Sponsor (Nov 1947-Oct 1948)

1947) iiuiiaited tliat llic top and botloin rated programs do not profit much from repeats but that the shows which crowded neither the top nor the bottom found repeats resulttlil. On Don Lee-Mutual network programs are frequently recorded and aired at a time when because of special block programing the program has a bigger audi' ence than it could have had in its original broadcast period. Mutual 's Pacific Coast ratings are usually better than they are for the rest of the nation because of this Don Lee plan which reschedules MBS shows in block-program sequences. Delayed broadcasts such as Don Lee's and all the other networks' during station repeats as of January 1 take on an entirely new aspect. On that date transcribed repeats as well as all transcriptions which include music (and most shows, dramatic, variety, or comedy, include music) are forbidden. The problem once again returns to a clearing of all repeat or delayed programs on a live basis (see transcription report on page 30). This, as noted previously, will not affect NBC to any great degree except in the delayed broadcast category. The effect on CBS will not be great since the relaxation of the no-records-on-the-air rule is very recent at Columbia and not too many CBS programs do a West Coast transcribed repeat. 8:30 in the mountain areas and 7:M) on the Pacific Coast. Since it's well known that West Coast folks are home earlier than their opposite numbers in the Ea.st, a lot of programs have been happy with this schedule. Worriers like Jack Benny, however, have sweated it out for years, airing programs at four in the afternoon in Hollywood to reach New York at 7 p.m. Benny worried so much that he persuaded Foote, Cone and Belding, American Tobacco advertising agency, to repeat his program at night on the Don Lee network. It helps his rating. It's a recorded repeat and will have to go with the rest of the transcriptions under the Petrillo edict. Audiences for live repeat programs turn out en masse. Directors and casts, however, aver that they're a different breed from the regular fans option time load a tremendous burden on agency executives who have to clear and okay the delayed time schedules. This is because while it's a comparatively simple matter to check competition for a network program coast-to-coast, it's entirely different to check it in 20 to 50 marketsf at different times. Actually this means checking competition for every station doing a d.b. of a program. It means that the timebuyer of an agency instead of having to clear just one time period for a network program finds himself faced with a problem which is equivalent to clearing both network and spots. It also means constant supervision of each of the areas in which there is a delayed broadcast because naturally the competition is changing in every one of these spots frequently. However, all these problems of recorded For ABC the no-transcription rule of Petrillo will hit a number of programs on which there is music. In the case of the ABC skein of kid shows, music is not an important factor and its current use if any may be eliminated. The same will be true of the Mutual group of moppet programs. As a matter of record the formula that the networks have followed with their cooperative programs (shows originated by the networks but sponsored over one or more stations by local advertisers) can be used on all productions that require recorded repeats ... no music. The reason why many sponsors risk having part of their potential audiences go to sleep on them by broadcasting at 10 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. is that at that hour they reach a good part of the country with a single coast-to-coast airing. Ten-thirty in New York is 9:30 in the middlewest, Sponsors and agencies feel that an ideal broadcast arrangement would be one through which their programs would be heard at the same time in every time zone. This is not feasible on a live program basis but is, through recorded regional repeats. There has been a great deal of agitation in this direction but that's a matter of the past. Big time productions require music and transcribed repeats with music can only continue if Petrillo changes his mind. His "now and forever" dictum doesn't indicate a chameleon frame of mind — forever is a long, long time. *\etwork prtHjrnnis which are rebrondctisi so thai they lire heard at approrimately the same hmtr in every time Kme. **Time on the air for network stations is divided into network option and station option perittds. Dnrittt] the firmer tfw netu^nrk tuts first call on the station's time. I)ttrin*t the latter the station airs a network pro^/ram at its OH7I option. ^Delayed liroadcasts frequently run between ?W and 51) per indiridual pnnjrani network airing. NOVEMBER 1947 35