Broadcasting (July - Dec 1942)

Sydney Ross Co, Active in Latin Field Subsidiary of Sterling Devotes 60% of Big Budget to Radio WITH a Latin-American advertising apropriation for 1942 of more than $2,300,000, of which 60% is devoted to radio, the Sydney Ross Co. is an even bigger figure in radio below the Rio Grande than its parent organization. Sterling Products Inc., is in United States radio. Using 224 stations in 19 LatinAmerican countries — and arrangements are now under way for the addition of one or more stations in Paraguay, which will give the company broadcasts from every country in Central and South America — the Ross schedule for the year calls for 4,199 half -hour programs, 4,998 quarter-hour shows and 2,292,400 announcements. Placed Directly Radio schedules are placed directly by the 31 branch offices of the company throughout Latin America, according to A. E. Calliari, who directs this branch of the Sterling advertising from headquarters in Newark, where a staff of 40 produces most of the program material used in the various campaigns. Six Spanish girls are kept busy typing scripts and cutting stencils for these programs. Sterling has used radio in Latin America for six or eight years, Mr. Calliari said, but the big impetus came in 1939 after the acquisition of the Sydney Ross Co. and since that time the company has constantly increased its radio appropriation. Until recently spot announcements, varying from 10 words to one minute in length, were used exclusively, he stated, but now programs have been added. Latin American radio practice is quite different from that in the United States, Mr. Calliari explained. Here, spot announcements are usually placed between programs or distributed within a participating program of music, comedy cr home economics instruction. There, on most stations, announcements and phonograph records make up most of the program schedule, and if the station is popular there may be as many as 20 announcements, read one after another, between records. Frequent Checks To make its messages stand out. Sterling has been using anywhere from 20 to 75 spots per day per station, insisting wherever possible that its spots be read in the choice position immediately following each record. The company's local personnel make frequent checks on the stations to see that these preferred positions are not given to other advertisers. Although Sterling alternated its advertising, devoting 25 announcements, say, to Mejoral on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, and to Phillips Milk of Magnesia on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the company still found it impossible to buy enough spots on most stations for the numerous Sterling products, since the broadcasters refused to allow any single company to buy up all of their spots. So the company has recently begun putting radio programs of the North American variety on these Latin American stations, even though this step has necessitated sending seasoned production men from the United States to all parts of Latin America. Only in Argentine and Brazil, Mr. Calliari said, were experienced program men available locally. Broadcasting in these countries has advanced far ahead of that in the remainder of Latin America; there is a wealth of good radio material available and in both Argentine and Brazil there are networks offering country-wide coverage, thus making it worth while to put on programs employing the best writers and artists, he explained. Mexican Outlets Citing XEW, Mexico City, as an example, Mr. Calliari said his company sponsors 35 programs a week on this station, which is powerful enough to cover most of Mexico. The programs range from daily soap operas to dramatizations of famous bull fights, with the fighters appearing as guest stars on the programs, and include adaptations of most types of programs popular in the United States; musical and variety shows with the best known Mexican composers and singers; news broadcasts, audience participation programs and even a comedy series of the Baby Snooks type. Ross Pills (laxative) , Phillips Milk of Magnesia, Glostora (hair dressing) and quite a line of other products are plugged on the Sterling programs but the largest share of the company's Latin American advertising appropriation is de See Their Men REALIZING that there are now many husbands, sweethearts and brothers serving in the armed forces throughout the nation, KWK, St. Louis, has decreed that all girls on the administrative staff may have an additional week of vacation at their own expense in cases where they must take long and expensive trips to see their men. voted to Mejoral, an aspirin product. An article in the June issue of Fortune, titled "Popguns on the Southern Front" and dealing with the Latin American competition between Sterling and I. G. Farben, German chemical trust, since last September, when Sterling signed a Government consent decree breaking off its relations with the German organization, says that the Ross Company's chief job is "to crowd German aspirin from the shelves of Latin-American retail stores and replace it with American aspirin." They're Selling Aspirin In this effort, the Fortune article continues, and "as the first company to inject American sales and advertising techniques into a major Latin-American trade war, Sydney Ross is as important to the nation as it is to the company." Stating that "Farben advertising tends to resemble grand opera and the German sales technique lacks sales initiative and drive", whereas the Ross organization "overlooks no possible promotion devices", the article reports that in every locality where Ross sales agencies had been established by the first of this year, "Sydney Ross men were able to sell more aspirin during the first quarter of the year than the Germans were able to sell during the same period in either 1940 or 1941." When Historians of The Future . . . From the Asheville (N. C.) Citizen, June 22 SHOULD the two-weeks' scrap rubber campaign launched by President Roosevelt prove to be an outstanding success, a large portion of the credit therefor should, and doubtless vnll go to the more than 800 radio stations of the country that are working ceaselessly behind the drive at all hours of the day and night. Indeed, this is not only true of the scrap rubber campaign, but along all other lines of the national war effort including rationing, community defense, war stamps and bonds, scrap iron drives, etc. These, in addition to the almost hourly broadcasts of war news and bulletins, hedged around by the problems of censorship, have added greatly to the burdens placed on radio stations in keeping the public fully and properly informed regarding the war effort at home. These services of course add greatly to the operating expenses of radio stations everywhere, some of which are now doing duty 24 hours a day in areas where defense workers are living, providing news and entertainment to the thousands of men and women who get up late and deserve as good a radio fare as daylight workers. When the historians of the future shall write the record of the great agencies that assured final victory for the United Nations, the contributions of America's radio stations will rank high in the annals of the Second World War. STILL IN RADIO, though Army clad. Pvt. Edgar Kobak Jr., son of the executive vice-president of the BLUE (left), and Pvt. Robert Maurer, of the Armored Force Replacement Training Center at Ft. Knox, Ky., take parts in their own show. Private Lives, which they write and direct for WAVE, Louisville, Saturdays. They also write and direct Roll of Honor over WGRC, Louisville, and the Mutual Network, Sunday afternoons. In civilian life Pvt. Kobak worked for NBC-New York in the International Division. Pvt. Maurer worked in the radio department of the Henry J. Kauffman Adv. Agency, Washington, where he also originated two programs heard over WJSV and WINX. Both men work under the supervision of Capt. Addison F. McGee, of the Ft. Knox public relations office, who formerly served WKAT, Miami, as an announcer and sports commentator. False Program Listing Is Basis Of Damage Suit RAISING the question of responsibility of newspaper program listings, George H. Brasier, cowboy candidate for U. S. Senator from Oklahoma, has filed a $2,500 damage suit against KOME, Tulsa, and the Oklahoma Network. The suit contends the period purchased by the senatorial candidate for a broadcast on June 11 was carried in Tulsa newspaper program listings as Bats in the Belfry. Mr. Brasier further alleges the program was to be carried "in appropriate words" and contends the program title. Bats in the Belfry, "subjected" him to "great ridicule in and about the community of Tulsa, where he was reared and educated, and where he is well known." The station contends that after contracting for the 15-minute period, Brasier filed action against the network to compel acceptance of his manuscript, allegedly bluepencilled by network officials. This created a complication, the station further states, that made it impossible for the station to meet the newspaper deadline which demands all program changes be made 24 hours in advance. FOR the third consecutive year John Shepard 3rd, president of tihe Yankee Network, presented the Yankee Silver Trophy to the winner of the Yankee Handicap at Suffolk Downs on July 4. Page 22 • July 6, 1942 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising