U. S. Radio (Oct 1957-Dec 1958)

report from THE MOST LISTENED TO STATION IN EAST TEXAS KTRE radi 1420 kc 1000 watts fulltime Richman Lewin V P. & General Manager National Rep: Vernard, Rintoul & McConnell Regional Rep: Clyde Melville, Dallas You're headed in the right direction with Plough, Inc., Stations! Radio Baltimore WCAO Radio Boston WCOP Radio Chicago Radio Memphis WMP5 >-(,•-■...■ Ir.l f:al,r,i:.i!), I,, KAOIO TV REPRESENTATIVES. INC. MtW VOHM a CHICAGO • ttOftTOM • tIATTLV ATLANTA • LO« AMOCLIS • mAM raAMCI»CO Adam Young Examines Traffic Time Bias IQ Tendency of Spot Advertisers The radio advertiser who banks on a "sure thing" — saturation buying of premium traffic times — isn't doing himself the favor he imagines, in the opinion of Adam J. Young, Jr. Mr. Young, station representative, is concerned witli the tcndemy of spot advertisers to scurry around for premium-rated traffic times as the best means of hammering their message home. He believes they should take a long, second look at their traffictime bias and see if it isn't sometimes their own worst enemy. Mr. Young is busy right now trying to reeducate saturation advertisers to the advantages of spacing their spots throughout the day's programming. "Radio," he says, "is a good buy no matter wliat way you look at it, l)ut in order to make tlie medium most productive you must know more about the listener's hal^its. " Using a recent Nielsen sur\ey made for R.\B, Young points out that the effectiveness of a spot campaign on one radio station will dciline after 36 spots are aired. The Nielsen survey showed a steady, steep upward curve to die point where 36 announcements were given in a week on a given station, .\fter that ])()int. the rise continued but at a considerably slower rale indicating a level! ing-off. Actually. Young thinks 20 sp(jts on one station is the safest bet to insure maxinumi remembrance. .After 20 or 21 spots no new people are reached — the same people are simply reached more ofien. More for Ad Dollar U\ Ijuviii^ e\ti\ st.itioii in tlie 7 toH A.M. period, he says, some advertisers get the results they arc after, pariicu iarlv if the product is new or higlilv lonipetitive. It is Young's conteiuion. however, that the average advertiser with an appeal to make to the over all audi(lue can get more for his dollar by distributing his spots throughout the dav. He points to the fact that the adver tiser preferenie for 7 to 1) \. M. and 'l-to-6 P.M. has forced rates upward in these lime periods. It is therefore wise for the advertiser to ask himself again whether the added costs justify this kind of time slotting or whether he couldn't get results at least as good at other times of the day. "There are three ways to saturate," ^'oung says. "You can saturate small numbers of people with great frequency, or reach the greatest number of people with a small number of frequences, or, if you have the budget, the greatest luunbcr of people with the greatest amount of frccjuencies." Placing the Spots Suppose you want to place about 100 spots. Do you place Uiem on one, two, or three stations? Do you place them during certain hours only, or throughout the day? "I think," states Young, "it makes sense to buy 108 announcements di\idecl e\enly among three stations and s|)read the 3() week!\ spots on each station ()\er a 12-hoiu" period, say. between 7 A.M. and 7 P..M. Ideally, your message would be placed between 7 and 8 .\.M. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; between 8 and 9 A.M. on Tuesday. Thursday and .Saturday: between 9 and 10 .\.M. on Monday. Wednesday and Friday, and so on through tlie week." Yoinig is convinced of the good results that can be obtained with this system. lO get advertisers to revamp their sat uration buying concepts, he offers a guarantee to purcliasers of a 36-spot package that every effort will i)r made In get traffic time availabilities for 12 of the 36 spots. "It's only common sense." says Young, "to think twice about traffic time buying. 1 here arc only between 4 and 51/^ hours of it (depending on the market) available in a broadcistiuR dav. The rates are higher because of the greater demand. Buying several stations at prime rates, in the same time period, nuans sharing the same pic. .Sometimes it makes sense. Sometimes not." • • • 52 U.S. li.iniO Octobci 19."»7