Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1946)

the schedule has created substantial assistance for the increased sales of other merchandise. AIRFAX: Programs are directed to all types of listeners. General merchandise as well as automotive supplies in a wide price range is featured. First Broadcast: September 17, 1945. Broadcast Schedule: Daily. Sponsor: Western Auto Supply. Station: KHJ, Hollywood, Calif. Power: 5,000 watts. COMMENT: \V^hile domination of newspaper space is pretty well established by metropolitan advertisers, there's a tremendous chance for retailers to establish the same type of domination with broadcast advertising. Here's a sponsor who is setting the pace. Department Stores RADIO SHOPPER \Vhen the May Company, Denver, Colo., took on sponsorship of KOA's Radio Shopper it was for a two-month trial run. Within two weeks, the May Company signed up for a 52-week contract. The show, now in its third year, has the largest audience of any local daytime program. While the May Company took on the show to create good will, it also wanted to sell merchandise, particularly better type merchandise. Sales-wise, the Radio Shopper has done just that. One mention of a Boy Scout jackknife sold out the entire stock before noon. A similar experience was enjoyed on Quaker lace tablecloths, to mention but a few examples. Mention of a Style Show exhausted the supply of tickets for the affair (held in a huge hotel ballroom) an hour after the store opened. Directed particularly to women listeners, the shoppers of the family, the show is slanted to the middle and upper income class buyers. Music, news, weather reports and a shopping talk fill up the quarter-hour slot. Evidence that listeners enjoy the program, also respond to the commercials given in a chatty, over-the-back-fence style comes from one listener who wrote to mikestress Evadna Hammersley: "I never miss a broadcast unless I am away from home, and then I wonder what vou talked about. Just to prove that advertising pays, I will say that 1 spent over fifty dollars in the May Company store this week." AIRFAX: Mikestress Hammersley and announcer Vic Roby keep the ball rolling. First Broadcast: November 1, 1943. Broadcast Schedule: Monday through Saturday, 8:459:00 A.M. Preceded By: Rainbo Musical Magazine. Followed By: Fred Waring. Sponsor: The May Company. Station: KOA, Denver, Colo. Power: 50,000 watts. Population: 450,000. COMMENT: What's well begun is half done, as evidenced by the experience of this sponsor. AV^hile the program here features item merchandise, over the years it will also establish an institutional value that is an important factor in broadcast success. Florists LANGUAGE OF THE FLOWERS While words are awkward things at best, the Language of the Flowers is understood by young and old. That's the language which Bobby's Flower Shop, San Antonio, Tex., speaks to KMAC listeners once a week. Poetry, philosophy and soft music fill the quarter-hour Sunday slot, with the bouquet of words and music spiced with informative commercials about the Language of the Flowers. Example: "The Snowdrop is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and tradition asserts that it blooms on the second of February, or Candlemas Day . . . the day kept in celebraticm of the Holy Virgin taking the child Jesus to the Jewish Temple, and there presenting the appointed offering of two turtledoves. The Snowdrop is symbolic of hope. By this same token, Bobby's Flower Shop extends to you, its many friends and customers, this bouquet of words and music . . . with the hope that in their humble way, they will add a little more beauty to this passing day, through the Language of the Flowers." For Bobby's, the Language of the Flowers can be translated into the dollars and cents language of the businessman. \Vithin four months after the show first went on the air, Bobby's reported a sales increase of 50 per cent. Listener interest remains high, with a continuous flow of incoming letters, many bearing requests for poems read. All mail is acknowledged. FEBRUARY, 1946 • 67 •