Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

CASE HISTORY — FURNITURE 4000 Radio Spots Give Chain Best Sales Year In History IT WASN'T COINCIDENCE that fiscal 1956-57 was the biggest year in the history of pioneer McMahan's Furniture Company Los Angeles Division . . . and the year of its greate'st reliance on spot radio. "We tried saturation for the first time in 1955-56" recalls Howard E. Summers, promotion manager. "Results were so good that in the ensuing year we bought over U,000 one-minute spots. Our reward: the best sales year on record!" RADIO NOW GETS THE BULK of the ad budget of this furniture and appliance chain— 40% of the radio budget goes to KBIG. "KBIG acts as a local medium for all the stores" writes Paul Grannis, President, Columbia Pacific Advertising Agency, Long Beach. "In addition, it pulls more than its weight in Bales. An example is our Blackstone Washers campaign which quadrupled sales from January to July. We're buying 1,500 McMahan's spots a year on KBIG alone." Huge, sprawling, rich Southern California can be sold best by radio . . . KBIG plus other stations if, like McMahan's, you want 100% dominance; KBIG alone, for greatest coverage at lowest cost. JOHN POOLE BROADCASTING CO. 6640 Sunset Blvd.. Los Angeles 28, California Telephone: Hollywood 3-3105 Nat. Rep. WEED and Company OUR RESPECTS to Theodore Gerard Bergmann npelevision is to Parkson Adv., New York, what the program is to a network or J station. That's how Parkson's board decided to elect from tv's celebrated ranks one of the younger veterans to lead the agency on a new expansion program that will carry billings into the $20 million category next year. Ted Bergmann, former NBC page, tv salesman and network head, was still unpacking while conducting business last week as the new president of Parkson, located on Park Avenue. Much of his career, he says, can be attributed to the dynamic rise of television. To him, tv is a medium in which he has a firm faith, strengthened by his years of association with it. The 37-year-old agency president is no newcomer to the agency field. From January 1956 until last Monday, Mr. Bergmann served McCann-Erickson in New York as a vice president and associate director of radio and television [B»T, Sept. 23]. With M-E, Mr. Bergmann was responsible for about 50% of the agency's national tv program activities handled through the home and regional offices. Part of Mr. Bergmann's credo can be traced to a bit of advice given him by one of the VIPs of the radio industry who made a junket to Europe in the fall of 1945. Mr. Bergmann then was conducting officer (with SHAEF) of the group. One prominent industry leader counseled, "Young man, after the war, get into television. That's where your future lies." He's never forgotten those prophetic words. Theodore Gerard Bergmann was born Sept. 12, 1920, the son of Augustus H. and Johanna R. Bergmann in Brooklyn. In 1927, the family moved to Great Neck (Long Island) where young Ted attended the schools, graduating from high school in 1936. He spent a year at Governor Dummer Academy at Byfield, Mass., the oldest preparatory school in the country, and attended Amherst College. He left college, spending a year as a cost accountant with American Home Products. In 1941, he joined NBC as a page. He was hired by Gerry Martin, then head of NBC's guest relations. Fourteen years later, Mr. Bergmann, as DuMont's general manager, hired Mr. Martin as director of sales. It was during World War II that Mr. Bergmann's aptitude for the electronics art bore fruit. An enlisted man in the Infantry soon after Pearl Harbor, Mr. Bergmann was commissioned a shavetail and assigned in 1944 to the Third Army in France. Reassignment placed the Infantry officer with Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) as second in command of radio public relations on Gen. Eisenhower's staff. Lt. Bergmann (later to become captain) was responsible for writing, directing and airing War Department programs from Europe. The young officer headed reporter teams, which, armed with wire recorders, interviewed line tank and battery commanders; he described the first air drop made in Germany by the First Airborne Army, a feat that won him a Bronze Star, and he was the only person with a recorder at the German surrender at Rheims. Back in the U. S. and Washington, Mr. Bergmann in late 1945 was second in command of Army radio at the War Dept. Bureau of Public Relations. Mustered out of service in 1946, Mr. Bergmann returned to NBC as programproduction director. In June 1947, he was on the sales staff at the DuMont Television Network's WABD (TV) New York, transferred to network sales in 1948, became director of sales in 1951, general manager of the network in 1953 and managing director in January 1954 as well as director of Allen B DuMont Labs' broadcast division. Mr. Bergmann left DuMont in January 1956 to become a vice president and associate director of radio and tv at McCann-Erickson. Parkson Adv. is a young organization, an outgrowth of Edward Kletter Assoc. set up about four years ago by Mr. Kletter with Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Serutan, Geritol, Sominex, RDX and Zaramin), its first account. J. B. Williams' products handled by Parkson: Williams shaving products, Skol sun tan lotion, Conti hair shampoo and Kreml hair tonic. Parkson's entire growth is attributed to television, with 80% of its anticipated $20 million billing next year to be in network tv. Mr. Bergmann is the personable type salesman. Of medium height, Ted Bergmann has jet black hair and eyebrows, a soft-spoken manner that nearly disguises a deepthroated "announcer's voice." His family home (he wed Theresa Bull, also of Great Neck, after he returned from the war) is in Manhassett. The Bergmanns have four sons, Douglass, 10; Donald, 7; David, 6 and Jonathan Derek, 3 months. Parkson's president is active in Manhassett cub scout affairs; likes tennis on a weekend when possible. His list of industry-wide activities is long, including member of the board of governors, Radio & Television Executives Society; former national tv committee chairman, Heart Fund; tv-radio committee of Travelers Aid, and past member of NARTB board. Page 20 • October 7, 1957 Broadcasting • Telecasting