Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1942)

(Continued from page 48) (LOCAL NEWS) Announcer: Accidents happen in the home as well as on the streets and highways. Here's a number to keep by your telephone, or better yet, file away safely in your memory. It's easy to remember, 7-1-8-4. . . . Say it a half dozen times and you have it . . . and that little trick may be the means of saving a life. A call at 7-1-8-4 brings Gauss Instant Ambulance Service ... on the job 24 hours daily with not one, but two modern streamlined ambulances . . . safe, swift and reliable! Don't take a chance on calls relayed through other sources . . . phone Gauss direct when you need Instant Ambulance Service. The number is 7-1-8-4. Now, we continue with world news. That is the sort of copy that we have broadcast for two years, and that is the sort of copy that is getting resuks. It's noticeable that we try to impress our telephone number on listeners and try to make them think of us and call us direct in an emergency. When we first went into extensive advertising, we analyzed our public relations problems and developed these aims: (1) to promote the Gauss Mortuary service; (2) to promote the Gauss Instant Ambulance service; (3) to create good will and instill confidence in the public for both services; (4) to impress our telephone number upon the listener and to impress the listener with the importance of calling Gauss direct in emergencies, and (5) to minimize any objection to mortuary promotion by rendering a service to the public through advertising and by the use of Signified, informative copy. During the years between 1912 and 1941 we have used almost every type of advertising known to the profession: newspapers, billboards, calendars, telephone directories, specialties such as fans and playing cards, and almost every other medium that has been presented to us. But we have found that radio advertising is the most productive of all. Other types used have been good, but radio has been by far the best. Now our advertising budget is devoted almost exclusively to radio. We use no other medium except Sacred Art Calendars, and the number of these has been reduced by half. All of the above has been a detailed backing up of what could be said in seven words, namely: I am sold on radio advertising for morticians. Herb R. Beaven, of Brisacher, Give the Nod to Sam Cuffs I MYTHOLOGY has it that Hydra, the nine-headed snake, fattened itself upon the terror-struck and helpless Greeks who ventured near the dank swamp of Lerna. When Hercules set about to overcome the machinations of the monster, two heads sprouted where there had been but one before. Only with fire did he finally strike death to the many-headed creature. Today, war is that many-headed reptile, and it feeds upon the whole of the world. Men and women everywhere wait anxiously to learn where and how it will strike and to what effect. Herculean is the task of Sam Cuff, whose five-minute transcribed program, The Face of the War is now sponsored on 40 radio stations, and is a regular feature on NBC's television schedule. Twenty stations have added the feature since November 1. Twenty-five years ago a youth in his late teens fled a warring nation in an open boat. After seven days on a choppy sea, he reached shore only to land smack in the arms of the warriors he was fleeing. He was held as hostage-interpreter, adding an escape months later to a growing number of adventures which today he uses in interpreting army movements of still another war. This man is Sam Cuff. While most experts on current world affairs interpret the meaning of news bulletins from the point of view of diplomatic and military strategy. Cuff uses a different line of reasoning. As he puts it: "Council tables and stern ultimatums are all right, biu diplomacy must be backed up. You can't move 50 RADIO SH O WM ANSH I P