Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

INTERNATIONAL SIAM RADIO GOES YANKEE STYLE Pleng Pa Chok means Musical Jackpot in Siamese. To Colgate-Palmolive Co. it also means plenty of sales, by way of its cash giveaway show on an aggressive Bangkok station, HS1JS. Sales are gauged by a weekly return of 50,000 Fab-Colgate boxtops, reported by Karoon Kengradomying, popular host of Pleng Pa Chok. Broadcasting in Thailand is a burgeoning industry that, after a staid beginning along British lines, lately has assumed a free-swinging, American look. Listeners evidently like the Yankee style. They have bought nearly a million sets, giving Thailand a leading position in percapita radio ownership in Southeast Asia and the Far East. (Population of the 225,OOO-sq.-mi. country approximates 22 million.) Twenty-five stations in the capital city alone (the U. S. capital has 16 ams) broadcast from dawn until nearly midnight on medium and shortwave to 10 million potential listeners across the land. The country has a total of 32 radio stations. Over the past 10 years electronic sophistication has come to Thailand, and now stations are programming to selected audiences, high, middle and low brows. Music-andnews outlets offer Thai and Tin Pan Alley fare. Others feature dramatic shows (soap opera, traditional Ramayana plays), public affairs shows and official government announcements. "Good music" fans can tune in Western classical and semi-classical bills. Farmers hear local dialects, local news, songs and personalities on low-power, provincial stations. Three Chinese dialects and English can all be heard. Mobile news-special events units are a vital part of the scene in city and country. With so much attention given to every radio taste, prime time is at a premium in Thailand. Everybody in broadcasting has more than enough to do, and little time goes begging, observers report. National advertisers are coming from Madison Avenue and the marts of Europe. Agencies have set up shop in Bangkok and are putting priority on radio in their media plans. One of these, Grant Adv., on behalf of Colgate-Palmolive International, studied the rural market and bought up to 10 spots a day on local stations for Fab and Colgate. Other researchers have gone into the kingdom and come out with reports on the surging economy there. But the enterprising radio scene in Siam has an anomalous setting. Stations are run by government agencies, not individuals; yet their competition with each other is earnest. The new look in Siamese broadcasting over the last decade is attributed to a young crop of staffers, with key spots filled by U. S.educated personnel. One of these is Col. Kengradomying, whose job as host of Pleng Pa Chok is only one facet of his career as an officer in the Royal Thai Army and manager of HS1JS, the Army Signal Station, which belies its name with a music-news schedule. Mr. Kengradomying's station airs American pop tunes practically as fast as Tin Pan Alley grinds them out, according to Ivan Izenberg, who is Far East executive producer for the Voice of America and was an observer on the Thai scene while with the U. S. Information Agency. Steadily increasing listenership in the country has resulted not only from vigorous station operation but from heavy receiver promotion as well, it is reported. Radio sets come to Siam from Holland, Great Britain, Germany and Japan, and manufacturers show their confidence in the medium by using it for their own advertising. Although there are no networks in Thailand, most stations deliver a nationwide audience to advertisers by adding shortwave to standard transmissions to carry the signal across the country. Since only one television station is on the air, the television story still is to be told in Thailand. Meanwhile, the Pleng Pa Chok jackpot is overflowing, and the radio curve continues upward, as stations plow profits back into the business. Goa Radio Names Menezes Rep, Announces Expanded Coverage Cosme Matias Menezes, Nova-Goa, Portuguese India, has announced his appointment as representative of the Commercial Service of Radio Goa. The government-owned station, according to Mr. Menezes, has ordered a 50-kw and two 25-kw transmitters from N. V. Philips of Holland and plans to have them in operation by the first of the year. The new equipment will extend Radio Goa coverage through India, Pakistan, the Middle East, Persian Gulf, Far East and East and South Africa, Mr. Menezes states. Rates start at 1,200 rupees for 12 words and go up to 6,200 rupees for five minutes, with volume discounts up to 800 rupees for 12 words, 312 times, and 4,200 rupees for five minutes, 312 times. A rupee is about eighteen cents in American currency. Canadian Radio Sales Up, Tv Down Radio receiver sales continued to increase while tv set sales dropped in Canada during the first eight months of 1957, according to figures released by the Radio-ElectronicsTv Mfrs. Assn. of Canada. Radio receiver sales in the January-August period totaled 333,960, compared to 321,729 for the same period last year. Television receiver sales in the period totaled 233,238 this year as against 376,882 in the 1956 period. Ontario accounted for a third of tv set sales with 89,592 in the January-August 1957 period, while viewers in Quebec province purchased 65,502 sets. Ontario listeners bought almost half the radio sets sold in the period, accounting for 152,637 sets while listeners in Quebec bought 77,412 sets. a great new Joplin ft \ ^ m -A L created for you by KODE-TV 136,547 TV HOMES* IN THE JOPLIN MARKET Larger than Duluth, Phoenix, Ft. 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