Sponsor (Apr-June 1959)

fllllllllllllllllllllllllllllM^ IHIIIIIIIIIIHIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1IIIIIIIIIIIIII1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM lllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllll iiiiiii nii« SIZE OF THE POST-MIDNIGHT RADIO AUDIENCE Homes using radio after midnight by time zone. January-February 1959 SUN-SAT. i local time) EST <000> CST (000) PST '0001 TOTAL (000) 12:00-12:30 a.m 825 289 214 1,328 12:30-1:00 679 255 164 1,098 1:00-1:30 558 221 151 930 1:30-2:00 509 170 132 811 2:00-2:30 437 153 114 704 2:30-3:00 388 136 107 631 YARDSTICK: Nielsen average minute data show post-midnight in-home listening is about one third ( i0rt ) of the evening (6 p.m.-midnight) level. Post-midnight audiences also register roughly 16% oj both morning and afternoon levels. Actual pre-midnight winter audiences (in millions) are: morning. 5.7: afternoon. 5.5; evening. 3.0 Why post-midnight radio pays off ^ Low-budget advertisers, faced by rising direet mail eosts, diseover unexpected after-midnight audiences ^ Though audiences are smaller, 'lonely hearts"1 copy formula in these hours builds surprising sales volume J oe Rosenfield, Jr., is a 58-year-old. L60 lb. southerner with a firm belief thai he can sell anything. This confidence years ago took him out of the iii-N -papei -,ili and |'i omotion business in New Orleans and put liiui on the air in the after-midnight hours. Todaj "Big Joe" (see cut) is holding forth on a new six-hour stretch via WABC, New York, seven nights a week from midnight to 6 a.m. in a sales-entertainmenl carnival paralleled l'\ man] anothei station across the i minii \ I hai "Bi» Joe"' had the good fortune tO land in llic Big Time ill New ^oik basically i the aftermath of some big-time publicity he once figured in — he sponsored a " " — 1 1 i j » of friendship" to France loaded w itli I I and gol bimseli on a lot of front pages. \\ hai make "Big Joe" and his brethern across the nation all the mi . i e notew orthj i ighl now is this: • I n lain pi . H I nets — often new ones — lend themselves best to an "'intimate" introduction to a more or less special class of listeners. • The recent hike in postal rates can make radio selling cheaper than mail selling. An announcement in "Big Joe's" all-night session sells for 825 las against 860 for an announcement in prime time). For lliis you will find yourself in a mixed compan) of products main of which "Bijz Joe'" himself owns. Years ago he discovered the pull "I late I adio, and reasoning thai wliai worked well for others oughl to work ju-t as well for him became Id* own sponsor along wiili his chores as an entertainer. The emotions "Big Joe' taps in his deep-night audience tend to be twofold: the listenei i alone or semi|onel\ and thus welcomes a friend: moreover, be probabl) isn'l engaged in an\ di-li acting ai li\ il\ and hem e represents a sort of captive audience. Thus the selling techniques consist in involving the listener in some kind of endeavor along these lines: • A club is generally the cornerstone of such a program. • The telephone is an indispensible adjunct. • Another essential: a running cast of characters, whose personalities develop nighl alter night, week after week, much as characters in a |>la\ or SOap opera. "Big Joe'' uses all these techniques — plus his old instincts for selling intangibles as well as tangibles. His Happiness Exchange whips up a storm ot concern over the financially distressed of the Greater New ^ ork area. He brings in about $150,000 for them ever) sear, and is licensed a a pri\ ale welfare agenc\ . [Tiese applicants make up the cast of character-. (Thej appear on the show, il their case is deemed worthy enough, i The telephone and the club of listeners start to work for them. Here's bow "Big Joe" has used these elements to sell over 5,000 of his own Japanese-made transistor radios in four month-: • Demonstration. The club did the demonstrating for him. 1>\ kidding thai "you can'l expect to pick me up on the transistor beyond a radius of Kill mile or even as 36 Sl'ONSOU •I APRIL 1959