Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

Manufacturers TUNES AND TALES FROM TRILON What KROW \ San Francisco-Oakland, Calif., listeners get from the Trilon Record Manufacturing Company is a weekly package of the 12 latest Trilon releases. AV'hat Trilon gets from listeners are human interest stories, with $10.00 awarded each week to the listener who submits the best story. The recordings and the stories, in combination, make up Tunes and Tales froffi Trilon. Four stories and the 12 recordings fill oiu the hour-long Sunday program that it aired at 1 1 :30 a.m. With 50 per cent of the Trilon advertising budget already devoted to radio, results from the broadcast medium have been such that increased use of the airwaves is contemplated. Courtesy announcements, weekly newspaper program reminders, direct mail and general point of sale displays are a part of the promotional package to hypo audiences. Hooperating: 3.1. Six commercials, clocked at one minute, are used on each broadcast. AIRFAX: First Broadcast: February 15, 1947. Sponsor: Trilon Record Mfg. Co. Station: KROW, San Francisco-Oakland, Calif. COMMENT: Devices which establish a feeling of personal identification with a program among individual listeners are useful both from the sales and the institutional angle. Such gimmicks are particularly valuable when the program itself is one with broad general appeal. Men's Wear CHAMPIONS ON PARADE For the sports fan. there's a ten-minute Cliampions on Parade game in progress six times weekly over WIND, Chicago, 111. It's good listening for those who sit on the listener's bench, but its sponsor, Bakr Bros. & Prodik also make ii worth the while of those who get actively into the game. Listeners send in lOO-word biogiaphies of their favorite sports stars, naming the championship that he or his team won. These sketches are worked into a series of clues, two of which are musical. Object for listeners: to identify the champion in as few (lues as possible. Listeners whose letters are used are rewarded w^ith a pair of tickets to the outstanding sports event of the week, and the chance to get ducats to top sporting events has contributed a great deal to the mail pull, according to Larry Kurt/.e, Kuttner ^ Kuttner, Inc., radio director. Additional incentive to join the Champions on Parade: a merchandise certificate good at the West Side clothing house. The program was designed to hold the tremendous audience of the Baer Bros. & Prodie Baseball Qiiiz heard every dav throughout the simimer just before the Cub game broadcasts over WIND. Evidence that Cliampions on. Parade turned in a good batting average for its sponsor: series established the highest Hooper on the station after 6:30 p.m.; pulled three times as much mail as was anticipated and delivered its audience at a lower cost per thousand than other comparable shows. Series has been used for institutional achertising in combination with news of special sales and bids for mail order business. AIRFAX: Series is written by Jim McDonough, with Larry Kurtze as producer and Linn Burton as emcee. Broadcast Schedule: Monday through Saturday, 7:057:15 p.m. Sponsor: Baer Brothers 8C Prodie. Station: WIND. Chicago, 111. Power: 5,000 watts. Population: 3,440.420. Agency: Kuttner 8C Kuttner, Inc. COMMENT: Audiences aren't born, they're made. And the advertiser who has cornered for himself a portion of the total listening audience runs the risk of losing manv of these listeneres if he suspends operations over a period of time. If that audience has been won through a seasonal type of broadcast, it's good sense to follow-through with another program that will appeal to this same listening group. 172 RADIO SHOWMANSHIP