The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 15

The Lincoln Star Wednesday, 4479 Poge 15 Isn't there any limit to those 'greatest hits' special record deals on television? Record commercials are one of the banes of television viewing, with hits by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Jim Croce the Beach Partv movies. Bolh of them, huh? I asked him how well these records sell. "They're hot items. When we tell people to call before midnight, our switchboard overheats at 11 59." A lot of suckers, er, I mean takers. "Millions, and most of them do it because they think if they buy up all the records, we'll stop running the commercials." Which is "Absolutely false.

We've got great ideas that haven't even been used yet. Like running the same commercial for 20 minutes straight, or wait, I just had a flash of genius. The penultimate record offer." I was almost afraid to ask. "The greatest hits of the TV record ads. Featuring all the short song squibs from the best-selling TV records.

We could call 'Golden Ad Greats' or 'Superstar Salespitches' or By the time I was able to hang up, Ron was planning to apply for a toll-free number and post office box for his latest idea. especially for the late night viewer. One night last week I thought I was in a time machine when the screen flipped blithely from greatest hits of the '30s, to greatest hits of the '40s. then the '50s, the '60s and the '70s. I didn't even get a break in the middle to take me back to the late monster movie, which was something like "Dracula Meets Frankenstein's Daughter in the Mummy's Tomb." Thank God it's only 1979.

In two years someone will put together the greatest hits of the '80s. If you've watched as much television as I have this winter (which is to say, too much), you may think that TV record offers have reached their limit Not so, as Ron Coe of the Schlock Record Company informs me. Ron is head of the firm's once-in-a-ufetime-never-to-be-repeat-ed-call-before-midnight department, and it's his job to think up new record packages for television sales. What's next, I asked him with some trepidation. and Brian Jones." Clever, I responded.

"And practical You don't have to pay dead singers for using their songs. We're also thinking of branching off into a mixture of ethnic tunes." Such as? "Well, there's 'Polka Time, Y'all' a collection of country-western polka hits, such as the 'Billy Beer Barrel And gospel trucker hits, featuring big-sellers like 'Convoy for Some all-time classics. "Then there's always nostalgia. The '60s should be popular soon, and we plan to be ready with "Revolution Rock Vols. II and III," a collection of antiwar hits that include such unforgettable tunes as 'Get Up Against the Wall and Tear it I'd forgotten that one.

"Then there's 'Hot Rod 'Motorcycle 'Surfing Song Stars' and a special collection, featuring all the big sellers from The Staffer "Well, Elvis records have been doing so well since he died that we think there's a significant trend." But there are already a dozen record offers that feature some collection of Elvis Presley hits, I reminded him. "True, and we are thinking of a collection of the collections for $99.99, or $109.99 for eight-track and cassettes. But I meant the trend for dead musicians. We're thinking of 'Songs of the Dead J's' Camden yrame factory Riding crest of album sales, K-tel now plans to diversify Do-lt-Yourself Picture Framing A new place to frame pictures ft A new way to frame pictures DO-IT-YOURSELF PICTURE FRAMING said one analyst. "But the competition is getting incredible.

And there's no brand loyalty; each record with all those different artists must be sold itself from scratch." This has lead to a studied diversification drive at K-tel and an effort to differentiate itself from its mail-order competition. The commercials have been toned down and now involve a variety of voices. Album covers carry better printing and fewer bright headlines screaming "MONSTER HITS." Gadgets and cookware (Tiara label) are sold but not emphasized. There is a hint of new products like video-discs or instructional records. A $7.95 album with a how-to book called "Let's Disco" sold 750.000 copies in the six weeks before Christmas.

Advertising is still heavy but more selective country -western records are pushed at noon to reach lunching farmers, love songs in the afternoon for women, and teen-agers after school and dinner. Late night is not as significant as before. New activities include real estate holdings in Texas and western Canada and financial backing of movies, such as "The Changeling." with George C. Scott. There are three K-tel motels here now.

