Yearbook of radio and television (1955)

Advertising Outlay Scheduled In 1955 To Reach AU-Time Mark D n D n D n By FRANK BURKE Editor Radio-Television Daily amounts of their billings has been steadily growing upward. The trend, according to one time buyer, seems to be ,toward the purchase of regional time with merchandising tie-ins. D n D An interesting development of the new year is the formation of the Quality Radio Group composed of 43 stations who are banked together to sell circulation as a package. The president of this group is Ward Quail of Crosley and William B. Ryan, formerly president of BAB, is executive vice-president and director. These stations, representing most of the clear channel outlets, have sales offices in both New York and Chicago and plan to open another on the west coast. n n n Television forges ahead at an accelerated clip with color TV fast taking over the spotlight from conventional black and white. RCA and NBC have led the field in the promotion of compatible color and have asked other networks and manufacturers to intensify their support. In the meantime the black and white TV service enjoys further station and circulation expansion and the battle of survival of UHF in many markets continues. All in all the outlook for 1955 is most promising and both radio and TV networks should turn in a good business year. Some forecast the .decline of nighttime radio network programming as we know it today, and others envision a new era in which midget transistor portable radios will revolutionize the business and bring new energy to the radio broadcasting industries. On the television side the coming year is certain to be the biggest ever and before year's end the schedule of color TV programming on networks will probably reach the proportions of competition for some black and white. However, the color TV audience is still limited, and it will be several years before the more than 34,000,000 black and white receivers are replaced. 35 IT'S foolhardy to try to forecast what ^ is in store for the broadcasting industry during 1955. However one thing is certain, with government agencies predicting a good year and the advertising outlay expected to reach a new all-time high, the radio and TV broadcasters should have a progressive and prosperous year. _ \ ■, . The outlook in the advertismg field is a pretty good barometer of the broadcasting business. The wise ones are predicting that this year's expenditures will pass the $8,000,000,000 mark by a good margin. This is big money and already the radio and TV networks as well as the local stations are making their bid for a part of it. n D D Along with prospects for a banner year comes word that television worked wonders in 1954 and radio didn't fare so badly either. Gross TV billings were estimated at more than $500,000,000 for time as compared to $450,000,000 in 1953. Adding talent and production costs it is estimated that the figure was about $900,000,000. Radio billings for 1954 were estimated at $415,000,000 by the Radio Advertising Bureau. The web billings were figured at $142,000,000 as compared to $144,600,000 in 1953 and the local advertising at $273,000,000 as compared to $257,300,000 in 1953. n D n The new year of advertising in both radio and television got off to a flying start with the regional and national spots and special programs bought by the automotive industry. The manufacturers, particularly General Motors, spent a great deal on the national and local level and indications are that their spot business and those of others will continue throughout the year. Another aspect which brought optimism to both the radio and television fields was the increased use of spot business by national advertisers. Among these accounts are included drugs, home appliance, foods and cosmetics and