Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

G EARED to the COMMUNICATION NEEDS of the ENTIRE WORLD "Fortune" Appraises Radio TELEGRAPH CARLE and RADIO 9 Just a murmured password into your telephone . . . "Postal Telegraph" . . . and instantly you have at your command a far-reaching system of telegraph, cable and radio facilities working in perfect harmony ... a system that reaches the other side of the world just as speedily, as accurately and as dependably as it reaches the other side of the town . . . the great International System of which Postal Telegraph is a part. Postal Telegraph links you with 80,000 cities, towns and villages in the United States and Canada.* Its service extends to Europe, Asia and The Orient through Commercial Cables ... to Central America, South America and the West Indies through All America Cables . . . and to ships at sea via Mackay Radio. It is the only American telegraph company that offers a world-wide service of coordinated record communications under a single management. */» Canada, through the Canadian Pacific Railway Telegraphs. To Telephone" r(im ,„ cablegram or Telegram, Ca „ ^POSTAL .^Telegraph office Charges wiUapP THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM Tostal Telegraph Commercial W^Sw 0" Qmtrico Cabhe CabkB fflackay "Radio (Continued jt as supplementary rather than as competitive." As to the cost of a network program to a sponsor, the magazine estimates that a broadcaster who is looking for national coverage with a representative program must figure on $10,000 a week for time charges, $5,000 for talent. "With such an investment he ought to he able to spend at least an hour a week with between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 U. S. citizens," it concludes. "How many sales he makes is almost entirely up to his program and his product." The appraisal deals at some length with the rates paid by networks to local stations and the comparative value to stations of transcriptions or spot programs. Without being unduly critical of the networks, the article points out that the rates paid local stations are far below the station's card rates. Newspapers "would not put up with any such arrangement," the periodical states, "but the local stations are at a considerable handicap." As a consequence, transcription makers are talking of forming a transcription network "which will combine the present flexibility and convenience of spot broadcasting with a good representation in the thickly-populated northern and middle western metropolitan areas." The scheme at this time, however, "is largely nebulous, partly because few advertisers have anything but a prejudice against the om page 15) transcription and partly because the networks, paying almost nothing for their time, can offer it to advertisers at a relatively low rate." By way of summary, Fortune lists the major developments in radio since December, 1930, as follows: (1) The virtual disappearance of the argument that broadcasting is entertainment rather than sales. "Radio copy, even more than magazine or newspaper copy, should be short and simple, for the advertiser is working with a series of sudden flashes rather than with the more sustained illumination possible in publication advertising." (2) The trend away from programs of the strictly studio type into more high-powered and more sensational broadcasts. This is attributed to keener air competition and the depression. CBS has grown "until today no advertiser need feel that either chain, per se, is preferable to the other." Program popularity has shifted from the name to the serial type. (3) Little change has been noted in the listening habits of the radio audience. NBC has done well in the sale of morning hours, but neither network has secured many afternoon commercial periods. "To the most ambitious broadcasters, radios still go on at 7 p. m. and go off at 10:30 or 11." Finally: "Radio has almost ceased to be an advertising sensation. It has settled down to being an advertising success." IS YOURS a "drygoods" studio? These are a few of the stations which have combined Acoustics and Sound Insulation with beautiful interiors: WBRC, WNAC, WBEN, WDOD, KYW, WJKS, WBBM, WMAQ, WENR, NBC (Chicago 8C New York), WHK, WCFL, WHFC, WCHI, KMBC, WIBA, WCCO, WMCA, KQV, KWK, KMOX, KLX, WBZ, WWVA, WTAG, WCAO. USG Specializes in Studio Design Sound Absorption Sound Insulation Acoustone Floors Acousteel Ceilings Sabinite "A" Sabinite 38 Walls Doors Machinery Isolation Without obligation, a USG Sound Control Engineer will gladly j consult with you. For an appointment or further i \ «Qh information please address the United States Gypsum Company, Dept. B-9, 300 W. Adams St., Chicago. UNITED STATES GYPSUM CO. SOUND CONTROL SERVICE Page 26 BROADCASTING • September 15, 1932