And in the United States iel toys will be pushed aggressively in coming months. K-tel still produces all the ads it spends $34 million a year to air. "We feel we know best the feel and the formula to present our products," says 31-year-old Mickey Elfenbein, who is a director, seiuur vice president and nephew. In 1965. seeking a new product, K-tel began selling records and discovered a whole new market for instance, people who liked love songs by several artists on different labels.

K-tel compiled 10 or 20, consigned them to Woolworth, Sears and others and advertised heavily, sometimes $175,000 a week. Record companies and artists were usually eager for the added income and exposure. The result: country music collections, Libe-race in concert, Italian songs. To K-tel's own amazement, the biggest single album more than one million copies, according to Kives was "25 Polka Greats." Today, thanks to this success (annual album sales nearing 20 million worldwide) and hefty royalty payments (last year K-tel paid $29 million in United States royalties), the company gets bigger names sooner, often while a hit is still on the pop charts. Current K-tel albums feature Andy Gibb, Linda Ronstadt and Donna Summer, among others.

Some collections of "original hits" even sell more than the original hit itself. "K-tel is very good at what it does," ets on the Atlantic City boardwalk "Now there," he recalls, "is where only the strong survive." in between pitches he got to think: If he could sell gizmos in person to a crowd of 20 without taking no for an answer, what could he do via television? He tried a test campaign. Within days he had sold 15,000 nonstick frypans. About 80 percent were returned because the nonstick surface didn't stick on the pan either, but the sales theory had been proved. And Kives' basement soon became Gadget City.

Remember the Veg-o-matic? The Splatter Screen? The Speed-Knitter? The Feathertouch Knife that cut through shoe soles? And, of course, the Miracle Brush, that lint lover that now hangs in 25 million closets worldwide. The commercials were blunt, grainy and loud, much louder than the old movies they interrupted. In fact, they gave advertising the phrase "to K-tel" a product. With the urgent, driving voice of Bob Washington, a Winnipeg disc jockey obviously assigned to squeeze four minutes of copy into a one-minute ad, the K-tel commercials were all done by K-tel itself, frequently featuring Kives family members. Remember the man with a shedding dog in his lap and who badly needed a Miracle Brush when he stood up? The man was Philip Kives.

By Andrew H. Malcolm (c) New York Times WINNIPEG, Manitoba K-tel is the company best known as the sponsor of late-night television movies interrupted by noisy commercials. Many very noisy commercials, selling the likes of Miracle Brush. DialeX knife sharpener, Salad Queen and hit records. Now K-tel International, the Canadian company that brought carnival barkers into every home with a TV, would have one believe that it is changing its image.

Fewer gadgets. Less shouting. Fewer exclamation marks. More class. Belter quality.

Even real estate developments. Is it possible? You bet your Veg-o-malic. "I have always set goals in my life, and once I reach 'em. 1 set new ones," says iel's president. Philip Kives.

a 49-year-old former farm boy who parlayed a folding table on the Atlantic City boardwalk into a multinational entertainment business in 20 countries with sales last year of $125 million. The company, which is listed on the American and Toronto Stock Exchanges, has just reported record six-month sales of $91.6 million and aftertax profits of $1.4 million, or 40 cents a share. Company officers, many of them Kives family members, say that 80 percent of the income today is derived from record sales and that perhaps one-third of sales take place in the United States. K-tel (the is for Kives, the "tel" is for guess what) is a dominant factor in the compilation album sector, one of the fastest-growing parts of the $3.5 billion tape and record industry in the United States. For a royalty of two to four cents per song per record, K-tel leases the rights to best-selling songs from their original record companies, combines them into theme albums (love songs, best of the '50s, Perry Como's greatest hits, etc.) and markets them in 48,000 stores during six eight weeks of saturation TV advertising.

