RADIO PREMIUMS -
RELIVE THEM AGAIN!

BASEBALL

• 9-27-39
  Although not technically a premium in the sense we will be using the term for the remainder of this series, this offer is included because it would have appealed to the age groups which listened to children's serials. Walter "Big Train" Johnson, star pitcher for the Washington Senators from 1907 to 1927 was a broadcaster for the Senators in 1939. During the course of a game with the Cleveland Indians on September 27, 1939, Johnson announced he would be appearing personally at various Washington area food stores and would be happy to autograph packages of Wheaties. He didn't have to add "free of charge".

BOBBY BENSON

There were two different runs of this show, the first from 1932-1936, sponsored by H-O Oats Cereal, and the second, from 1949-1955, sponsored for part of the run and sustained by the network the remainder of the time.

• 6-13-50
  Title of episode: "The Face of Jabaco". Sponsor was the Kraft Food Company. Prizes were awarded for naming Amigo's colt. (Amigo was Bobby's horse.) Suggesting a name for something was a fairly routine contest on radio. The prizes for this one, though, suggested that mom might be a more loyal listener than her children. The grand prize was a home freezer! Other prizes included a gas range, sets of encyclopedias, and women's blouses. The kids could compete for 4 wrist watches, 4 portable radios and 93 Nelda Hobby kits. The hobby items included leather craft, bead craft, and school kits. A label from a jar of Kraft Chocolate Flavored Malted Milk was required for each name submitted.

• no date
  Title of episode: "The Three Wise Monkeys". No sponsor is identified. This episode included a contest to name Tex Mason's horse. Listeners were to send in a suggested name and include a photo, drawing or magazine picture of what they thought Tex's horse looked like. The latter item was to be used as a tiebreaker. The grand prize was a Bobby Benson bicycle and two were awarded, one to a boy and one to a girl. Other prizes consisted of Bobby Benson western clothes including shirts, ties, hats, gun and holster sets and Bobby Benson play clothes.

BUCK JONES IN HOOFBEATS

This program starred one of the movies' great cowboy heroes and aired in 1937-38. It was sponsored for part of that time by Post Grape Nuts Flakes cereal.

• 6-0-37
  Buck invited kids to join the Buck Jones Club and receive a membership badge and club manual. The manual told how to get free prizes such as cowboy boots and western chaps. All you needed to join was one box top from Grape Nuts Flakes.

BUCK ROGERS

This program surfaced several different times during the 1930s under a variety of sponsors and in 1946-47 under the sponsorship of Post Toasties Corn Flakes.

• 4-5-39
  Sponsor: Popsicle, Fudgsicle and Dreamsicle Ice Cream Bars. Listeners saved the paper bags the ice cream came in for free gifts such as a wrist watch, doll, table tennis set and hundreds of other prizes. Also, a free gift list was available at ice cream dealers. It included a coupon worth ten bags and also identified how many bags were needed for each gift shown.
  

• 4-14-47
  Sponsor: Post Toasties Corn Flakes. The closing of this episode referenced a future Post Toasties Circus to be available soon. This was the last Buck Rogers episode broadcast, so the circus was unrelated to Buck's adventures; however, further details on this offer are unavailable.

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