Broadcasting (Jan - Dec 1935)

NAB Group Adopts Agency Plan (Continued from page 7) store which were almost entirely merchandising, but so cleverly dramatized as to be inoffensive to a feminine audience. All of them produced direct sales in large quantities. For many retailers the other extreme is better, said Mr. Oreck. Good entertainment with a minimum of sales talk is just what is needed to make people aware of a store's existence. This view was also expressed by Mr. Bijur, who set 50% as the absolute maximum of time to be given to selling and said that for particularly good results on any item sales talk should be cut to 20% of the program time. Never mention more than a few separate items on any one broadcast, he advised. Shopping Periods ASKED the most effective way to conduct a shopping period, Mr. Henry said that people interested in shopping news want information and advised the use of 85% advertising information to 15% entertainment. Mr. Epstein cited a program of this type sponsored jointly by a number of State Street stores in Chicago that was broadcast nightly for nearly two years with considerable success. Mr. Carpenter said that many stations use these cooperative programs as a proving ground for new advertisers who want to test radio without spending much money. What proportion of the store budget should be spent for radio? Fifteen per cent at the start, increasing it as it pays out, was prescribed by Mr. Shepard. Mr. Oreck said that once he has tried out radio the average retailer can advantageously spend from 25 to 30% of his advertising appropriation for radio. The experience of Macy's, which had never tried radio even for special sales up to the time it bought Bamberger's and WOR, because Kenneth Collins was not interested in radio, was cited by Mr. McCosker. "Not until I pointed out how hard he was making it for WOR salesmen to sell time when the company owning the station didn't think enough of its value to use it, did Collins weaken and put Macy's on wth a 15 minute program," he said. But at the end of the tenth week such a favorable reaction had been created that in Collin's own words 'you couldn't get him off the air with a crowbar'." So strongly was Collins sold on radio that when he went to Gimble Brothers he made them repurchase WIP for his use. The Tuesday morning session was opened by E. J. Adams, chairman special board of investigation Federal Trade Commission. (His address is abstracted elsewhere in this issue.) H. O'Neil, Drug Trade Products Co., said he had once felt the FTC was interfering in business without cause but he had found it extremely helpful and largely re FEDERAL TELEGRAPH CO. 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LANG, publicity manager of General Electric Co., was reelected president, and Edgar Kobak, sales vice president of NBC, was reelected chairman of the board of the AFA at the closing session June 12. Victor Martin, Davenport, la., was elected secretary, and Frank A. Black, Boston, was elected treasurer. Vice presidents are Charles E. Murphy, New York; Arthur H. Brayton, Chicago, and Miss Josephine Snapp. sponsible for a 200% increase in the profits of his company. Mr. Carpenter again served as chairman for a panel discussion of the mutual problems of the buyer and seller of radio advertising. H. K. Boice, CBS vice president in charge of sales, opened a discussion of standards of advertising copy by referring to the recently inaugurated CBS policies banning improper stimulation of juvenile emotions on children's programs, objectionable discussions of internal bodily functions and overlengthy commercials. Standards Needed for All ADVERTISERS, agencies and audiences have all praised these standards, Mr. Boice said, and any objections have been with the application and not with the intent. But CBS cannot do the job alone, he stated. All networks and individual stations must cooperate in keeping broadcasting within the limits of good taste. The time has come, he warned, that unless this is done the radio audience will decrease instead of grow. Calling radio "the most intimate appeal that advertising can make to the consumer", John Benson, president, AAAA, said that the agencies approved highly of radio's attempt to raise its standards. From the agency point of view these restrictions are good if thev are broadly interpreted. But it is just as important to make commercials acceptable in quality as in quantity, he said, and pledeed agency cooperation in producing advertising as enjoyable as entertainment. The only thing that will hurt radio is mismanagement, said Mr. Maland in urging local stations to follow the example of the net FEDERAL TELEGRAPH COMPANY, 200 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Newark. N. J. WWNC Operated By The Citizen Broadcasting Company, Inc. ASHEVILLE, N. C Here's "PLUS" Summer Business! Cool Asheville and Western North Carolina are tourist-filled for the next three months! More than double population here in the South's only big "plus" summer market! Double buying power — here — at no extra cost! WWNC is the sole blanket radio coverage. Full Time NBC Affiliate 1,000 Watts 570 Kilocycles works now as they did in 1931 in accepting medical copy. He quot ed the advice of WHO's attornej to imagine a broadcast coming in to your own home: If you like it then the copy is OK. NBC agrees with CBS in elirninat ing objectionable copy, said E. P H. James, NBC sales promotioi manager, but he declared it wai difficult to know what is gooc taste. Length is not always i good criterion, he said, for a 2! word commercial can be just a: objectionable as a 5-minute one Last fall NBC created a continuity acceptance department whose func tion it is to work with advertis ers whose product is good anc claims truthful to maintain goc taste in their commercials. What Buyer Should Know DISCUSSING the information th< buyer of time desires regarding broadcasting, Z. L. Potter, hea< of the Chicago office of Erwin Wasey & Co., cited five points The potential audience, that is, th number of radio sets in the broad casting range; the audience of tbi various stations in a given area the listeners at various hours o the day; the audience commande< by different types of programs and the size of audience his owi program commands. On these las two points the Crossley rating and Clark-Cooper studies giy some information, but there i still no way of obtaining a con tinuous record accurately reflect ing audience reaction to prograr changes, he stated. Mr. Benson said it is more hn portant to know how to appeal t an audience successfully than t know its exact size, but he ac mitted the need of a standardize yard-stick with which to measur radio values. This need was em phasized by H. P. Roberts, advei tising manager of the Pepsoder Co. Until radio has a standar as definite as the ABC he sak and one as agreeable to advertis ers, agencies and stations, it wi be seriously handicapped. It i extremely hard to get definite ir formation regarding station covei age, he added, and there is usuall a wide discrepancy between th station's own coverage map an the chain's map for that statkn The advertiser wants to fit sts tions to his sales needs, Mr. Rot erts declared, and it is disconcert ing to spend 20% of his apprc priation in a territory that pre duced only 10% of sales because c lack of authentic information. Discussing the study of radi proposed by the ANA to find th best practical methods of ratin program popularity and measurin potential station coverage and i determine the feasibility of ol taining current information on th geographic distribution of radi sets, Mr. Boice quoted from a le ter he had written to Mr. Bristo his opinion that the broadcastei themselves cannot properly pai ticipate in the public measuremei of program popularity. He ii quested that the proposed open tion be broadened to include pa Silver is up Business is good Butte, Montana KGIR Page 58 BROADCASTING • June 15, 193