Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

Gasolines YOUR ESSO REPORTER When Your Esso Reporter celebrated its fifth anniversary over WGAN, Portland, Maine, it called for a special celebration, with company officials on hand to commemorate the event. Their remarks reflect the attitude of many key advertisers in regard to broadcast advertising as a significant force in American life. Commented June Richdale, vice president of the Colonial Beacon Oil Company and manager of the New England division: "We look on Esso Reporter as more than an advertising medium. We like to think of it as a public service and as an integral part of community life." Record that Esso Reporter has set up in its five years on the WGAN airwaves: 6760 broadcasts, using over four and a half million words. In addition to regularly scheduled newscasts, more than 2600 bulletins had been aired. Celebration for the fifth anniversary included an Esso news broadcast direct from the window of a radio store, and a special broadcast immediately following WGAN's 6:00 p.m. Esso news broadcast. Window from which the broadcast was made was given over to WGAN for two days. Featured were large Esso display signs, plus a news display showing pictures of outstanding news events in the past five years. Placards reminded onlookers that the Esso broadcasts had been among the first to bring news of "big moments in big years . . ." Along with newspaper advertising and publicity, promotion for the occasion included placards and poster displays in the windows of all Esso stations in central and southwestern Maine. On hand for the special commemorative broadcast were Esso officials, UNrri,i) Press representatives, advertising agency account executives, and represcniatives of the radio industry. AIRFAX: Sponsor: Colonial Beacon Oil Co. Station: WGAN, Portland, Me. Power: 5,000 watts. Agency: Marschalk 8C Pratt Adv. Agcy., New York City. COMMENT: Unbiased rcporls ol momentous events during momentous years do indeed represent public service. • 214 • STATION SERVICE Radio activities in behalf of public interest. RADIO GOES TO SCHOOL ► CAREERS IN THE MAKING Many a boy and girl in Des Moines, la., knows more about radio because of the far reaching school program which the KSO staff has carried out. Tom Lewis, director of public service activities, has successfully piloted a vocational series, Careers in the Making, in which senior and junior high school students appear on the air with outstanding men and women. This Is America, another Lewis production, is a workshop type of broadcast picked up from public and parochial high schools. Sttidents cut their eye teeth on radio dramatics, forum type programming and music. University students at Drake University have their say in two weekly shows. Gene Shumate, sports director, reaches tlie athletically minded through his High School Football Rallies from school auditoriums. Full coverage is also given to baseball and basketball. With George Higgins as general man ' ager, KSO has placed its emphasis on youth programs, while at the same time falling in line with all the other projects \ Avhich radio inherited when the nation ; shifted to peacetime broadcasting. Dur i ing 1946, KSO gave more than 800 hoins for programs produced and directed for public interest. ► STUDIO SCHOOLHOUSE Some 10,000 elementary school teachers in the Philadelphia, Pa., area use WFIL's Studio Schoolhouse Teachers' Manual to secure maximum educational value from in-school lisiening lo five WFIL weekly programs. Within its 96 })ages, the manual presents classroom tie-ins with the weekly broadcasts in the fields of science, literature, nuisic and social studies. Studio Schoolhouse is now in its fourth year. RADIO SHOWMANSHIP