Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

How to Get the Best Results From Radio By LEWIS ALLEN WEISS* General Manager of The Don Lee Broadcasting System and Director of KHJ, Los Angeles Advertising Medium Held Most Effective and Economical; Agencies Warned Not to Shout in Private Homes RADIO has characteristics common to no other advertising medium, says this successful broadcaster, but it achieves its purpose more quickly and efficiently than any other medium. The peculiar but intimate bond which exists between listeners and their favorite stations is here explained in original fashion. Some tangible examples of the writer's Lewis Allen Weiss logic are added. NE OF the evidences of the allrevading influence of radio was ecently illustrated in my home. -ly small daughter, aged eight, I'hen asked to say grace, bowed er head and started off by saying ij . . "This food comes to you irough the courtesy of God llmighty." i I have known all ofybu too in-Imately and too long to feel that •lie sacrifice of either your time or nine could be compensated with a tilted and formal speech designed >r style rather than content. I feel, rather, that I owe it to ou and the industry which I represent to leave with you today a closer and more sympathetic understanding of advertising's youngest and most dramatic medium . . . tadio. No criticism of you is intended !Then I remind you that advertislg agencies played no important iart in the development of radio ntil that medium had proved itelf to the point where you were orced to recognize its potency for lfluence and its powers of resultalness as an advertising medium. U realize that experimentation with lour clients budgets in new and nproved media is not your prerogative. But, now that this medium as demonstrated its right to a Dmpetitive and sometimes a superior place in your budgets, it ehooves you to acquire a better nderstanding of the possibilities f radio's uses and abuses. Radio has characteristics comlon to no other advertising medium Tith which I have ever had any xperience. It is the most sensive and the most responsive conict that has ever been devised beveen seller and buyer. Listener-Station Bond 0 HAVE a better appreciation of s peculiar characteristics, let me ive you an intimate picture of the dd bond that exists between the iitverage radio listener and his or er favorite station. | The average citizen buys a radio L'et of good, bad or indifferent uality and immediately expects of l» the utmost in radio reception. If l:atistics mean anything, not one pan in thirty even knows how to une in a^ station, let alone hook up set properly. But the minute Mr. Average itizen gets his dials going, a pejliar psychological change takes lace and he immediately becomes rbued with the idea that he is an nperial and absolute monarch and Jiat al\ broadcasting thereafter 'hould be scheduled to suit his indiidual tastes, moods and convenience. II Excerpts of a recent address before the llinta Barbara convention of the Pacific llssociation of Advertising Agencies. This attitude is at once reflected in his telephone calls and letters to the station to which he usually listens, whether he is complimenting the station or condemning it. This strange phenomenon, however, is not an unmixed evil, because whenever a consumer gets that close to a medium the possibilities of influence through that medium become readily apparent. One of the first things to consider, in contemplating any advertising media, is the kind, character, mood and condition of the consumer that you desire to sell, whether you are exploiting a product or service or attempting to maintain a demand for one or the other. Shouting in a Home WITH this you will all promptly agree. Yet, stop and consider your consumer listening to your message over the radio. He is sitting in his living room, in the quiet of the evening. His wife and small child, and probably some elderly member of his household, are likewise in the room. Would you enter that room in that quiet and peaceful home, shouting at the top of your voice the merits of a five cent cigar, or what have you ? Of course you wouldn't, but that is what many of you instruct the broadcaster to do. Radio, used with an intelligent understanding of its peculiar characteristics, will do for you what no other advertising medium can do, and do it more quickly and more economically than any other medium can. I say this after more than twenty years of experience in this business of advertising from the viewpoint of both buyer and seller. I used to think that radio could onlv lend itself to the luxury of good will building. The following experiences would indicate the contrary to be true: Folger's Coffee has been sold in this market for ninety years. Their position in the market a year ago rated about seventeenth or eighteenth among the coffee sold here. They came on our system about a year ago with a small appropriation, but with a good broadcasting and merchandising idea. They depended upon radio alone to put CHALLENGING the validity of the restrictive high power regulation, but without attempting to block the high power grants to the successful applicants, six broadcasters have filed appeals with the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia seeking to have reversed the Federal Radio Commission's decision of Nov. 17 denying them the maximum power of 50 kw. One appeal was taken Dec. 5 and the others Dec. 7 — the date on which the 20-day appeal period expired. With the exception of the appeal filed by WTMJ, of the Milwaukee Journal, which sought the facilities occupied by WENR and and WLS, Chicago, the petitions primarily questioned the validity of General Order 42, as amended, which limits to four the number of clear channels in each zone which may accommodate stations of the maximum 50 kw. power. that idea over. They did noti change their can or their label or their price or their credit policy. Within ninety days they opened two thousand new accounts in Southern California alone, and today they are challenging the coffee occupying the second place in the Pacific coast market in tonnage, money value and the number of cans of coffee. Other Examples THE LOS Angeles Soap Company, at the approximate cost of $150 a day, is eliciting, over KHJ alone, an average of 1,000 letters a day and each letter contains two box ends from White King soap packages, representing an 84 cent purchase in each instance. The Signal Oil Company reports an average of 1,000 new calls a week at its service stations as a result of a broadcast at a moderate cost. Straska Toothpaste owes both its nation-wide distribution and enormous sales to radio alone and frankly admits it. The California Fruit Growers Exchange, the largest distributors of fruit in the world today and careful analysts of their huge advertising expenditure, report the lowest "cost per inquiry" in their entire advertising experience from the use of radio. I could cite many more equally eloquent illustrations of radio's ability to produce tangible sales results, but I believe that the typical experiences outlined here have afforded adequate evidence of my subject. They are unanimous also in the contention that the invalidity of the regulation was clearly established during the protracted hearings before the Commission more than a year ago and that public interest would best be served by granting all qualified applicants on clear channels the right to use the maximum power. The stations which noted appeals are WJZ, New York; KGO, Oakland, Cal.; WMAQ, Chicago; WGN, Chicago; WHAM, Rochester, and WTMJ, Milwaukee. They were among the two dozen stations which competed for the nine vacant 50 kw. assignments. All but WTMJ, are on clear channels, WTMJ being a regional station with 1 kw. at night and 2% kw. daylight. Stations which were granted increases to 50 kw., and which may (Continued on page Sit) Six Stations Attack High Power Order In Appeals from Commission's Denials Appellants Challenge High Power Order But Do Not Block 50 Kw. Awards To Stations December 15, 1931 • BROADCASTING Page 11