Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1949)

Hall sales message through all its advertising is price. A heavy user of radio in its short but meteoric history, the Hall chain relies heavily on spots and music shows. The Goddard show is one of few news shows placed by Robert Hall. Robert Hall, through the Frank Sawdon Agency and radio director Jerey Bess, has used WINS for one year and has one of its heaviest schedules on the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation's New York outlet. Hall has 89 retail outlets as of September, 1949, when the company's West Coast expansion was completed. First unit of the chain was founded in Waterbury, Conn., in 1939. On WINS, Sawdon has placed some 28 one-minute spots, with the Goddard show the only news-type program. Metropolitan Life, one of the largest corporations in the United States, has an extensive advertising campaign of which radio is one part. Booklets on sound health are a regular Metropolitan offering through radio. The agency is Young and Rubicam. Don Goddard's commercials for Metropolitan Life over WINS have brought nearly 9,000 requests for the booklets in a one-year period, an outstanding onestation record. The personality of Don Goddard is undoubtedly a major factor in the continued good rating of his program and the pleasing of his sponsors. Off-mike Goddard is noted for his humor and for a rhubarb garden near his Long Island home. He is the father of three teen-agers and lives quietly, with the home as the center of his social activity. Don's first ten years in radio were spent at the NBC studios, whence he came from editorial jobs with the New York World and WorldTele gram and an editorship of an upstate New York weekly. His first ten years in radio were spent at the NBC studios, where during 1936-1946, "decade of crisis and war," he held the top morning rating for any show on WEAF. In addition, his impromptu reports and special broadcasts from the various theatres of operations kept a good many people home and close to the radio. Moving to WINS in 1946, Don was assigned early morning news slots because of his network success with similar periods. His broadcasts are now relatively standardized at 7 A. M. and 12 noon. Don is a conscientious reporter, a stickler for completeness in airing the news. Curious newsroom visitors who ask, "How long does it take you to prepare a newscast?" invarLbly get the same answer: "Twenty years." FOOD SALES (Continued from page 2) and Dolly Adams Brand Syrup, Chef Milani is also promotionally tied-up with supermarkets in the Los Angeles area including such chains as Ralph's; Mayfair Markets; Safeway; Von's Markets; Shopping Bag; Alpha Beta Markets; Thriftimart and Fitzsimmons; Hollywood Ranch Market and A. & P. Chef Milani conducts a daily contest on his progiam in which listeners are presented with a $10 merchandise order for these stores as an award. Chef Milani also selects one of these markets each day and outlines a menu of a "Dinner for Four, A Dollar No More" which can be purchased in the particular market promoted that day. In this manner, the Chef advertises the market chain while the market itself has the satisfaction of having the women flock to its store to purchase the ingredients of a "Dinner for Four, A Dollar No More." During each broadcast, Chef Milani also presents one of his favorite, personally tested recipes and listeners may procure copies by writing KMPC. With that rapidly developing media, television, an apt vehicle for Chef Milani, he launched his first program, "Chef Milani Melody Menu" on KTLA three months ago. The program is heard each Friday evening at 7 P. M., and according to the latest Hooper-TV report, Chef Milani now boasts 53 per cent of the television audience in the Los Angeles area at that time. Current participation sponsors in this program are: Wilson and Company, Inc.; Laura Scudder Foods, American Beauty Macaroni, and Western Holly. Assisting Chef Milani in both his radio and television productions is veteran radio actor-announcer Lou Marcelle. NOVEMBER, 1 949