadcast Schedule: Monday through Saturday, 8:30 8:35 A.M. Preceded By: Telephone quiz. Followed By: Music. Sponsor: Nelms and Blum. Station: WJPR, Greenville, Miss. Power: 250 watts. Population: 20,000. COMMENT: \Xixh morning newspapers everywhere on the wane (Chicago to the contrary) , people turn more and more to radio to pick up the threads in the complicated world of today. That such programs may be successfully slanted at women is indicated by the experience of Nelms and Blum. Wisely, this sponsor has timed the show to catch the housewife early in the' morning before she has made her plans for the day. Mrs. L. A. (La) White 26 RADIO SHOWM ANSH i P