Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1960)

LOWELL THOMAS For the sixth successive year Lowell Thomas is on CBS Radio for General Motors. World traveler, explorer, lecturer, author, his first-hand knowledge of people and places gives his newscasts special color and authority. And his long-term association with a single company points up the cumulative advantage of sponsoring an outstanding personality year after year. In all radio Lowell Thomas-and his colleagues-are the kind of company youkeePONLY ON CBS RADIO ABC TV 'SHORTIES' [Continued from page 33 i ABC's new wa\ of selling daytime tv. as it now stands, will perpetrate serious inroads on spot business. Too main variables are involved. You'd have to have an advertiser with more than three non-competitive brands, at least two of which lend themselves to a sales message of less than a minute. And. if such an advertiser exists and currently is in spot tv. he's there for a reason. As Compton's media v.p. Frank Kemp puts it. ''Network gives vou simple, blanket national coverage: if you want something else you go into spot." So if the advertiser is in spot, chances are he wants to vary his frequency from one market to the next, and would not be likely to give up that objective because he can now get some of his lower-budgeted brands on network — unless relative cost-per-1.000 made it extremely attractive, runs the reasoning. "This is not a war between network and spot, emphasizes ABC's Bleier. "If Minipoo and Rem. for instance, could not divide up the shorter commercials they wouldn t switch to spot, but rather would have to settle for half as many network commercials. Deciding between network and spot isn't a simple matter of budget size; distribution is the issue. Spot is for uneven weight, as to frequency and choice of markets: network is for even, national coverage.'" Should ABC elect to scatter the shortened commercials, as many fear, it might be another story. That plus the sale of regional networks would, many think, really begin to look like competition with spot. And there is considerable concern among stations over the handling of brand protection should the shorter commercials get scattered. Considerable difficultj alreadv has been encountered along these lines due to the scattering of 60-second commercials I see "Sponsor-Scope." 19 September). Otherwise, the <>\erriding issue involving the ABC plan as it now stands seems to be over-commercialization. In other words, how many breaks in the flow of daytime programing will the audience tolerate? ^ RADIO NEWS {Continued from page 38) lieves, as it stated in the opening article on "Radio's Big New Burst of Creativity, that what is happening in radio today, is the most challenging development that any major communication and advertising medium has known for years. The radio industry, rebounding after the first stunned shock of tv's onslaughts and a convalescent period of "formula operations"' is now displacing an astonishing degree of vitality and originality in every phase of programing. Music, news, community affairs, all-talk programs, and the potent new weapon of station editorializing are all figuring in radio's "creative renaissance." and in each of these areas scores of stations are coming up with new. more effective treatment. To radio men themselves this "battle of ideas" means longer hours, harder work, a fiercer fight for competitive programing advantages. To advertisers and agencies, it has an equally profound significance. Radio's drive for greater program creativity is making it more meaningful, more needed, more important to its audience. And this factor of "editorial vitality" is enhancing its value as an advertising vehicle at the expense of the slow-footed, stodgier media. In this five-part series on "Radio's Big New Burst of Creativity" the editors of sponsor have been able to present only a few of the hundreds of examples of radio"* creative power. SPONSOR is now planning to publish early in 1961 a greatly expanded study, in book form, of radio's creative revolution. Questionnaires are now being prepared and will be sent to all U. S. radio stations, seeking in-depth facts on their programing operations. The sponsor study will also include examples of the new creativeness that is fast emerging in radio selling and radio commercials, as well as factual background on radio's reach and coverage. sponsor believes that this new studv will give the industry the most complete picture of radio's power that has ever been assembled, and welcomes suggestions and contributions from broadcasters and advertisers evervwhere. SPONSOR • 3 OCTOBER 1960 >60 i