Broadcasting (Apr - June 1960)

THE MEDIA _ RAB HAS A FIVE YEAR PLAN Calls for expanding services and income A five-year plan for expanding Radio Advertising Bureau’s services and doubling its income — from $1.1 million this year to $2.2 million in 1965— was approved by the RAB board last Wednesday (May 18) at its semiannual meeting, in New York. A new department will be formed to develop new services which the board expects will yield an additional $650,000 a year by 1965. It is to be called the RAB Development Dept, and will deal with services which are not necessarily needed by all RAB members but have enough value to justify making them available on request at out-of-pocket cost. The approximately $500,000 remaining in the budgetincrease target would come from dues from new members. Total membership is expected to climb from the present 1,200 to 1,900 in five years. One of the new supplementary services that might be offered under the development plan is a school for radio salesmen. RAB conducted such a school two years ago “and learned enough about it to know generally what ought to be taught . . . what it would cost and how much time of personnel it would take to run a school,” according to RAB President Kevin B. Sweeney. “Under our plan to expand supplementary services, we would offer the school to members who want it and are willing to pay for it on a self-liquidating basis. In that way, members who do not wish to send a salesman to the school are not required to, in effect, pay for benefits received by someone else.” New Services ■ Other new supplementary services being considered included direct-mail campaigns tailormade for stations, tailor-made slide presentations for stations, and comprehensive sales plans for specific events. In addition, several existing supplementary services will be assigned to the new development unit, including the annual regional management conferences, the project in which outstanding commercials from specific product categories are gathered on tape, . • V >■ In Law... in TV and Radio . . . IT’S u v BROADCASTING it's Blackstone YEARBOOK! A lawyer without his copy of Blackstone is a little like a trombone player without a trombone. For Sir William Blackstone's famous "Commentaries on the Laws of England" has been the standard legal reference and textbook in its field for generations. Radio and TV are much newer than jurisprudence — but in their field, too, a recognized authority has emerged as the standard source of information. BROADCASTING YEARBOOK is read each year (and saved all year) by thousands of people whose jobs in broadcast advertising demand a ready, accurate source of TV-radio facts. The 1960 BROADCASTING YEARBOOK — out in September — will give some 18,000 of them the most comprehensive round-up on the dimensions of today's broadcast media. If you have something to tell the decision-makers, BROADCASTING YEARBOOK is the place to testify on your own behalf. Witness the deadlines: July 1 for proofs; July 15, final. Call or wire collect to reserve space! BROADCASTING THE BUSINESSWEEKLY OF TELEVISION AND RADIO 1735 DeSales Street, N. W., Washington 6, D. C. and acquisition of radio sets and other equipment for members. President Sweeney outlined the expansion plans and also sketched expansions already in progress in existing services. He announced that 12 presentations aimed at important national advertiser categories — including brewing, bread, tires, candy and airlines — have been or soon will be completed. In addition, he said, RAB has launched a series of 12 presentations to specific retailer groups including hardware stores, movie theatres, laundries, television repair stores and boat dealers. Other reports: ■ Two-day regional management conferences will be held in eight parts of the country again this year, starting Sept. 12. ■ The new supplementary stationmanagement information service has been doubled in scope before it starts. Two monthly reports-in-depth on major station-mangement subjects will be issued instead of one, starting July 1. ■ RAB’s new “proposal” system, under which the bureau recommends specific campaigns to prospects, has resulted in requests for such recommendations for 40% of the advertisers called upon. One recent proposal called for an expenditure of more than $7 million in radio. ■ Attendance at RAB’s annual area sales clinics this year is running at an all-time high, with 1,550 salesmen and sales managers from more than 600 stations expected to have participated by the time the clinics wind up this month. Allen M. Woodall of WDAK Columbus, Ga., RAB board chairman, presided over the meeting. Chicago broadcasters wage access battle Illinois Div. of American Civil Liberties Union has thrown its support behind Chicago broadcasters in their fight for the right to cover city council proceedings. The endorsement was contained in a letter to Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and Alderman Harry Sain, chairman of the council’s rules committee. ACLU asserted that, under public policy of state statutes, there should be “no meaningful” distinction between electronic and print media. By entering the controversy, the organization indicated it felt civil liberties were being infringed by discrimination against radio-tv and that the council’s ban deprived people of their “right to know.” ACLU took no position on the constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press but pegged its action on Illinois laws as they affect legislative pro 52 BROADCASTING, May 23, 1960