Sponsor (Nov 1947-Oct 1948)

y.eu axe amdiati^ invited ta meet . . . ART BAKER of ''An Baker's Notebook" and JIMMY SCRIROR creator of ''SLEEPY JOE" at the 0 A R D 1 H L COMPANY 6000 SUNSET BLVD. (ON RADIO ROW) HEmpstead 1177 |1»N« {Continued from page 12) was an economy move. Talent cost for a 54'person musical organization like the famous all-girl orchestra is relatively high, involving more money than the electric companies feel justified in spending for radio in 1948-49. It's true that some companies improved their cash positions in 1947 but others did not, and this year finds a number of requests for rate increases before state utility commissions. Electric company worries over a radio advertising budget aren't due primarily to the cost to any one of them^ — spread among the sponsoring group the cost is relatively small. It is a fact, however, that utilit>' commissioners in rate hearings seriously question all nonoperating expenses, and are even more inclined to question the spending of advertising dollars in cases where a compan>' isn't in a position to fulfill current demands for service. The Frankie Carle show will originate from Hollywood over the current ECAP network of 155 stations. ECAP definitely plans to continue using radio, but no decision has yet been made on continuing Carle beyond the summer season. He's far less costly than Spitalny. However, summer listeners will decide whether or not Carle will be on the air this fall for ECAP. P.S. (Sec "The Ratins Touches Bottom," SPONSOR, April 1947, page 41.) What caused American Cyanamid Company cancellation of "The Doctors Talk It Over"? Is American Cyanamid through with radio? Despite the fact that The Doctors Talk It Over did the public relations job for which it was created, it has been dropped. Despite the fact that top executives of both American Cyanamid Company and its Lederle Laboratories division are thoroughly sold on radio as a public relations medium, the program will not be resurrected. It's a casualty of divided opinion among these same top executives. The decision to drop the show last October after 156 consecutive broadcasts was the first step in implementing a basic realignment of American Cyanamid public relations policy. The move had nothing to do with financial "retrenchment." Officials state categorically that business is "good." "Tell it to the doctors" sums up the concept out of which grew The Doctors Talk It Over. Its adherents believed the doctors themselves and others directly concerned with Lederle products whom the doctors might normally influence comprise the target group for public relations via the airwaves. "Tell it to the people" sums up the exactly opposite viewpoint of highly placed executives who are convinced that the public is a vitally important objective of Lederle and American Cyanamid public relations. They have had no quarrel with the selling of Lederle to the doctors via radio, but rather with selling it to the doctors alone. They are convinced that a program of popular appeal would include in its audience perhaps as many doctors as The Doctors Talk It Over attracted. Before the surprise notification to the American Broadcasting Company that the program would not be renewed in October, American Cyanamid had completed a reallocation of its advertising budget. According to company officials, plans called for spending about the same amount over-all, without radio. They state, however, that the decision to drop radio was not influenced by the differing views among the management on how to use radio. They point out further that radio will be included in the comprehensive, long range program for all its units which the company is now developing. But it will be some two or three years before they are ready to go into radio again, according to present thinking. Efforts of American Broadcasting Company to interest other "logical" prospects in the value of reaching the highly vertical audience of The Doctors Talk It Over ran into a hard wall of indifference, despite the proved responsiveness of the audience. Sponsors, or potential sponsors, are leer>' of a network program whose rating touches bottom, no matter what its specialized impact. 14 SPONSOR