Sponsor (Apr-June 1962)

SPONSOR Our 40-year radio album Response to sponsor's 40Year Album of Pioneer Radio Stations, which was delivered to you with last week's issue, has been so overwhelmingly enthusiastic that we want to express our thanks publicly. Frankly, we think that the 40-year album is one of the most unusual and valuable industry records that has ever been assembled, and the major share of credit goes to the more than 100 pioneer stations who dug deep into industry files for the rare pictures and anecdotes in the book. We doubt if such a compilation of early "radio-ana" can ever again be made. The material won't be available. The records and photos already show the ravages of time. That's why we urge our readers who would like extra copies of our 40-year album for friends, libraries or other institutions to put in their orders as soon as possible. Hardcover bound volumes are available at $5.00 each, regular paper covered copies at $1.00. Just write sponsor. Lazy copywriters— lousy commercials We're getting increasingly steamed up over the disgracefully low quality of many current tv and radio commercials, both network and spot. There are a lot of good commercials on the air. But there are a lot of dreadful ones And when we say dreadful, we're not talking from the viewpoint of some addle-pated, do-good outside critic. We mean dreadful by professional advertising standards. The commercials we're referring to are not those which are dishonest, deceptive, blatant, vulgar or in bad taste. These can be dealt with by the Code authorities and the FTC. The commercials we most strenuously object to are the far greater number which are hammered together by lazy copywriters, lazy producers and lazy agencies. They are the commercials which are poorly conceived, inadequately thought through, muddled and confused in viewpoint and focus. They are the commercials which, because of their total lack of organization, seem interminable in length, unconvincing in appeal, and nauseatingly repititious and boring. Any advertiser whose agency serves him such radio/tv fare is getting cheated on every ad dollar he spends. ^ lO-SECOND SPOTS Television: Jimmy Dean told an actors' agent about some of the problems he's having preparing for NBC TV's Tonight show, which he'll host the week of 9 July. "You think you've got troubles — my latest client sings like Como, acts like Lawrence Olivier, and has a build like James Garner." "You call that trouble? You'll make a million dollars with that guy," Dean said. "Guy. nothing. It's a girl!" The law: Johnny Carson said to a policeman who was a contestant on his ABC TV show Who Do You Trust?, "If your beat was a lonely path in Central Park, and a beautiful young girl rushed up to you and said that a strange man had suddenly grabbed her. and hugged and kissed her, what would you do?" The cop replied without hesitation, "I would endeavor to reconstruct the crime." Sports: Frank Gifford, the New York Giants football star and sportscaster, was told by a well-known college football coach, "Whoever he is, there's a dirty sneak thief on myr squad. Last year I lost a set of Yale shoulder pads, a Princeton sweat shirt, a pair of Harvard pants, and a couple of Y.M.C.A. towels." Marriage: If you've ever wondered about a married couple "What did he ever see in her?" here's one answer from the Broadway musical "I Can Get It For You Wholesale." A heel says, "She gave me a beautiful cigarette case at Christmas. So I told her I loved her. Then on my birthday she surprised me with a car. So I told her I adored her — and, to keep the pipeline open, I proposed to her." Chinese proverb: Comic Alan King says in a chewing tobacco commercial. "Manv men smoke, but Fu Manchu." Navy: Allan Stanley, pres. of Dolphin Productions and captain of the camera boat "Dolphin, Too," will have to be careful while his head of sales. Kurt Blumberg. an atomic submarine lieut. commander in the Naval Reserve, is on active duty. Pleaded Stanley: "Don't torpedo the Dolphin that feeds you." 68 SPONSOR • 25 JUNE 1962