Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

Just how big is The ever-expanding dimensions of radio-tv and advertising are graphically shown in the 1959 yearbook issue of Broadcasting, now being mailed to subscribers. Crammed full of facts and figures, the 612-page annual edition also shows that there are 564 U.S. tv stations on the air, reaching 44.5 million homes, as well as 3,388 am radio-television? stations and 628 fm outlets reaching 97% of all homes. Call letters, facilities and executives of all these stations are listed, plus a rundown of foreign stations. For those engaged in the buying and selling of broadcast time, the yearbook's many directories and articles provide detailed information on this: BROADCASTING STATIONS ON AIR: 441 Commerciar vhf tv stations 80 commercial uhf tv stations 521 total commercial tv stations 33 non-commercial, educational vhf stations 10 non-commercial, educational uhf stations 43 total non-commercial, educational stations 564 total television stations 3,388 total am radio stations 628 total fm radio stations 4,580 total broadcasting stations TOTAL TIME SALES, 1958: $951,000,000 for all tv stations and networks $541,665,000 for all radio stations and networks $1,492,665,000 total radio-tv time sales THE RADIO-TV AUDIENCES: 44,500,000 U.S. tv homes (86% of all homes) 49,500,000 U.S. radio homes (nearly 97% of all homes) 42,064,000 U.S. homes tune in television in average week 41,241,000 U.S. homes tune in radio in average week 5 hours, 29 minutes total tv viewing per home per day 1 hour, 54 minutes total radio listening per home per day (not counted: listening outside home) SOME OTHER FACTS ABOUT FACILITIES: 431 am stations associated with newspapers and/or magazines in common ownership 143 fm stations connected with newspaper-magazine ownership 181 television stations connected with newspaper-magazine ownership 99 regional radio networks 12 regional television networks FACTS ABOUT RELATED BUSINESSES: 507 advertising agencies placing national or regional broadcast advertising 189 talent agents representing radio-tv artists 563 companies supplying program services to television 174 companies supplying program services to radio 51 companies providing research services to radio-tv 53 unions representing workers and performers in radio-tv 594 attorneys specializing in FCC practice 244 consulting engineers serving broadcasting 657 community antenna systems Unless otherwise indicated, all figures are as of Aug. 1, 1959 interests in all media research, because they realize that this important new medium cannot be evaluated in a vacuum, but only as an alternative to all other media." With advertising stakes going higher, business will not long be satisfied "with a statement which essentially consists of laying one's hand upon his heart, raising one's eye to the heavens and saying, 'I feel it here,' " Dr. Banks assured his audience. Vehicles and Media • In an unofficial committee progress report for the ARF Audience Concepts Committee, which he heads, Dr. Bank touched on competitive media claims. The committee concluded that comparisons from advertising vehicle to vehicle (programs, individual publications) regardless of medium, could only be based on identical or equivalent procedures. Moreover, "we were not considering any grand schemes in which one advertising medium, as a whole could be studied and generalizations made for the basis of 38 (BROADCAST ADVERTISING) comparison with similar broad studies of another medium. Instead, the data, which we are interested in, would probably arise through careful analysis of the performance of individual advertising vehicles. It is certainly a question to be resolved by future research, whether, in fact, any significant generalizations can be made of a medium as a whole which would permit comparison from medium to medium." Dr. Banks went on to list guides the committee has set up in its search for ad evaluation "model": exposure repetition patterns and frequency distribution, one-shot and cumulative audience, overall audience and internal audience for a specific advertisement or "actual performance" as opposed to the potential. The committee is concerned, he said, with performance of advertisements within their own media context. "We hear a great deal about authority, prestige and editorial environment. We hear that some media are voluntary others are involuntary in the attention which is paid to them." Station A and Station B • "We hear some programs have higher sponsor identification than others. All statements like these really say that an advertisement placed in advertising vehicle "A" somehow will have more value than similar advertising placed in advertising vehicle "B" whether "A" and "B" happen to be of the same type of media or of different types. Unless we have actual data on the communication performance of advertisements within their respective media contexts, it will be impossible to make such statements," he said. "People have an intuitive feeling that spread in magazines somehow have different connotation for a reader than page advertisements. There is a feeling that a 10-second ID somehow has a different connotation and delivers a different kind of message than a 20, 30 or 60-second announcement. There is some sort of feeling that the alternateweek sponsor may not get the same impact against the audience of his television program as the major week sponsor . . . "These hypotheses can be answered when it become possible to evaluate communications performance of advertisements within their media contexts." The Plan • On his topic, "Better Media Planning," Mr. Gerhold asked admen to use more informed judgment and abandon a "passion for the fragmented fact" and "concentrated attention to cost per thousand something or other." "We have created our own tower of Babel," he told the researchers. "The production of media statistics has become a major industry, carefully producing tons of components, but never a set of instructions for putting them all together." His agency, Foote, Cone & Belding, subscribers to 31 commercial services directly related to media evaluation and gets hundreds of individual studies by media themselves, he said, illustrating his contention that advertising needs to find a way to use the information it has. Mr. Gerhold listed six steps for evaluating an ad: • Media distribution (number of copies or number of sets carrying the advertising), • Media audience (number of people exposed to the medium), • Advertising exposure (specific number for ad), • Advertising perception (people aware of the ad), • Advertising communication (people experiencing some gain in knowledge or attitude) and • Consumer response (number of people buying the product). Mr. Gerhold acknowledged that data BROADCASTING, October 5, 1959