Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

*" PROOF 0' THE PUDDING Results based on sales, mails, surveys, long runs and the growth of the business itself. Farm Supplies OLD TIMERS There's but one answer to the question as to why the Farm Supply Company, Hamburg, Iowa, is going into its fifth year of consecutive sponsorship of Old Timers over KFNF, Shenandoah, Iowa, and owner, V. P. McNall, has it: "It gives us all the business we can handle at the present time." Beamed at a peak noon-day farm listening audience, the series features five members of the KFNF staff in old time fiddling, solos, duets, other musical combinations for listeners who enjoy the square-dance and folk ballads. Radio is the only advertising provided for in the Farm Supply budget. Commercials in the conversational vein create the effect of a family discussion, with the current emphasis on what new and used equipment is available for immediate delivery. Such information is supplemented with information on the care of machinery and forecasts obtained from various releases on new machinery. AIRFAX: Series is aired Monday through Saturday, 12:15-12:30 p.m. Sponsor: Farm Supply Company. Station: KFNF, Shenandoah, Iowa. Power: 1,000 watts. COMMENT: When radio alone is given tlic entire sales burden, there's no andif-or-but about results. Here's additional evidence for the records that radio can consistently, over a period of years, meet just such a challenge. While consistency in itself is an important factor, it can't in itself carry the entire burden of success. It also recjuires the right selection of time, station, program and aiicliciKc. Women's Wear FASHION NEWS Skirts may be long or short, waistlines high or low, but since 1941, WPAY, Portsmouth, O., listeners ha\e got their Fashion News from Atlas Fashions. A ten-minute program designed primarily for women, the show is broadcast by remote control from the Atlas Fashions Fourth Floor Radio Booth. Object: to create a fashion conscious clientele. Comments William Atlas, president of Atlas Fashions: "We find much interest in this program and we feel that we have an important listening audience. Certain commercials run in connection with the broadcast have brought almost instantaneous results." News of feminine fashions is sometimes given in monologue, sometimes as dialogue between Sallie Ann, Atlas personal shopper, and various members of the firm's staff. Not one to put all its eggs in one basket. Atlas Fashions also sponsors the 6:00 p.m. news, Monday through Friday. During the fall and winter months, it adds Furs On Parade, a quarter-hour, transcribed show to its schedule. Other shows come and go. Among them two half-hour programs. Cavalcade of Swim Suits, and eight quarter-hour American Legion shows. On August 5, 1946, Atlas took on sponsorship of Easy Aces on a three-a-week basis. Three brief Fashion News commercials give the build-up to specific departments, with the closing announcement weighted on the institutional side. Example: "Atlas Fashions were established in 1895. This is the 52nd year that Atlas' have been catering to Scioto Anns. Whether the shadow you cast is large or small, short or tall, you'll find your special size at Atlas Fashions." AIRFAX: First Broadcast: December 26, 1941. Broadcast Schedule: M-W-F, 10:15-10:25 a.m. Sponsor: Atlas Fashions. Station: WPAY, Portsmouth, O. Power: 250 watts. Population: 5 3,304. COMMENT: Specialty shops generally have found radio a successful advertising mediinn. As evidenced by the consistent and concentrated schedule, sponsor here is no exception. 174 RADIO SHOV/MANSHIP