Broadcasting (Apr - June 1960)

FANFARE Snow fooling ■ Baltimore agency people couldn’t believe the calendar when they attended WBAL-TV’s agency breakfast to kick off the summer season. With the theme being “the coolest shows this side of winter,” the station had specially imported arctic animals (left and right above), gusts of cold air and Eskimos galore. As part of the new “cool” setup for advertisers, WBALTV offered a new package that makes it possible even for small advertisers to obtain one-minute prime nighttime participation combined with peak daytime periods and to earn a discount for as few as two announcements per week. Chortling over the promotional material are Harry Haslett, account executive; Bud Freiert, assistant station manager and director of tv sales; Bert O. Gunts, vice president and general manager; Dick Gochnauer; Gene McCurdy, manager of tv sales; Pete Stewart, account executive and Jerry Klasman, account executive, all of WBAL-TV. A lot of talking San Francisco radio stations talk to 89.7% of all homes with radio in a week’s time. “And we talk to them almost 17 hours a week, occupying better than 10% of their time,” a presentation of the 13 radio sations comprising the San Francisco Radio Assn, claims. This month, the presentation is being given in the East, Midwest and West. After depicting the growth of the San Francisco market and its present dimensions, the presentation concludes with a media comparison and decries tv as having “lower viewing in Northern California than anywhere else — and you can’t even get an adjacency around the top ten” and newspapers as “falling far short of full coverage.” An advertiser with a $9,000 budget can buy “21 spots on each of our 13 stations. . . . [and] get over 11 million impressions and the cost per thousand would be 81 cents, compared with $12.83 for newspapers and $1.25 for television.” Bill Shaw, KSFO, introduced the presentation, “The Market With the Golden Gait,” before the San Francisco Ad Club. Homer Odom, KABL; Milt Klein, KEWB; Bill Nichols, KFRC; and Maurie Webster, KCBS, jointly made the oral presentation which accompanied the colored slides. Members of SFRA are: KABL, KCBS, KDIA, KEWB, KFAX, KFRC, KGO, KNBC, KOBY, KRE, KSAN, KSFO and KYA. Fm — fine martinis and fine music When WFMM (FM) Baltimore was ready to go on the air, it faced the problem of announcing itself to advertisers and their agencies. Mailing an announcement was rejected because of the high mortality rate of such mail. A premium, it was decided, wouldn’t tell the station’s complete story. And a cocktail party would attract only a limited number who would be in no mood to listen to a sales pitch, the station figured. The solution was a combination of all three. A package was sent to admen containing two miniature readymixed martinis and two cocktail glasses with the station’s call letters. With the potables was an invitation for cocktails. It urged the recipient to take the package home, ice up the cocktails and tune in WFMM to enjoy the drinks and an evening of fine music. The station reports gratifying results and more orders coming in than had been anticipated. An added benefit was that the 75 cents per person it cost was less than the probable expense of a regular cocktail party. The promotion was conceived and handled by WFMM’s agency, Clifton D. Carr & Co.. Baltimore. A ‘wrong turn’ Following a three-week teaser campaign promoting the move of disc jockey Dick Reynolds from KYW Cleveland to WIP Philadelphia, the record spinner failed to appear on the appointed date. The station then launched a widely broadcast “search” with a plane manned by WIP’s program director spotting a giant moving 106 BROADCASTING, June 13, 1960