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If s Time for Charm
Woman s Program Built on Novel Theme, Setting and Handling of Commercials Wins Listeners, Influences Customers for Sponsors
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■ ^^O you ever look, or feel, like a Poor Thing"? "Do you have that married look"? . . . "Coiild you be your husband's second wife"? . . . It's openers like these that stop the women of Detroit, Mich., and surrounding towns, each day at 1:00 p.m. as WXYZ announces "It's Time for Charm." At that announcement, the switch is thrown and for 45 minutes The Lady of Charm broadcasts from the House o' Charm.
The House is very real, with a staff whose entire time is devoted to the audience; answering letters and phone calls from people who want The Lady of Charm to advise them on patterns, hair styles, outfits for weddings, menus for parties, and so on through the seeminglv endless list of female requirements. No one ever sees the staff; they only hear them, write to them, or call them on the phone. For that matter, The Lady of Charm, who is the guiding light in the House and on the air, is seldom seen in public appearances. Few e\en know her name and almost no one knows that ten years ago, she was known as one of the most capable radio station managers in the country (Cleveland, 1934). Her direct contact with the radio audience prompted her to create her own production firm with a plan that is getting national attention.
Three things make the Charm programs outstandingly different: the themes, their setting and the handling of the commercials.
The themes are based directly on charm, and indirectly on romance. One of the leading women in advertising once said, "What ten million women want is romance." The number of women has increased since then, but their desires have
SEPTEMBER, 1946
not changed. Their very nature demands romance, and it doesn't lessen after they are married. But if a woman wants "to get her man and hold him," according to The Lady of Charm, "she must have charm."
Then she proceeds to show them how. The programs carry a special dedication to "Tlie woman who delights in good looks— who tJirills over compliments— believes in romance and finds adventure in attention and glances of admiration." What woman doesn't find adventure in attention? "Only the woman who doesn't get attention," says The Lady of Charm, so her aim is to tell her audience how to get it.
The program has a formula. It discusses listeners' desires, reveals their needs, shows them how to supply those needs in order to gain the most charming effect and then finds solutions for their problems.
The script for each program also has a pattern that is carefully worked out in detail. From the many letters each day are chosen those which introduce some note consistent with the day's theme; each one so carefully woven into the program pattern that it becomes a daily success course.
W^hat does TJie Lady of Charm explain? Such things as "A woman's charm depends upon three things: the way she acts, the way she looks and the way she cooks."
So Milady receives tips on how to acquire poise, how to become more popular, develop personality and grace, blaster pointers in etiquette, how to greet guests and make them feel at home, how to get along with men, are also indicative of the themes used on the programs.
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