Sponsor (Jan-Mar 1963)

/ V "Our contemplation of our own accomplishments during the past twenty years must be tempered by a realization of the importance of the contribution of the stations we represent to our success — not just that they have paid us our commissions, but that they have worked with us, suggested, advised, responded to suggestions and advice. Perhaps our happiest accomplishment is that we have been able to work in effective partnership with able broadcast station managements, to the mutual profit of stations and ourselves. And perhaps our happiest augury for the future is the continuation of this teamwork toward the benefit of the national spot industry." "v John Blair — April, 1953 s These are the words we used to describe our 20th Anniversary in April, 1953. Now on our 30th Anniversary, it is interesting to me to see that they have just as much meaning today as they did ten years ago. Ours is a personal service company. We have no factories, no warehouses, no inventories. What we do have are people, capable people, and our success as a Company depends entirely on them. In looking back over our 30 years of radio and television representation, I feel that we have been exceptionally rewarded by our association with outstanding broadcasting management people. They have worked with us very closely ; they have advised us, consulted with us, responded to suggestions and recommendations. In short we have been able to form a working partnership of the greatest effectiveness with each of the stations we represent. As I stated in 1953, this is perhaps our happiest accomplishment. We have been more than fortunate in the caliber of the people we have attracted to our organization. They are able, dedicated people whose primary interest is to do the best possible job for the stations with which they work. By far the largest part of the compensation of the Blair salesmen comes from an incentive commission plan which Blair initiated when the Company was formed and which is well known to the industry. To put it plainly, the salesmen earn more as they sell more. Furthermore, each of the salesmen and department heads is a stock holder in the Company. All of the stock is owned by active employees of the Company. It is this type of compensation plan along with Company ownership which creates the enthusiasm and the drive which inevitably result in increased sales and a faster rate of growth and progress for the stations. It should be noted here that the closeness of the relationship between John Blair and Company and station management is probably greater than that of any other similar business. We take an intense personal interest in the operation of the stations represented and have been instrumental in the development of their businesses. By the same token, the operators take an intense personal interest in the development of our Company. Many years ago we began to build our service departments and they have now, after 30 years, evolved into a very important function in our total operation. These departments work with stations in research, programming, promotion, public relations and advertising. However, the service departments have another function — that is, to help the salesmen sell. Every project undertaken by any of the service departments must have a direct effect on sales. We have always felt that a major effort on the part of this Company should be the creation of new business on an industry-wide basis. To this end, five years ago we created the Blair Group Plan; an entirely new method of selling spot radio, principally to advertisers who had not been users of the medium. The plan has been outstandingly successful and has brought many new advertisers into profitable use of the medium. The details of the Plan are by now well known to the industry. We have implemented it with a complete department, with specialized salesmen, estimators and coordinators to make it an efficient and hard-hitting sales device. In addition, the entire radio organization is intimately concerned with the promotion of the Blair Group Plan. In our opinion this Plan is making a very important contribution to the growth of the spot radio industry, through its exposure of the powerful influence of radio to all key advertisers. In television, we have developed an important creative sales device in the Test Market Plan, which enables an advertiser to assess accurately the results of a spot television campaign. Literally hundreds of advertisers and agencies have employed this plan with outstanding results and have been encouraged in their use of spot television through it. As we move into our 31st year, already three major projects which will benefit the entire industry have been announced and are in motion. The first is Radio '63; a compelling demonstration of the effectiveness of spot radio, particularly the Blair Group Plan. The second is a national research study which demonstrates the continuing strength of radio. Similarly, Blair Television is redoubling its efforts in the special projects department. This department, new to the representative field was created in 1962 to encourage the sale of local programs especially in the field of live public affairs broadcasts on the local level, civic events, of high local interest, sports and other local activities of this general nature. Already considerable interest has been created among important national advertisers because of the strong local interest which is generated in their products. As this interest expands through the efforts of the special projects department, the revenue potential for stations will obviously grow. In our fourth decade, we are confident that continuing vigorous activity of this nature in the interests of our Company, our represented stations and the industry will be a major factor in keeping broadcasting strong and prosperous. We know that our work in this area will continue to receive the enthusiastic support of the stations we represent as it has in the past, and the mutuality of endeavor among the stations and ourselves will continue at a very high level. , _ John Blair, President ARTHUR H. MCCOY PRESIDENT BLAIR RADIO DAVID LUNDY PRESIDENT BLAIR TELEVISION