Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

complete story, see Radio Showmanship, May 1947, p. 156.) There arc a number of approaches to the problem of establishing air dominance. Use of Full Broadcast Schedule Local stores who use only one segment of the broadcast day are in the minority so far as today's store practice is concerned. Almost half (44%) of the stores use both kinds of radio— daytime to reach women; evening to reach the entire family. Only 37% use daytime radio alone. Only 19% confine themselves to evening programs entirely (17.0% of the department stores, 27.6% of the specialty stores). (As a case in point, illustrative of hoxv department stores make use of the full broadcast scliedule, see Radio Showmanship, April 1947 , p. 114. The radio budget for Bullock's, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif., represents a sizeable percentage of its entire advertising expenditure. On its schedule is a children's program, the oldest Bullock's sliow still on the air, which is now in its fourteenth year. In addition to this half-hour, five-day -a-week show, Bullock's has a second show, started in 1943, which is broadcast weekly, 9:009:30 p.m. While the format of the evening show has changed from time to time, evening time has proved to be eminently successful.) Program Diversification To appeal to a diversified audience, it's good strategy to use more than one program. That the trend is in this direction is indicated by the CBS analysis which shows that three out of five stores use more than one program. However, to some extent, the size of the community and the dollar volume of the store determine how many programs are used to sell merchandise or to build store restige. Stores in larger towns use more programs. In towns under 100,000 53% of the stores use only one program. In towns )ver a half million, the figiue drops to 57%. Likewise, stores with larger volume ase more programs per store. AV'hereas iEPTEMBER, 1947 between 10 and 50",'^ of the sioics uii(l( i a million and between one and five million use only one program, only one-third of the stores in the five to ten inillion dollar range rely on one program lo do the job. (Maas Brothers, Tampa, Tla., has made experimental use of radio since 1930, but not until 1945 did it really make radio an integral part of its advertising campaign by becoming one of the largest users of the broadcast medium in Florida. In May it had 15 programs and 12 spot announcements on a regular weekly schedule. See Radio Showmanship, May 1947, p. 149, for the complete story.) Station Diversification No one station completely covers an entire market, and the over-all program structure, power and position on the dial all determine to some extent, what particular audience group each station offers. Unless the store is appealing to some one audience group which some one station is known to deliver, it's advisable to consider all local facilities. Yet, according to the CBS analsis, 62.9% of the stores use only one station; 20.3% use two stations; 11.9% use three stations and only 3.5% use four stations. The advantage of station diversification is illustrated by Harvey's, Nashville, Tenn., where all four Nashville stations carry Harvey's messages. One of the stations carries 15 quarter-hour show's and 14 one-minute spot announcements per week. (For the full story, see Radio Showmanship, May 1947, p. 164.) 3. Select Programs Carefully All types of programs are used by stores in their selling. All kinds of programs used are credited with both moderately and highly successful results, and there is less than 20% advantage for any specific type of show. No program type was unsuccessful for any store. As might be expected, music and news are the leaders, with household hints (fashion, shopping news, gossip, etc.) also high up on the list of preferred programs. By ty|>es of programs, 57.6% of the stores use musical programs (department stores, • 295 •