Sponsor (Jan-June 1951)

PONSOR What radio men fear most It is important that advertisers who are looking at the several media con-lru<-tivel\ understand what radio broadcasters fear most. During these days of network rate slashes and network sale negotiations cue thought constantly presses hard on station owners and managers. That thought: in the uncertainty over nighttime network radio are advertisers, totally without intent or malice, building up the notion that radio as a medium is declining? Broadcasters have been remiss in coming forward with simple logical as-< --merits that the national advertising fraternity will ""buy" as bonafide evidence of the worth of radio. Pending such time as this evidence is forthcoming (the No. 1 objective of the new 1! \li is to provide this as early as possible) much harm can be done. After all, the average advertiser has much more to think about than the problems of radio. It's easy to see how the president of a large company or his advertising manager can. almost totally without conscious thought, project his downgrading of nighttime network radio to all of radio. In a last-minute effort to fight this of thought the network Affiliates have organized; some stations whose cost-per-thousands are the most favorable in their existence are raising national spot and local rates: many stations are calling attention to their audience-, impact, and snowballing national spot business. What is happening is that a medium which has been criminally backward and shortsighted in its own promotion is finally taking the offensive. As one agency put it. "Radio stations are finally coming around to realizing that it's better to advance radio as a medium than to tear down one another. " Unfortunately, the simple straightforward evidences that advertisers need to make up their minds about the true dimensions of radio won't be forthcoming immediately. So SPONSOR makes these interim suggestions: 1. Be as tough as you like, but keep an open mind about radio. The facts on the medium will be coming as soon as tbe BAB can ready them. 2. Look at the network gyrations in their proper light — simply adjustments in one segment of radio that hasn't quite kept abreast of the times. And remember, the networks are making adjustments. 3. Remember that newspapers and phonograph records have both made radical adjustments in the last decade or two Today, despite earlier pessimism, both fields are stronger than ever before in their history. CORN in the Northwest "Seattle calling," said the operator. It was late Thursday night, 10 May, and we were busy putting our 21 May issue to bed. We took time to get on the phone. A prominent Seattle broadcaster came on, shortly followed by two others. And there was plentv of excitement. It developed that the Board of Directors of the Washington State Broadcasters had just adopted, unanimously, a resolution which they hoped network executives would take to heart, as follows: "Whereas the networks of the great American system of broadcasting have jitters . . . "Whereas everyone even remotely connected with the great American system of broadcasting has experienced direct evidence of those jitters in their income . . . "Whereas mass desertion of brass within network ranks is further evidence of the jitters . . . "Therefore we of the great altruistic Washington State Association of Broadcasters do hereby create the organization which shall henceforth be known as CORN (Cooperative Organization for the Relief of Networks). "We hereby invite all broadcasters and the great American public to join with us in forwarding to those 'disabilitated' persons any contribution of food, clothing, or other material so that they may survive to maintain our great system of free democratic broad Applause We tip our hat to . . . Herbert True. Cardner Advertising Co., St. I.ouis — whose magnificent new i\ Dictionar) Handbook for Spon-<ir-. in lie published starting with the I Jinn sponsor, i> the culmination of months of painstaking research, analysis, contact, double-checking. And to Mrs. True, who pitched in ever) step ■ ■I the way . Kdgar kohak — who at a still youngish age is rapidly lie oming the elder statesman of advertising, especially air advertising. His ability to pin down and express solutions to key problems is of inestimable value to this field today. Radio and TV station representatives— whose present-day alertness and expansion of service make them perhaps the most progressive single segment on the broadcasting scene today. Their service both to stations and advertisers goes far beyond anything dreamed of a few years a"o. A certain anonymous midwest drug manufacturer — who dropped his longtime radio program but insists on plowing the appropriation back into radio. His point, well taken and useful for other sponsors: radio is the No. 1 mass medium (an important factor to 19 out of 20 families, including TV families I. I can't afford to drop it. But new developments give me better buys with other programs than the one I've been sponsoring. So I'm making 8 change. 84 SPONSOR