Sponsor (Nov 1947-Oct 1948)

Sponsor's T\' map, listings and status reports, which comprise an entire substantial section of this Fall Facts edition are interesting evidence of what has happened to TV since our first Fall Fads issue a year ago. There was no TV section then. * * * network There is a very good possibility that there won't be a single network this fail which will be 100% sold out at night as NBC was and CBS practically was during the war. On the other hand it is a certainty that both ABC and MBS will both be ahead of last year in business despite the apparent current recession in bookings. Many firms on the air are cutting their schedules but there are any number of other firms which are including radio in their schedules for the first time. This growth of radio is despite the growing importance of television. Even in the greatest TV metropolitan center, New York, the most recent radio survey figures indicate that more people listening to radio than ever before. The networks are daily becoming more program-production minded. Agencies which in the past have wanted to control their clients' shows are buying network packages and finding that the cost per listener is lower than it was on their own productions. Thus there is a decided shift from sponsor and agency ownership of broadcast advertising vehicles. This fall is scheduled to be a $-sign season, with practically every advertiser wanting to pay less for talent and get more for his money. Even programs with long histories of success, such as the Aldrich Family, have had to take cuts that run into thousands, or else find a new sponsor or go off the air. Each of the four networks has a story to tell and is going to be telling it to prospects between July and October with much gusto. NBC will have its $100,000 promotional motion picture. Mutual will have a nighttime listenability presentation. CBS has a programbuilding history that it is bound to collect on to the nth degree. ABC will continue to sign contracts with many newcomeis to radio; last year it has signed more clients who have previouslybeen beginners in network advertising than any of the other three networks. ABC will be stressing its long-held-back TV chain plans which are as far progressed as any other chain's with the exception of NBC's. 26 Already more sponsors have indicated shifts from one network to another than at any period since the rtart of World War II. This isn't necessarily because they are dissacisfied with the facilities of the network which they have been on in the past. Many of them think that a change of network scene will give them a new audience as well as an opportunity of getting a renewed hold on a goodly part of their old fans. Come fall 1948, and sponsors as well as the listeners they want to reach are going to have to do some hunting for their favorite programs. And some will be off the air. * * * HTIPIH rM, which was once herv^^^^^J^A ;i!ded as the form of radio which would succeed standard broadcasting practically overnight, has now settled down to occupying a special part of the broadcast advertising firmament. Theie is less talk of its being the "miracle" form of radio and more talk of what it's doing that can't be accomplished by other facets of broadcasting. In some states, such as Florida and New Hampshire, there are great sections in which during a large part of the year it is impossible to hear, let alone enjoy, radio. In other areas FM is delivering a signal into homes which have never received a clear undistorted program due to skywave interference and any number of other annoyances to which standard broadcasting is heir. As more and more FM stations come on the air, there will be more and more special nonduplicated FM programing in addition to the netwoik programs which are heard on the FM affiliates. Forgotten entirely is the original FM license stipulation which required a number of hours of programing which did not duplicate an>' AM (standard broadcast) station shows. FM is now looked upon as a facility not as a competitive form of transmission. FM has, however, developed some entirely new forms of broadcast advertising. These forms (storecasting, transitradio, and FAX) are all made possible because FM is static-free. What the\' ptirtend is outlined in a short section of this Fall Facts edition. FM is expanding so rapidl\' that it stands a fair chance of being a business all its own. WIkii current licensees are all on the air there will be over 300 independent FM stations. Each of these will in all likelihood offer one or more of the sp)ecial broadcast advertising services as well as the delivery of a home audience which wants something apart from the current radio fare. If it's FM, it's going to be a different form of broadcast advertising ... if it isn't already. ♦ ♦ » over-all There will be few impcjrtant one-medium advertisers this Fall. The merchandising trend is toward a multiplicity of ad types and vehicles. The advertiser who spends his entire $2,000,000 budget in radio is going to be the exception rather than the rule. Even the soap merchants who can trace their present industry importance to their sponsorship of daytime serials are seriously considering diversification. There are a few advertisers who, wanting to maintain their high-income history, are cutting back their entire advertising schedule, but for the most part the mone\' that is leaving network radio, for instance, is going into spot or regional broadcasting and or newspaper advertising. The cry is foi flexibility and by flexibility generally is meant an avoidance of long-term commitments. There is also the feeling that a radio program becomes a more effective advertising medium if what it has to sell is seen in magazine advertising, newspaper copy, and on billboards. This is working both ways. Advertisers who have been spending all their money on car cards or billboards or magazines are planning to take some of this cash and spend it in broadcast advertising. This new radio money is going to be spent first on a spot or regional basis. Then if diversification works, the former nonradio advertiser apparently aims to include a network program in his plans. Network advertising lends prestige to the organization which thus far spot broadcasting hasn't achieved. Some day manufacturers will realize that it doesn't matter where a program originates, the listener hears it only over an individual station. Networks are only facilities, not stations with personalities. A good network is first and foremost a collection of good broadcasting stations. Everything else comes after that. Yet at present onl\' a big network program makes stockholders feel that they own part of a great prestige advertiser. Research will have to bring more concrete figures to advertisers this fall. The facts about the buying habits of listeners will be demanded as well as a Hooper or a Nielsen rating. The cash register rides high in autumn. 1Q4S. * * * SPONSOR J