Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1943)

SHOWMANSHIP IN ACTION Promotions and merchandising stunts that will lift a program out of the ordinary. Beverages GO GET IT Scavenger hunts took the nation by storm not so many years ago, provided entertainment seekers with myriad nights of entertainment. Offshoot of this extra-parlor activity is the show heard over WOR, New York City, for Krueger Beer Sc Ale, Inc. Contestants appear two hours before airtime at the WOR playhouse to draw their assignments, have 120 minutes in which to bring back designated animate or inanimate objects. Example: one GoGetter had to bring back an Army k.p., later had to engage him in a potato peeling contest when Go Get It hit the airwaves. Another enterprising Go-Getter had to bring back two roller-skaters on wheels. Object for one was to find, bring back to prove it, a woman who was not afraid of mice. Before in-search-of-treasure contestants streak out of the WOR playhouse, each is given an explanation of technical and legal complications. On the air, Go-Getters are introduced, tell their stories, stand by while their objectives are exhibited. Each Go-Getter gets five simoleons for his trouble, stands in line for the grand prize of 25 bucks as determined by an audience-jury. What the Krueger Brewing Co. was after, it got. Krueger workers in the Newark plant wore teaser buttons with the words Go Get It to provoke questions from friends. Postal cards plugging the show were distributed to employees for mailing to friends. Salesmen and distributors got a pictorial brochure on the show. Retailers were recipients of leaflets and miniatures of the brochure. Result: jam-packed audiences, more would-be contestants than the show can handle. AIR FAX: First Broadcast: February 4, 1942. Broadcast Schedule: Wednesday, 8:15-8:45 P.M. Preceded By: News. Followed By: Music. Sponsor: Krueger Beer 8C Ale, Inc. Station: WOR, New York City. Power: 50,000 watts. Agency: Compton Advertising, Inc. COMMENT: A show which employs showmanship in every phase of its development is headed for sure-fire success with capital letters. An audience-participation program which gives listeners and participants their moneys worth in entertainment is almost certain to pay out for its sponsor in increased sales. (For pic, see Showmanscoops, p. 24.) Department Store CIVILIAN SOLDIER Not the only man who fights is the man who carries the gun, goes over the top at the zero hour. Also up for special citations for work performed in and above the line of duty, is the Civilian Soldier. While the men and women who man the 24-hour defense plant shifts may not be in line for Congressional Medals, the MullettKelly Co., Salt Lake City, Utah, is pinning verbal medals on war workers over KDYL. Concerned with two questions and their all-important answers is the program beamed at the war workers of the intermountain west. To the question of Why Democracy is Worth Fighting For, sponsor Mullett-Kelly presents a dramatized answer. What America means is symbolized in dynamic dramatizations of the American freedoms. To the question of What is Being Done to Protect Democracy goes a concrete, very real answer; Civilian Soldiers pass in review. Featured on the first program was a remote control broadcast from the rim of the world's largest open-cut copper mine, at Bingham, Utah. Second was a salute to the largest work clothing factory in the intermountain west. Others 26 RADIO SHOWMANSH IP