Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1950)

Respects ( Continued from page 50) with the whim or pressure of the moment. What was needed was the stabilizing influence of a system of exclusive representation of stations in national and regional sales. The system, started by Mr. Petry, made it possible for spot broadcasting to grow up. Spot today accounts for more than a third of the total advertising volume of television and more than a fourth of all radio business. In radio, spot volume has been increasing while network volume has been falling off. A substantial part of the spot billings in both radio and television passes through the eight offices of the Petry company, the biggest in the exclusive station representative field. Mr. Petry started business with 13 stations on his list, 11 of which are still clients. Those, plus others that have been added in the past 18 years, constitute what is often called the "Tiffany list" among station representatives. The man who today presides over the "Tiffany list" started life in less glittering circumstances. He was bora in Brooklyn, N. Y., July 10, 1896, and grew up in a modest section of that borough. The ambition of his childhood was to be a professional baseball player, and he quit school after completing the eighth grade to seek a career in the big leagues. Big League Tryouts At the age of 15 he tried out with all three New York teams, the Yankees, Giants, and Brooklyn, but was rejected because of his youth. In those days Ed Petry was a catcher. He did not turn to pitching until later years. Between baseball seasons he worked at numerous jobs. He sold newspapers, labored in a Brooklyn brass mill and engaged in a series of other occupations until he joined The Hooper May-June Index for CBS stations places WBNS first in share of audience . . . Another proof of this station's outstanding popularity in central Ohio . . . Another convincing demonstration of how advertisers get greater value for their money on WBNS plus WELD-FM. PLUS WELD-FM POWER WBNS 5000 ASK JOHN BLAIR WELD 53,000 CBS COLUMBUS, OHIO the Navy at the outbreak of World War I. Mr. Petry joined the Navy, but he saw very little of the world. For 18 months he was assigned to a naval station at Pelham Bay, N. Y., an outpost almost within cannon range of Brooklyn. He entered service as an apprentice seaman and emerged with the same rank, having spent the 18-month interval largely occupied with shoveling coal and standing inspection. The Pelham Bay naval installation kept on hand for obscure purposes a large pile of coal which spent the war in transit between two sites. As soon as it had been shoveled into one location, it was shoveled back to its original place. The coal-moving was periodically interrupted by inspection which had to be stood in whites. Mr. Petry was relieved when the war was over. After the war Mr. Petry held several jobs and, in 1925, entered the field he was to make his career. He joined WGL New York, as general manager. He soon achieved the first of many "firsts" he was to be responsible for in his long service in broadcasting. A few months after joining WGL he launched what he believes to be the first participation show, the Alfred McCann Hour, a program that still is on the air, though now on WOR New York. Within a year Mr. Petry had made such a record in radio sales that he was hired by NBC. In 1926 he and Frank Mullen, who later became NBC executive vice president, opened NBC's Chicago office. After three months in Chicago Mr. Petry returned to New York headquarters. 1927 Participation Show In 1927 he scored his second "first" when he started the first network participation show, the Dr. Royal S. Copeland food hour. That same year Mr. Petry left NBC to become Dr. Copeland's personal representative. A year later he joined Addison Vars Inc., a New York advertising agency, as account executive. In 1929 he went to the Blow agency as account executive on the Bulova watch account. When Mr. Petry joined the Blow Co., Bulova was using 10 stations for its time signal commercials. When he left three years later to organize his own company, 190 stations were carrying the Bulova account. The need for a system of exclusive station representation became apparent to Mr. Petry during his service on the Bulova account. Because of the disorganized conditions of radio, he had found it necessary personally to visit stations in order to set up efficient schedules for time signals. In his wide travels among stations he found almost hopeless chaos, and he resolved to form a company that would represent stations exclusively and, with the cooperation of stations, maintain a strict adherence to rates and standards, and bring stability to the business of spot broadcasting. Mr. Petry went into business with 13 stations: WSB Atlanta, WFAA Dallas, KPRC Houston, WDAF Kansas City, WHAS Louisville, WTMJ Milwaukee, WSM Nashville, WSMB New Orleans, WTAR Norfolk, KVOO Tulsa, KFH Wichita, WFBM Indianapolis and KSD St. Louis. He still retains all but the last two. In the first year he added 12 to make a total of 25. Mr. Petry had seven people on his staff when he started, and his company occupied a small suite in a midtoviTi New York office building. Today his staff numbers 99, and he has offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, Dallas, Atlanta, and St. Louis. The Petry New York offices now occupy an entire floor of the new building at 488 Madison Ave. Of the 99 members of the Petry staff, 30 are in the company's television department, a unit organized a year ago when Mr. Petry split his organization into two distinct divisions, one for radio and the other for TV. Each department has its own promotion, research and sales service facilities and its own sales managers and sales staffs. Petry Leadership The Petry company can claim leadership in many activities. It was the first station representative firm to become an associate member of NAB, the first to advertise in national consumer magazines, the first to publish complete market data books for its stations, the first to sponsor its own surveys (it has undei-written two studies of the impact of spot commercials in St. Louis), and, it was the first to standardize and maintain station rates. Mr. Petry has been married to the former Elizabeth Kehoe, of New York, for 27 years. They have two daughters, Carol, 19, and Barbara, 14. The press of business leaves Mr. Petry little time for hobbies. He plays golf and tennis occasionally at the Spring Lake, N. J., country club. A vestigial trace of his boyhood enthusiasm for baseball remains. He is an ardent Yankee fan, a phenomenon not easy to reconcile with the fact he grew up in Brooklyn. The standards and policies on which the Petry company was organized are, to a large extent, those which prevail today, and The Nation's Richest Farm Market Local Ratail SaUi, 1949, 18% obova th« Notion's Average — 1950 — highor. WTTN WATERTOWN, WISCONSIN Page 56 • October 16, 1950 BROADCASTING • Telecasting