Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1956)

HEADLEY ELECTED SRA PRESIDENT FRANK M. HEADLEY, president of H-R Representatives and H-R Television, was elected president of Station Representatives Assn. last week at an annual membership meeting which also heard officials forecast a record-setting $150 million in spot radio billings this year. Mr. Headley succeeds Adam Young Jr., head of the firm of that name, who retires as SRA president at the end of this year after serving two terms. Mr. Young becomes a board member for 1957. His work as president drew special commendation from the SRA members. H. Preston Peters, president of Peters, Griffin, Woodward, was re-elected vice president of the association; Eugene Katz, president of the Katz Agency, was re-elected treasurer, and Robert Meeker, president of the Meeker Co., was re-elected secretary. Lewis H. Avery, president of Avery-Knodel; Joseph J. Weed, president of the Weed radio and tv firms and John P. Blair, president of the Blair radio and television organ MR. HEADLEY izations, were named board members along with Mr. Young. The forecast of a record year for spot radio billings was made by SRA Managing Director Larry Webb, who said that "national spot radio time sales for October reached the new plateau that station representatives have been predicting" — a total of $16,004,000 — and that "it is possible now to forecast with fair accuracy the total spot radio business for 1956, with two months, November and December, yet to be reported. "SRA estimates that that figure will be $150 million, a 20% increase over the final 1955 figures." The previous record, set in 1953, was under $135 million. The October figure represented a 31% increase over October 1955 and a 37% gain over September 1956. The figures are compiled monthly for SRA by Price-Waterhouse Co., accounting firm. The SRA index of spot radio business for October. Mr. Webb said, was 143.2. The index is based on FCC official figures for 1954, "considered to be the most typical FCC previous year." At the annual meeting Mr. Webb also introduced two new SRA members: Charles Bernard, whose Charles Bernard Co. joined the association a short time ago, and Richard O'Connell of Richard O'Connell Co., "SOUND -FACTOR" jf/te ^/j tar Me JmftveteionaMe living, WSRS on GREATER CLEVELAND'S ITTJiMBER, 1 STATION SOUND-FACTOR DISCOUNT PAYABLE ONLY TO RECOGNIZED ADVERTISING AGENCIES BY WSRS, INC., CLEVELAND 18, OHIO which becomes an active member Jan. 1. Mr. Headley, SRA president-elect, has headed the H-R radio and tv firms since 1950, and before that was president of Headley-Reed Co., representation firm, from 1939 to 1950. He started his career with Standard Oil Co. in Nebraska in 1930, practiced law in Omaha in 1932-34, was an FBI special agent from 1934 to 1936, when he joined Kelly-Smith as manager of the radio division, a post he held for some three years. Nielsen Coverage Data Topic of SRA Meetings STATION Representatives Assn. plans meetings shortly with both the Radio Advertising Bureau and the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies in an effort to promote uniformity in interpretation of the new Nielsen Coverage Service Report No. 2. Collaterally, SRA's research committee has prepared a strong recommendation that the so-called "SRA formula," which was developed and used in connection with NCS No. 1, again be promoted for use by advertisers and agencies in projecting local ratings to a station's full coverage area. The "SRA formula" was widely used in projecting the NCS No. 1 data, and its developers, while acknowledging that it is not perfect, point out that it has been generally accepted as "the least bad" method yet devised. The committee's proposal to the SRA is being announced today (Monday) by SRA Managing Director Larry Webb. Discussing the recommendation, SRA retiring President Adam Young Jr. said he had every confidence "that the organization would vigorously conduct an educational campaign at all levels — station, advertiser, and agency — to insure proper and continued recognition of radio as a potent sales force." He said it was his opinion that the new Nielsen data, interpreted correctly, prove there are many sound reasons for even wider use of radio as an advertising medium. The SRA formula is a mathematical device which makes it possible to establish a "base" on which a program's local rating may be projected to get the program's rating for the full coverage area of the station. In simplified terms, the home-county NCS percentage is divided into the total-area NCS, and the local rating of a program is then projected against the result to get the total-area rating. The SRA research committee is headed by William Crumley, director of research for Adam Young Inc. Other committee members at the meeting on NCS No. 2 included Daniel Denenholz, The Katz Agency; Ward Dorrell, John Blair & Co.; Avery Gibson, H-R Representatives; John Hurlbut, Peters, Griffin, Woodward; and Winnie Schaeffer, Weed & Co. Treyz to NARTB Tv Board OLIVER TREYZ, ABC-TV vice president, has been appointed to the NARTB Tv Board by NARTB President Harold E. Fellows. He supplants Ernest Lee Jahncke Jr., who recently resigned as ABC vice president [Nov. 12]. Mr. Treyz' term expires at the end of the 1957 NARTB convention. Page 90 • December 17, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting