Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

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hy Sponsors Should Advertise Programs By HOWARD ANGUS Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, Inc. osition in Radio Held Different From That in Press: ntertainment Rather Than Product Provides Copy Howard Angus 5 E NEVER the advertising of rmercial broadcasting programs discussed, someone says, "I !t believe in advertising adver?ng," and the statement is acted as closing the subject. My fcrrel with this statement when ■lied to a commercial broadcastprogram is that it assumes that !h a program is the same as a nted advertisement in a maga 2 or newspaper. ^ertainly nobody would advise body to take an advertisement Colliers that said: "Be sure I read my advertisement about ts in the Saturday Evening St." The obvious thing for an ertiser to do is to say someig about boots in both. Cowever, the position of an adtiser in radio broadcasting is erent from his position in maga■ss or newspapers. The puber of a magazine or newspaper Is his feature entertainment, :s this into shape and sells it as lagazine or newspaper. In the rse of time, if he has a maga 3 or newspaper that appeals to public, his circulation grows to : oint where an advertisement in publication is of value to a man h something to sell to its pardar readers. You will note, ■•ever, that the publisher did own editing and acquired his i circulation. Why Radio is Different 1 MAGAZINE ever asked an adtiser to supply a story by Mary >erts Rinehart or to go out in the Jet and sell copies. The puber would be highly insulted and ally is if any advertiser tries dictate his editorial policy or him how to get circulation, i certainly no advertiser would r say to the publisher: "Don't ertise Mary Roberts Rinehart's T for the purpose of getting re circulation." E the two nationwide broad:mg companies and all of the il broadcasting stations in the THE GENERALLY accepted belief that advertisers should not advertise advertising is shaken off its all-inclusive pedestal in this article by an official of one of the leading advertising agencies who at the same time has the following radio contacts: He is chairman of the radio committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, chairman of the radio committee of the Advertising Federation of America, and chairman of the radio trade group of the Advertising Club of New York. country furnished all of the entertainment and then came to an advertiser and said, "Here is a blank time of one minute — or two minutes— that you may buy for such a rate," — why then these companies would be governing broadcasting just like a magazine or a newspaper runs its business. In that event I would be the last person in the world to say: "Take an advertisement in a newspaper or a magazine and advertise your two-minute ad on the air." And anybodv that would say that would be foolish. But that isn't the way broadcasting is run at all. Broadcasting was developed originally by two companies — one had radio sets and stations to sell, the other had radio stations to sell and wires to lease. They soon found out that if they supplied the programs it would eat up all the profits they made in selling radio sets and stations and leasing wires. First they tried to get the entertainment for nothing. When they couldn't do that, they tried to get somebody to buy the entertainment for them. They naturally turned to some man who wanted publicity. They said to the president of the Blank Company: "If you put an excellent orchestra on the air and a fine quartet and a good soprano, we will let you say, 'The Blank Company takes great pleasure in presenting the Blank orchestra and the Blank quartet and the Blank soprano. But mind you not a word more about yourself than Blank." When these two companies did this they invited the advertiser to sit in the editor's chair and also in the circulation manager's chair. In fact, every man who puts on a radio program is really putting out his own magazine of the air, finding the features that will draw an audience and then in between telling about his product. The latter part is the job that he always had been doing in magazines, but the first part is what the magazines have always done for themselves. And I claim this peculiar situation in which the advertiser finds himself in broadcasting makes his problem entirely different. He has not only to select a program that will give an audience entertainment that's comparable to a love story in a magazine or a murder story in a newspaper, but he has to tell the world that he has that kind of a program. Like Theater Manager THE MORE people that he can induce to listen to his program the larger the number who are going to hear about his product. In other words, he shouldn't allow people just to find his program any more than he would allow them to find his product. It naturally follows then that anything he can do to get a bigger audience he should do. One way to get that is to advertise in newspapers and magazines. What is he advertising ? His commercial announcement? Not at all. He is advertising his entertainment. The same thing a magazine does when it advertises in newspapers or other magazines or over the air. Perhaps another illustration may make the point clearer. An advertiser in building a radio show is in the same position as a man who builds a show and puts it in a theater on Broadway. We can compare Broadway — which is the theatrical street— to the channel the advertiser has on the air. We can compare the theater to the time. Certainly some people will drop in to see the show on Broadway. Certainly some people will tune in to hear the show on the air. Certainly if they like it they will tell others about it and gradually the audience will grow. But why shouldn't the radio advertiser who has gone into the show business do what the Ziegfelds and Shuberts and all the rest of them do — tell the world about it in printed advertisement, in posters, and if it were possible, flash electric signs in people's homes. It is his dual job that makes the advertiser's place on the air so different from his place in the magazine and newspaper. Because he is doing something else besides advertising, the expression — "I don't believe in advertising advertising" — applies in broadcasting only to his commercial announcement, not to his entertainment at all. Copyright Licenses Extend After Feb. 1 New Yardstick Not Yet Found, According to Gene Buck EXISTING copyright licenses with broadcasting stations will continue after Feb. 1 until a new "yardstick" for levying rates can be determined, according to latest reports from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Gene Buck, president, stated that no yardstick has yet been worked out. Present contracts with stations, he said, are flexible and do not terminate on Feb. 1 unless new rates are introduced. Original plans of the late Julius C. Rosenthal, general manager of the Society, were to levy the new rates, effective Feb. 1. His death last month left the matter unsettled. In a letter written before his death, he stated that the new rates would not be imposed until the copyright committee of the NAB had been consulted. That committee is composed of Henry A. Bellows, WCCO, Minneapolis; Frank M. Russell, NBC Washington vice-president; William S. Hedges, WMAQ, Chicago, and Walter J. Damm, WTMJ, Milwaukee. No definite indication as to the form the new rates will take has been forthcoming, except that the Rosenthal plan contemplated higher revenues for the Society from radio. This would inevitably mean higher rates. Whether the rates would be on a percentage of gross income basis, or on some other basis, has not been disclosed by the Society. Applause Card STATION WRVA, Richmond, Va., employs an applause card that is "sponsored" by Edgeworth tobacco, manufactured by Larus & Bros., Inc., Richmond. The card solicits applause for artists, containing spaces for name and address of sender, name of station, time of program and comments. An Edgeworth ad appears on the card. These cards are furnished other stations also, the company's advertising manager being P. L. Reed. Its advertising is handled by Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, New Yox'k. nuary 15, 1932 . BROADCASTING Page 7