Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

NETWORKS CBS RADIO NETWORK INCOME UP • First rise since 1950, CBS Radio affiliates told • Hayes tells stations they'll share in the increase Turn of the tide in radio network revenues was reported to a record turnout of some 160 CBS Radio affiliates last Thursday as they met in New York for their annual meeting. CBS President Arthur Hull Hayes told the opening session of the CBS Radio Affiliates Assn.'s fourth annual convention that network income this year will show an upward turn for the first time since 1950. Asserting that "this year marks an encouraging change in business trends," he also reported that, on the basis of the rise in billings, station payments also will be greater for the first time since the turn of the decade. Both President Hayes and John Karol, sales vice president, foresaw continued gains. "The current trend of business," Mr. Karol said, "points toward more big-name advertisers entering network radio to sponsor their own programs on a long-term basis. Radio is becoming fashionable again . . ." Mr. Hayes told the affiliates that "Daytime business maintains a healthy pace . . . with our daytime block — from Arthur Godfrey through Art Linkletter — more than 90% sold. "Even more significant is what is happening in the evening and weekend periods. Last March, for example, the network had succeeded in selling only 11 'Impact' segments in the preceding quarter. Since then, each quarter has averaged sale of more than 70 segments. For the current week the network has scored 118 'Impact' sales." (The "Impact" plan offers five-minute segments in specified evening and daytime programs.) Mr. Hayes said it was "highly significant, in this day of dynamic radio sales, that the first new Nielsen report credits CBS Radio with 82% more audience than the second network during the average sponsored minute over a full seven-day period . . ." "Another result of the sizable and attentive audiences attracted by the network's programs has been a heartening surge of interest on the part of advertisers and agencies. Sales continue to grow out of sponsors' fastdeveloping confidence in the prestige that can be bought with a CBS Radio program. "As this rise in sponsor interest extends from major industry to major industry, I foresee that more and more advertisers will seek to associate their products with integral, prestige programs. The programs which the network supplies to you attract audiences to your station and make of your station a desirable medium. In this way, the commercial and' prestige value of a CBS Radio affiliate is heightened. This is a network's major contribution: programs that make a local station desirable to advertisers." Mr. Hayes' indirect swipe at the type of programming which other networks have offered was followed with less oblique comparisons by Mr. Karol and Howard Barnes, programs vice president. Mr. Karol told affiliates that "while the other networks have beeen forced to experiment radically, we have been in the Page 60 • November 11, 1957 comfortable position of merely reaffirming our earlier beliefs in big-name . . . shows." Mr. Barnes named names. "While the other networks wander from concept to concept, always looking for a secret something, they all seem to get discouraged periodically and copy the CBS way. NBC and ABN have both established — then later jettisoned — concepts based on service rather than entertainment. We have achieved a stability that serves us well." Mr. Karol said, "It is a fact that we are now telling advertisers, 'Sorry, no Gunsmoke'," and he credited the $5.5 million Ford sale — a multi-program deal which generated controversy among affiliates when it was announced last summer — as having "served in great part to make this possible." He also noted that "scarcity and growing interest could help to raise still higher the value of network radio." On the question of six and eight-second spot announcements he assured the affiliates that "We are trying to go the other way. We THREE 'GOLDEN MIKES' Golden Mike awards for 30 or more years as CBS Radio affiliates were presented last week to WBNS Columbus and WADC Akron, Ohio, and to WCAU Philadelphia. The presentations were made during the fourth annual convention of the CBS Radio Affiliates Assn. (see this page) by Radio President Arthur Hull Hayes to Richard A. Borel, general manager of WBNS; Allen T. Simmons, president and general manager of WADC, and Donald W. Thornburgh, president and general manager of WCAU. are trying to build interest in the great values of full ownership of a radio program. "And we're having some success," he observed, adding: "Wrigley has two full quarter-hour strips. Delco batteries has Lowell Thomas, and Ford's sponsorship includes Ed Murrow, Bing Crosby, Arthur Godfrey and Rosemary Clooney. Chevrolet has Bob Trout. Home Insurance has Jack Benny, and Longines has a 55-minute program each Sunday. And Philip Morris has its own 25minute Sunday evening show. "We're not stopping with this, however. Not when, for the first time in years, agencies and sponsors alike are receptive to us as a medium. The people are tuning in to hear our story. And they don't stop listening when the commercial begins." But, Mr. Karol noted, selling has become more complicated than it used to be. "Today," he said, "a salesman can't just aim to sell Lever, Colgate-Palmolive or General Foods. As a matter of practical fact, there are very few big advertisers for us to solicit, as we did in the old days. "General Foods, for example, is not a big advertiser. In fact, it's not an advertiser at all. Jello advertises. So does Calumet and Minute Rice and Cocoanut Flakes. They're virtually autonomous companies. Multiply this by Lever and Colgate and Standard Brands and National Biscuit and many, many more. This condition has complicated greatly the problems of selling radio. The basis of our solid and impressive sales rate lies in our programming which attracts large audiences." Mr. Barnes, developing this theme, said that behind sales success was "a firm philosophy of regularly scheduled, proven programs containing well-known personalities." He said the network's faith in regularly scheduled shows — and in daytime dramas — had "proved out." "We don't believe," he said, "that today's radio audience is an aimless, catch-as-catchcan group, as expressed by NBC's Monitor. We feel, rather, that the public — our audience— listens intentionally and intently, and knows what it's looking for. We aim to give it to them." In the Thursday afternoon session Louis Hausman, advertising vice president, outlined contributions made by the advertising, promotion, and press information departments in helping both sponsors and affiliates, as well as the network. He cited ads and mailing pieces, brochures and other material which "have lent prestige and focus to the network's operation" and made "real and solid contributions to increasing your station's audience." A series of ads on "Nobody's listening but people," prepared by Louis Dorfsman, director of art, advertising and promotion; a brochure distributed to local schools on the World at Large public affairs series; an experiment in students' radio listening conducted by Charles S. Steinberg, head of the press information department, and national as well as local publicity on daytime dramas and other programs were singled out as examples of activities that build prestige not only for the network but for affiliates too. The Thursday luncheon — which like the other sessions was closed to newsmen — was addressed by Joseph H. Ream, CBS Inc. Washington vice president, who substituted for CBS Inc. President Frank Stanton, who was unable to attend. Other opening day speakers were John M. Rivers of WCSC Charleston, S. C, retiring chairman of the association's board of directors; Robert Tincher, WNAX Yankton, S. D., chairman of the association's convention committee, and Frank W. Nesbitt, CBS Radio sales development director. The annual banquet Thursday night featured a variety review with comedian Henry Morgan as m.c. and a cast including Joey Adams and Al Kelly, comics; Mitch Miller, Johnny Mathis and Rusty Draper. A session of the network's Sez Who program, of which Mr. Morgan is host, was taped during the dinner, with Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Patricia Bright and Joey Adams as panelists. Friday morning and luncheon meetings were slated for affiliates only, with sessions with network officials to resume in the afternoon. CBS Radio authorities described the regBroadcasting