Radio: Bargains By Air

‘. . . Lots of bargains—YOUR bargains—the things YOU want to sell. We broad cast them absolutely free. . . . Remember—it makes no difference what it is—as long as it’s a bargain.”

Thus on the air over 20 West Coast stations goes Tonight’s Best Buys, radio’s big rummage sale. In Hollywood six stenographers answer six constantly jangling telephones, type out names, descriptions, prices of the items offered, provide an offstage, panic-on-the-stockmarket sound effect. Wiry, fast-talking Narrator Sam Pierce offers the goods to the radio audience, tells how to reach the would-be seller. One-third of the odds & ends offered are bought.

Three years ago Adman Raymond Ritchie Morgan approached James Folger of San Francisco, with the rummage sale notion—”the hottest idea I’ve hit in years”—to sell Mr. Folger’s coffee. Coffeeman Folger was impressed when one of the first items disposed of on the program was Mr. Folger’s speed boat ($800). The following year, when the air time was expanded to 15 minutes over CBS station KNX, the telephone response put the Hollywood, Hempstead and Hillside exchanges out of order, burned out the generator which operated the busy signal on one, caused the telephone company to demand the program be taken off. After hurried conferences and the installation of special facilities for handling the deluge, the next show drew 167,000 attempted calls in 15 minutes.

Last winter from Boise, Idaho, a woman set the long-distance buying record by telephoning and money-ordering for a $200 mink coat. Only one phony has been recorded, but last April Fools’ Day the program turned down an offer of a .32-calibre revolver from John Bad, later found it bona fide, the seller’s full name being Badinovac. One man has been trying unsuccessfully to get $25 for six pairs of breeding bullfrogs and several hundred pollywogs. Another wants to trade a shotgun for a trailer. Biggest item the program has ever tried to sell was half-interest in a Weaverville, Calif. gold mine; price: $20,000.

Last week up for sale went one Silex top (“I’ll sell it for 50¢; it’s like brand-new”); one electric fly catcher for $12, a black & white cocker spaniel (“I’ll trade it for a piano”); a $10,000 Monterey home for $7,500. Up, too, went Folger coffee sales, with a 16% increase over the entire area covered by the programs since their inception in 1937.