Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

STATIONS AUTOMATION SPEEDS SPOT SALES Univac-created electronic brain expedites PGW's time-selling services The electronic brain that uses the principles of Univac is being put to work in the business of time selling. At Peters, Griffin, Woodward Inc.. automation has arrived. Live executives, salesmen and secretaries greet the visitor at PGW's 18th floor offices in the Postum Building at 250 Park Ave. in New York. This is as it always has been. But in an air-conditioned office apart from the main stem, doors close off an electronic beehive. Behind these doors, an electronic system that stores information on programs, availabilities and rates for both radio and tv now is in use. The robot-like genius that does these things was created after many months of study by Remington Rand's Univac Div. and the station representative [B»T, Nov. 19, 1956]. It employs the principles of Univac, the electronic wizard that can calculate a mathematical problem of astronomical proportion or just as easily predict who will win an election. At PGW, where the system has been operating these past two weeks (after two months of dry runs), the electronic brain center is called the "Data Processing Department." Nucleus of this brain center is a group of machines: the Wheeldex, interpreter, tabulator-summary punch, calculator, sorter, alphabetical punch and collator. They represent a value of approximately $17,500. To make room for this automation, PGW converted space that formerly housed a conference room and adjacent quarters. Why automation? As the representative for 31 radio and 31 tv stations throughout the U. S., PGW's responsibilities for service are important and great. They apply equally to advertisers and agencies that buy time on the stations. Thus the emphasis at PGW is on continual improvement of its servicing procedures — hence, the electronic nerve center. This electronic brain center is designed to provide fast and accurate service to agencies, advertisers and stations. With the Remington Rand machines, PGW now can process requests for availabilities on both spot radio and spot tv within hours, even minutes. These processes include schedules cleared, offered, sold and confirmed. A new nerve center cannot be installed and used instantly and exclusively, without severing the other parts of the body. Thus, the PGW's electronic unit is becoming a reality only after a long, agonizing "getting used to each other" period. It took two years, from the time PGW began searching for a system to D-Day when the system was first put to use. Before the premiere of the station representative's electronic system it had two months of dry runs. In the meantime, kinks are being straightened out, people in the business are getting used to the electronic brain, and it is getting THE END PRODUCT of PGW's electronic brain center is this list of availabilities held by President H. Preston Peters (see facing page for a larger view of the machine's products). Viewing the operation are Jones Scovern, vice president-treasurer, and Russel Woodward (r), executive vice president. Other phases of PGW's electronic system are pictured on page 72. used to the business. It will take another 30 days before the last traces of the old, manual routine of routing orders are wiped away. Some phases of the former handling were preserved, mainly to take care of older sales for which it would have created unnecessary confusion to apply the electronic brain. Speed, accuracy and compactness are the triple benefits that PGW expects will accrue to the benefit of all. For example: • It takes perhaps as much as a half-hour on an average for a 15-line availability sheet to be manually typed and prepared for use. The tabulator prints 100 lines of availabilities per minute. • To become obsolete at PGW: the need to type, retype and copy the same information over and over again in the daily routine of the selling of time and confirming broadcast orders. • The sale and servicing of national spot broadcasting schedules are simplified. This helps both station and the buyer — agency and advertiser. A timebuyer normally wants to close the advertiser's budget as fast as he can once he has laid out the campaign market by market. The quicker he obtains the confirmation of a broadcast order, the faster the close-out of the market involved. • Complete and accurate records in simple form will be there to check for prompt reference on such life-blood matters in the radio-tv business as: broadcast availabilities, confirmation of broadcast orders, confirmation of schedule changes and statistics and data for management study and special reports. • Invaluable by-product information will be available. From the untiring brain will come data on product categories: what's with automobiles? soaps? tire companies? cigarette firms? Who's buying what and at what frequency on PGW stations, comparisons of national advertisers on year-to-year, sixmonth, quarterly, monthly basis. The search for better service has been consistent at PGW. In 1949, the firm simplified forms and methods for transmitting accurate broadcast information. But this step soon was made obsolete by a burgeoning spot business and expectations for still greater volume in the future. Thus, in October 1955, Jones Scovern, vice president and treasurer at PGW, began a study of each phase of the representative's operation in terms of time and work energy. His objective: to find a better mousetrap. His analysis pointed to this conclusion: a mechanized system could provide an answer to the improvements needed in the detailed procedures. Remington Rand engineers were called in to consult on the creation of a system that would use the principles of Univac. A first demonstration was held in March 1956. Further revision and refinement were needed. Exactly a year ago, Page 70 • October 7, 1957 Broadcasting • Telecasting