Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

Public Utilities WOMAN'S WORLD There's more to a Wornafi's ]Vorld than homemaking, and on this theory Tulsa, Okla. women are kept posted on civic and community responsibilities, current events and international problems in addition to homemaking techniques. Julie Benell speaks for and to the distaff side over KVOO and AVKY. The program originated in the war years over \VKY, Oklahoma City, as Women Commandos in the garb of an information service to Oklahoma women. Commercials for the sponsoring Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation were kept to a minimum, with good will the sponsor's main purpose in presenting the feature. \Vhen KVOO time became available in 1946, it was added to the Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation schedule to afford greater Southwest coverage, and Women Commandos then became Woman's World. A service to war brides was one of its first good deeds; they were invited to make transcriptions to be shipped abroad so that their families could hear about their lives in America. Christmas time launched a crippled children's toy campaign. A campaign to give personal assistance to needy families in Europe, through arrangement ^vith Foster Parents, Inc. diew responses from 53 people on the first announcement. Names of listeners willing to "adopt" European families are announced on the air. Remote broadcasts from industrial plants which are heavy users of natural gas, have also been included in the program format. AIRFAX: First Broadcast: September 30, 1946. Broadcast Schedule: Monday through Friday, 11:30 11:45 a.m. Preceded By: Lewis Meyer. Follorved By: The Westerners. Sponsor: Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. Station: KVOO, Tulsa, Okla.-WKY, Oklahoma City. COMMENT: Here's another bit of evidence of sincere public service rendered by advertisers. Service is no less service when it's sponsored, and in most cases, opportunity for service is broadened when it is rendered on a sponsored basis. Sustaiiiiiiy SHORT CASTS AND WING SHOTS While Short Casts and Wini!^ Shots may mean little to the uninitiated, the words mean plenty to the shotgunncr or angler, to whom the KVOO, Tulsa, Okla. series is slanted. Hunting and fishing reports, outdoor yarns and news of conservation organizations and their activities arc featured on the quarter-hour series. Serious purpose behind the weekly feature: to educate the conservationist to advances in wildlife management, to point up wildlife needs and to focus attention on legislation affecting outdoor pursuits. While the show is directed at a specialized audience, therefore does not expect a high listener rating, the sportsmen have taken it to their hearts. Mail tabulations for May turned up the fact that the program ranked fifth among all programs receiving mail at KVOO. Only shows outranking it were on either five or six times weekly. What makes its showing all the more significant is the fact that not a single mail pull plug was used during that month. Writer and commentator is KVOO's outdoor editor. Bud Jackson, a sportsman and conservationist whose activities include authorship of articles on the subject in outdoor magazines, and a syndicated newspaper column under the same title as the program appears weekly in 26 southwestern newspapers. Tie-in with conservation group is an Isaak Walton League Chapter-of-the-Air, with membership limited to fans of the show. AIRFAX: First Broadcast: February, 1941. Broadcast Schedule: Thursday, 9:15-9:30 p.m. Preceded By: Chesterfield Supper Club. Followed By: Frances Langford. Station: KVOO, Tulsa, Okla. COMMENT: Mail pull here gives special emphasis to the fact that progiams directed toward a specialized audience have a definite place in broadcasting, either on a sustaining or a sponsored basis. From the point of view of the advertiser whose product appeals to a specialized group, the important thing is not how large an audience his program reaches but how effectively he reaches that specialized audience, and with what result. AUG U ST, 1 947 • 279 •