Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1943)

On 15-miniue programs each Tuesday and Thursday at 9:45 P.M., service men stationed in Twin City military centers are invited to the studio to phone their mothers or their girls any place in the U. S. Civilians aren't neglected either! For Sunday afternoon from 5:30 to 6:00, Twin-Citizens bring home news to their boys aw^ay at camp. Scripts are tossed to the winds. In fact, the station points proudly to the fact that in over 1,000 Hello Soldier broadcasts, no script has ever been written, no transcription padding necessary. The boys have plenty to talk about when they can talk home, and the studio's A northwest native is Vern Claude Soash, who was born in Iowa, lived in western Minnesota and spent his boyhood on the plains of North Dakota. Adman Soash believes he learned to avoid trouble from being stepped on so many times by his Indian pony; modestly, he attributes any writing ability he might have to hours spent with a B-B gun, shooting mice at the slaughter house near the family farm. His insatiable love of the out-ofdoors, his interest in wild life, and the thrill he gets in reaching remote and primeval places comes from indelible boyhood experiences. Educated at Cornell College, with three years of graduate work at Northwestern, he was bent on an educational career. Advertising courses lured him to exchange the classroom for a salesman's kit, and very soon, for a desk. Manager of the Savings Department as well as of advertising, busyas-a-bee Soash has won two national "firsts" in financial advertising; by working hard and long, he still finds time for enjoyment of the outof-doors. 152 mail bulges with requests to take part. As fast as the studio can fill them, invitations go out to participants, and a mother in Oklahoma gets a notice well in advance that her son will call her. Besides the guests themselves, directly responsible for this smooth-rolling show is the Luther Weaver ^ Associates Advertising Agency, the telephone company girls who plug in the calls in advance, and emcee Bob De Haven. De Haven puts the guests at ease between calls and extends his own genuine interest and enthusiasm to the living room audience. Since FCC permits broadcasting only the studio end of the conversation, De Haven relays what's going on as the boy talks. A special feature of the Sunday program is reading letters from service men. Brevity is the soul of commercials, we believe, and Minnesota Federal injects only three on the half hour show, two on the fifteen minute program. One on each broadcast is for the purchase and protection of war bonds. We like to aid in any civic activities we can by making announcements for the State Guard, Community Chest and Red Cross. On the Tuesday and Thursday shows, plug ging is done only once between the two or three calls and once in closing. Five or six calls are made on the Sunday show with two inside 30-second ads, be sides the closing reminder. For the genuine human interest it contains, we are inclined to think we like Hello Soldier— Hello Sailor the best of any program we have used. It touches the heart-strings, puts a lump in your throat, holds your interest through the entire half hour because of the sentimental situations that arise in every broadcast. Runner-up for honors was a children's show, Cowboy Bill's Round Up which enrolled some 15,000 Twin City children in our Cowboy Bill Club. We have also aimed for a women's audience; a radio club. For The Ladies, drew listeners for nearly three years. We have found that we can pick ourj audience; another reason why our own| experience has convinced us that with| careful planning, radio is tops for finan cial advertising. RADIO SHOWMANSH I P