Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

songs has been used on KDKA to remind listeners of the basic importance of electric power in the world today, with particular emphasis on its importance to Pittsbiugh. 2. Tliat good will and sales may go hand in hand is indicated by the experience of Cilco. As R. S. AVallace, Chairman of Central Illinois Light Company, pointed out, "Oiu' program is a very important link in our effort to obtain and retain the good will of the public." But on the sales side, kilowatt hours per year, per resident customer, increased from about 600 in 1932 to 1,025 in 1939. The company gives radio its full share of credit in this record of increased consumption. In connection with Pacific Gas and Electric Company's sponsorship of "Evening Concert," most of the commercial copy was institutional in nature, but attention was, on occasion, called to electric light bulbs, lamps, heaters, etc., with good results. 3. Radio is most frequently used to increase the use of a product or service, but the experience of the Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company, Birmingham, Alabama, over \VSGN shows how it may achieve just the opposite result. To meet an emergency situation, the company used one spot announcement asking that listeners confine telephone calls to emergency cases. There was an immediate marked reduction and the overloaded condition of the lines was quickly eliminated, according to R. E. Simmons, district manager. \V. F. Stevens, advertising manager for the ^\^estchester Lighting Company and Yonkers Electric Light & Power, sums up the place of radio in the public utilities advertising picture. "We realize that our local radio station is an adjunct to other media at a cost that is not prohibitive," he says. "In using it, we give actual and practical recognition to an agency whose life line is linked with the comrnodity we sell, electricity." There is one advantage in a broadcast series which is shared by no other advertising medium. AVith radio there is a chance to establish, by means of the human voice as it comes from the loudspeak er, a personal ( (>nta( i wiih ilic (oiisiiiiicr, which is not a\ail;il)ic uiili an\ oiiicimedium. AUDIENCE SELECTION Howexer, the elfecti\eness ol an\ ladio campaign is to a large degree determined by the size of the listening audience whi( h the advertiser can capture lor his program. For the most part, public lUilities seek to reach the mass audience, but, even here, it is first necessary to determine whether this mass audience will be primarily feminine or whether it will represent the all-family group. The feminine audience has been an extremely productive one for many advertisers, and the Niagara Hudson Power Corporation found that its participating sponsorship of "Modern Kitchen" on \VGR, Buffalo, New York, was an effective way to reach the mass feminine audience. As an additional tie-iq^ for this sponsor, every recipe used on the program was tested in the Niagara Hudson kitchen, and a bi-monthly feature of the show was a broadcast from the firm's auditorium. On the other hand, when the Georgia Power Company sponsored "This is Your Georgia" over W^SB, Atlanta, Georgia, it was appealing to an all-family group. The same was true of "Builders of Soiuh Florida" which the Florida Power & Light Companv sponsored over \VIOD, Miami, Florida. Public utility companies, for the most part, rely more on programs than they do on spot announcements. Spot announcements are primarily a selling medium, and, in most campaigns in this business field, good will is as important an element as sales. Only with a program can the advertiser capitalize fully on the institutional value of a broadcast campaign. In selecting a specific program, experience has proved that the important thing is to select one that (1) fits the advertising needs of the moment and (2) interests the greatest number of the particular listening audience that the advertiser wants to reach. In other words, a program should be selected on the basis of its appeal to a specific audience. In choosing FEBRUARY, 1947 • 65 •