Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

PLAYBACK APPLES AND ORANGES The thoroughness of radio-tv audience data in comparison to newspaper measurements is noted by Harry F. Schroeter, director of advertising, National Biscuit Co. Speaking Nov. 14 at the Advertising Research Foundation's Third Annual Conference in New York, he says the advertiser is faced with comparing electronic oranges with newspaper apples. His talk, in part: . . . Continuing experience with electronic media has given us the habit of measuring costs in terms of delivered audience, not simply in terms of potential audience. Now please don't think for one minute that I am not in favor of Audit Bureau of Circulations and all that it stands for. I think everyone will continue to buy printed media on audited circulation figures. However, when electronic media are always measured in terms of cost per thousand commercial minutes or cost per thousand homes reached, a comparison on similar terms for print media and especially newspapers would be mighty helpful. . . . Today the Nabisco sales force is just as excited about television and even some forms of radio as it is about the daily newspaper. Regardless of home office influence, salesmen probably reflect chiefly the attitudes of the trade they call on. My conclusion is that grocers today are much more aware of the impact of electronic media than they were. Maybe they have learned by using radio and tv themselves or perhaps because the buying committee today works from forms listing not only newspapers but all types of advertising. At any rate, salesmen are no longer carrying a torch for the daily newspaper. JUST WHO ARE THE PROS? Too much emphasis is placed on the contention that broadcast newsmen need to first gain experience and maturity in other fields, declares Richard Pack at the' 12th Annual International Convention of the Radio-Television News Directors. [Trade Assns., Nov. 18, 11} It's fallacious thinking, says the Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. vice president for programming, who points out that the rigid demands of radio-tv reporting produce the best newsmen. In his plea that the "front-page complex" be put aside, Mr. Pack says: I was glad to hear someone say the other day, that to be a good radio or television newsman, you don't have to have been a newspaperman. Hallelujah! I firmly believe this, and I have believed it for years. In fact, I would go so far as to say that newspapermen frequently don't make good radio and tv newsmen, or news directors. The pace and pressure, the demands of broadcast journalism, are usually far greater than print journalism. Radio and tv require more ingenuity, more resourcefulness, and some QUOTES WORTH REPEATING times more creativeness; a newsman in our media has to be many things: he has to write, to edit, to plan; he has to be producer, director, and occasionally performer. A newsman in our business, can't sit at a desk for a couple of hours worrying over one story. Newspapermen who come into broadcasting too often bring with them the accumulated rigid, dusty notions and attitudes of print journalism. . . . And sometimes they bring with them, too, not the best of the traditions and heritage of print journalism, but the worst; its stodginess, its over-reliance on wire service copy, its tendency to cliches in writing, and many other stereotypes. But I feel that too many radio and tv newsmen, whether or not they ever worked on a newspaper, suffer from a great inferiority complex, in relation to their colleagues of the press. Maybe they still remember too much of the "Front Paqe," hat-over-the-eye-romantic-melodrama legends about newspapermen. Anyway, I think that too many men in the broadcast news field are suffering from this — this romanticism, from this sense of inferiority, which I call "front page hangover." Too many of us, deep down in our hearts, perhaps our subconscious, are still faintly uneasy, faintly in awe of the so-called "power of the press," front-page-roaring-twenties, dashing-hero reporter myths. . . . We are not as proud of our own media, of our own resources and power, or our own tremendous impact, as we should be. Challenging Canon 35, fighting for freedom of access, believe me, is not enough. It is not enough, unless you rid yourselves of this negative psychological attitude. Gentlemen: I say, wash the printer's ink off your hands. Throw away your slouch hat and trench coat, if you have any, and take a few swigs of rightful pride to wash away the taste of "front page hangover." Sure, our media are young; but they have the vitality of the youthful; the ability and the courage to do things in new ways, or better ways to experiment, to dare, even to make mistakes. And, like the young, we also have the great vistas of the future, still ahead. And we work in media which have unparalleled effectiveness in reaching the hearts and minds of people, through electronic journalism. Sure, we are young, only 38 years or so, but we also have already, at every level, whether it's the great networks, or the great stations, from 250 watters up to the 50 kws, a record of genuine achievement in news. I believe we can train, and are training, and are developing, a new kind of journalism; a new kind of newsman. Let's not nostalgically or romatically cloud our work with the inheritance of the newspaper business; they have their problems, and their shortcomings, too. . . . And in dozens and dozens of cities, as all of you know, enterprising and resourceful radio and tv newsmen, with small staffs, are beating out the papers on local stories. Parenthetically, one sidebar thought: I must admit I haven't done much research on this next attitude. But I do get an impression as I get around the country and talk to newsmen, and to university people that perhaps too many of our journalism schools also are suffering from "front page hangover," and in their curriculum, and in their attitudes and teaching methods, are still putting too much emphasis on print journalism, and not enough yet on broadcast journalism. If this is so, I commend it to your organization to study, and perhaps to do something about. BUDWEISER'S MUSIC TEST H. K. Renfro, manager of the radiotv department of D'Arcy Adv., St. Louis, addressing a meeting of the Country Music Disc Jockeys Nov. 15 in Nashville, recounted one agency's experience with a growing phenomenon — country music: About the time we were producing our first commercials for Budweiser, we came up with some mighty interesting facts. We learned that some drastic changes were taking place in the music and recording industries. Surveys showed that about one-third of all records sold in the U. S. were country and western records. This accounts for about 30 million records a year. We also learned that more than two million copies of country and sheet music were sold each year. ... It also turned out that about half the tunes on the Hit Parade were country and western tunes. We decided to come to Nashville and investigate . . . and we decided to do something. Our first venture was on an experimental basis of a limited nature. We had a new beer in a few test markets, so we decided to make a simple test of a country and western commercial. We used these spots in selected markets with marked success. Our next venture in the country and music field was a regular half-hour spot on WSM Nashville's Friday Night Frolics. . . . We had no idea what would happen when we made one announcement offering a salt and pepper set in the shape of miniature Budweiser bottles to the first thousand people to send in a post card. By Wednesday of the following week, we had 9.000 letters and before we were completely inundated, we counted 18,000 pieces of mail. In recent months, we have purchased schedules for Budweiser on stations .programming country and western music exclusively. We think we have come a long way in our understanding of this distinct and highly specialized field of music. We feel the American public is showing an increasing interest in this kind of music. mm : mmm Page 118 November 25, 1957 Broadcasting