Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

tJiem by trauscription, broadcast this series designed for in-school listening.) 2. Air Dominance an Advantage Multi-newspaper use is a long standing characteristic of department store advertising, and dominance of the printed page is pretty well established throughout the country. Not so on the air, where many department and specialty stores seem to forget that on the air, as in print, size is important to prestige. Of the stores who use radio, 43.7% are on the air only 30 minutes or less per week (43.1% of the department stores; 48.5% of the specialty stores) . 55% nse less than 60 minutes of time a xceek; only 44% use radio one to two hours weekly. None of the specialty stores and only 5% of the department stores are on the air more than one and a half hours per week. Altogether, stores average less than ten minutes a day on the air. By their own admission, 9 out of 10 stores want radio to increase their overall store prestige, but they can't do it with the 30-minutes-a-week schedules many of them are carrying today. To soinid big and good, they nuist use more time, more often. (How theory works in practiee is pointed up in the April 1947 issue of Radio SHOWMANSHn>, p. 120, in connection witJi the H i" S Pogue Company, Cincinnati, O. Pogue' s x'enture into radio began in tJie ivar years, and its advertising campaig?i is planned so that the store has enough air time to make itself knoivn as an adx'ertiser. On its schedule is a daily Jialf-hour morning program and a 4 5 -minute evening program, both musical in content.) In using more time, more often, that is, in establishing air dominance for a store, the retailer takes advantage of the day-today impact of radio and the cumulative value of repetition. In spite of the fact that the more often a store broadcasts, the better its chance of selling its store and services to the public, only 58<^(, of the stores use radio more than three times a week. In other words, only 58% have learned that repetition pays off. Over 40% still need to be sold on the day-today impact of radio. (Black & White Stores, a chain of junior department stores in smaller cities in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas, almost completely abandoned all other media in 1938, still uses radio advertising almost exclusively, because it is the least expensive mass niedium which alloivs tlie greatest flexibility. Today, 15 radio stations in 10 cities carry the B & W messages. For the TABLE B How Stores Rate Results From Each Program Type News Programs 39.4% highly successful 56.0% moderately successful Ciossip Programs (Household Hints, Fashion Shopping Nezvs, etc.) 37.7% highly successful 54.5%, moderately successfid Variety Programs 28.0% highly successful 64.0% moderately successful Musical Programs 28.3'\; highly successful 51.9% moderately successful Participation Programs 2b.0% highly successful 70.8% moderately successful Children's Shoivs 29.6% highly successful 59.3^j(, moderately successful Spot Announcements 22.4% highly successful 53.4% moderately successful Other Types of Programs 23.8% highly successful 69.0% moderately successful • 294 • RADIO SHOWM A NSH IP