Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

Public Utilities BIRTHDAY CLUB For young and old, birthday greetings are always welcome. And in Ada, Okla., members of the Birthday Club can be sure of best wishes from the Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company when the candles are lighted. Aired over KADA, the Birthday Club is broadcast Monday through Friday at 4:30 p.m. The series follows the W. E. Long Company service format, using material and transcribed music supplied by them for birthday greetings. Popular music, from the KADA Standard library, rounds out the quarter-hour show. A card file is maintained for each day of the year, with names and addresses of persons who write in. To each club member, OG&E mails a card with a membership pin and "Happy Birthday" greetings two days before the natal celebration. Greetings are aired on the program on the birth date. When the program was first put on the air, membership lists and birthdays of three local civic clubs were used as a backlog. What OG&E had as a first-class recommendation of the series was that the company had used the same program at the same time on radio stations in Muskogee, Oklahoma City and Fort Smith, Ark. Purpose behind the series was to promote electric cookery and to contribute toward better public relations. Since the program was primarily a mail-pull series, the sponsor felt that the juvenile audience, in connection with Birthday Club membership cards and pins, would be the most responsive. Therefore, the time selected just preceded juvenile serials, on the theory that children would be a big part of the write-ins, and the most faithful segment of the tune-in audience. While juvenile response has been justification for this theory, mail pull, with its wide age-spread has represented a bonus audience for the sponsor. Pin which club members get in connection with birthday greetings features the "Reddy Kilowatt" symbol. One commercial is used on each broadcast, with the 125 word message from the sponsor heard early on each (jti;ii hi liom prograiTL Stressed is the economy ol husiness managed utilities and (electric service in general. Series on KADA was promoted with newspaper advertiscmenls and courtesy spot announcements. Evidence that promotion gets results: the entire student body of one school filed biilhclay cards. AIRFAX: First Broadcast: January 6, 1947. Broadcast Schedule: Monday through Friday, 4:30 4:45 p.m. Sponsor: Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. Station: KADA, Ada, Oklahoma. Power: 250 watts. Population: 15,143. Producer: W. E. Long Co. COMMENT: The important thing in connection with any broadcast campaign is to decide the audience the sponsor wants to reach. If the program reaches that audience, the campaign can be considered a success. But as the experience of the sponsor indicates here, that same program may well reach out beyond the audience the sponsor originally had in mind. If so, it's a bonus audience that is all to the good, and this plus groups of listeners adds just that much to the end results. Public Utilities TEEN AND TWENTY TIME With over 2,000 teen-age clubs, each with official club membership cards to its credit, there's little doubt but that the gang's all there when its Teen and Twenty Time on KMPC, Los Angeles, Calif. Host at the party is the Southern California Telephone Company, who has continuously sponsored the series since its first broadcast, November 13, 1944. Bee that Southern California Telephone has in its bonnet in sponsorship of this record show for teen-agers: to give listeners information on the advantages of working at the telephone company. Used as an advertising medium for securing new employees, the program gets the ear of prospective w^orkers in a receptive mood, explains to them the opportunities for advancement, et al. APRIL, 1947 • 133 •