Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr - June 1951)

NEW BAB CAMPAIGN u"veiled b* Ry™ BAB's plans and projects for supplying its member stations with the kind of promotion material that will get them more dollars from day to day were unveiled Friday in Louisville by William B. Ryan, BAB president, in a hardhitting talk to the Kentucky Broadcasters Assn. (see separate story page 30). Decrying the all too common practice of selling radio on the basis of program ratings which basically measure the "ingenuity of individual advertisers" instead of the great audience at low cost which radio offers to all users, Mr. Ryan declared that BAB "is dedicated to the job of producing the most tangible direct sales aid and promotion material for broadcasters," designed both to sell time and to prove the effectiveness of radio advertising. In addition to continuing and im WJR BOARD New Directors Elected THREE new directors have been elected to the board of WJR Detroit, John F. Patt, president, announced following a special meeting last week. In addition to the vacancy created by the death of Owner G. A. Richards [Broadcasting • Telecasting, June 4] the board decided to add two more directors, increasing the total to seven. The three new directors are Worth H. Kramer, vice president and general manager of WJR; Selden S. Dickinson, general counsel for the company, and F. Sibley Moore, who at the same time was elected to the position of assistant I treasurer. Mr. Moore is a son-in-law of the late Mr. Richards and will represent the family interests. Following Mr. Richards' death, Mr. Moore was elected to the board of the WGAR (Cleveland) Broadcasting Co., a Richards' station. In line with the above actions, he also will be elected to the board 'of the third Richards' station, iiKMPC Los Angeles. At the WJR board meeting, a .regular dividend of 10 cents per • share was declared. The board also passed a memorial resolution in honor of its late chief stockholder and board chairman. In part, the resolution stated that, "Mr. Richards made many notable contributions to the radio, automobile and tire industries. He was a man of great vision and unusual imagination. His ideas and his pioneering spirit were the motivating forces behind the growth and development of his three stations to their present position of influence in the industry. We, his associates, will always revere his memory." Other members of the WJR board are Frances S. Richards, John F. Patt, G. F. Leydorf and William G. Siebert. proving all of its current sales aid services, BAB is now taking on four "new vital projects," Mr. Ryan said. First is the publication, for the exclusive use of BAB members, of 51 of the "most compelling studies of Audience Research Bureau Inc., proving conclusively the superiority of radio over newspapers as a traffic and sales getter for retail stores." Reports on these studies will be distributed as fast as they can be tabulated and printed, he said. He noted that Macy's in New York and Marshall Field's in Chicago are among the latest stores to sign for ARBI tests. A series of controlled clinical tests, to be conducted "with the cooperation of a major national agency, one of its clients and station operators in selected markets," will comprise the second new BAB project. These tests are designed, Mr. Ryan explained, "to determine for broadcaster and buyer the best copy techniques, the best and most appropriate methods of merchandising the radio advertising and the resultant sales achieved for a branded, nationally advertised product." In addition to the national tests, BAB also will conduct the same type of controlled tests, made in the same way, on a local basis for a variety of products. One might be for shoe stores, he said, pointing out that "the results will be projectible to any size or type of market, since the objective will be how best to sell shoes by radio advertising." If the first tests turn out as well as anticipated, they will become a continuing BAB project, he said. BAB's third new project is a manual for station managers and salesmen reporting on the seasonal retail sales of more than 90 principal classes of merchandise and including a complete record of the newspaper advertising used month to month for these products. "In my own opinion," Mr. Ryan declared, "this manual will be the finest guide to intelligent, resultful, time-saving sales management that has ever been made available to a station sales manager." The fourth project described by Mr. Ryan was a basic presentation of radio as an advertising medium which he said "should be and in fact must be" the best such presentation ever developed, adopted for use with local, spot or network prospects. The four networks and WOR New York have opened their files or basic information to BAB, ■4 New WJR directors (I to r) Messrs. Moore, Kramer and Dickinson. ABC-UPT MERGER Various Delays Seen In Finalization PROSPECTS for completion of the $25 million merger of ABC and United Paramount Theatres before late summer appeared to dwindle last week as spokesmen said the applications which need FCC approval — highest hurdle to be cleared — will not be filed until after stockholders' meetings in late July. UPT officials had thought earlier that the necessary clearances from the stockholders and the Commission might be approached simultaneously, and had hoped for final approval by late July or August. The UPT board of directors gave its formal approval to the deal at a special meeting last Wednesday and simultaneously set July 27 as date for the UPT stockholders to meet and pass on the plan. The ABC board approved it the preceding week but has not yet scheduled a stockholders meeting, though this, too, is expected to come in July. The FCC's normal time sched ules, coupled with its expected call for a hearing on a transfer of this magnitude, left little hope that the final clearance could be secured before late summer or early fall. In a side deal the ABC-UPT group — to be known as American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres Inc.— would sell UPT's WBKB (TV) Chicago to CBS for $6 million, since ABC already owns WENR-TV there. Presumably the application for FCC approval of this transfer will be prosecuted with the ones covering the merger, but dependent upon the merger's winning Commission sanction. he stated. In addition, Hooper, Nielsen, Pulse and Schwerin have offered BAB new data never before available for general circulation among broadcasters. BAB is also starting work on a major, long-term project, designed to unearth radio's "vital total measurements and values," Mr. Ryan stated, pointing to the present lack of up-to-date information on the number and distribution of the nation's radio receivers, adult versus child listening, how much of the population of a given area is missed by the advertiser who drops radio for TV, how the family and its individual members rate radio as an institution in the home, the extent of out-of-home listening, and many other factors. Pilot studies in selected markets will be made to check methods and techniques, he said, before any nationwide study is undertaken. Indexing Statistics Meanwhile, BAB is engaging library personnel to compile and index all available statistics, Mr. Ryan reported, stating that this work "has a top priority and within a few months should place BAB in position to render an invaluable service to stations, networks and station representatives." As of May 31, BAB had 831 members, whose combined payments give the organization an annual income of $213,600, Mr. Ryan said. Of the total, 796 are NARTB members who joined BAB under the special dues schedule by pledging 30% of the NARTB dues to BAB. The other 35 stations, which do not belong to NARTB, pay monthly dues to BAB equal to one-half their highest hourly rate. These 35, signed by BAB since the middle of March, including seven CBS 0-&-0 stations, six Westinghouse stations and 22 individual independent stations. CONFIDENCE VOTE Given by Ky. MBS Group A KENTUCKY MBS affiliates group agreed last Thursday to support any proposed changes in affiliates contracts and to give the management of Mutual "a vote of confidence" after its decision to cut its rates in afternoon and evening time segments [Broadcasting • Telecasting, June 4]. The committee met at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, concurrent with the Kentucky Broadcasters Assn. meeting, under the chairmanship of Robert Carpenter, eastern manager for MBS station relations. BROADCASTING • Telecasting M uzak Elects Mitchell ELECTION of Maurice B. Mitchell to the Muzak Corp. board of directors was announced Friday by Harry E. Houghton, Muzak president. Mr. Mitchell, who has served as vice president and general manager of Associated Program Service, a division of Muzak, since last September, earlier was director of the Broadcast Advertising Bureau of NAB and general manager of WTOP Washington. June 11, 1951 • Page 29