Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

a one-minute announcement. At the local station in what is termed "the secondary market", the price is $7 for one minute of class A time. The national advertiser can get over seven times the number of announcements on the secondary station than he can on the 50,000-watter. But can he get the coverage, you ask? The answer to that one comes from the agencies themselves. They admit that the secondary stations have excellent ratings. Granted, you might have to buy three stations to the powerhouses one, but you will get a bigger audience for much less money. The powerhouse stations in the major markets cannot possibly give what the people •outside the city limits want to hear, and that is local news, local public service programs and local advertisers. If I were a national advertiser, I would want to be next to a local newscast on a good local radio station, well operated and well received whether it is a major market or not. There is no doubt that the major market must be adequately covered, but not without some consideration as to whether the advertiser is getting the most coverage for the money he is spending. Look at the map of the state of Connecticut, check your major markets and then check the secondary markets. The number of potential customers not being reached would make millions of dollars for some advertiser. Add what you find in our state to the other 47 and you have some idea of the amount of business that is being passed by because of an old wives' tale about primary and secondary markets. It was not too many years ago that the independent broadcaster was the forgotten man. Today, he takes top place in the purchasing of radio time if he is in a metropolitan market. I have no doubt that one day, the national advertiser is going to ask the account executive : Don't the people in the secondary areas use soap, drive cars, smoke cigarettes? On that day, the secondary markets shall inherit the national accounts! DODGE'S COUNSEL TO STATIONS: GET OUT AND SELL OUR DEALERS A suggestion that broadcasters both prod and assist local Dodge dealers was made by Arnold C. Thomson, advertising manager, Dodge Div., Chrysler Corp. It was part of his overall review of Dodge advertising, presented Oct. 11 at the Ohio Assn. of Radio & Television Broadcasters' meeting in Columbus (see story, trade assns.). Portions of Mr. Thomson's remarks follow: Despite this [Dodge's] tremendous advertising expenditure, despite this access to all national media, despite the availability of the finest advertising talent, we cannot actually sell one single solitary Dodge car by ourselves. That's where the dealers come in. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. We can make a million people want to buy Dodge yet we can't sell them even one. So creating a new car is not enough. The dealer must assume the responsibility of turning this desire into action. He simply cannot afford to sit back and wait for business to walk in through the front door. Not these days he can't. He must go out and bring business in. And there's no better, more effective way of bringing in business than by retail advertising. And here he must do the job alone; we SOB I MR. THOMSON cannot do it for him. As an independent businessman, he has the obligation of promoting his own business. Consequently, he should set aside a definite percentage of his sales for advertising purposes — not to build desire for Dodge cars, but to build up his own dealership as a good place to do business. He can do this in a dozen different ways. He can sell convenience of location . . . excellent service facilities . . . price and deal . . . terms and guarantee. He can hold special promotions of all kinds. He can make his dealership a veritable hotbed of activity, where something exciting is happening every day. But these are the things he must do on his own. We know from our own personal experience that the biggest, most successful dealers who sell the most cars and make the most money are the ones with a consistent local advertising program that promotes their own place of business. And here is where local media enters the picture. Here is where television and particularly radio can do a great service to the dealer and themselves. They can go to the dealer for the advertising dollars that promote his business on the level that really pays off for him — the local retail level. One of the basic fundamentals of successful selling is asking for the order. No salesman worth his salt ever walks out without asking for the order. You can never do it too often. Most businesses don't do it enough. And here is where radio, particularly, has a distinct advantage and a definite WEAR YE More listeners hear RAD I O WINSTON-SALEM NORTH CAROLINA than the other three city stations combined 5000 W-600 KC AFFILIATE FOR WINSTON-SALEM / GREENSBORO /HIGH POINT CALL HEADLEY-REED mm! DOUBLE FORMER POWER ★ ★ ★ K T B B TYLER TEXAS THE BIG NEW SOUND IN EAST TEXAS NOW HAS 1000 W. DAY AND NIGHT ON 600 KC. Ask Venard Rintoul McConnell, Inc., in N. Y. & Chi., or Clyde Melville in Dallas, to tell you about the 20,053 square miles containing 641,122 people now covered by KTBB. THE METROPOLITAN VOICE WSRS GREATER CLEVELAND'S NUMBER 1 STATION SRS "J?fl^-MVe"MBS Broadcasting October 21, 1957 • Page 139