Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

--*.r UMf^ audience. The advertiser who leaves the size of his listening audience to chance will in most cases find that some other program has the audience he wants to reach. On this basis, promotion for a radio series has much to recommend it. It isn't by chance that Studer's Street Reporter achieved a Hooper listening rating of 10 per cent of the 50 per cent of the radio sets in use in Central Texas between 12:40-1:00 p.m. Nor that a Hooper report in Houston, Tex., showed that with 22 per cent of the sets in use, Portraits in Music broadcast over KPRC for Paul Linwood Gittings had a listener rating of 13.1, second only to a network feature, One Man's Family, and until 6:00 p.m., higher than any other Sunday show in Houston, network or local. True, such programs were basically good entertainment. They were broadcast over the stations which reached the audience the studios wanted to interest, and at a time when that audience was available. But more than that, the public was made aware of the offerings through consistent promotion. A program will be broadcast over the same station at the same time over a period of weeks or years. This gives the sponsor a chance to present his advertising to the same group of listeners time and time again, while also developing new audiences. This factor alone justifies efforts to add new listeners. With radio, what's worth buying is worth promoting. How extensive promotion of this kind may be depends upon how large an audi • 200 • ence the studio wants to reach, and the size of the advertising budget. But envelope stuffers, store cards, letters to customers, direct-mail in general, newspapers, magazine and point-of-sale displays may all play a part in the promotion for a radio series. Merchandising promotion useful Program promotion is promotion designed primarily to increase the tune-in for a specific radio campaign. Merchandising is also an important part of successful broadcast activities. \Vhile the two sometimes overlap, merchandising may be said to be directed mainly toward the product, sponsor or service offered. Photographers have a particularly fortunate opportiniity for merchandising effort in connection with a broadcast campaign. In line with the theory that a radio promotion is designed to create greater consciousness of portraits as an enrichment of present and fiuure living, the use of portraits as a merchandising hook is particularly effective. In Washington, D.C., for example, the W^HiTE Photo Studios co-sponsored with an infants apparel shop a Blessed Eventer series over WW^DC, on a fi\'e times a week schedule, 1:05-1:20 p.m. News of nc ^\ arrivals was featured on the program, and each new mother received a gift certificate from White Photo Studios which entitled her to a free picture of the infant within six months. Nicholas Johnston, San Francisco, Calif., also had a merchandising hook in connection with In Focus, broadcast over KSFO, Friday, 1:30-2:00 p.m. from the Hotel St. Francis, and rcbroadcast by transcription over KGO, Sunday, 10:0010:30 p.m. The series featured interviews with three city personalities from all walks of life, with Mr. Johnston himself! conducting the interviews. The Jwok layj in the fact that each listener whose suggestion pro\ ided a guest j^crsonality for the show rccei\cd a free portrait of him-; self, courtesy of Nicholas Johnston. Should the pliotographer go one step fiuTher and feature a window displa) of people interviewed or honored on hij program, that would be more in the na RADIO SHOWMANSHII