Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1949)

pany, Banner-Whitehill Furniture Company, and the Indianapolis Power and Light Company has brought Mrs. Farrell in contact with thousands of Indiana clubwomen, church groups, educators and housewives. It has also given her a statewide following. It has also given her a more than nodding acquaintance with retail and wholesale food dealers. Many a manufacturer has found a participation on her program to be the entree to the grocery trade he needed to introduce a new product ... to set up wider distribution for his merchandise. On January 30 of this year, Mrs. Farrell celebrated her fifteenth anniversary with her own radio program in Indianapolis. During that time, she has built up a group of listeners who keep their ears tuned for her homemaking advice and promptly act on it. She has kept a steady group of sponsors for her show because they know she can sell their products. And that is all the sponsor wants. BE-BOP HELPS SPONSORS (Continued from page 9) have been known to incur the Judge's wrath for not putting enough "oomph" into their singing. "It don't bounce, man, it don't bounce," is the way he puts it. Sitting on the bench in Judge Rhythm's court, Kent loses himself in his work. Out of court, he'll tell you he's been associated with jazz most of his life and counts many of today's jazz masters among his personal friends. Raised and educated in Georgia, Louisiana, Florida and Tennessee, Kent found himself in the heart of jazzland. His interest in the world of jazz frequently drew him into the back streets of Birmingham and New Orleans. There he saw and heard true jazz played in frenzied, uninhibited style by kids who played for love, not pay. In his travels through the history of jazz, Kent became acquainted with jazz exponents such as Louie Armstrong, Barney Bigard, Earl "Father" Hines, Jack Teagarden, Cozy and Nat Cole and Gene Krupa. He was in on the beginning of the career of "Sir" Charles Thompson, composer, arranger and pianist. Thompson, one of the foremost exponents of jazz, has been ranked alongside Duke Ellington for his contributions to the field of music. Kent has had several combo units, with himself handling the drums. His $2600 collection of jazz, which included classics by Bix Beiderbecke, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and the Chicago Wolverines (Eddie Condon, Gene Krupa, Pee Wee Hunt) was lost in a fire at home in Charleston in 1942. As a radio announcer, Kent broke into the field at Charleston, West Virginia, where he originated "Fall City Midnight Dancing Party" over WGKV Charleston. He has announced several United States Treasury shows and did the announcing chores on one of Charlie Spivak's first radio broadcasts in 1940. Just recently, Kent had a reunion with Spivak when the orchestra leader was in Chester on a personal appearance tour. Their "reunion" ended with a half-hour tape-recorded interview about "the old days." Conducting a show similar to Judge Rhythm's Court on an Atlanta, Georgia radio station, Kent built such a faithful audience and brought such excellent results to his sponsors that one of them presented him with a letter of citation and a substantial cash bonus. During the life of the show, Kent attained the highest Hooper rating in the area for that hour, and, incidentally, acquired the nickname of "Judge Rhythm." Now on WPWA in Chester, Kent is rapidly building his program into one of the most-listened-to disc shows in the Philadelphia-Chester area. His wide experience in the sphere of jazz makes him a natural for this show. His poise and personality are steadily building a wide following for his program and the groups who are sponsoring it. 32 RADIO SHOWMANSHIP