Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

the key station in MICHIGAN'S* MIGHTY MIDDLE MARKET with a 24 hour schedule and 5000 LIVELY WATTS has over twice the number of listeners than all other stations combined in (MarchApril, 1957— C. E. Hooper, Inc.) contact Vernard, Rintoul & McConnell, Inc. * 17 Central Michigan counties with $1,696,356,000 spendable income. OUR RESPECTS to Morris Sigmund Kellner IT'S the inquisitive and active mind that finds it's way into time selling. This viewpoint is held by Morris S. Kellner, The Katz Agency's radio sales manager and member of its board, who has been in no other business than station representation for nearly a quarter century. As he settled his 6-foot, 2-inch frame and 190 pounds deeper into the chair behind his desk last week, the executive put his finger on a few reasons for the reactivated spot radio boom: a U. S. economy that is still riding high, stations selling radio as a medium, people who always listened to radio finding that tv is not all-absorbing and realization that "radio with the right copy has the ability to move merchandise." Radio selling, Mr. Kellner mused, is a field that "demands the best of a salesman." To sell time effectively, he continued, a man must get to know his own business intimately, the many radio markets of the U. S., the various other advertising media, and most important, must know and understand people. Apart from salesmen (he oversees a sales force of 10 in New York and 19 in Katz regional offices), and the health of radio, Mr. Kellner has thoughts about the station representative's role. The representative, Mr. Kellner noted, has had much to do in influencing the radio business, for example, in the publication of rate cards. And, Mr. Kellner observed, "today, stations are leaning on representatives for programming advice." It is toward that end, Mr. Kellner said, that the Katz Agency has been working to set up a programming unit that will act in an advisory capacity to Katz-represented stations. Though sales are basic in the functions of a representation firm, they are but part of the representative's services, which include pointers on merchandising and information to stations on what actions or facilities will attract the national advertiser. To go back further, however, Mr. Kellner was born April 4, 1908, in New York City. A year later, his family moved to Far Rockaway on Long Island. As a young man, he attended Woodmere Academy and Rutgers U. A robust youth, he vied for a tackle's berth on the Rutgers' football squad, met with misfortune (several injuries) and shifted to water polo, not exactly child's play. He graduated in 1931. His inquisitiveness next took him to Columbia U. and enrollment in a few advertising courses. Still living at Far Rockaway Beach, he sun-tanned as a lifeguard. He took a job as a piano mover and general handyman and tauaht horseback riding because "I couldn't afford to pay my own way." An industrial consultant firm measured him up and hired him as a "consulting" agent — which he later learned meant strike breaking. But strikes were few and Mr. Kellner soon had a new, but shortlived vocation: a door-to-door canvass in Manhattan, peddling a rowing machine. ON Jan. 11, 1932, Mr. Kellner joined the Katz Agency and found his career. In a few years, Katz, originally a seller of space for newspapers and farm publications, added radio and Mr. Kellner, still inquisitive, shifted with the trend. In those days, Mr. Kellner recalled, it was typical to sell time for such a reason as a station's position on the dial (1000 kc was in the center and a "good buy"). He was attracted to radio because "I could learn more. There were no precedents, a more personal effort was required. We could speak of a station's hold on an audience — something more of which we need today, that is, emphasis on human interest. For example, what does a station mean to the town it serves, what does it do for the individual there?" As radio sales manager, Mr. Kellner reports to President Eugene Katz. He was named to the post in 1951 after spending a few years as assistant for radio to the sales manager, George Brett, also a Katz vice president and director, who retired two years ago. Mr. Kellner has deep convictions about the medium he has learned to respect and love: there must be "rigid adherence" to published rates; it would be folly for stations to cut their nighttime rates 50% across the board (as has been proposed by the Edward Petry representative firm). To him, this would be "downgrading the merchandise," an action, he said, that led to the troubles of the radio networks. Rates, he added, ought to indicate the "true evaluation" of what the station can do and "depend on what the station delivers" for the advertiser. Mr. Kellner restricts away-from-work exertions nowadays to a swim in the pool, deep sea fishing, the workbench, a book or the radio. He is apt to startle Helen Brahms Kellner, whom he married in 1937, for when an announcer fluffs or programming is fudged, Mr. Kellner's reaction is loud and clear. The Kellners (Steven. 17, now in high school, and a daughter, Jane, 11) live in New Rochelle, N. Y. WILS neWs s^\s Page 22 • October 14, 1957 Broadcasting