Despite its devotion to television, the company is little known in either ihe United States or Canada. Although it went public in 1970, about 89 percent of its 3.7 million shares is still held by the Kives (pronounced KEY-vus) family, with 52 percent owned by Philip himself. Kives has been the driving force behind K-tel, which he began in 1962 with a $7,500 investment. He is something of an anomaly in the good gray business world of Cana-' da, where slick, successful promoters do not abound. Raised on a farm in Oungre, Saskatchewan, Kives entered selling here.

As rural electricity arrived, he followed the poles into the country offering smooth talk and vacuum cleaners. Later, in the '50s, he sold knives, choppers and other gadg "Hugh remit" says, "Bring in your prints, oils, etc. We'll help you choose the mat and frame. We'll cut the materials while you have a cup of coffee Then you assemble the frame in our workshop (we'll show you how) and in about an hour your picture is ready to hang on your wall." Let us show you how to stretch your Needlework! OPEHIHG Museum Framing is We do Custom WEDNESDAY Over 100 Patterns West's opening lead should give you needed clue f15 OFF April 4W Framing, too! DRAPERIES Now thru Apr. 30th Bridge Reg.

6.99-12.99 12 PRICE Fabric, Labor Lining DOJT.YfflJRSEIC Cir.TIIPF PRAMINC. DAPERY Special Order Wall comings 10 OFF HARDWARE It all goes back to West's opening lead of the deuce of hearts. There is a strong presumption mat West would have led from a five-card suit, if he had one, rather than a four-card suit. His lead of the heart deuce indicated he had four of them, and this was confirmed by East's return of the three, showing that he also had four hearts. Lincoln Decorating Center 235 So.

70th (behind Safeway) 483-1744 ths M0.1, romuM di a-7a Dailv 10 a.m. -6 m. 1630 '0 in iiiciicvr unyrtii rLntn ti roen Monday-Friday 432-0327 lOo 5 30pm Thins 10am Hpm Sat 10 a 4 SHOPPING CENTER iviuii. a iiiuis. in p.m.

Closed Sunday By B. Jay Becker East dealer. Both sides vulnerable. NORTH 48 5 4 9 6 OKQ73 A 10 5 WEST EAST 7 3 2 KQ9 vQ 10 5 2 TK943 09 10 6 4 9 6 2 7 4 SOUTH A 10 6 OA852 K83 The bidding: East South West North Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 2 NT Pass 3 NT discards a spade and making the contract now hangs uncertainly in the balance. The outcome obviously depends on making four club tricks, so you lead a club to the ace, another club back to the king, and then your last club, on which West plays the nine.

Now comes the moment of truth. If West has the jack, you should play dummy's ten; if East has the jack, you should play dummy's queen. Decisions of this kind are seldom a toss-up; there is practically always a reason for favoring one play over the other. This case is no exception; there is a good clue to lean on. Opening lead two of hearts.

Let's assume you're in three notrump and West leads the deuce of hearts. You play dummy's jack, hoping West led from the K-Q, but East produces the king and you duck. East returns the heart three and you play low again. West wins with the ten and leads a third heart, forcing out your ace. You have been looking at eight sure tricks, right from the start, and the ninth trick did not seem hard to get.

But when you play a low diamond to the queen and another diamond back to the ace, West 4 1 IV. Once it is conceded that West does not have a five-card suit, it follows that his original distribution was necessarily 4-4-1-4 (since he showed out on the second diamond lead). Finessing the ten of clubs therefore becomes the right play. (c King Features Syndicate Jit if 2 a 0 wardrobe a el AT THE ATRIUM 13th and Street 2nd Level Ml. IJ.WI lyJI .1 I.

WW 'H 4 jl Brochure is packed NEW YORK (UPI)- Chock full of things to do, places to see, dining, shopping and other information, including a calendar of important festivals and sports events and a detailed map of Ireland, is the 1979 brochure "From Ireland with Love." It is available free by writing to the Irish Tourist Board, Dept. IB-9, Box 1200, Long Island City, N.Y. 11101. I Ml i THE DRESS NOW: SOFT AND FRESH ONION SETS Lb. 49 HALTS44MPotSoll Qat 5,000 If 101b.

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