Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

network You can't say that! No program or commercial was ever made ineffectual because of network or station policy. This doesn't excuse the fact that hidebound censors have made life miserable for writers and advertising copy-men. It also is no alibi for agency men who have taken inoffensive copy and had the talent by emphasis and phrasing turn it into double entendre or into illegal claims for a product. Broadcast "good taste" is naturally more restrictive than that of any other advertising vehicle since radio is a home medium. What's okay on a night-club floor may be offensive over the air. Censors, on the other hand, frequently read into perfectly innocent wordage meanings that were never in the writer's mind nor would be in the minds of the listeners. In any case, restrictions are matters that should be determined in advance, not during the course of a program, resulting in cutting programs off the air. They should not be permitted to go on the air originally unless it's been agreed that material deemed objectionable during dress rehearsal be deleted. CBS's cutting off the General Foods Kate Smith program because she was featuring the "three top tunes" of the week was something that just shouldn't have happened. If CBS felt that it was its duty to protect the late George Washington Hill's Hit Parade, broadcast on Saturday, by not permitting a program on the previous day to feature the first three tunes of the week, that, according to network policy, was CBS's right. The problem should have been settled during the afternoon rehearsal, not by cutting the program off the air for the period during which Kate told her audience the names of the tunes. If NBC's top policy makers decided that vice presidents shouldn't be ribbed, that also was within the rights of network officials, but the disagreement with Fred Allen was a trade matter, not something to which the public should have become party by having part of a favorite program cut off. The problem of programs running overtime is also one that can be decided during rehearsals. Cushions can always be provided by a producer if he has an ad-lib type of comedian. While Fred Allen was en CBS he frequently ran into Take It or Leave It time. Instead of permitting the network to cut Allen off, the Eversharp organization made a gag of it and had their star, Phil Baker, "collect" by appearing on the Allen program, etc. Thus both programs profited in ratings and listenership and the sponsors (Allen's and Baker's) received more listeners for their dollars. Nevertheless it's not possible to have every program run without a timeclock and it's a careless stopwatch holder who doesn't keep his program within the time period established for it. What suffers when a program is overtime is usually the commercials and it's therefore vital that only what a sponsor pays for is used — not the other man's time. During the past six months there have been consistent efforts on the part of stations (WWJ, KFI, etc.) and networks to correct conditions which permit as many as five commercials to be broadcast one right after another. This multiple selling is caused by the end of a program having its regular commercial followed by a plug for another product owned by the same advertiser (a hitch eit&TfG UA/L//HITED for the TWs^TamWles ofAqr iculf ure Building an ever-increasing audience for your sales message is WIBW's "Flying Rooster." Equipped with tape recorder, it hops over millions of acres of golden grain to record on-the-spot accounts of all important agricultural events, news, and developments and speeds them back to the waiting ears of the First Families of Agriculture that make up WIBW's responsive, readyto-buy audience. Over two decades of similar carefully planned service has made WIBW the preferred station of farm families in five wealthy states . . . and the preferred station of result-conscious advertisers. """•"• "(A^f CBS First Families of Agriculture Rep.: CAPPER PUBLICATIONS, Inc. />*. ./A BEN IUDY Gen Mgr. WIBW-KCKN JULY 1947 45