Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1946)

JOHNNY ON THE SPOT News, reviews and tips on spot announcements in this column. MISSOURI COMPLEX When KPFA, Helena, Mont., went on the air nine years ago, Fligelman's Department Store cast its lot with those who maintained that the broadcast medium was unprofitable for a department store. It seemed to Fligelman's that it could not hope to have a program of such calibre as would attract the attention that a national network program gets. And it was that, or nothing. What made it change its tune was a KPFA conducted Red Cross War Fund Drive in which the full quota, cash-inhand, was collected in 24 hours. At that point, Fligelman's was convinced that radio could do a selling job. Comments Fligelman's manager, P. W. Singer: "After three years of radio advertising, predominantly with spot announcements, we feel there is as much value in this medium as in any other media we know of for presenting our messages to our potential customers." POWERFUL WORDS With the schedule for programming limited, spot announcements have proved successful for sponsors over KATE, Albert Lea-Austin, MiniL With seven years of sponsorship to its credit, spots have been most successful for the Johnson Laundry, Albert Lea. Using time signals, mid-morning, noon and 6:30 p.m., Johnson's achcrtising is mainly for its fur storage, remodeling and fur sales, the name sufficing for the laundry. Time signals around noon, early evening, and before the 10:00 p.m. newscast are what the John Berglund Garage uses. Although it kept to this schedule throughout the war, emphasis naturally went to tire recapping. When tires were available, Berglund's got customers with radio as the sole advertising medium. With more tires back on the market, Berglund's plans that radio will play a still greater part in its selling. Another garage, the Midway Motor Company, has found spot announcements a good way to sell gas, oil, repair w^ork, parts and weather servicing. Its early morning spot is aimed at the farmer, with copy plugging farm machinery, ploughshare rebuilding or machine servicing. The other four spots are devoted to a general audience. Spring, fall and winterizing campaigns to keep cars in condition for the varying seasons are among the uses to which Midway puts its spot announcements. Result: heavy business when a new season is approaching. Most of the commercials follow the weather as much as possible to give the spot as much \ alue on the day it is aired as possible. RIGHT IN STEP Dancing instruction isn't one of those articles you can examine by dropping into a store. Nor can a commercial writer easily draw a word-picture of it for announcement purposes. It took a lot of thought and study for the KXL staff to devise commercials that induced customers to pick up the telephone and call Portland's leading dance studio then and there. But they did it again and again. Comments (). H. Foss, manager of the Arthur Murray School of Dancing, Portland, Ore.: "Since opening our Portland studios we have consistently used the KXL facilities for our transcribed announcements. Although we have used other media, it is our ex})erience that the spots on KXL have brought innnediate response in the form of enrollments." As a check on the source of business, each applicant was asked what brought him to the studio. After the totals were added up, the KXL schedule was increased. When the appointment list was filled up far in advance, the schedule was reduced, but it will be increased as soon as larger quarters are available. 320 • ADIO SHOWMANSHIP