Sponsor (Nov 1947-Oct 1948)

Si*ONSOR SPEAKS Good Samaritan Each week new honors are heaped on The Greatest Story Ever Told, sponsored by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Last September sponsor selected Paul E. Litchfield, Chairman of the Board of Goodyear, as its "Sponsor of the Year." Since then scores of newspapers, magazines, religious groups, schools, and organizations of many descriptions have cited the program as an outstanding example of public service. This issue of sponsor includes an item concerning the latest tribute (page 100). Therein lies a remarkable advertising story. For the sponsor who dared to venture into uncharted program waters. who insisted on "not a single word of commercial," who presented his network program as a public necessity at a time when the world needs to understand Christianity more than ever before, is reaping a rich sales reward. The purchase of Goodyear products is being boosted in unexpected quarters. An appreciative public says "thanks" in a way that does something to that sales curve. There's only one Greatest Story. We can't tell sponsors where to look to find something that will accomplish a like result. But the Goodyear experience reminds us that there is a generous harvest to be reaped for the sowing of more initiative, farsightedness, and real understanding of public relations in radio programing. The sponsor must call the turn. We're reminded, too, that "bread cast upon the waters ..." The Apathetic Advertiser How far should an advertiser extend himself toward acquiring a know-how and appreciation of broadcast advertising? Robert S. Keller, president of the radio sales-promotion firm bearing his name, maintains that a lot of potential sponsors aren't extending themselves at all. He says so with vigor and feeling (see "40 West 52nd," page 6). We concur in this conclusion. Advertisers— thousands of them—haven't seen fit to educate themselves radiowise. But having agreed to this extent, we part company with Mr. Keller. He inclines to the opinion that advertisers apathetic to radio's virtues need to be reminded of their shortcomings. He writes, "Doesn't a successful educational process depend as much on the willingness to learn as the ability to instruct?" He points out that commercial radio has developed information "on circulation, audience, cost per thousand families, etc. to a higher degree of accuracy than any other medium." We concede radio's virtues. We believe that radio has a better story to tell about its merits than any other medium. What Mr. Keller overlooks is a simple little fact that has been consistently overlooked by sellers of radio time generally Namely, that advertisers are people. People, no matter who or where, like to learn (and buy) the easy way. The easy way for radio to make its presence felt by potential sponsors is via a process of easy-to-understand, easy-to-apply education that doesn't feel like education at all. The way to make them buy is to do some friendly but aggressive and convincing selling. Sellers of time have neglected a const! uctive, industry-wide, medium-selling program of promotion, publicity, and follow-up. The other media haven't Newspapers, magazines, billboards, and direct mail are cashing in on radio's negligence. It happ>ens every day. There are signs that broadcasters have learned their lesson. It isn't too late. Advertisers are always willing to put their appropriations in the places that they're convinced will net the best return r 1 Applause DAYLIGHT SAVING NO PROBLEM NOW Daylight saving time, while helpful to the country as a whole, has not been an unalloyed blessing. Farmers, whose days go by the sun, find that daylight time means merely that the clock reads an hour earlier when they start work — and their day is an hour longer. The entertainment world finds that it cuts into the box office for people generally wait until it's dark to go to motion pictures or the legitimate theater. To the sponsor using network time, it also has been a headache. With key cities on daylight time, his programs have frequently hit non-daylight areas at hours that were not right for his selling. He has frequently run into conditions where local advertisers in standard time areas refused to give up their time to permit the network airing an hour earlier than during the winter. Such refusals required recording the program off the network line and setting up a new time schedule. In many cases it further reduced program audiences. This year, the networks generally have agreed to forget their prejudices against putting recorded programs on the air and are networking most programs twice over specially leased telephone lines— once live and once recorded. The stations on daylight time will take the program live. Those on standard time will take the program when it's networked the second time. ABC, CBS, MBS are paying the costs of the second telephone line. It's expected that NBC will solve the problem in its own way. Network broadcasting has recognized that it has a responsibility to sponsors and to the public in this matter. It has also recognized that the habit of listening is so important that to disrupt it is to lose listeners— who are radio's stock in trade. ABC led the fight for the dual service that brings the nation's commercial network programs to the nation at the same hour on local clocks. The advertising fraternity owes the Ed Noble web a deep debt of gratitude. Sponsors, the public, and web affiliates themselves also have cause to thank ABC. 10S SPONSOR