NAB reports (Jan-Dec 1948)

Oh. Ute OnAdde. A Research Department study of forthcoming official FCC figures has shown 1946 expense ratios for four types of stations, network and independ¬ ent. (p. 19) Winners of the AWB-RMA letter-writing con¬ test in 17 NAB districts and in the nation have been announced, with final judging of 200,000 letters completed, (p. 21) Officials of the NRDGA, nearing completion of the contest for retail programs, have announced that entries in the competition have doubled last year’s, (p. 21) Names of members of the new NAB Program Executive Committee, headed by John W. Hayes, WINX, Washington, D. C., have been announced by the NAB. (p. 23) The FCC has announced the adoption of a new system of numbering documents which will show the year in which the paper is issued along with its number, (p. 26) Research Study Shows Half Revenue Dollar Spent for Salaries and Wages by Stations A calculation of 1946 expense ratios by the Na¬ tional Association of Broadcasters’ Research Depart¬ ment showed Wednesday (7) that more than 43 cents of every dollar of broadcast revenue was spent by stations on wages and salaries. Nearly 50 cents of every dollar went for expenses directly connected with the broadcast and sale of programs, the NAB study also revealed. Stations of all sizes, network affiliates and non¬ network stations alike, paid out a larger portion of each revenue dollar for services and materials in vir¬ tually every category than in 1945. Overall, these added costs amounted to 41/2 cents of each dollar of revenue, raising total expenses (exclusive of federal taxes) from 69 cents in 1945 to 73% cents in 1946. The direct expenses necessary to the broadcast of programs, 49.7%, included technical expenses, pro¬ gram expenses, and expenditures in connection with the sales of programs. This figure was 3.6% above the comparable figure for 1945. Total program expenses, exclusive of sales and technical costs, required 26.6 cents of every dollar of broadcast revenue, the survey revealed. This expense included program department wages and salaries, (Continued on page 19) Industry Witnesses at Wage-Hour Hearing Ask Professional Staff Announcer Status Representatives of the radio industry recommended in hearings before the Wage and Hour Administrator Wednesday and Thursday (7, 8) that station staff an¬ nouncers be classified as “professionals” under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and that all classifications of professional, executive and administrative personnel be clarified for application to radio stations. Statements were made by Richard P. Doherty, Director of the NAB Employee-Employer Relations Department; F. Merrill Lindsay, general manager, WSOY, Decatur, Ill.; Ivar H. Peterson, NAB attorney, Robert T. Mason, president, WMRN, Marion, Ohio, and .J. Allen Brown, Chief of NAB’s Small Market Stations Division. Marshall H. Pengra, general manager, WATO, Oak Ridge, Tenn., appeai'ed at the hearing to answer questions. High Wage Rates. Opening the hearing, Mr. Doherty pointed out that high wage rates paid in the radio industry make minimum scales academic as applied to broadcasting, since few employees, if any, receive pay “even closely approximating the minimum brackets.” “From 1938 to 1947, the period during which the Wage and Hour Act has operated,” Mr. Doherty said, “the average annual earnings in the broadcast in¬ dustry have been approximately 70 per cent above the level of average earnings for all employees in private industry.” He based his request for reclassification of an¬ nouncers as professionals on the fact that “radio has many of the features common to the entertainment field.” “But in very few ways is radio comparable to the operational standardization so common to manufac¬ turing, transportation, wholesale and retail trade, finance, and similar fields of business,” he added. “In (Continued on next page) In the Background. Observers at the Wage and Hour hearing noted that the broadcasters’ case for professional announcers was well received by the panel hearing the presentation. NAB ob¬ servers felt that subsequent testimony against the case failed to break it down significantly. In any event, the observers said, this was the first time an organized, industry-wide picture of special broadcaster problems had ever been presented to the Wage and Hour Administration. JANUARY 12, 1948-17