Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1942)

when week-end shopping plans are being made is another gold star to its credit. SAMPLE SCRIPT AVAILABLE. Department Stares HOLD THE PHONE, PLEASE! When Burr's Department Store, Elk City, Okla., asked its first KASA radio listener to Hold the Phone, Please! it started a connection which upped sales volume 93 per cent for 1941 as against the same period for 1940. Satisfied that listening habits and buying habits go hand-in-hand is store manager W. Harold Wade. As many as five studio telephone calls are made in the quarter-hour show. Offered is a one dollar store prize and a greenback jackpot. Store prize goes to the person dialed. To claim the jackpot, person telephoned must give the key word which proves than she is listening to the program. Changed each day is the key word. When telephone contact is not established, or if housewife cannot identify the program, jackpot is sweetened by 50 cents. Telephone calls are picked at random from those who leave name, address and telephone number at Burr's. New twist to commercial copy: opening commercial and prize giving commercial are worded in rhyme. Special sales are pointed up on show, and prices quoted on most attractive values. AIR FAX: First Broadcast: July 7, 1941. Broadcast Schedule: Monday through Saturday, 8:45 9:00 A.M. Preceded By: News. Followed By: Devotional. Sponsor: Burr's Department Store. Station: KASA, Elk Citv, Okla. Power: 250 watts. Population: 7,432. COMMENT: That prizes need not be large to attract the attention of bargain loving Americans is indicated by the success of this show. A sales increase of 93 per cent speaks with authority in any man's language. Department Stores SALLY FLOWERS Handing posies to Sally Flowers are the H. I. Jaffe Associated Stores, Virginia and North Carolina department store chain. When subsidiary firm. Freeman Fur Salon, Newport News, Va., launched a sell-out sale, used the WGH program in Norfolk, Va., as the advertising medium. Freeman's buyer had to make a double-quick trip to New York City. Reason: quick-as-a-wink, stock was depleted, had to be replenished so the sale could continue to its announced closing date. Jaffe also uses the show to sell cloth^ ing and furniture. air FAX: Hillbilly and cowboy songs are interspersed with informal and humorous ad libbing done country style by Sally Flowers. Sally also indulges in cross-fire with staff announcers and station personnel who are encouraged to wander into the show. At least once a week, Sally sallies forth to make a personal appearance in Southeastern Virginia or Northeastern North Carolina. With her goes a hillbilly orchestra, a guest artist or two. Personal appearances are plugged only on the radio program but it packs them in. Broadcast Schedule: Monday through Saturday, 11:15-1:30 P.M. Preceded By: Matinee Melodies. Followed By: Front Page Farrell. Sponsor: H. I. Jaffe Associated Stores. Station: WGH, Norfolk, Va. Power: 5,000 watts. Population: 184,949. COMMENT: Music and words in the language of unpretentious people have long been the friends and old-standby of vast numbers of the radio audience. Sponsors who adapt their radio campaigns to the particular needs and interests of the specific audience they want to reach find that planned radio of this kind pays. In the last analysis, people listen to progra?ns, and the programs that keep them tuned in are those which give them the kind of entertainment and information that most interests them. Definitely on the increase with civilian soldiers in search of recreation and relaxation is interest in light music of all kinds. 424 RADIO SHO WMANSH I P