Broadcasting (Jan - Dec 1935)

m©AO€ASTDINI€ cuxA Published Semi-Monthly by BROADCASTING PUBLICATIONS, Inc. National Press BIdg • Washington, D. C. Telephone— MEtropolitan 1022 Broadcast Advertising IARTIN CODEL, Publisher OL TAISHOFF, Editor '. G. TAYLOR, Advertising Manager Executive and Editorial Offices: National Press Building, Washington, D. C. ubscription Price: $3.00 per year-15c a copy-Copyright, 1935, by Broadcasting Publications, Inc. J. FRANK BEATTY, Managing Editor • BERNARD PLATT, Circulation Manager Television 'ELEVISION is inevitable as a future adjunct f broadcasting. Of that there can be no oubt, as reported in this issue on the basis f first-hand observations of the amazing techical accomplishments already achieved in the iboratory. For broadcasters and broadcast dvertisers, vision by radio means the masterlg of a new art and technique of program and dvertising presentation — an art partaking at nee of the elements of sound broadcasting, ie stage and the motion picture screen. Radio, happily, has kept itself free from lotion picture control and all the ballyhoo lements that go with it. CBS is no longer ffiliated with Paramount and RCA has viraally disposed of its interests in RKO. All lat is to the good, for it would be a pity if ie movie people should gain an upper hand i either visual or audible radio. Radio formately has resisted all efforts of certain ookesmen of the show business to drag it awn to the level of the movies — and it must mtinue to do so by keeping to itself this mazing new art and science. We do not think that television will ever isplace the theater any more than radio has jpplanted the newspapers. It must partake f the best elements of both, as it has in the ast. Television opens new vistas almost dezing the imagination. As an industry, howler, it requires no imagination to see that it mst be kept in the hands of those best quipped by past experience and performance nd by technical and financial responsibility — amely, the bona fide broadcasters who have irned the continued right to their licenses nd a priority right to visual wave length limses from the federal government. Hitting the Target ILING up day by day are radio success ories that challenge the imagination of the :attered advertisers who have not yet seen ie radio light. To those who observe the ethods used by successful radio advertisers lere persists an unavoidable belief that smart erchandising is the secret of much of their lecess. Morenus Adv. Agency, Chicago, after studyig formulas of all types, hit upon a dealer loperation plan for Robin Hood shoes, and )w Central Shoe Co. finds itself with doubled itail sales volume and twice as many retail itlets, as explained on another page. The plan is simple, a little newspaper is given adolescent listeners who enroll in a club. The dealer pays cost of mailing the paper to club members in his year. That amounts to 12 cents per member, and he gets an ad on the back page. But here's the interesting part: Each club member has been found worth $20 a year in sales volume to -the dealer. In other woi'ds, a store with 1,000 club members pays $120 a year in postage. Out of that he gets increased sales volume of $20,000. The cost to the dealer is about three-fifths of one per cent. It's just one of thousands of merchandising plans. The air is full of them. They are born by the dozen every day. But still some advertisers don't take their merchandising seriously. False and Misleading A CARDINAL principle of news reporting is accuracy. "Get your facts straight" is the phrase city editors have drummed into cub reporters' ears since news gathering began. The Associated Press is the pioneer in press association activity. Though undergoing the most competition it has ever faced, it does have a notable record. In radio it has been awkwardly situated because it is a cooperative organization. We were rather amazed the other day to read an AP dispatch which reported that the Federal Trade Commission estimates that about 10% of radio advertising continuities it had analyzed had been found "possibly false and misleading". This was also taken up as a fact by the newspaper trade press, which obviously did not make an investigation of its own but simply rewrote the AP dispatch. If ever there was a case of "false and misleading" reporting, that is it. The facts, as clearly shown in the Trade Commission report accurately in our edition of December 1, were that 10% of the continuities examined by the FTC were set aside for further scrutiny. Using the same figures for the "periodical" group, it was stated officially, it is found that about 25% of the advertisements examined were "possibly false and misleading". In the case of radio continuities examined, latest figures of the FTC show that during the 15 months from July 1, 1934, to Sept. 30, 1935, a total of 452,621 continuities were examined. Of these 42,512 were "referred for further investigation", and as a result of these investigations, a mere 1,347 arose for possible action by the FTC. Assuming that all of these 1,347 were really found "false and misleading" which obviously will not happen, then the per centage would be less than three-tenths of 17c. The facts are, moreover, that in more than a year of radio scrutiny, the FTC has never found it necessary to issue a complaint against a station for "false and misleading" advertising. But to clinch the entire argument, the FTC points out officially that it has never had a force sufficiently large to examine newspaper advertising, nor appropriations enough to buy the periodicals. The radio stations and networks voluntarily send in their continuities at no expense to Uncle Sam. It is impossible to examine any more than the "worst offenders" among newspapers and magazines, it was said, for a force of at least , 50 people would be needed for it. There are only 600-odd stations, whereas 20,000 periodicals are published in this country. News note for AP and its newspaper clients: The FTC is asking for 20 more employes to make possible more effective review of periodical advertising. The Clock Survey THE ANSWER to the vexatious problem of devising an acceptable method of surveying radio audiences may possibly be found in the mechanical device, using the electric clock and tape recorded as its components, contrived by Prof. Robert F. Elder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is now undergoing its first test in the Boston area, and early next year the results will be known, as described by Dr. Elder in our last issue. The device is an automatic recorder. No questions to housewives via the telephone are necessary. No questionnaires are sent out to be answered. Nothing is left to the discretion of the analytical expert who "reviews" the returns. Instead, the device shows precisely when and to what station the listener's set is tuned. The advertiser, it appears, can determine the size and type of the audience his program commands, and what attention the "opposite" station programs get. The survey presumably can be controlled from all angles. There is a cross-section of the audience in every income group. The listener has but to pursue his normal listening habits; there are no buttons to push. There may be "bugs" in the Elder method, but we haven't discerned them yet. After the 10-week test in Boston is concluded, the statistical wizards can tackle the results. Should it prove foolproof, it will effectively terminate the 57 varieties of listener surveys now in vogue whose shortcomings are known only too well. We see in the Elder method a possible basis for the work to be undertaken by the projected Radio Audit Bureau, now being considered by the Cooperative Committee of Fifteen, representing ANA, AAAA and NAB. It most certainly deserves serious consideration by that group. An adequate radio set census, broken down into markets, together with field strength surveys showing potential technical coverage of stations, plus a workable mechanical surveying method along the lines of the Elder development, appear to be essential ingredients for a method of analysis of radio coverage which might become an adequate counterpart of the Audit Bureau of Circulations in the publications field. age 38 BROADCASTING • December 15, 1935