Radio annual and television yearbook (1938)

how radio has cut into movies' boxoffice. How many, I wonder, realize that if every seat in every moving picture house in every community in the United States were occupied at the same time, less than one-eighth of the American radio audience would be "at the movies." Whenever you hear an estimate as to the size of some specific radio audience, it is good to remember how big is the total of all radio owners before you decide that there aren't enough people left over to go to the movies. As long as people like variety in their * entertainment — (and they always will) — and as long as people like to share excitement and pleasure together — (and they always will) — there will be no danger of radio — or television — supplanting motion pictures in the hearts of our citizens. Although Radio was not originally created as an advertising medium, it was inevitable that it should have developed as it did. Offering facilities for reaching a nationwide audience with a vocal message, radio attracted advertisers as naturally as Hollywood attracts blondes. That they have found it a satisfactory medium may best be seen in the use they have made of it. Time sales on the Columbia Network in 1933 were just over $10,000,000. The next year they jumped to nearly 15 million. In 1935, they were $17,638,000. Last year, the total reached $23,168,000. And this year it will exceed 28 million. Columbia's own advertisers represent nearly every major category in American industry. Tobacco? Luckies, Camels, Old Gold, Chesterfield, Philip Morris. Automobiles? Ford, Chrysler, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Hudson, Nash. Gas and oil? Texaco, Gulf, Atlantic. Food? General Foods, Campbell, Heinz, Continental and General Baking. Moving pictures? Nothing. Though you are selling entertainment, you continue to use newspapers, magazines, and outdoor as media for your advertising. Why? As advertising men you know that it is not because radio keeps your customers at home, but because radio and radio advertisers do your advertising for you in the one major medium best suited to your needs. There are those who say that radio has contributed but slightly to the realm of popular entertainment; that radio has had to depend on the stage and screen for its creative brains and talent. I have heard it said that the steady increase in our activities on the West Coast is proof that advertising agencies and broadcasters have failed to produce and direct successful programs; is proof that radio has failed to develop talent of its own. I can't agree. Radio first went to Hollywood to keep up with its own artists, for whom it has developed a large enough popular following to make them sure-fire timber for the movies. Each year finds more of them engaged in film work. Each year, as a consequence, finds more radio programs originating in Hollywood. If this is true, you may ask, why haven't some of these radio stars supplanted some of the really big names on the screen? For the same reason, I suppose, that none of the big screen names that have appeared on radio programs have supplanted the radio-developed stars themselves. Though each may benefit from working in the other's field, each has his own forte and each has built up his following primarily through that channel. A friend of mine who lives in Westchester arrives at Grand Central each morning at about the same time as the incoming Century. And each morning he sees a group of people assembled to watch the arriving passengers — not to greet a friend or relative, but to get a close-up view of some celebrity. Over a period of time, he has noticed that this strange gathering has varied from a mere handful to a crowd that blocks all routine passage through the concourse. And being of a statistical turn of mind, he has checked the size of the crowd against the people it comes to see. (Herbert Hoover, incidentally, still draws a small but loyal reception committee.) This friend tells me that radio stars draw bigger crowds than some of the movie stars; that Eddie Cantor and Burns and Allen have had them hanging over the balcony railing to see them. "And why not?" Eddie Cantor is frank to admit that the success of his movies is the result of the nationwide following he attained through radio, and Burns and Allen's nonsense was entertaining millions before Shirley Temple was out of her cradle. Both Radio and motion pictures are in the business of providing popular, large-scale entertainment. Beyond that, you cannot say that we are in competitive business. Because we are engaged in the same general work, and because we are not competing in the sale of our products, we are in an ideal position to work together for the betterment of the particular entertainment 923