Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

n SPONSOR WEEK MBS President Paints a Rosy Future For Radio. Sees Tv in Audience Fight New York — "If you own a radio station — hold on to it," advises Robert F. Hurlcigh, president of the Mutual Broadcasting System. "It will be worth many times more in the years ahead. Even with some 4800 AM and FM stations competing for audience and dollars, radio may soon be entering the most prosperous period in its turbulent history." Pointing out that it is ironic that radio's benefactor is television, Hurleigh said in the network's newsletter, "Who would have Paper-Mate Launches 'Blue' Christmas Campaign Chicago — Utilizing the talents of comic Ben Blue, Paper-Mate is launching an all-out tv advertising campaign "designed to produce millions of selling impressions during the biggest selling season of the year." With the drive slated to run through Christmas Eve, the company estimates that it will reach seven out of ten Americans on an average of nine times during the six-week period. Commercial starts with a tickle in a crowded elevator. Merriment mounts as Blue visits the PaperMate Christmas display and resolves his gift problems. In addition to one of the largest spot tv campaigns ever scheduled by the company, Paper-Mate spots will be seen on I've Got a Secret, My Favorite Martian, Edge of Night, Pete and Gladys, The Real McCoys and House Party. Agency is Foote, Cone & Belding. Ben Blue and tickler dreamed that tv, which gave radio its trauma in the first place, would end up creating an even greater one for itself? Yet in the process of its own evolution, it begins to look like it may fractionalize itself to a point where the very benefits it had to sell will cost too much to buy." Hurleigh said that UHF, CATV and pay-tv will all cut into the television audience. How big a piece, he said, remains to be seen, but "as this attrition continues, tv (as we know it today) will enter that phase of its life-and-death struggle which almost toppled radio some 15 years ago." Whether tv will come out of it as well as radio, only time will tell, continued the MBS president. "In the interim, however, we predict a return of advertisers to our medium that may be reminiscent (in reverse) of the exodus of the post-war years." Added Hurleigh: "Radio's problems were staggering enough but its costs were never in the same astronomical sphere. And how to cut these costs and still come up with 'product' that will hold an audience is the nightmare of everyone involved in tv." Hurleigh said that if tv is to remain the medium of entertainment, "it will have a battle on its hands with talent and unions the like of which we cannot contemplate. If it decides to eschew entertainment, as radio was forced to do, where can it go and what can it use for its visuals?" Hurleigh declared that radio's problems have been overcome. "Costs have been stabilized; our basic raw materials (music and news) are abundant and endless; salaries are fair but one doesn't need a computer to tabulate them." The whole picture makes economic sense, the MBS president concluded. "And it will make even more sense to advertisers as tv begins to bleed itself in its own internal war." Station Reps Form New Committee New York — With the stated aim of looking into the advancement of radio and television on a market-to-market basis, Lloyd Griffin, president of the Station Representatives Assn., has announced formation of new committee. Dubbed the marketing and planning committee, it will be chairmanned by Walter Nilson of the Katz Agency. Other members include William Knodel of Avery Knodel, Inc., George Castleman of Peters, Griffin, Woodward, Inc., David Partridge of Blair Television, and Joseph Courtney of the Katz Agency. It was pointed out that the committee's primary purpose will be to promote the concept that market-by-market placement of radio and television advertising "best serves the needs of today's national and regional advertiser." I 20 L&M Buys Alpo Pet Food; Tv Credited for Sales Allentown, Pa. — Alpo, the dog food which gives tv the lion's share of credit for a 388 percent sales gain in the past five years, has been sold to Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co., another heavy tv spender. Purchase was for an undisclosed amount of cash and represents L&M's initial acquisition following announced plans to diversify. In the announcement of the sale, it was pointed out that "the Alpo |J business was built on the aggressive ■ use of spot tv and national network tv." Alpo is currently a participating sponsor on both the Today and Tonight shows on NBC-TV. For its part, L&M was ranked number 20 among network tv sp>enders last year in addition to its strong spot tv investment. The Allen Products Co., maker of Alpo, will operate as an autonomous, wholly owned subsidiary of L&M with its president, Robert F. Hunsicker, continuing in his post. Weightman, Inc., of Philadelphia is the Alpo agency, appointed in 1950 when the pet food firm had a budget of only $6500. SPONSOR