Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

was in the store sold in one day merchandise valued at more than $2,000. On Saturday, Nelms k Blum offered a special program for children, with a story for the youngsters and a message to their mothers from the Tot and Teen department and Aunt Peggy. Programs designed for teen-agers currently lean heavily on the quiz show audience-participation. An outstanding example of this type of program is the Good Deed Radio Club of the T. Eaton Co. of Hamilton, Ontario, first broadcast in 1933 over CKOC. Essentially this was an amateur hour, with prizes for good deeds performed by the membership. As organized by T. Eaton, there was plenty of merchandising in connection with the series, with such items as a Good Deed tooth paste and a Good Deed school copy book to make the program and the store a part of the daily life of each member. In almost every case, the basic purpose of such programs, designed as they are to 'appeal to the teen-age group, is to get that group into the teen-age department, and there is plenty of evidence from retailers throughout the country that they do just that. However, popular as they are at present, the quiz program is not the only way to interest the adolescent group. In Columbia, Mo., Julie's, Inc. used KFRU to reach students who paid little or no attention to newspaper or direct-mail advertising. This specialty shop selected an all-request musical program to establish its slogan as "Truly Columbia's Dominant Shop." Results created a shift of advertising emphasis, with 80 per cent of the advertising budget going to radio. When it's the pre-school audience, most stores confine their programs to stories. For example, Emery-BirxhThayER Co., Kansas City, Mo., sponsored Streamline Fairy Tales over KCMO three times a week at 5:15 p.m., with the appeal beamed to pre-school children, and its commercials pitched to reach the mother's ear. W^hatever the audience, and whatever the offering, a show must be well done, and carried on for a sufficiently long period to build an audience for itself. If a program suits the store's purpose and interests the audience it wants to reach it should be continued until there is pioof either that it is successful or that people have no interest in it. To run a show for a short time, and then drop it, is to destroy the investment. Importance of time While other media continue in time, they do not have the advantage of appearing at a certain hour and place every day. Radio programs can and do. And at the time that the listener is tuned to a specific program, the advertiser has no competition from any other advertiser. Fully to capitalize on this factor, the entire problem of time must be carefully considered. The key to the selection of the most advantageous time lies in the living and working habits of the listening audience which the advertiser w^ants to reach. A program beamed at the teen-age group must be broadcast in after-school hours when that group can participate in such a series. W^hen the advertiser appeals to the home through the pre-school child, late afternoon, when the mother is engaged in household tasks and is grateful for satisfactory entertainment for the younger members of the family, is gradeA time. If the advertiser is directing his message to the mother herself it is usually most effective to get her ear during the day, before she goes out for afternoon errands and when she is free from family distractions. Most broadcasters and experienced advertisers agree that the selection of time may be said to have almost greater significance than the selection of a program. A given audience will respond to a variety of programs, but there w^ill be certain peak listening periods when more of the audience is available than at any other time. How this theory works may be illustrated by Fr-\nklin's, "the store of the hour for mother and daughter alike/' in Austin, Texas. For more than three years this store found its Franklin News broadcast over KNOW^ at 7:55-8:00 a.m. very satisfactory in terms of direct sales results. Without question, one reason was the fact that the audience Franklln's wanted to reach was available at that hour. JULY, 1 947 Time must also be considered in re HAWAL broadcasting GOMPANY, INC GENERAL LIBRARY 90 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA. NEW YORK. H.^ • 237 •