Broadcasting (Jan - Dec 1935)

New Office Booking Time On Foreign Broadcasters CAPT. LEONARD F. PLUGGE, British advertising man who recently came to this country to survey the radio situation, has announced the formation of Imperial Broadcasting Corp., of London, representing various stations in France, Spain and other European countries where commercial programs are accepted. American offices have been opened in the RCA Bldg., New York, with Mr. Plugge, Clarence Davis and Alex Wiren as resident directors. The company is offering time on the 10,000-watt "Radio Normandie," of France, for American advertisers seeking to reach the British Isles where the British Broadcasting Corp. accepts no commercial accounts ; on the 100,000watt Paris Poste Parisien station, and on the 200,000-watt Radio Luxembourg, among others in Europe. Future of Radio Advertising (Continued from page 9) Foreign Programs BROADCASTING Abroad, Inc., exclusive sales representatives of Broadcasting Abroad. Ltd., has opened recording studios at 29 W. o7th St., New York, occupying the entire tenth floor. The organization specializes in building and broadcasting programs in foreign countries for American exporters and advertising agencies. Programs are broadcast over leading foreign stations which the company represents. any other medium, and uses it only when it seems to be indicated. Moreover, the agency is in the best possible position to coordinate all the various forms of advertising employed by a manufacturer and to devise a type of program which best suits the central selling theme of the advertiser. If it takes the time and the trouble to learn the technique of broadcasting and to assemble specialists in music, dramatic writing, and program direction, it is in a particularly favorable position to decide whether an advertiser should use broadcasting, and, if so, to create the type of program best suited to his needs. In the end, the decision for accepting, revising, or rejecting a commercial program rests with the advertiser who pays the bill. The weight carried by his agency's opinions depends upon his confidence in the judgment and experience of its members. Danger of Bureaucracy RECENTLY, well-advised advertising agencies have been pointing out to their clients that extremely vocal groups have come into existence to protest against offensiveness and horror and cheapness on the radio. They can and will make themselves felt if once they are sufficiently organized and properly led. The danger is that they may not be able to stop at reformation. They may find that through their legislators, always eager to cock an ear for a FEDERAL TELEGRAPH CO. RADIO TUBES FAMED FOR PERFORMANCE LONG LIFE * UNIFORM CHARACTERISTICS Made under Federal Telegraph Company-Owned Patents Federal Telegraph Co. Tube F-3S7A Half Wave Rectifier (Interchangeable with U. V. 857 and W. E. 266AI Federal Telegraph Company, a Mackay Radio subsuiiary, maintains a lube service organization that really wants to serve you. W #F-357A, half wave rectifier ' illustrated above, represents just one of a long line of Federal Telegraph Co. Radio Tubes "Famed for Per/brmance"throughoutthe world. Federal Telegraph Co. engineers have greatly improved this type of mercury vapor tube by shielding it. In F-357Athe arc is confined within the shield which reduces bulb blackening and materially reduces the tendency to arc back. A special filament core material insures permanency of the oxide coating and prevents flaking. Write for catalog. FEDERAL TELEGRAPH COMPANY, 200 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Newark. N. J. Page 52 popular issue, they will have taken broadcasting out of its present hands and rested it in bureaucracy. It would seem that that would be the end of the higher level to which much of radio has climbed. Only industrial competition could have laid before the public every one of the finest voices in existence, every one of the greatest musical organizations, and most of the popular stars of the stage and the motion pictures. If the pendulum swings in the other direction, there will be little incentive to the greatest personalities in the field of entertainment to permit themselves to be beguiled to the air. Only a commercial sponsor will pay the high-priced piper. The cost, like that of all advertising, means only the tiniest fraction of a cent per package when it is spread over the mass sales of a national advertiser. But what political appointee would risk having it known that out of public funds he was paying a great artist several thousands of dollars for a few songs? Moreover, for planning and directing programs, broadcasting's high rewards have attracted people who know their showmanship as it appeals to the millions. The head of one of the networks recently pointed out that the educational interests of the country are not entitled to any further time on the air until they have learned something about showmanship. Most educational efforts in radio have succeeded in being so dull that their value was only a fraction of what it might have been. In bureaucratic hands, directed by those who insist upon programs of high caliber but have never learned the knack of being interesting, it is not difficult to foresee the result in this country. The American public's appetite is whetted for novelty and skill in showmanship. It will not be interested in anything that is worth while unless it is also entertaining. Self-restraint Needed THE BETTER solution for the future of radio would be for it to reform itself from within, as all advertising must do. In the scramble to sell time on the air, the networks must not fail to exclude many products, just as today liquor advertising is excluded. That much would be easy. The real difficulty lies with the advertiser, who Indivldua ' should realize that while a cheap ' over-commercialized program m pay today, a better balance of I straint will in the end build a larg 1 audience and insure a continuac' of the present American syste The trouble is that there are alwa some who will not abide by t ; rules. Those who are familiar wi American broadcasting rememb i the exact time when commercial ai nouncements became annoying, happened about five years ago. if to that time all advertisers felt th | they must woo the public, and th i their advertising must be lightly a j plied and sparsely scattered throun their programs. Then one advertiser broke awa i He coached his announcers pound home his selling points rep f titively and aggressively. On everl hand people who discussed radtt were loud in their damnation of th.} particular program. And its spoi sor's sales went up! The reasol,' was quite simple. He gave a goof show, and he was the first to takf advantage of all the other sponsor He was trading upon a receptivf state of mind which they had en; ated. Then the floodgates opened. Eac advertiser said to himself that ther was no reason for him to prepare listening audience for this one ad vertiser to address so emphaticall; and directly. All commercial any nouncements grew longer and mon insistent. It would be a misfortune if, mere ly for the restriction of those wh( refuse to restrain themselves, a sei of definite regulations were to b« imposed upon those who want broad casting to be effective. Better fai t would be the elimination of some oil: the things which are not in the inter1 ests of the listener and cannot ulti ^ mately profit the sponsor or radio itself. Survey by WBS BELIEVING more information on transcriptions would interest agencies and advertisers, as well as stations, the WBS sales promotion de-| partment has asked its 108 affiliated H] stations to answer the following : i Number of transcriptions used in daytime and in evening; how many T: are "World" ; what percentage of broadcasting day to transcriptions consume, commercial and sustaining. The survey is being handled by Adrian J. Flanter, sales promotion manager. K-A-X PATENT PENDING KEAR ANTENNA EXCITATION SYSTEM Used on new Airways Radio Range Beacon Stations Recent K-A-X installations WKRC, WORC, WPEN, WPRO, WORK, W1XBS A STABILIZED DIRECTIVE SYSTEM WHICH WILL: Reduce interfering signals with neighboring stations on same channel. Increase service area in non-interfering zones. Designed, constructed and installed to meet your requirements. WASHINGTON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY McLachlen Building Washington, D. C. BROADCASTING -• January 15, 1935