Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

STATIONS CONTINUED Our cup overfloweth! "J=u Our boys did it again! This time three Golden Mike Awards from the Radio-TV News Club of Southern California. More than any other L. A. radio station received. To Tom Harmon, CBS Radio Pacific Network Director of Sports, for "Best Radio Sports Reporting". | To Carroll Alcott, KNX Radio newscaster, for "Best Radio News Analyst". I To KNX Radio Management for "Support of Most Aggressive News Policy". Yes, our cup overfloweth. What CBS News is nationally, KNX News is locally— the best there is! If a news program is your radio showcase, you can't do better than with KNX News. The public thinks so and the experts agree — again ! REPRESENTED BY CRS RADIO SPOT «i« ranges the signing of a contract between the advertiser's agency and the equipment financing organization. CFC, finding that one of the stations desired by the advertiser happens to be seeking new equipment at the same time, offers to pay for this new equipment if the station agrees to turn over to TMI certain time segments. Upon agreement, CFC gets billed by the equipment manufacturer of the station's own choice and pays at list price for whatever equipment has been ordered. Explains Mr. Firestone: "Unlike the film business, where a piece of celluloid has a variable price, equipment has a flat, going cost and there's to be no haggling with manufacturers." Mr. Cornberg maintains it is not his firm's intention to bypass the manufacturer's field representative nor to tell the station which manufacturer to do business with. "The station continues dealing with its regular supplier. . . . We merely pay the bills." Nor will this direct approach cut into trade paper advertising, according to Mr. Rosenblatt, who said: "Heretofore, equipment manufacturers were competing among each other for the station's attention, knowing full well that the station could afford just so much and no more. I predict more advertising now that the equipment dollar has become bigger." The greatest singular "blessing" of this new scheme, says CFC, is that "the station's value increases sharply without management having to spend a cent." By leasing unused time to an advertiser, the present owner of a station may find that the price tag on his property can be radically marked up, thanks to new installation of equipment, CFC claims. Again, however, barter or no ("I don't think the term 'barter' is exactly an apt one," says Mr. Rosenblatt), the fact remains that the station representative is still outside looking in. But, says Mr. Rosenblatt, the representative has no legitimate complaint to offer. He notes that the representative is paid by the station to sell time. If he cannot do so and the station manages to move this time directly, it is merely making up for the representative's "failure." But "what benefits the station benefits the representative, for now a rep has a better and more fully equipped station to sell," he adds. CFC executives declined to list the manufacturers they say they have contacted and effected agreements with, nor would they divulge the "interested" stations with which they are in negotiation for equipment. It follows TMI's traditional refusal to spell out its operations (estimated to affect 15 film companies, 55 advertisers and some 20 agencies), the reason being that "the agencies might find themselves in a compromising position with the station representatives should the extent of their (agencies') barter activities be made known." Furthermore, the agencies have asked TMI to be closemouthed, it was learned. Meanwhile, TMI continues to expand both in personnel and plans. Pierce Romaine, a former Paul H. Raymer Co. vice president and subsequently an executive at AveryKnodel Inc., both station representatives, and with TMI since July, has been elected a vice president of the firm. It also was Page 74 October 28, 1957 learned that TMI plans shortly to enter the fm radio programming barter field. Katz Agency Sees Little Change In Tv Station Discounts in Year The Katz Agency, New York, station representative, in its continuing study of tv rates, concluded last week that station discount structures generally have remained relatively unchanged over the past year as have the relationships among time classifications and time units. Conclusions are based on the Katz Agency's formulas for estimating spot tv budgets which are published periodically. These will appear in its Spot Tv Advertising Cost Summary No. 22, to be released shortly to advertisers and agencies. Based on the rate cards of a representative sample of 50 leading network affiliates, these formulas show average discount percentages from the one-time rate for announcements and program units, the relationship among nighttime, daytime and late night rates and among various time units. In most instances there has been basically no change, July 1957 vs. July 1956, Katz reported. There are two possible exceptions, it said. A slight increase in discounts for 6-12 announcements per week is indicated, especially in the 1-12 weeks bracket. According to Daniel Denenholz, Katz's director of research and promotion, this can be attributed more to the increased number of stations that have established weekly discount plans than to any change in the discounts themselves. (The percentage discounts shown in the Katz Agency's formulas are an average of all stations in the sample, including those that do not offer discounts.) The second possible exception is that there has been a slight decrease in the ratio of late-night rates (generally after 11:00 p.m.) to those in prime time, Katz reported. Lewis, Multiple Am Owner, Dies Richard Field Lewis Jr., 50, head of Richard Field Lewis Jr. Stations, died Oct. 18 in a Washington hotel. Death, attributed to natural causes, came while he was on a trip from his home in Winchester, Va. He was buried there Oct. 21. Lewis stations are WINC-WRFL-FM Winchester, WSIG Mount Jackson, WAGE Leesburg and WFVA Fredericksburg ( 60% ) , all Virginia; WAYZ Waynesboro and WHYL Carlisle, both Pennsylvania, and WELD Fisher, W. Va. Mr. Lewis also had an application pending before the FCC for a new am in Fredericksburg, conditioned on disposal of his interest in WFVA. Survivors are Mr. Lewis' wife, Marion Park Lewis; his sons John and David, both in college, and Howard, Winchester high school student; his mother, Mrs. Richard F. Lewis, and a sister, Mrs. E. L. Anderson, both of Oakland, Calif. Broadcasting MR. LEWIS