Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1949)

Nine Years for News Show Format for a news program which has proved successful is "Colorado Speaks," a roundup of editorial opinion aired by KLZ Denver. Summarizing the editorial viewpoint in Denver and in the state, the program is now in its ninth year of continuous broad' icasting. Mike Michaelson writes the fifteenminute show. Sheldon Peterson, KLZ's news director, produces the program. PROMOTION STUNT (Continued from page 4) On "Morning in Maryland" the Crist brothers talked about the accumulation and displayed the ball of string in the studio. Four months of winding produced a ball somewhat more than two feet in diameter. Just to demonstrate that a gag could work two ways, Phil and Jim refused to tell curious listeners what they were going to do with the ball. To all listeners, the answer was, "We'll let you know what we're going to do when we're ready." For a couple of months, they wondered, too! Then Phil, who is quite a kite expert, decided to go-fly-a-kite with the ball of string. It was decided that the person who caught the kite would get a prize. But a minor problem arose in the course of the planning. Would the wind blow for such a gala occasion? That could be remedied by having helium balloons handy to pull it up. Then it was decided that if they flew the kite and lots of balloons, more people would have a chance to get prizes. While the Big Kite and Balloon Ascension was jelling the Crist brothers thought it might be a good idea to run a mystery contest to tell their listeners what they were going to do with the ball of string. From this thought came a mystery statement. A sentence of twelve words was set up to run for two weeks on their six-days-a-week "Morning in Maryland." Each day their audience was given a word with some letters missing. Contestants were asked to complete the word and mail it in to the Crist brothers promptly. Two winners a day were selected on the basis of correctness and earliest postmark. Two weeks of that folderol produced quite a bunch of mail — there were 6,009 answers for final totals. And at the end of the two weeks, the sentence turned out to be: "Creampuff decided string should venture, wild blue yonder . . . arranged gigantic kite ascension." After the String Contest was over, the Crist brothers spent another week telling everybody about the thirty-eight prizes they had lined up for the Big Kite and Balloon Ascension. There were, among other things, theater passes, Tootsie Rolls, a bicycle, tricycle and record player. Included in the weird combination of awards was also an electric razor, table radio, portable radio, nylon stockings, kitchenware, ladies' slips, and a doll's layette. Prizes were to be awarded according to the number of the tag captured from the kite and balloons. All together, 115 balloons were launched by the brothers and three quarters of the tags were sent back to the station to claim prizes. When the appointed Saturday dawned it was sunlit and windless. Nevertheless, the balloons and the kite soared into the wild blue yonder, while brother Jim described the event on a special half hour program — from the roof of WFBR's studios. Twenty-two of the tags were recovered that day, but the kite has vanished into oblivion with its first prize tag still attached. It is likely that some of the tags will never be returned. The Crist brothers said that if a kite lands in your backyard, the tag can be sent back to WFBR, where the two enterprising programmers may be able to dig up a consolation prize for the finder. Meanwhile, the Crist boys and their train of listeners had a great deal of lively fun with a gag that started with an innocent piece of string. July, 1949 27