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OPEN MIKE
Whose Week Comes When?
editor:
Television sponsorship isn't as easy to keep track of these days, with alternateweek clients, crossplugs, major and minor weeks, etc. In fact, alternate-week sponsorship is becoming the rule rather than the exception — 50% of WFIE-TV's current program schedule in AA time is sold on that basis.
There are several ways of determining which advertiser has which week:
1. Consult the original service order and calculate from the starting date. If the starting date was in 1957, this can take time.
2. Consult last week's log, if it's handy. But an error in the log may thus be perpetuated for weeks.
3. Color-code your advertisers.
This latter system, which we call our "red and blue week" system, has been in use at WFIE-TV for more than a year and has served specifically to clarify alternate-week sponsorship. It works like this :
A calendar is marked for alternate red and blue weeks. By checking the flex file in which alternate-week advertisers have also been marked in red and blue, one can easily match the sponsor with the week. One may also check months in advance, if necessary, to determine which a-w sponsor is scheduled on a specific date. For The Californians, "Singer red and Lever blue" is all we need to know.
The red and blue week system has reduced errors in a-w scheduling, it has simplified making up a-w service orders, and it has clarified the interpretation of a-w service orders. This applies also to spots. The station may receive a spot order to run "Sept. 2, 1 1 , 16, 25, 30, Oct. 9, 14, and 23." How much easier to express it this way: "Tuesday blue, Thursday red, Sept. 2 thru Oct. 23."
We feel the system could be of even greater value if the synchronization of red and blue weeks were standardized throughout the industry. Then a network or agency could specify "red week sponsorship" and everyone would know exactly which dates were being designated. With more alternate week schedules coming up this fall, it's something to think about.
Chester T. Behrman Program Manager WFIE-TV Evansville, Ind.
Sub-Teen Pollsters
editor:
My sales manager's wife recently answered her doorbell and found two boys, ages about 12 and 7. The older announced that he represented a nationally known and respected survey company and questioned her on her radio habits. Their visit was preceded by a local campaign by an outof-town station consisting of three sound trucks and a crew of youngsters plastering bumpers with this station's call letters. We even had to chase a couple of kids out of our own third floor studios where they were attempting to paste stickers.
When this survey is released will it become the basis for spending thousands of dollars of advertising money? The little boy
Strong
Backstage, with Jerry Strong (7:00
7:05, Monday-Friday) reporting entertainment news and interviewing celebrities, is also strong by nature, matching it's mc's name by consistently producing top ratings for the past year. Available five nights a week, it's a powerful segment of
Seven O'Clock Final, Washington's
top-rated early evening newscast.
wmal-tv
WASHINGTON, D. C.
an Evening Star station represented by H-R Television, Inc.
Broadcasting
August 11, 1958 • Page 15