Sponsor (June-Sept 1960)

wmca PRO.. I'll. Hi! ■ The American child is nurtured in the belief that success may be attained by emulating H. Alger. Sixteen year old R. Turner was no exception. He read the great man's words, ". . . T'was on Lake Erie's broad expanse, one bright midsummer day, the gallant steamer Ocean Queen swept proudly on her way ..." A sober lad, Roger packed his bag and joined the crew of a Lake Erie ore-boat. There is merit in teaching the young, for Roger Turner became Vice-Commodore of the Virgin Island Yacht Club and for six years sailed the Caribbean sea lanes. But success comes hard and Turner achieved his rewards through four years of carpentry at Yale, maintaining the rank of PFC in the Marine Corps and managing a bakery. As an executive of Radio Press International, his singular talents enabled him to be appointed Assistant to the President of the Straus Broadcasting Group where he now explains FCC memoranda with nose aquiver for a fresh breeze from the East. THE STRAUS BROADCASTING GROUP wmca NEW YORK Af wbny BUFFALO ■ Jack Masla SCo.. ir rpi RADIO PRESS INTERNATIONAL 28 NEW B YORK AM Radio Sales 49th and Madison Profitable reading In the April 30 issue of sponsor, page 52, you reported the success WING. Dayton. Ohio, had with a promotion for the Necchi-Elna Sewing Machine dealer. They ran a spot schedule asking listeners to send in a 1946 penny. We wrote to \^ IXG in Dayton and they were kind enough to send us the continuity, after which we presented the idea to the Pittsburgh \ecchi-Elna dealer. Because of the success in Dayton. he bought the idea and scheduled 50 one-minute announcements over a 10day period. Because of a larger market area, we hoped to receive more than 2.644 pennies reported by \^ ING. Three days after the last announcement was on the air, we counted a total of 7.843 pennies. The dealer was simply amazed at radio's ability to do this job since he too, like the Dayton dealer, had run a comparable promotion in a local newspaper at a cost of about double that of the radio campaign, and the newspaper response was approximately 5', of the radio response. It has made the dealer a firm and steady user of radio and given us a success story that will result in many new schedules. So a great big fat "'thank you" to WING for reporting it to you and a double dose of "thanks" to you for reporting it in sponsor. Philip B. Hirsch general manager WEEP Pittsburgh Not cricket! "Sponsor-Scope." page 22 of the 25 July issue, says that some rep has evolved a way of taking his stations ■"off the spot" when the distributor of a national product offers them a schedule at local rates. His plan, as outlined, will do more than take them off the spot. It wi in time, take them right out of i spot business. This opportunistic scheme i» wait until the local rate offer ] been made to the station, after whi the rep calls the agencv to expl that when its commission has be added the saving to the client will negligible. If the agency says "In that case' will place the business at natio rates through you." everything, thinks is okay. But if the agency reacts negative he quicklv tells his station that can't get the business so it had bet tell the distributor it was only kidd about charging the legitimate natioi rate. Most reps don't operate that \ and those who do. together with si stations as ""cooperate" in this k: of catch-if-catch-can procedure violating the simplest managem fundamentals. Also they are doin; great deal of harm to the broada ing industry at a time when it net to demonstrate that it has sound pr ciples and at least the minimal testinal fortitude necessary to lbe to them. Presumably this rep believes t to follow good practices and ethi standards will mean a loss of bi ness and commissions. As a majoi of stations and goods reps know . thi beliefs couldn't be more wrong. I would recommend to the rei> i tioned in your story, and to his tions, that he establish and mail some operating principles which < mand the respect of the agencies accounts with whom he does ru*i ness. He will do more of it 4 probably sleep better too. Hanque Ringfl consultant N. Y. C. SPONSOR • 8 AUGUST 1-'