Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Record Details:

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New Ideas Come Out of the Blue "TEAM SPONSORSHIP" AND "PROGRAMMING ACROSS THE BOARD" ARE SUCCESSFUL INNOVATIONS MADE BY NETWORK: KOBAK GIVES REASONS BEHIND CHANGES THAT BREAK MANY ESTABLISHED TRADITIONS. By Edgar Kobak Executive Vice President af the Blue \etuoii: C'dnipmii/. AS RECENTLY US Jaiiuaiv ot tliis year . the radio term—"Team Spoiisdi- ship"—probably would ha\e occa- sioned onl\' mild curiosity among men whose business it is to sell time on the air. And the label — "Programmins; Across the Board"—would doubtless have caused a bit of annoyance to har- ried program directors, unless to some of them it might have vaguely sug- gested the fulfillment of a fond dream. Toda\', these are not nebulous terms. They are accepted names for innova- tions in bioadcast advertising wrought by the Blue Network since it became an independent organization in Janu- ary, 1942. Newest of the national radio chains, the Blue crawled out of its swaddling clothes to challenge estab- lished tradition and keep its eves open for anything new that might be worth- while. The new Blue is ouK- nine months old. But in that time it has discarded many old theories about network man- agement and originated new depar- tures in selling time and improv ing its programs. These activities ha\e at- tracted widespread attention through- out the broadcasting and advcrtisint; fields. Some of these new ideas were iirousiht about 1)\' sheer necessity. The Blue had to contend with shortages of etjuipment and personnel that would iia\e discouraged manv a new business \enture. The important thing, how- ever, is that the Blue management did not stop to bemoan its handicaps. In- stead, it found alternates, which, in many cases, were better than the orig- inal. "Team Sponsorship," for ijistance. is the sales inno\ation the Blue Network devised because it found itself born at a time when a great number of national achertisers had no product to otter the public. In a period ol institutional ad- vertising and of business decidedly not "as usual," conditions demanded a co- operative plan of radio sponsorship. The Blue's plan enabled manufacturers to keep tlie public aware of their ac- tivities by grouping together in the purchase of radio time. ".Across the Board Programming" is but one of the new ideas that have orig- inated with the Blue Program Depart- ment, supervised by that veteran of radio, Phillips Carlin. The term means simply the scheduling of a particular type of program straight across the board, seven days a week. One reason for such programming is to accustom listeners to one kind of broadcast at a given time every day at one spot on the dial. Another reason is to lend vari- ety to the airlanes, for the feature the Blue selects lor such programming is always different from the type of en- tertainment offered at the same time l)\' other netw'orks. The first important programming of this type was for the Ford Motor Com- pany. The Earl Godwin news period. "Watch the W'orld Go By," was carded seven nights weekly at 8 o'clock, so that Blue listeners could be assured of spot news broadcasts at that time e\ery cNenimi. IncidentalK. tin's nictlind ol sciieduling, it has been Idiirid. also tends to buikl a new audience in cases where another type ol brondcast l)\' other networks has enjoM'd a long pe- riod of unchallenged popularit\. Still another example—"Linn and Abner." This program, which has re- cruited a tremendous listening audi- ence, had de\eloped a regular S;1.5 p.m. listening habit. Now, "Lum and ,\buer are on the aii" only on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thmsday. So that the audience built for this type of program might not be lured away when "IjUni and Ai)ner" are ott the air, (Carlin provided a similar tvpe of enter- tainment at the same hour on week- enil nights. This supplementary show, "Ciibbs and Finne\', General Livery," has accomplished e\erv purpose for which it was scheduled. On the business side, the Blue Net- work has been a trail-blazer since the first day it operated. We have been able to sell advertisers on the idea of "keep 'em remembering' nut onK on the team-sponsorship plan, but 1)\ the intelligent use of one-spot featme broadcasts. The one-spot plan calls for the airing of important institutional events, such as the awarding ol the Army and Na\v "E " to manufactmers engaged in war |)roduction. Only re- cently the White Motor Company, RCA Manufacturing Co., the Indepen- dent Lock Compain', and ele\en other firms took ad\ autage of this plan. In illustrating how- the blue lias overcome shortages of equipment, one might note the way we ha\e sur- mounted the problem of operating without a newsroom of our own. The usual array of teletypes and short-wave facilities not being available to our new network, we made up for this loss by engaging top-ranking news commenta- tors and placing them in key siiots on (Ciuitiiniecl nil Jid^c 25) RADIO AGE 13