Radio today (Sept 1935-Dec 1936)

The ivar against radio (Continued from page 11) point out, however, is the rate of mortality 31110115 these advertisers — the number who have failed and are no longer in a position to advertise in anything, anywhere; nor did they point out how many newspaper advertisers have similarly dropped out of newspapers in the same period of time. Those figures were suppressed, which can only lead to the conclusion that the figures are even worse if taken for the newspapers. Included in their figures also were scores of small and unimportant advertisers who are no longer able to afford advertising of any nature; plus the large number of political and religious broadcasts, paid for in 1928, but now going on as sustaining programs. A.N.P.A. also conveniently "forgot" to mention that practically all available network time is now taken up by advertisers who did find radio broadcasting so successful as to warrant greatly increased time and expenditures. As an indication of the erroneous presentation apparent throughout this supposedly authoritative bit of propaganda, A.N.P.A. picked a basic figure for the number of homes in the United States that is easily 2,000,000 wrong. Number of homes they estimate as 32,500,000, while everybody else including the Department of Commerce can find only 30,800,000. Costs money Groping for the few figures that might somehow be twisted to its advantage, the folder announces blandly that it had studied 79 programs (out of the thousands on the air) and found that the average cost to the advertiser to reach a million listeners is $7,302. Suspicious silence on the equivalent cost of newspaper advertising leaves it to us to point out (from the newspapers' own trade journal, Editor and Publisher) that the newspaper cost of reaching a million circulation ranges from $12,000 to $23,000; and what's more, the true figure for radio network advertising, according to both CBS and NBC actual figures, is between $1,660 and $2,410 per million listeners — just about 10 per cent of newspaper costs. More hooey visible in the newspapers' campaign is the statement that "20 per cent of sets outstanding are unable to properly receive a radio message." How about it, service men and dealers? Is that true? Repeated accurate and authentic investigations by leading radio groups reveal this figure of sets out of order as no more than 4 per cent at any time. Vague and mysterious about the source of the figures, the pamphlet brightly exclaims that an average of only 36.4 per cent of the homes with radio sets have their sets turned on at any given time during the evening. So? Well, again, unprejudiced and impartial research organizations — carrying on their work — not in one town for a few weeks, but all over the United States constantly for a period of years — find this figure for "sets turned on" to average no less than 65%. The "loiv-down" Another point newspapers fail to state is the amazingly large number of newspaper readers who do not read the ads; and the fact that 90% of the newspapers of America are located in cities and towns, while radio serves every market — rural as well as urban. Now that we have absorbed the propaganda, let's take a look at the FACTS— During the same period of years "analyzed" by the A.N.P.A. (19281934), RADIO NETWORK ADVERTISINGINCREASED 416% WHILE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING DECLINED 29%. In 1928, national newspaper advertising totalled $230,000,000. By 1934, this figure had receded to $163,000,000. In 1928, radio network advertising totalled $10,250,000. By 1934, this figure had mounted to $42,659,000. So far as total dollar volume is concerned, national newspaper advertising is still far ahead of radio network advertising, and will continue to be so; there is a limit to the time on the air available for advertisingrevenue. But so far as young, vigorous, healthy growth is concerned, we'll let you draw your own conclusions. And here are more facts to clarify the distorted picture of radio which the newspapers would like to have the public believe: One of the largest national networks reports that 80% of all its advertisers on the air in 1934 were renewals from previous years; 97% of its gross revenue in 1934 came from advertisers who were on the air in previous years. There we have a recoi'd of loyalty to an advertising medium, and a satisfaction with the results obtained that all the newspapers in the United States of America put together could never hope to equal. Vet "radio is failing as an advertising medium," they say to advertisers who have made millions of dollars through radio advertising. "Radio should not broadcast news," they also declare — with as little logic as radio could say to the newspapers that they should not publish cartoons, comic supplements or other strictly entertainment features. Radio needs to present a united front against this attack by the newspaper interests who have disclosed themselves definitely as enemies. Radio programs sponsored by na-^ tional advertisers are the ones to which the public listens with the utmost pleasure and consistency. They are the ones to which receivers are turned week after week. If the newspapers are successful in their attempts to drag these programs from the air and devote those expenditures to newspaper advertising, broadcasters might as well rip down their stations and the rest of the radio industry shut up shop and factory. So, if the newspapers want to blast radio right off the map as a medium of advertising and entertainment, okay boys, go to it. If there's going to be a battle, let's make it a good one. If such a battle will speed the day when radio will broadcast full news services; if it will speed the day when the radio trade will have "radio facsimile"' sets to make and sell, bringing new sales and profits to manufacturers and dealers, and new avenues of public service to broadcasters, let's have it. Ves, sir, if a battle will hasten all those events, boy, we're for it ! You're in it, too But remember this isn't a battle involving just the broadcasters alone. Every man and woman who derives his or her income from radio is in this scrap, too. Receiver manufacturers (who last year spent $5,500,000 advertising in newspapers) ; radio dealers (whose home-town advertising bills totalled another $5,300,000) ; distributors, service men — are all part of radio's storm battalions. In public opinion, influence on legislation, business and personal expenditures, they exert a mighty wallop. And their hats are in the ring. From any such struggle — if the newspapers insist on heading into it — there can be only one outcome. Public opinion, radio-industry influence and power, and sweeping technical advances, all point to a clear-cut victory for radio! 30 Radio Today