Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1943)

ail Fills Santa's Pack Santa Proves Radio Easiest, Cheapest Media to Reach PuhUi: Writes Carl Mosseson, Owner of Carl's Auto Accessory Store CHRISTMAS, 1942, was the first time that Carl's Auto Accessory Stores attempted a radio promotion direct from its home store. Resuks prompted Carl's to become even more interested in radio as an advertising medium than ever before. At the present time, Carl's has a year's contract with WWNY for spot announcements. In addition, Carl's has a special arrangement to get first call on special shows and features. For example, Carl's recently sponsored a special commentary on the third anniversary of the capitulation of France to the Nazis. In our opinion, radio advertising is one of the greatest, easiest and cheapest ways of reaching the maximum number of people who buy the type of merchandise that Carl's sells. While we use both radio and newspaper because we feel that it is necessary for any advertiser to use these two mediums, this does not mean that the addition of radio to our advertising schedule has upped our advertising expenditures. Best results come from the use of both media and we divide our appropriation between them. The Christmas series which made Carl's a radio convert was simplicity itself. Carl's supplied a Santa Claus outfit for WWNY program director Bob Walter, alias St. Nick. Chief announcer Bob Mowers handled the commercials and served as a foil. While a part of the program was devoted to interviews with children, letters were also read. On certain nights, Santa passed out candy. On Sundays, when the store was closed, Santa Claus did his broadcasts from the studios, pretending to have gone back to the North Pole to line up more toys. To build up enthusiasm for what was in reality a simple format, Carl's sent every youngster who wrote Santa Claus a letter, a card signed by Santa Claus. Advertisements in the Watertown Daily Times appeared on the radio page. Courtesy announcements were also used. In addition to the store traffic created at the home store, its branch stores also profited from this radio venture. While the only offer made to draw mail was a promise to read over the air letters that were received, a total of 2,112 letters were received from November 24 through December 23, exclusive of Canadian mail. An advertising medium that can produce results of this kind is certainly going to play an important part in our anticipated expansion program when the war is over. No green horn in his field is owner and general manager of Carl's Auto Accessory Stores, Carl Mosseson. In business since 1917, his business success story is that of growth between two wars. Six years after he had got his first auto accessory store in Elmira, N. Y. off to a good start, he added a branch store. Wanting new horizons, he took down the shutters on his Watertown store in 1927. Today his network of eight stores serves the entire area of northern New York. 342 RADIO SHOWMANSHIP