Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1954)

... IN THE WEMP PARADE! BILL BRAMHALL, one of WEMP'S famous air salesmen, emcees two great shows daily. His homespun style is all his own, yet fits like a glove in the WEMP family. One thing is sure, if Bill says it's good, they buy it. Some of his national advertisers are: Coca-Cola, Oxydol, Omar, Simonize, Robert Hall, Household Finance, Miller Brewing Co., Halo Shampoo, Musterole, Howard Johnson, Blutone Fuel Oil, Nesbitt. WEMP delivers up to twice the Milwaukee audience per dollar of Milwaukee network stations.* Call Headley-Reed! *Based on latest available Pulse ratings and SRDS rates. WEMP WEMP FM MILWAUKEE HUGH BOICE. JR., Gen. Mgr. HEADLEY-REED, Natl. Rep. 24 HOURS OF MUSIC. NEWS, SPORTS our respects to WILLIAM HASSE ZILLGER CAN a comparatively young, independent company compete successfully in an industry entrenched with old-line giant corporations? William H. Zillger, vice president and general manager of Standard Electronics Corp., Newark, N. J., voices a booming "yes" insofar as it applies to the transmitter manufacturing field. He points to the sales record of the fouryear old firm, and adds with a smile: "A business has to give its customers that 'added something' that competitors don't give them. This year we estimate business will be 400% over that of 1951 and 100% over that of 1953. Doesn't that sound like a lot of satisfied customers who are pleased with that 'added something'?" A tall, heavy-set man with a perpetual smile dancing on his lips and a quip rolling off his tongue, William Hasse Zillger is a prototype of the growing number of engineers-turned-salesexecutives in this 20th century industrial civilization. He was born Sept. 5, 1916, in Olean, N. Y., the son of Arno and Gertrude Hasse Zillger. It is no wonder that Mr. Zillger chose the path to a communications career, since his father was a pioneer radio engineer who is active today in radio-tv set manufacturing. While still a youngster, Mr. Zillger displayed his penchant for engineering skills by constructing a television transmitter when he was 17. He developed this bent further at college where he studied electrical engineering. Mr. Zillger attended Lehigh U. for two years, then shifted to Purdue U. where he received his electrical engineering degree in 1937. On summer vacation from college, Mr. Zillger worked for one of the pioneer television companies in New York. After graduation he elected to work for the Philadelphia Electric Co. as a junior engineer, and remained there until 1939 when he joined the Philadelphia branch of the Line Material Co., which manufactures equipment for electrical utilities. It was during his tenure with this company that Mr. Zillger made the transition from engineering to sales. He remained with Line Material Co. until 1947, resigning as manager in the wired radio department to join General Electric Co. as general sales manager in the ceramic department. Mr. Zillger, an amateur radio operator from his youth, retained an interest over these years in the communications field. He confides that he was "itching to get back" when David T. Bonner, president of Claude Neon Inc., New York, and of Standard Electronics, offered him the post of vice president and general manager of the latter firm in 1951. Standard Electronics is a subsidiary of Claude Neon Inc., whose other subsidiaries are in the field of manufacturing electronic prod ucts, home appliances and air-conditioning units and equipment. Standard was formed in late 1950 to take over the activities of Western Electric Co., which withdrew from the broadcast transmission equipment field. Standard Electronics offers a complete line of broadcast transmission equipment, and claims the distinction of designing and building the first 50 kw tv transmitter in the world (for WOR-TV New York). The company continues to service and supply replacement parts for all Western Electric Co. broadcasting equipment now in use throughout the U. S. Mr. Zillger is an adept salesman, with facts and figures at his fingertips to advance his contention that S-E equipment is a "terrific buy." He has available cost figures designed to show that over a five-year period an S-E 50 kw vhf transmitter can save station operators up to $120,000 in operating expenses alone. He is quick to point to a comparative table chart, documenting his argument that S-E vhf high power transmitters are superior with respect to such factors as tube costs, power line requirements and floor area, among others. Mr. Zillger is proud of the swath that Standard Electronic is beginning to cut around some of the larger stations throughout the country. In addition to WOR-TV, he observed, the company has completed installation of high-power transmitters in recent months at WLWA (TV) Atlanta, WABT (TV) Birmingham, WEAT-TV Palm Beach, WALBTV Albany and WSPD-TV Toledo. The firm, he said, is active also in the radio transmitter field, and designed and built a 50 kw am transmitter for the Voice of America for use in Turkey. As the chief salesman for Standard Electronics, Mr. Zillger is a plane-commuting executive, ever on the go, who has been described as "a human dynamo." He remarked that his wife dislikes that characterization of him, but that he can corroborate its accuracy insofar as it applies to a "never-standing-still" connotation. He noted that in completing the Palm Beach transaction, he spent almost a month there with a day or so at home over weekends. Mr. Zillger and his wife, the former Betty Baldridge of Philadelphia, make their home in Little Silver, N. J. They were married in 1940 and have three children — Barbara Ann, 13; William H. Jr., 11, and Peter Robert, 9. Mr. Zillger is a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Shrewsbury River (N. J.) Yacht Club. When he isn't planehopping on business, Mr. Zillger relaxes on his 47-foot schooner, The Zig-Zag HI, cruising around the New Jersey coast. Page 24 • October 25, 1954 Broadcasting Telecasting