Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1960)

responses, many stations voiced concern over the effect of agency and/ or rep commissions — 15% each by standard definition — upon their net take from national business. Several pointed out that, with a single rate, these commissions would mean that national sales would actually yield less than local. One broadcaster proposed that the commission system be eliminated outright. Some said they got around this problem by adding the equivalent of the commissions onto the local rate in setting the charge for national business. This included at least one broadcaster who felt that he was on the one-rate standard nevertheless. Another, explaining that the commission problem was the reason for his two-rate structure, summed it up this way: "Assume our lowest local rate to be $1.15. If we have to deduct a 15% agency commission and a 15% rep commission, this leaves us with a net of about 83 cents. Why bother to sell national at all when our lowest local rate is $1.15?" Others cited other reasons — and opposite results. One, on a single rate for the last six years, said: "We have found that by the time we pay our local salesmen their commission on local accounts, plus the cost of writing copy, servicing the account and the other necessary duties, our cost per account was about 19 percent compared with only 15% (commission) for the national account." Another single-rate exponent: "We (find) that it costs the station more to put local advertising on the air than it does to pay rep and agency commissions. Therefore it stands to reason that national-regional advertisers should not he penalized and expected to pay the costs arising from local advertising." On The Other Hand ■ At the opposite pole was the experience of a station that is sticking to dual rates: "The local merchant never asks for a long listing of affidavits showing the exact times each and every spot was aired and what preceded and what followed it. The local merchant doesn't demand audience surveys, engineering surveys, coverage maps; nor do we have a list of long-distance phone calls to pay for at the end of each month for our local boys. ... I want to be paid something for my toil and something extra when it becomes extra toil and expense. You don't get box seats at balcony prices." Stations with separate rates volunteered different ways of handling the sometimes sticky problem of deciding which advertisers are eligible for na tional and which for local rates. One said: "We define a local advertiser as one which is locally owned and has only one or two local ouUets; a national advertiser is one which may be locally, nationally or regionally owned but which has several coverage-area outlets or a product which is generally available through several stores within or outside of (our coverage area). Another, who contended the single rate is good in many but not all cases, reported: "We allow any advertiser in the area to use our local retail rate where the announcements are authorized by and billed to a local firm when the address of this store is given in the announcement. . . . We charge the general (national) rate to all companies that are advertising a product or service that can be purchased in any of the various stores and cities of our SRA's contention that separate rates are no longer justified did not go un f challenged: ". . . The benefit gained by advertising on our station for a retail outlet diminishes with distance. When a listener 75 miles away hears Chesterfield cigarettes advertised on my station he can go next door and buy a package if he has the inclination. If he hears about a sale at one of our We're ready with the \ / ■ y W mm Championshii ^^^^^ brand-new, full-hour films •I featuring the world's greatest bowlers ____—_^^^^k top-rated sports show in televisior W featuring the world's greatest bowlers the top-rated sports show in televisior