Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

SriPXMHS SPEAKS Let's Start Selling Radio Broadcasting can and does work sales magic — but it requires someone tc spread the word to spread the word without personal aggrandizement. Even Aladdin had to rub his lamp before the hard-working genie materialized and produced miracles. With few exceptions all network advertising and most station advertising is devoted to telling how good the individual network or station is, with very little attention to the efficacy of the medium. Newspapers have a highly-paid promotional man whose one job is to sell newspapei advertising not just advertising in a particular publication. The magazines have elaborate plans to sell the "slick" printed entertainment in a high-powered direct-to-advertisers manner. Outdoor advertising has spent literally millions selling the held. ( )nly broadcasting has relegated its biggest job to a minor position. The NAB Bureau of Broadcast Advertising does the best job it can with limited personnel and even smaller budget. The numbei of big advertisers who have been approached and sold the institution of broadcasting can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Sponsors want the facts of broadcasting. Sponsor is doing its best to carry the facts to them but no trade paper can do the job alone. The industry just has to realize that while NAB spends 80 per cent of its time settling intraindustry problems, the medium may shrink because the broadcast facts of life aren't being sold medium-wise. It's time that consideration of selling broadcast advertising gets out of the committee. Sponsors must be educated to the fact that broadcasting is not a one network medium; it's a 1600 station field. Enter Pressure Groups On July 15 LaRoche & Ellis, Inc., paid for a full page in the New York Times to tell the story of The Advertising Council. The ad was a "busy" piece of copy which left a confused impression among advertisers and agencies on what it was supposed to accomplish. The confusion was a matter of layout, art, and wordage. It was also a matter of opinion since what moves one man slows down another. Not a matter of opinion was the final appeal. Advising the public to write to The Advertising Council for prepared advertising and radio fact sheets en the current problems with which the Council is concerned, the ad said: "lake iliis material to business firms, radio stations, newspapers. Ask tlieni to con tribute some of their advertising to these problems so that your community will be informed, aroused. Let's speed up Democracy!" Thus was opened the door for pressure gioups to descend upon hundreds of advertisers, radio stations, magazines, and newspapers for free time or free space. Broadcasting during the war worked with The Advertising Council, giving millions of dollars in time and talent for the purposes which were cleared through the Council. It continues to give thousands of dollars in time monthly to fight the problems of Peace. It's vicious to ask the public to bring pressure to bear on business and advertising for more contributions of the very thing by which they live. Chet LaRoche, President of LaRoche & Ellis, ought to know better. There's no question but that the appeals advocated by the Council are worthy. That is not the point. Pressure groups start out asking for time for causes everyone agrees upon. That's only the beginning. Once you start anything like this there is no end ... for advertising. r Applause i LOCAL PROGRAM INSPIRATION Chesterfield, which has frequently been cited this year for energetic promotion of its broadcast programs, once again rates deep bows. As a matter of record the applause goes directly to B. F. Few, vp in charge of advertising for Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, for he is the man back of Chesterfield's buying local hour shows throughout the country. Some are disk jockeys some are personality shows all are local — all are station-built. Under instructions from Few. the ad-agency, Newell-Emmett, buys the programs which Few has checked and heard pi rsonallj and tells tlu Stations thai the client wants nothing changed. I In station runs the program; the agencj supplies the commercials. This i). is done a great deal to inspire good local programing <>n the stations involved, .nn\ some not involved, «h<> hope to build a program that the A-B-C cigarette will buy. Supplying the program blood (cash) at the local program level is one way to insure a healthy medium in which to advertise. BREAKING THE FM BOTTLENECK What FM broadcasting has needed for the past few years is a good low-priced FM radio receiver. Zenith was the first to promise such a set in quantity but their assembly line iust hasn't produced. During July Pilot Radio the) started in business in 1008 selling parts) presented the Pilotuner, an FM tuner that can be attached to any radio set from a midget to a giant combination radio phonograph. The Pilotuner just tunes the stations and delivers the FM signals to the audio side tlu sound-reproducing part of a broadcast receiver ol any set. The tonal range is never any better than the regular AM receiver but the program comes into the home static-free — the standard (AM) set owner doesn't have to purchase an entire new radio to hear noiseless entertainment. The Pilotuner is small but efficient and what's more important it costs $29.95 at retail, less than most standard table models. It's been field tested and proved better than adequate. Pilot, having made two errors in building FM full-size sets (they recalled a few thousand they had sold which turned out to be unsatisfactory have now delivered what prospective FM sponsors wanted to see— something in the mass price range. It's going to force other manufacturers who have been talking low-priced sets into action. It looks as though Pilot has broken the bottleneck. 52 SPONSOR