Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr - June 1951)

Vol. 40, No. 25 I N G WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 18, 1951 $7.00 A YEAR — 25c A COPY RADIO-ADVERTISER LIAISON ANA, Affiliates Group Meet BUYERS and sellers of radio time are seeking an operating formula under which they would cooperate to attain their common goal — sale of goods and services. This bright spot in the troubled radio advertiser-radio station scene developed Thursday as members of the radiowide Affiliates Committee met with leaders of the Assn. of National Advertisers. The two interests — medium and buyer — have been shooting at each other since ANA came out last summer with a series of figures designed to cut radio rates off at the knees because of television's impact. Radio operators suffered two setbacks this spring when (1) ANA unleashed a new series of figures, and (2) CBS touched off a series of network radio rate cuts. Hope for development of closer and continuing liaison between radio and its advertisers was voiced Thursday by Paul W. Morency, chairman of the Affiliates Committee, after an initial three-hour conference with ANA leaders. Mr. Morency described the conversations as "very satisfactory" and said he was pleased that they had turned up "no areas of violent disagreement" between advertisers and radio men. Another meeting is planned in about two weeks. Interest Is Common Mr. Morency, of WTIC Hartford, who was accompanied at the session by Committeemen Clair McCollough of the Steinman Stations and Edgar Kobak of WTWA Thomson, Ga., said he had found no evidence that the ANA officials are not interested in maintaining radio on a strong basis, "just as we are interested." He felt that frequent contact between radio and advertisers would lead to better understanding of common problems and work to the advantage of both groups. In another Thursday meeting the three Affiliates Committee members conferred with a subcommittee from the National Assn. of Radio & Television Station Representatives to canvass means of cooperation with the committee in its efforts to bolster radio's rate structures. "We found many areas of agreement and none of disagreement," Mr. Morency reported, asserting that the NARTSR group had reasserted its support of BAB and would work to secure greater backing of both BAB and the Affiliates Committee. In the meantime CBS, whose cut in its network radio rates prompted spontaneous formation of the industry-wide Affiliates Committee, announced it was "the first of the major networks to report a 100 % acceptance" of its rate cut by its affiliates. ABC two days earlier reported it had advised advertisers and agencies that its affiliates had accepted the ABC reduction in time costs. NBC officials said all but about a dozen of its affiliates have agreed to make the NBC rate reduction effective July 1 — the date set by the other networks and requested by NBC — and that the remaining dozen had agreed to accept the cuts when the full 90-day notice provided in affiliation contracts expires Aug. 3. Mutual's rate adjustment, last to be an nounced, has the approval of the new Mutual Affiliates Advisory Board. The ANA group at' the conference with the Affiliates Committee representatives was composed of ANA President Paul West; N. H. McElroy of Procter & Gamble; George Duram of Lever Bros., chairman of the ANA committee which conducted the second ANA radio rate study, and Walter Lantz of Bristol Myers. Purpose of Session The session was called as an exploratory one and did not consider the specific question of radio rates — a subject which ANA officials declared taboo when they agreed to the meeting. With ANA President West slated to be away for several weeks, Mr. McElroy as ANA vice president will head the advertisers group at the next conference. Representing NARTSR at the meeting with the Affiliates Committee were President Robert Meeker, of Robert Meeker Assoc.; Murray Grabhorn, newly named managing director of NARTSR (see story page 24); Wells Barnett Jr. of John Blair & Co., and Joseph Weed of Weed & Co. Mr. Morency said no date had been set for the next meeting of the full Affiliates Committee, but that the members will be given a full report of the ANA and NARTSR conferences. The network time-cost reductions which led to creation of the Affiliates Committee will give advertisers 10 to 15% off on afternoon and evening time. Only the CBS cut had been announced at the time the committee was formed, but after one round of conferences with officials of the other networks, committee men were convinced that the other networks would shortly follow suit. Mutual's rate-adjustment announced almost three weeks ago made it a clean sweep. TIME SALES GROSS time sales of the four nationwide networks during April 1951 totaled $15,921,908, according to the records of Publishers Information Bureau. More significant than the number of dollars, however, is the fact that this total is slightly (0.02%) ahead of the $15,918,672 gross for the month of Four Networks Gross $15,921,908 1950 April 1950, reversing a downward trend which for a year or more has found each month's combined gross almost invariably falling behind the total for the same month of the previous year. Cumulative figures for the first four months, for example, show a 1951 combined network gross of 1951 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR I 7 MILLION 1 6 MILLION 1 5 MILLION ^ M I LLION 1 3 M ILLION 1 2 M ILLION t 1 5 145 7 5 3 $12 292 779 112 558 825 «13 930 996 115 83 3 13 1 SIS 920 944 TOTAL 1163,519.037 TOTAL 164.053,791 NETWORK gross billings for 1950 and 1951 are indicated by months on the above graph. It will be noted that the totals for April 1951 are slightly above those for April of 1950 although January, February and March totals in 1951 are all below the same periods in 1950. Figures are from PIB. $64,054,755, a drop of 1.8% from the $65,252,973 figure for the first third of 1950. Of the four national radio networks, CBS and MBS made gains in April 1951 over April 1950. Billings of the other two, ABC and NBC, were less last April than the year before, but their losses were not enough to overcome the gains of CBS and MBS. Last April was the month in which CBS announced its rate reductions, a move desci'ibed by that network as forced by the threats of advertisers not to renew schedules at prevailing rates. The PIB report emphasized that the rate cut decision was made in recognition of future withdrawals of sponsors, since business in the CBS shop at the time of the rate cut decision was bigger than it was the year before. Billings for April 1951 and April 1950, were: Network April 1951 April 1950 ABC $2,975,078 $3,128,603 CBS 6,509,147 6,054,738 MBS 1,539,801 1,441,452 NBC 4,897,882 5,284,013 The list of top 10 network clients for April of this year shows little (Continued on page 38) BROADCASTING • Telecasting June 18, 1951 • Page 23