iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Home Shopping Host

A home shopping host is the on-air host that partners with guests on television shopping channels, such as HSN, QVC, and ShopNBC. The job of a home shopping host is to introduce new presenters and guests to the television audience, and help these guests explain the values and features of the product being showcased.

History

Back in 1977, Clearwater, Florida radio station owner Lowell 'Bud' Paxson was collecting money from local companies that advertised on his station. One local company, a hardware store owner, refused payment, insisting that not one single customer had heard the broadcast of his radio advertisements. Paxson and the store owner argued back and forth, eventually coming to a compromise: Instead of a financial payment, the store owner gave Paxson a box filled with electric can openers. Paxson took the box, and returned to the radio station.

When the station's talk radio host, Bob Circosta, was on a newsbreak, Paxson asked Circosta to sell these can openers to his audience. Circosta initially objected, but soon complied with his Paxson's wishes. "I looked at him like he had three heads," Circosta said, recalling the moment. "I thought it would be unethical because I was trying to be a serious host." When Circosta returned to the airwaves, he began describing the can openers and asking listeners to buy them.

All 112 can openers were purchased in under an hour.

Sensing the vast profit potential of this concept, Paxson launched a shopping channel on local Tampa cable television, later launching nationwide with the Home Shopping Network. Bob Circosta was the first ever home shopping host to appear on either radio, local television, and national television, eventually selling over 75,000 different products and inventions, netting over 20,000 hours of live airtime, and selling over one billion dollars worth of merchandise in the decades that followed.

In addition to Bob Circosta, other early home shopping hosts were Alice Cleveland, Bobbi Ray Carter, Tina Berry, Dan Dennis, John Cremeans, and Lisa Robertson.

Job Requirements

On all the major television shopping channels, the home shopping host will stay on the air for three to five hours at a time, welcoming several new guests and demonstrating many new products. Since products and guests are often only given 10 or 15 minutes to sell their product in the world of home shopping, it's not uncommon for a host to be required to introduce 20 or more different products and inventions during their shift. Being quick-witted, personable, and likeable is essential for a host, as well as being able to make quick transitions from one product to another. Additionally, with networks like HSN and QVC routinely debuting brand new inventions and products, the host must also quickly articulate to the audience why the item is worth purchasing.

Job Difficulties

All the national American home shopping channels are broadcast live, 24-hours a day, so mistakes and errors cannot be edited out. This has led to some memroable on-air home shopping bloopers, such as a QVC demonstrator falling from a ladder and getting injured, or a HomeTV host insisting that a moth in a photograph is actually a horse.

Many of the guests who accompany the home shopping host on-air are not particularly TV-savvy or experienced, so the host must help guests better define the attributes and value of the items being showcased.

Because of the large influx of guests and products, hosts often lack the time to study the product beforehand, which increases the need for an effective host to possess sufficient verbal skills to mask this lack of direct product knowledge.

References

External links

Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
..... Click the link for more information.
Shopping channels are television specialty channels that present shopping related content, particularly for home shopping enthusiasts.

Home shopping pioneers:
  • Bob Circosta
  • Barry Diller
  • Bud Paxson
  • Joseph Segel

..... Click the link for more information.
Quality, Value, Convenience
Headquarters West Chester, PA
Website QVC.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV Channel 317
Dish Network Channel 137
Cable
Verizon FiOS Channel 130
..... Click the link for more information.
Availability
Terrestrial
Available in some market areas
Satellite
DirecTV Channel 316
Dish Network Channel 228
Cable
Verizon FiOS Channel 137
Also available on other cable systems such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, etc.
..... Click the link for more information.
Home Shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing / home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar companies as HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopNBC, Buy.com, and Amazon.com.
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s  1950s  1960s  - 1970s -  1980s  1990s  2000s
1974 1975 1976 - 1977 - 1978 1979 1980

Also: 1977 (album) by Ash.

..... Click the link for more information.
Clearwater, Florida
Location in Pinellas County and the state of Florida
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Florida
County Pinellas
First Incorporation 1891
..... Click the link for more information.
Lowell W. "Bud" Paxson is an American media executive.

