Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1959)

With more emphasis on commercial formats, SPONSOR ASKS; How much should station sales affect programing? The right relationship of sales to programing is a difficult problem for many stations. Here, station men suggest possible solutions Robert Ferguson, exec. v.p. & gen. mgr., W'TRFTV, Wheeling, W. Va. Sales and programing, like a fine salad, need just the proper amount of mixing to be palatable. An improper mixture of the two could make hash out of a television operation. The most important factor, I feel, in this area is balance. Balance in programing combined with a balance in commercial sales should provide a well-rounded and effective operation which would be equally acceptable to the sales and programing staffs alike. Balance in programing, balance in sales is healthy To obtain this proper balance the over-all programing policy should be set up in such a way that it effectively blends the local programing with the network shows. In this way a totality of programing can be obtained which offers a varied amount of time in which the sales department can adapt its commercial requirements. For sales to be effective, however, the programing must be strong and at WTRF-TV, here in Wheeling, we are constantly changing and improving our programing concepts to provide top exposure for our commercial advertisers. One of the most effective methods by which a local station can create strong programing is in its coverage and presentation of news. Our news department at WTRF-TV is set up to provide instant news coverage throughout the entire Ohio Valley area and this important local coverage of news has given WTRF-TV a strong local program atmosphere which blends in perfectly with the network presentations. But we also believe here at WTRFTV that creativity is not confined to our programing staff and our sales staff has come up many times with specially conceived programs which have been perfect mixtures of programing and sales content although created specifically with a definite sales potential in mind. One excellent example of this was a recent half-hour program which our sales staff created out of two widely divergent ingredients — the tremendous public interest in the new small cars and the fact that the promotion department happened to have on hand either a film clip or still of all of the new 1960 car models. We took all of the film clips and stills of the 1960 cars and put them together in a special tv show called Auto-1960. We contacted all of the dealers for the respective models and with our newly acquired video tape machine did a tape introduction of each dealer with the type of car he represented in the Wheelingarea. Then sales sold the local tv special to the Wheeling Automobile Club for a prime time exposure. This, I believe, is true salesmanship and when my sales staff can create newsworthy and salesworthy program material like that then I know that the proper balance in programing and sales has been reached. There are some other special cases in which the sales requests made on the program are given careful consideration. Particularly in the case of long time advertisers on our station who might be looking for a particular segment for their product. In this case we feel it is only fair to give a long and faithful advertiser the benefit of special treatment and recognition provided it does not cause such things as product conflict of other exposure policies. On the whole, however, the functions of both sales and programing are equally important and consequently should function together as a smooth tv team. Alan Henry, gen. mgr., WNHC, New Haven, Conn. The question of how much should sales affect programing is academic; how can sales capitalize on effective programing is the real crux of the point. Effective sales management realizes that a product must be had and will strive for it. Sales and programing must work hand-in-hand. If one is to take precedence over the other, both will suffer! Let's face it, without the product there is nothing to sell. For the national spot dollar, there is little choice on which road to travel; with spot (radio) being diverted to the larger markets because of added emphasis in the more largely populated areas, coupled with increased costs, etc., the intermediate market stations must fight for a top position to corral most of the dollars that are ear-marked for that particular market. Hence, the great rat race to be No. 1 or at least no worse than a strong No. 2. The only avenue available to reach the big dollars is with a station "that is intelligently programed. It matters little what format is used, the goal is always the same — to be competitive. Locally, for the retail bucks, the impact is bound to be felt when em Important tJiat sales and programing work hand -in -hand phasis is put on intelligent programing. The station will be talked about, the salesmen will have "tools" to work with in that they can talk about the programing on the station, the personalities, the why's and where 44 SPONSOR 5 DECEMBER 1959