Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr - June 1951)

RADIO'S VALUES Need Searching Study, White Declares available in network radio." In the meantime Chairman Paul W. Morency (WTIC Hartford) and members, Clair McCollough (Steinman stations) and Edgar Kobak (WTWA Thomson, Ga.), of the special radio-wide Affiliates Committee were preparing for exploratory conferences to be held Thursday with leaders of the Assn. of National Advertisers, which opened the campaign on radio rates, and NEED for "a searching study of (the) true values" of radio — "second to none in sales effectiveness" — was stressed by Mutual President Frank White last week in a letter explaining Mutual's time-cost reductions [Broadcasting • Telecasting, June 4]. "For a number of good reasons, there should be an announcement of a rate increase by Mutual," he asserted. "Program audiences are larger than ever here; sponsor advantages were never greater, and all signs point to an extension of these plus values throughout the foreseeable future." But, he said, "other networks, where such plus values seem not to apply, have cut their rates," with the result that MBS clients' "basic advantage" of "full benefits of network radio at lower cost here than anywhere else" is in jeopardy. The Mutual rate adjustment, he reiterated, reduces Sunday afternoon rates from two-thirds the evening rate to one-half the evening rate, and gives advertisers an additional 10% discount on net billings for all periods from 1 to 10:30 p.m. (New York time) throughout the week. Two 'Clear' Facts "At this point," Mr. White asserted, "two facts are crystal clear. "First, the entire medium — second to none in sales effectiveness — needs a searching study of its true values ... to produce solid proof, for all networks, of these values as Mutual sponsors know them. "Second, this rate adjustment, in the interim, assures Mutual advertisers the greatest values ever with a subcommittee of the National Assn. of Radio & Television Station Representatives, which is supporting the committee's drive to bolster rates. Year-Around Sponsors GROWING desire of local advertisers to remain on the air the year around was seen by the Frederic W. Ziv Co., New York, last week, as a result of what it described as an "upswing of business during May, when sales traditionally fall off." Bold Venture, Ziv's transcribed series featuring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, is now carried by a total of 497 stations in the United States and Canada, it also announced. Drawn for Broadcasting • Telecasting by Sid Hix "/ tell you, the competition is killing me." ABC COMBINES Research, Sales Units PLANS for a merger of ABC's Research Dept. with the sales presentation division of the Sales Dept., with Oliver Treyz to become director of research and sales development, were announced by the network last Thursday. The new ABC Research and Sales Development Dept. will be under the administrative supervi sion of ABC Vice President Robert Saudek, according to Robert E. Kintner, network president. Two new sales development divisions — one for radio and one for TV — will be formed within the department, in line with ABC's policy of keeping radio and television de j partmental functions separated. The realignment becomes effective Friday. Mr. Treyz joined ABC in July 1948 as a presentations writer and has been director of sales presentations since last August. He formerly was manager of the research department of Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles, New York, and prior to that was with BBDO. During the war he served in the Army Air Force as statistical control -£t. officer. WSAT Joins ABC WSAT Salisbury, N. C, will become the 296th ABC affiliate, effec tive June 15, the network announced last week. John Smith Jr. is WSAT manager. The sta-x tion is owned by Mid-Carolina!?, Broadcasting Co. and operates on 980 kc with 1 kw. if |acl Benton's Never-Never Land . . . . AN EDITORIAL SEN. WILLIAM BENTON, who for years has tried valiantly to make amends for grubbing out a personal fortune in the advertising business, has now set out to keep commercial television from growing up and to yoke both radio and television to a high-powered board of censors. He may not believe that these are the objectives of the legislation he has introduced in the past fortnight, but no matter what laudable motives he may have in mind, his legislation, if passed, could not result in anything but the disagreeable conditions described above. Mr. Benton wants the freeze on TV extended for "a minimum" of six months to a year, and he wants to establish an 11-member National Citizens Advisory Board on Radio and Television that would issue, in his own words, an "annual Blue Book" prescribing the way in which this 11-member board believes radio and television should be run. The extension of the freeze is intended, he says, to "assure more time for exploration by parties where interest in television would serve the public good." (He used to write better than that when he was in advertising.) Now these "parties where interest in television would serve the public good" are educators, because, in Mr. Benton's view, commercial broadcasters are incapable of serving such a purpose. They're like the Bill Benton who as half of Benton & Bowles was a pioneer in the use of radio as an advertising medium. They haven't experienced his kind of spiritual rebirth yet, however. As a matter of fact, the Senator's rebirth may not be complete, because when he was asked by Sen. Ed Johnson to define what he meant by an educational program — the kind that Sen. Benton said commercial broadcasters ignored — Sen. Benton answered : "I am not prepared to give you a precise definition, Sen. Johnson, this morning." Sen. Benton himself needs that "minimum of six months to a year" delay in TV allocations to clear up his own thinking. It does seem odd that so many intellectual leaders have been unable to collect their thoughts about television in the two years and eight months since the system was frozen — for the specific purpose of giving people time to think about it. Any reasonably diligent scholar can get a Ph.D. in that time. The freeze should be ended, not prolonged. Indeed there is merit in Sen. Ed Johnson's suggestion to Chairman Coy last week that the FCC abandon its fixed allocations plan, except to use it as a general guide, and get on with the job of assigning channels on the basis of applications. We have advocated this before, and we still do so. Sen. Benton's proposal for a continuance of TV delay is serious enough, but it is second in ominous implications to his advocacy of a National Citizens Advisory Board. This board would be appointed by the Presi dent, with the advice and consent of thtffi Senate. Its membership would be restrictectn to people having no interest (and possibly nc faith) in commercial radio and television. The board would "advise" the FCC on mat u ters ranging from the assignment of TV chanT'i nels to the public service and educational proun gramming requirements to be demanded om radio and TV broadcasters. In fact, therib would be no limit to the field of its activity, \w The Senator says that the board's positipiw would be advisory only, but he fails to poinp out the practical fact that any high-leve6^ board appointed by the President (who alsm appoints FCC Commissioners) could quickkp apply political pressures that would have th ] FCC saying yes sir to its every "suggestion. In practical operation, the advisory boar' would constitute a board of censors. Th minute that condition came about, radio an'ji television would be removed from the guarantiees of the First Amendment. Sen. Benton's effort to remake radio an j | television into his own image — his image as k businessman converted to would-be academic cian — should be identified for what it is, | wool-gathering excursion into a never-neve land where time means little and everybod i, is told by super-authorities exactly what to d! ijje and when. Page 24 • June 11, 1951 BROADCASTING • Telecastin