Broadcasting (Jan - Mar 1949)

of Friendship International Airport eight miles southeast of the City Hall. Largest municipal project in the nation, it involves a cost of $18,000,000. The 3200-acre site is a mile from Route 1, main East Coast highway ' from North to South. It is 22 miles from Washington's district ■ line and a new highway will provide swift service to the nation's capital. Friendship is expected to ease the international and domestic air load at National Airport in Washington. Located 125 feet above sea « level, it has good air drainage with fewer than 10 foggy days a year i compared to New York's 30 to 40. " Three trans-Atlantic airlines and nine domestic lines will use the 1 port. The present municipal air I port will be used mainly as a sea . plane base. Elaborate Facilities To Be Included To be completed next Dec. 31, Friendship will have a railroad siding; hotel roomettes in the terminal runway; runways up to 10,000 feet in length; access to the new Chesapeake bridge to the Eastern Shore, vrith the bridge just seven miles away; provide the best airport in the East for blind landings. Runways are about complete, work having been started in spring of 1947. Baltimore is air-minded. On the outskirts the big Martin plant provides employment for thousands in turning out military and civilian aircraft, and the area isn't even ruffled at -the weird screech of something supersonic that the engineers are testing. ; Though 60% of Baltimore's in^ come is port-derived, it is a city ,i of diversified interests. This di, versity carried it through the deI pression of the '30s with minimum discomfort and accounts for the confidence with which businessmen contemplate the future. With its fine land and water transportation, the city is one of ( the nation's leading wholesaling .1 and jobbing markets. This activity i! traces back to the early Colonial ■ days when the city first became a 5 commercial center. The primary wholesale influence is felt all over ^ Maryland, District of Columbia ^ and parts of Virginia and West „ Virginia, an area of 20,000 square J, miles. The secondary wholesaling area extends from Maine to Florida and as far away as Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. Baltimore's wholesale business f, exceeds $2 billion a year, with emj ployment provided some 25,000 perI sons. The 15,000 retail stores do a business of more than $1 billion and give work to 75,000. Business Financing Important Enterprise ' Financing of business enterprises has long been a Baltimore activity of major importance, tracing back iKi to the day when its bankers personally knew the credit possibilities of Colonial planters. First major project was the B&O in 1827 and the city's financial houses have pro vided service for all types of enterprises. Baltimore is the largest banking center south of Philadelphia and east of the Mississippi. Commercial Credit Located in Baltimore Commercial Credit Co. headquarters in the city. It is one of the largest sales finance companies in the world and is high in the bonding and casualty insurance fields. Four of the leading companies writing casualty insurance and surety bonds have home offices in the city. All this hard-bitten business and industrial activity provides the lifeblood that keeps Baltimoreans happy with their lot and permits indulgence in the art of pleasant living. Baltimore is a city of culture. Its famed Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School and similar U. of Maryland institutions are among the best known in the nation. The U. of Maryland dental school is the first in the world, Johns Hopkins U. has undergraduate and graduate departments and Maryland U. has law, pharmacy and other schools in the city. Museums and libraries abound. The city supports a municipal symphony orchestra. Peabody Conservatory is nationally known in the musical world. Home of 600 churches, Baltimore has been a leader in religion since its founding by the Lords Baltimore 300 years ago after a grant by the English king to the Calvert family. U. S. Methodism was organized in the city in 1784. The $2,000 or $3,000 six-room home complete with white marble stoop. Having bought the place, the homeowner generally had the choice of buying the land after five years or continuing to pay the rent and taxes. Development companies sold the houses at cost or thereabouts in order to collect ground rents. Though an airplane view of the city reveals miles of block-long piano-box edifices, Baltimore's residents are well housed. They are famed as housekeepers and the basic morning occupation of housewives is a careful manicuring of the marble stoop. Being well housed, Baltimoreans are stay-at-homers. They do most of their entertaining at home. While downtown Baltimore has several renowned dining places, the city is known for its eating at home. Few night clubs are able to exist. The city's night life, however, supports several burlesque theatres. Set Ownership And Tune-In High The stay-at-home citizens buy more than their share of food and other merchandise, guided by the sponsored messages of radio and television stations as well as newspaper advertising. The local radio tune-in and set ownership are high and the newspapers are perhaps read more carefully than those of most large cities. Visitors quickly catch the hometown feeling of the metropolis. The mass media are naturally alert to the phenomenon, and a local-flavor Philadelp^o/ Baltimore (I N.J. •\) / Dover Was^.,D.C(^ DEL) VA. V / nation's first Cathedral was built by the Catholic Church in 1806. A third of the city's residents are Catholic. Baltimoreans claim their percentage of home ownership is highest in the nation, even above that of Philadelphia. The city is slumless, though it has poorer sections. Availability of brick and marble along with a peculiar local system of ground rents were important in the home-owning trend. Under these ground rents, most Baltimore homes were sold without the land beneath them. The developments were of the row-house variety and $50 down would buy a comfortable broadcast is sure to pull a heavy audience. Feeling runs high at sports events and a riot was barely averted a few weeks ago when the pro football Colts were nosed out of the eastern championship. The Naval Academy plays its home games in Baltimore's big stadium. Sports provide a major business in the city. The mid-May Preakness at the old Pimlico track is the second ranking racing event of the year. The tracks draw a heavy amount of transient business to the city. Within motor distance are Bowie, Laurel, Bel Air, Havre de Grace and Timonium. The rolling Maryland hills support a horse BROADCASTING • Telecasting breeding industry. These hills also support a lush agricultural industry just as the Chesapeake provides extensive seafood enterprises. Marylanders Loyal To Home Products Marylanders are loyal to their Chesapeake oysters, and to their Maryland Rye whose subtle charms are ascribed to choice grains, deep limestone wells and skilled processing. Baltimore consumers contribute substantially to the support of the rye and beer industries, though much of the consuming is done at home. Taking a powerful role in Baltimore's steady commercial growth have been its advertising agencies, many of them decades old. Unlike many other cities, the agency business is calm and steady, lacking the wild scramble for clients so familiar to advertisers. The city's advertising counsellors work carefully and skilfully, and their client lists vary slightly from year to year other than to reflect healthy growth. Generally rated as the largest agency is Joseph Katz Co., with headquarters in the city and a large working organization in New York. Sparked by Mr. Katz, the agency has guided the expansion of many radio-using companies such as the American Oil, Maryland Pharmaceutical, Ex-Lax, Arrow beer, Gaby sun tan lotion and stations WITH and W M A R Baltimore, WWDC Washington and WLEE Richmond. And encouraged by Mr. Katz, the agency has gone into television seriously. American Oil Co. sponsors the Washington Redskins football games on WMAL-TV Washington. Arrow beer sponsors telecasts of fights on WMAL-TV and WMAR-TV. Obviously Mr. Katz believes in television. He feels, however, that AM and FM are being sold short in the TV excitement. "If television has the best story in costs and sales, it will beat out the other media," he says. !'But my guess is that they'll all be here, competing for the ears and eyes of the listener." Joseph Katz Co. Effective with Spots The story of Rem and that of Ex-Lax are classic examples of the effective spot technique used by the agency. Among the Katz media executives are John McHugh, Robert Swann, Evans Rodgers and Beth Black (New York). Another active radio agency is Van Sant, Dugdale & Co., with Daniel Loden as director of radio and television. Sherwood Bros. Inc., regional gas station chain operating in Maryland, is a heavy broadcast user and Mr. Loden says radio has carried a substantial share of the Sherwood advertising burden. The company uses newscasts in (Continued on Baltimore 6) January 17, 1949 • Baltimore Page 5