A native of Florida, Paxson began his career as the owner of a small AM radio station in Tampa, Florida. There, in 1977, an advertiser had plenty of product to sell -- avocado-green-colored can openers -- but ran out of
..... Click the link for more information.
Money is any token or other object that functions as a medium of exchange that is socially and legally accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts.
..... Click the link for more information.
Hardware stores sell hardware: for instance fasteners, keys, locks, hinges, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts.

These stores were once as much a part of American small town culture as the drug store soda fountain and local church, but
..... Click the link for more information.
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults.
..... Click the link for more information.
For the grappling hold, see Spinal lock

A can opener (also known as a tin opener) is a device used to open metal cans.

The first tin cans, invented in 1810, were heavy-weight containers that required ingenuity to open, using knives, chisels or even
..... Click the link for more information.
Talk Radio can refer to:
  • Talk Radio UK, a former national UK talk station which is to be relaunched the new digital radio licence by the 4 Digital Group.
  • Talk radio, a call-in discussion format for radio broadcasts.

..... Click the link for more information.
Bob Circosta is television's first ever home shopping host and has achieved over one billion dollars in personal product sales on live television. His offices are in Clearwater, Florida, just a few miles from the Home Shopping Network's corporate building.
..... Click the link for more information.
NewsBreak is a feed reader for Windows Mobile PDAs.

External links

  • Official website

See also

  • PRSSreader
  • WinMobile Fusion RSS feeds and Torrent client for Windows Mobile Pocket PC

..... Click the link for more information.
For the television series, see Profit (TV series)
Profit generally is the making of gain in business activity for the benefit of the owners of the business.
..... Click the link for more information.
potential may refer to the scalar potential or to the vector potential. In either case, it is a field defined in space, from which many important physical properties may be derived.
..... Click the link for more information.
Shopping channels are television specialty channels that present shopping related content, particularly for home shopping enthusiasts.

Home shopping pioneers:
  • Bob Circosta
  • Barry Diller
  • Bud Paxson
  • Joseph Segel

..... Click the link for more information.
Tampa, Florida

Flag
Nickname: "Cigar City", "The Big Guava"
Location in Hillsborough County and the state of Florida
Coordinates:
Country United States
..... Click the link for more information.
cable television into the house.]]

Cable television is a system of providing cocoy television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional
..... Click the link for more information.
Availability
Terrestrial
Available in some markets Check Local Listings for channels
Satellite
DirecTV Channel 240
Dish Network Channel 222
Cable
Available on most cable systems Check Local Listings for channels

The Home Shopping Network (
..... Click the link for more information.
Bob Circosta is television's first ever home shopping host and has achieved over one billion dollars in personal product sales on live television. His offices are in Clearwater, Florida, just a few miles from the Home Shopping Network's corporate building.
..... Click the link for more information.
Bob Circosta is television's first ever home shopping host and has achieved over one billion dollars in personal product sales on live television. His offices are in Clearwater, Florida, just a few miles from the Home Shopping Network's corporate building.
..... Click the link for more information.
Alice Cleveland is a former television home shopping host on HSN and most recently an on-air vendor representative on QVC.

She was fired from HSN shortly after being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease; HSN maintained that her dismissal was based on the
..... Click the link for more information.
Bobbi Ray Carter is a long-time home shopping host on HSN. Formerly nicknamed Bubblin' Bobbi Ray, her gregarious personality has rendered her one of the network's most popular hosts. She's primarily associated with fashion and beauty products.
..... Click the link for more information.
Tina Berry is a former Home Shopping Host on the Home Shopping Network. She retired 2007 upon the shuttering of HSN's sister network America's Store. She had been with HSN since the network's launch in 1985. Before working on HSN, she was self-employed in sales.
..... Click the link for more information.
John Cremeans is one of the first several on-air home shopping hosts and is considered a pioneer in the home shopping industry. Since 1985 to the present, Cremeans span of over 20 years as a national television host is unrivaled by only a few in electronic retailing.
..... Click the link for more information.
Lisa Robertson is a QVC home shopping host. She joined QVC as a program host in 1995, to present product information, conduct demonstrations and interacts with on-air guests, celebrities, and viewers.
..... Click the link for more information.
Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
..... Click the link for more information.
Shopping channels are television specialty channels that present shopping related content, particularly for home shopping enthusiasts.

Home shopping pioneers:
  • Bob Circosta
  • Barry Diller
  • Bud Paxson
  • Joseph Segel

..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter