Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1944)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

with their predominantly housewife audience, should be drawn upon tor an increasing share of the war-education effort. In fact, with women particularly, daytime radio has become an instrument of public information and inspiration, a sort of news bulletin, if you wall, through which the United States Government tells housewives things that they should know about the war, and the many ways in which they can help. To illustrate how this news bulletining is coordinated, let us take the example of a single broadcaster. Procter & Gamble, like other radio sponsors, cooperates under a schedule prepared by the Office of War Information. Follow a (5^^ mjt. A I n k on i h e school diploma was hardly dry IV J} e n \M i 1 1 i a m G. Werner first joined the Proct e r <f G a rn b I e family, and only 10 hen he took lime outforsen'i r e i n W or I d War I ha s h e ever been more than a s to tie's throw jrom his Procter & (ramble desk. What first aronsed his interest in radio was the pioneer efforts of Cincinnati stations, and he himself took part in local programs during those back-when days. Time passed, and in 1942, as manager of the advertising division, he was in charge of a large number of programs produced by Procter 6 (jamble advertising agencies. With reason the fntn made hnn manager of its newly organized division of consumer information, siipennsing public relations and consninc) info) nialion , set up in I ^^12. What he has lo his (rcdil: Ixxod mriiil/oship in sik h oYganizations as the Citizens' Planning Assn.: C.iiK iniiati Symphony Ore hestra, and the Ciiu innati Assn for the Weljare joy the lUnid. ing this schedule, we broadcast as part of our regidar coast-to-coast programs, information bulletins covering certain drives assigned to us from among more than 70 public-interest catises such as War Bonds, Paper Salvage, \\'AC.S. WAVES, and Paper Salvage. In addition, we schedule radio bidletins to support the two additional wartime supporting causes which the soap industry is sponsoring: the program, of fat sahage, and that of soap conser\'ation. Most of these messages ha\'e been in the form of bulletins, but often, too, they are worked right into the plot-action of the show^ itself. In total, during the past few months, o\er oiu' several PROcrER R: Gamble coast-to-coast programs, we have broadcast these publicinterest bulletins at the rate of aboiu 65 a week, or around 3,500 a year. They have reached a listening audience conservatively estimated of 25 million homes. This is just one example ol one advertiser, in one industry, to illustrate how radio, in wartime (and, because of its wide appeal to women, daytime radio j)articularlv) , is not only an amirser and entertainer of the millions, bin a news bulletin of })ul)lic-interest causes fidly in the spirit of a free people \\'\{\\ the broad public demands and tlie (oiumon good in mind. Radio is a war tool and a public-education medium of first rank, but radio nuist appeal to and hold the largest possible listening aiulience if it is lo work bettei for our (ouiUry. W'e, peisonally, max like opera, or certain singers, or l)ands, or stories, or comedians, or da\time serials, i)ul we can't force people to h'ke a certain kind of program, e\cn om oAvn pic leiic'd kind. And Ave can't \<>y((' them lo listen. Rach'o nuisl gi\e |)(()j)lc (he Ix'si j)i()giain it can produce, or I he l)r()ad kinds which people want, or ilu'N just don't tune in. After all, to keej) I he hui^esi iininl)er of radio audi(iKc limed in, h'siening lo eiUertainmeni. insiriK i ion. news, or Avhatever will j)l{ase. amuse oi di\(rl, is liie true warlime huHiion ol ladio. 270 RADIO SHOWMANSHIP