Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

Publisher's Report Wasilewski & Co. make a good team "An expert," I once heard General Knudsen, former president of General Motors, tell the National Press Club, "is a mechanic away from home." I was raised on the adage that "a prophet is without honor in his own country." Who's Who in America is loaded with the bios of men who had to leave the college or company that first hired them in order to find appreciation and opportunity to spread their wings. A select committee of the NAB has been hard at work to find the best man in America to head the organization. This is no easy assignment. Part of the membership wants a man whose name is a household word, especially in Washington households. Others want a working broadcaster who requires a minimum break-in period. Like a quarterback who is All-American calibre at signal-calling, passing, faking, plunging and end-around runs, perhaps a man can be found who enjoys favorable national identification and understands the industry's multi-faceted problems. I doubt it. I am sure that the committee can come up with some outstanding candidates. By the time this reaches you they may already have done so. It is my hope that the list will prominently include the name Vincent T. Wasilewski. Vince is, and for some time has been, executive vice president of the NAB. He was the capable chief-of-staff for Gov. LeRoy Collins, in his years with the NAB handled many sensitive assignments, and is giving quality control to the workings of the association during the urrent interim period. What he's doing isn't easy. I've watched Vince, and his talented associates, perform during three of the recent NAB district meetings. They handled their chores with pn ease and assurance that bespoke long professional competence and teamwork. They could have been a flop. They tackled some of the thorniest problems in industry history — problems like advising broadcasters whether to go into CATV, how to look at pay tv, how to upgrade radio jprograming, what they're doing to help direct congressional and FCC iction at a critical time, how to put teeth into the tv and radio codes. I grade them high on their performance. I grade them high on their judgment. I grade them high on their courage. I've read a recent speech delivered by Vince in his role as interim lead of the NAB. He's direct and practical. I consider Vince a strong man performing exceptionally well in a iifficult role. As a permanent head, with the NAB executive committee o guide him, he would do better. fT^Uf^ SILLYGISMS . is a new game played by two or more "experts"" engaged at buying and selling radio time. One player — in this case the buyer — executes a ploy. Then the other player in this case the seller — cries a lot. Buyer: "\ know the Pulse audience composition figures show you have more adults listening than your competition, but pure introspective reason tells me that cannot be true. SO, here's the answer. The kids tune to your station. The adults in the family are unwilling listeners; they get counted but we know better. SO, we subtract the number of teenage listeners from the number of adult listeners, and we get a true count of the number of adults listening to your station." Seller (still but just barely rational): "Even if we accept all of the subjective reasoning, the argument is mathematically impossible. The Pulse you are using reports only 1.25 listeners per set. If everyone of those duplicated listeners were adult-teen . . . AND if everyone of those adults were unwilling listeners . . . AND if everyone of those unwilling adult listeners were not affected by the spot they inadvertently heard, they would still represent only 25% of our adult audience . . AND my station would still deliver more adults than my competitor." Buyer then rejects spurious facts and buys the competition thus concluding the game triumphantly. Hard to believe? Ask me, I'll introduce you to the players. Perry S. Samuels Vice President and General Manager — WPTR SYLLOGISM: You need WPTR to cover adult buyers in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy 18 COUNTY trading area. Ask your Eastman about . . . WPTR Represented by the Robert E. Eastman Company fifteen forty PTR 50,000 Watts 1540 KC ALBANY TROY SCHENECTADY ecember 14, 1964