Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

doubt would be very small. This is because even the 81.4 per cent is an average figure and does not mean that none of the other 1 1 .6 per cent of American homes used their receivers during the week. There is little doubt but that a good portion of the total homes owning receivers (93 per cent of all the homes in the U. S. A.) used their radios during some evening portion of the base week. If the turnover figure of 2.4 were to be accepted it might mean that 82.3 per cent of American homes (34.3 times 2.4) used their sets during the week of February 1-7 (the week of the February 15 report). Thus it may be seen why programing for the audience that doesn't listen very often lands both sponsor and advertising agency in the microscopic rating depart' ment with very few listeners to sell. General Foods tried to find an answer to the clamor against daytime serials with an intelligent mystery series, Two on a Clue. After a year and an investment of nearly $400,000 they were forced back to a soap opera. NBC's million dollar investment in Fred Waring has been able to gather only 5.3 per cent of the American homes against Breakfast in Hollywood which during the same half hour ties onto 7.4 per cent of the homes. (Week of February 1-7 is used as the base throughout this report.) The Fred Waring program was number 32 among the 77 commercial daytime programs on the air for the week checked. Fall plans which call for a shift in the Waring air time to 10 a.m. est may change its rating. This doesn't mean that a new type of program won't bring more listeners to their receivers during the day or evening, but it does mean that the immediate answer to larger audiences is not something different for "the audience that doesn't listen." In the daytime, the phenomenal growth of the breakfast club type of program has proved that the woman who is at home will listen to something besides soap operas. Superman's excursion in anti-hate story lines has also proved that something different will pull. Superman rating for the base week was 4.2, leading most of the juvenile programs broadcast during the "children's hour" (5-6 p.m.). New programs must be willing either to do a continuous promotional job, broadcast after broadcast, or else wait for an audience to discover them. There were no really "new" programs during the entire 1946-47 season, unless the Phil Harris-Alice Faye variation of the Ozzie and Harriet show, or Jean Sablon's musical session might be called new. The Morgan Show is just Henry Morgan ex panded to a naif hour, Meredith Willson's program was a neat musical 30 minutes, and Queen For a Day and Heart's Desire are just two variations on the standard give-away themes. None of these shows or any of the other variations on proved themes were devised to bring nonlisteners to their receivers. While it is true that there is only a tiny segment that doesn't listen at all, it is also true that there is a tremendous audience that listens only to a selected group of radio programs. It is possible to determine through diary and Nielsen studies the listening habits of the casual dialer. Having this information at hand it might be profitable to build a program addressed to this audience. County Fair has done this for Borden's. The Eddie Dowling Big Break amateur presentation will try to do the same thing for Adam Hats. Both Kenyon and Eckhardt (Borden agency) and Biow (Adam Hat agency) are promotion-minded and expect to be doing a continuous exploitation job. The history of Take It or Leave It (sponsor, December 1946) is the perfect example of what promotion can do for a new program. The $64-question-excursion was something new in quiz programs when it hit the air and the Strauss (Eversharp) organization didn't rest a minute either selling the show or its product to the radio audience. It's good business — in'the long run — to segregate an audience that isn't being reached by current broadcast programing — as long as it's realized that a good part of the set owners listen a great deal and practically all of them listen at sometime or other. It isn't good business to present a new formula on the air unless the advertiser is willing (Johnson Wax was, with Fibber McGee and Molly) to look upon his broadcast advertising with a long-term approach. Dials don't flash a red light and stop just because the program at that spot happens to have a new idea for the audience. Ideas pay off— but not unless the advertiser has them tied to his apron string and is willing to take the long-term view and permit something else to do the selling while"ears discover the vehicle that's carrying his radio message. It isn't only "new" ideas that are fun to work with. Fighting for a share of existing audience also has its recompense, for, strange as it may seem, two programs fighting for the same audience at the same time increase that audience. Two gags produce more laughter than one. * For information on diary studies see "Listeners 'Tell AW in Diaries" page 20. NOW it can be known HOOPER and CONLAN , LONG HAVE SHOWN HOW KMBC IS FIRST IN METROPOLITAN KANSAS CITY -AND out in the states LOOK AT THIS SURVEY 5,545 INTERVIEWS SHOW THAT KMBC IS FIRST IN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION Do you listen on the radio to women's homemaking programs?To what station? MISSOURI KANSAS (MBC 1,334 869 WDAF 733 526 WHB 335 115 WIBW 16 352 KFEQ 75 16 (Top five stations reported. Weighted sample base: 5,545 interviews within KMBC's 0.5 mv contour — 1% of area's radio families— BMB's "Radio Families : 1946"— conducted by Robert S. Conlan & Associates at Missouri State Fair, Kansas Free Fair and the American Royal Livestock Exposition.) AVAILABILITY "The Happy Home" with Nationally Famous CAROLINE ELLIS Wednesday — 2:15 P.M. WIRE FOR DETAILj KMBC of Kansas City Free & Peters, Inc. Slice 1121 III lisle CIS Stltlli fir Kiius Mf Mlssiirl AUGUST 1947 41