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11 Thru the ©ay/
For Personalized, Direct Selling Use Daytime Radio
By Weston Hill President, Hill Advertising, Inc., New York City
AMONG my treasured possessions is a veHowcd I copy of the Ulster County Gazette tor September 1, 1800. It is chuck-fuH of advertising; an indication that even in those early days advertising had its use.
Most of those ads, '\f\ fact all of them, were inserted by these sturdy advertisers for a purpose; to get a definite result. Mr. John Prescott, farmer, announces one of his cows has strayed; finder please return. A slave from Georgia has escaped and is believed to be in the vicinity. For sale: Healthy negro wench. For sale: Ten bags barley grain. Couched in the beautiful typography of those days, these early ads hold a lesson for many of today's advertisers. They all mean something, and the meaning is crystal clear.
Despite radio's phenomenal growth as an ad\'ertising medium, perhaps the time has come for us to take a long look back to 1924 when radio took its first toddling steps, and see whether there isn't a lesson for us in the Ulster County Gazette. It is my own impression, stipported by more than my share of radio script-writing, commercial writing and show production, that in spite of radio's phenomenal growth as a money venture, it still has a long way to go to realize its tremendous potentialities as a straight selling medium.
There are two schools of thought on the commercial uses of radio advertising. One, the night school of radio, thinks almost exclusively in terms of showmanship, show-business, drama, glamour. It considers the commercial announcement merely as a necessary evil. The technique of this school has been to strive, by every trick of the script-writer's trade, to make the commercial announcement an integral part of the program. Jingles, songs, limericks, dramatizations, talent participation; they have tried everything. Btit show me, if you can, a jingle, singing, dramatized, or woven-into-the-script commercial that ever was directly responsible for one single sale of any product.
The other school of radiio advertising can best be described as the soap-opera school. It was Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hummert, I believe, who first realized that regardless of anyone's individual opinion or aesthetic taste, it was possible to use radio advertising as an extension of personalized, face-to-face, doorlo-door selling. When the soap-opera first got under way, and the fifteen minute script shows started to hit the jackpot, there were
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RADIO SHOWMANSHIP