Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1963)

OUR RESPECTS to Peter Storer Unique challenge: to create and build a new business In typical Storer tradition, Peter Storer, president of Storer Television Sales Inc., New York, within the last two years has demonstrated a talent for management that places him in the forefront in the second generation of broadcasting industry executives. His executive wings have passed the hardest test — the successful launching of a new business enterprise. Understandably, he considers the growth record of STS his proudest accomplishment. "The opportunity to develop, create and build an organization like this," he noted in a recent interview, "was a unique challenge." Peter, the third son of George B. Storer, founder and chairman of Storer Broadcasting, was doing more than just upholding family standards when he was elected to start a new business. Well trained in management matters, he was ready to apply both sales experience and an intimate knowledge of station operations. The sales arm opened July 1, 1961, as a smoothly functioning firm that could compare favorably with established representatives. Breaks In At Stations A 1951 graduate of the U. of Miami, with a degree in business administration, Peter had served in various capacities at five Storer stations and also worked for CBS Radio Spot Sales before assuming the helm of STS. Peter was born in Toledo, Ohio, on Aug. 12, 1928, which was just a few months after his father had acquired j WTAL, that city, and changed the call j letters to WSPD. The first in the i string of Storer stations, WSPD is still part of the group as WSPD-AM-FMTV. The family moved to Michigan in 1931, and Peter spent his childhood ; and teen years in Bloomfield Hills. Following four years at the U. of Miami, Peter returned to Michigan to become promotion manager of WJBKi TV Detroit. Accompanying him was his wife, the former Virginia Parker, of Miami, whom he had married there on Oct. 19, 1951. In 1952 Peter stepped into his first sales position, becoming a local salesman for the Storer-owned WJBK-TV. He left in October 1954 to join CBS Radio Spot Sales, his only position away from Storer companies and one which provided "invaluable experience" as well as contacts that have continued through the years. Back To Toledo ■ He rejoined the Storer group in June 1955 when he was named national sales manager for WAGA-TV Atlanta and WBRC-TV Birmingham. In August 1957 he was transferred to WJW-TV Cleveland, as general sales manager, and two years later he moved back to his birthplace; this time as managing director of WSPD-TV. He stayed there until December 1960, when he was elected to his present position and was sent to New York to reorganize the former national sales office of Storer stations into a house representation firm for five outlets (WSPD-TV, WJBK-TV, WJW-TV, WAGA-TV, and WITI-TV Milwaukee). His first order of business in New York was to attract "high-powered" men to help put STS on a solid foundation. To secure a staff of 19, including a general manager and office managers, he conducted more than 300 interviews. He believes those persons selected rank among the best in the business. For proof, he can point to their sales success in the past year. With obvious pride, he noted that 1962 was "very satisfactory" and that October and November "were the two biggest months in the history of the tv stations." Reflecting on the firm's first full year of operation, Peter is convinced that the industry assumptions that led to the establishment of STS turned out as expected. Among the basic industry trends that were underway as far back as 1955, he said, were the increase in the number of stations and in spot tv billings. "To grow with the industry we felt we had to adopt the most spec Peter Storer Primary job is sales ialized selling technique possible and we realized it was best done with a strong, compact organization." STS was set up as a completely independent subsidiary of Storer Broadcasting. It has its own board of directors and functions just as any other rep would in representing its stations. Working out of an office at 500 Park Ave., Peter makes frequent trips to the company's regional offices in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta as well as to the Storer stations. He travels between 250,000-400,000 miles a year. Little Time Off ■ Peter's traveling also includes occasional long week-end visits to his parents' winter home in Miami Beach and summer home, a ranch, in Wyoming. When time does permit he enjoys playing golf, hunting and fishing. Like the Storer business operations, the Storer family, though widely separated, maintains a close-knit relationship. But rarely do all four sons and their families manage a complete family reunion. Brother George B. Storer Jr., president of both Storer Broadcasting and Storer Programs Inc., lives in Miami. Brothers Bob and Jim are with the Storer stations in Los Angeles and Cleveland, respectively. Peter's own family of four children (Peter Jr., 9; Leslie, 7; Elizabeth, 5, and Linda, 1) makes their home in Greenwich, Conn. Though active in community affairs while living in Toledo, Peter's long hours the past two years have limited his outside activities in New York and Connecticut. He is a member of New York's International Radio & Television Society. Meanwhile, Peter and staff are busy in the primary task of selling. To do it well, he believes it is also a rep's function to advise stations on such matters as rate cards, program availabilities and types of programs for national sales and national sales projections. He is in command of a complete service that includes in-depth research, sales promotion, national client relations, traffic service and sales service. The success of STS is an accomplished fact. Modestly, Peter is reluctant to take all the credit he well deserves; he prefers to pass compliments on to his staff. A man who has lived with broadcasting all his life, Peter says: "The representative field has confirmed my feeling that it is one of the most vigorous and exciting in the broadcasting business." BROADCASTING, January 7, 1963 89