Sponsor (Apr-June 1959)

SPOT'S PAPER JUNGLE i Cont'd from paiir .'>.'-> i The question usualb raised when .1 i learing house for spot i suggested. is: "How are you ever going to gel a majorit) of some 3.000 radio and 500 i\ station managements to gel together, when they're so competitive?" The answer is that somebody did it and made it work with the music publishers and they can scared) he called non-competitive. "If broadcasting could onlj begin all over again," said one adman, "so man\ things could be done different!) and more simply. In the case of spot, both radio and tv have outgrown their bookkeeping s\ stems. The value nl both media keeps increasing, but the machinery of its bookkeeping remains a primitive art." Ki \ in Sweeney, president of Radio Advertising Bureau, sees three major problems in spot buying: I 1 i rate cards. (2) paperwork. (3) 'familx resemblance." On the subject of paperwork, Sweeney says, "Much of the paper which is exchanged in buy ing spot has no real function because the paperwork is done after a campaign is under way. If we trust one another well enough to put a campaign on the air on verbal orders," asks Sweenev. "do we really need to follow up with as much papers as we now use?" Sweenex explains the "'lamiK resemblance" problem as follows: "When a station representative goes in to sell, it's helpful if rate cards of stations on his list bear some resemblance to one another. Then he can at least present a simpler bu\ for the part of the medium he represents." As for rate card structures, he says. "L nlike newspapers, radio rate cards \ar\ to the point of confusion. A decision to make a bu\ cannot be based on a clean-cut decision to pick this or that plan: and there's no pattern within a market or by station t\pes. A major job of persuading stations to simplify their rate cards has to be done which is something we've undertaken within RAB." On the side of definition, the Storz Cincinnati, Ohio? Bangor, Maine? Savannah, Georgia? NO, THIS IS "KNOE-LAND" (embracing industrial, progressive North Louisiana, South Arkansas, West Mississippi) JUST LOOK AT THIS MARKET DATA Drug Sales Vutomol i\ i Sales General Merchandise I iil.il Retail S.ilrs $ 40,355,000 $ 299,539.000 $ 148,789.(1(1(1 *l.'J8li.'_,55.lM><l Population 1,520,100 Households 423,600 ( i hi i i Spendable lm ome $1,761,169,000 Food Sales $ 300,486.000 KNOE-TV AVERAGES 79.4°0 SHARE OF AUDIENCE According to December 1958 ARB we average 79.4°0 of audience from Sign On to Sign Off 7 days a week. During 363 weekly quarter hours it runs 80°b to 98°0. KNOE-TV CBS • A B C A James A. Noc Station Channel 8 Represented by Monroe, Louisiana H-R Television, inc. Photo: Forest Products Division, Olin-Mathieson Chemical Corp., West Monroe. Louisiana. stations pioneered a meticulous defining of what constitutes a national and what constitutes a local advertiser. By their definition, the advertiser who can qualify for local rates is one whose copj is mostl) local, whose billings emanate from a local agency, and whose bills are paid through a local hank. In the move toward a single rate for all. the first station group to come up with such a plan is the Balahan Stations. "We felt." said John F. Box. executive vice president of the chain, "that the time is long overdue for all radio stations to face up to the fact that one of the greatest detriments to our business is the existence of a system of multiple prices for similar service. There is only one answer, and that is the single rate card for all advertisers, national, local and regional." To put it into effect. Balahan stations are gambling on 8100.000 in lost billing* this year." The local rate problem, while not directly responsible for the spot paperwork jungle, is certainly a contributing factor. The question of an agency paying full price is invariably. "Who's getting it wholesale? and a lot of checking frequently goes into finding out. "If I were giving a break to an\body," said one station rep to SPONSOR, "it would be to the national advertiser. Giving the cheaper rate to the local advertiser is the reverse of what it should be: he gains the most and should pay the higher rate — if there must be any difference at all.' Beyond the double rate lies a widening; area of grief t<> agcnc\ men involved in the paperwork of a spot buy. This is the complication within the rate structures of a single station. Ml of these complications could be summed up in the words — "FrequeJ c\ discount. " Newspapers smoothed out their operations aftei man) years b) eliminating these complex discounts. Today, probabU less than 1<H) newspaper arc complicating rate rani with sua "rewards for frequent use." However, il has been noted of late, that a trend is developing among print media for a return to frequency discounts. "Il wuiilil be inmic. said one adman, "if uewspapers would now start to match spot in confusion." Continued next week & 54 SI'OXSOH 1 M'KII. 1(1")9