Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

directly to the teen-age audience, the group between 15 and 20," he says. "Our interest in the matter was sharpened somewhat by the fact that we had never been able to make a complete success of the Junior Dress Department. "Last Christmas, while I was helping chaperon a teen-age dance attended by some 400 or 500 youngsters, one of the youngsters sang a song or two at the urging of the group. For that little while practically everyone present in the room paid strict attention to what was going on, and it was about the only time during the evening that the room had any semblance of order. It occurred to me right then that if the kids were so interested in someone out of their own group, that maybe that fact was a springboard for a good teen-age program. "Accordingly we got together with the president of the better relations organization of the high schools and this young fellow who sang for all the world like Frank Sinatra. They were commissioned to get together a 15-minute radio program to be presented once a week some time during the afternoon. Ballads by Brooks, featuring 17-year-old Elston Brooks, with a high school girl to supply a song or two for feminine interest, was the result. The show, which started in April, is aired each Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. over KXOL, one of our smaller and newer stations. "The boy has been just short of sensational and the program has gained considerable popularity and publicity throughout the city. Without any publicity (we did not even mention it in our newspaper advertising until a few weeks ago) it has gained a studio audience of approximately 50 each week, and according to an informal poll, it has a listener rating of about 11," says Mr. Sarazan. "During the entire series we have confined the commercial to the Junior and Misses Department on the Fourth Floor. Working on the premise that we were reaching a specific audience group, the teen-age audience, we left the commercials (as well as the script) in teen-age hands. "The kids make no bones of the fact that the results of the program in a business way determine whether or not the program continues on the air. In fact, on one of the early programs the high school master of ceremonies stated that the best way the teen-age girls could show their appreciation of the program would be to go to the Junior and Misses Shop at The Fair and look at the dresses. It was their own idea, but we believe it was no further afield than the request on a network broadcast for a drug product that listeners should show their appreciation of the program by trading with their neighborhood druggist. "We believe that the treatment of the commercials has been an important factor in the results obtained from this program. The commercials are definitely commercials, often bandied back and forth between the two boys and the girl, but the youngsters have worked out some new and refreshing slants that without doubt contribute to the effectiveness of the series," according to Mr, Sarazan. Teen-age programs have been successful for a variety of advertisers, in large and small communities, in a variety of business fields, as indicated by a review of campaigns described in Radio Showmanship Magazine for 1947. While the basic format remains largely unchanged, the variations possible within the teen-age program structure make such a series adaptable to the needs of a number of different kinds of advertisers. What these successful programs have in common is basically the application of the "beamed technique" directed to a specific audience, with audience participation, music, interviews and gags to make this listener group come back for more. DECEMBER, 1 947 415