Sponsor (Nov 1948-June 1949)

AM Association Blueprint for a AM Board of Directors Sales Promotion Engineering A >l. F>1. anil TV ar«* <*oiii|Mkflitive. Tli<» imlnslrv miisl Treasury r«M*ojL£mz<k this invi Publicity .esearcr Programing Code Rates Broadcast advertising requires a central source from which il can obtain data on the medium. The National Association <>l Broadcasters should he that source. Il cannot, however, operate efficiently in il present form. There arc too man\ factions within ils membership to permit it to do the joh it should for its members and the advertisers who use the multi-faceted media. In the pisl the internal battle has been between networks and stations i the networks finall) withdrew i. between clear-channel stations and regional and local channel licensees, and between network affiliates and independent outlets. Thc\ were all AM (standard) broadcasters. Il was all in one family. The picture began to change when Frequency Modulation entered the broadcast-advertising picture. I'M broadcasters had different problems than AVIers. I\l. being new. required special promotion. Its case before the FCC required special pleading. Without competing with AM stations, it COuldn'l succeed. The plc-sllle which were brought i" beat .mi the FC< !, pro and con. were startling. The I'M station owners didn't feel thai the NAB was helping them, could help them. Twice the leading proponents of the high fidelity, staticless broadcasting system withdrew from the Association. To all intents and purposes the) are still outside. Then came television. Once again the membership of the NAB chose I" give a new facet of broadcast advertising absent treatment. They fell that it wasn t fair to use money paid as dm b\ AM stations to help a competitive form of broadcasting. I he result is an association (Television Broadcasters' Association) which month b\ mouth is becoming a more important factor in the visual air advertising held, \ttempts to bring II! \ into the \ KB fold have thus far failed. While TBA hasn't a paid president, there are constant rumors that such .in appointment impends. I hus broadcast advertisers are faced with three broadcast associations the \ Ml. I M \. and TB \. Broadcasting is being divided within itself. This makes no sense for the great media of the ail. It make il impossible to pre sent each facet of broadcasting in its correct light. It also raises difficulties for storecasting. Iransitradio. FAX. and for any other form of broadcast ing which the future may uncover. It's an invitation for advertisers to go elsewhere with their advertising dollars and thus get less for their monev than they can on the air. Every form of advertising competes for the promotion dollar. There is little doubt but that some advertisers have used aural broadcasting because there was no visual equivalent and will shift now from sound alone lo sight and sound. There is also little doubt but that some advertising dollars will go into point-of-sale broadcasting (storecasting) and captive-audience broadcasting i Iransitradio l that formerly used the selective broadcast advertising medium. To a degree, all forms ol advertising compete. Bach medium is equipped to do ils special job. Advertisers musl find the correct media for them. In broadcast advertising. \\1 radio will compete with FM. \M and I'M will compete with TV. There are. however. advertisers for whom one medium is 28 SPONSOR