Sponsor (July-Dec 1951)

To an Account Executive with radio budget problems anJan J * ulcer Perhaps you have never smelled the fragrance of new-mown hay tedding on rolling acres, or watched the clean steel of a plow slipping through the fertile black soil of Iowa. Antonin Dvorak made powerful music for the New World Symphony from such ingredients. We, more interested in powerful buying power, prefer to hear the music made by the seasonal finale — the clunk of hard ears of corn hitting a backboard the hiss of a thresher spewing kernels of wheat for tomorrow's bread. Iowa's 34.8 million acres of tillable soil produce, among an abundance of other things. 10% of the nations food supply and contribute to the high per capita wealth of Iowans, currently 61% above the national average. The half-acre in the country to which you repair week-ends — or aspire to — is about l/320th the size of an average Iowa farm. If you feel that you ought to have a gold mine in the back yard just to meet your country living costs, compare your situation with an Iowan's. Iowa's rockless soil produces more wealth each year than all the gold mines in the world. Before you dash mil for a harried lunch of softboiled eggs and a glass of milk (while many an Iowan is tuning his radio to WMT and sitting down — at home — to a leisurely noon-day meal of sizzling steak, golden roasting corn dripping with freshly churned butter, tender garden peas, strawberries and cream . . .) please consider this: A Class C station break on WMT has a potential audience (within the 2.5 mv contour) of more than 1.1 million people — and it budgets at $12 (260-time rate). It's a market worth reaching — and in Eastern Iowa WMT reaches. Please ash the katz man for additional data. 5000 WATTS Day & Night 600 KC BASIC COLUMBIA NETWORK A. Advertisers are balancing increased production costs with cost-cutting methods to keep the price of TV film commercials about the same, on the average, as they have been. Specifically, the cost of film stock has taken two price jumps in the past 18 months. While labor has remained relatively stable, other production costs have risen as well. To balance the upward spiral, agencies and sponsors are looking more closely at fancy camera work and ambitious settings. Several large agencies report an increasing number of straight, demonstration-type commercials— live-action, without stop-motion or animation. As in the past, stop-motion is the most expensive technique, animation next. Another trend is the inevitable thinning out which is taking place among the ranks of TV commercial film producers. The smaller operators are finding it tough to get a steady enough flow of work to keep going. As one producer explained it: "If we could just get an order a week, even a small one, we could keep going. But the feast and famine type of operation is what puts us smaller fellows out of business." Result of this contraction in film outfits will not be felt for a while yet — possibly a year — but when it is. look for higher prices. Many firms have been working almost for nothing, just to build a reputation: they've got to make up for some of the lean years. Competition will keep quality up and prices moderate, however. An expanding Hollywood interest in TV film commercials will ensure that. Look for more "Made in Hollywood" labels on film commercials when the mechanics of East Coast-West Coast liaison are straightened out. Hollywood and TV Q. What can sponsors expect from Hollywood in the way of films for TV this fall? A. Hollywood, after giving TV cold looks for years, is beginning to realize that its future may well depend upon a good working relationship with television. ^ ou'll find more and more film producers this fall, including some of the major studios as well as the independents, opening their film vaults and releasing films made only a few years 172 SPONSOR