Sponsor (Jan-June 1952)

be considered chiseling since man) manufacturers accept such bills with fatherly tolerance on the premise that the dealer needs the difference between the two rates to pay for advertising production costs. At least one station makes an open policy of this practice and states it will give the retail merchant a receipted bill at the national rate when the merchant pays his share at the local rate. While the local merchant commonh pockets the difference, stations would be happy to collect the national rate themselves from the manufacturer (some do) and consider themselves entitled to it. Understandably, stations with firm rate policies charge the national rate if the wholesaler buys time for multiple dealers in an area. Single-rate card stations believe that the local-national dual rate card encourages double-billing, but it has been pointed out that the single-rate stations are usually "strong" stations and can demand their price. 3. The manufacturer or wholesaler is billed for non-existent broadcasting time or talent. This is rare, although cases have been known of such swindling. It seems safe to say that a manufacturer who pays such a bill either (a) is careless beyond reason, (b) is too far away to know what is going on, (c) has no distributor to check the situation, or I d ) is greasing the way for badly-needed sales. 4. A dealer will contract for, say, 52 weeks of broadcasting time, advertise four separate brands for 13 weeks each, and send each manufacturer a station bill for the 13-week rate. Some dealers defend this on the grounds that the manufacturer is getting a local 13-week rate for 13 weeks of advertising "so what is wrong with that?" One station manager said he had heard of a large dealer advertising more than one brand on a series of programs, and billing each manufacturer as though he had had exclusive commercial time on the program. 5. While agencies are usually bypassed in radio co-op advertising because free continuity and transcriptions are provided, the agency can sometimes be slipped in on the deal. A sly retailer will use the agency to place his co-op advertising I figuring it won't cost him anything anyway) and then get, as an additional bonus, a kickback from the agency on its 15% commission. The station, of course, may not "We believe in public service. We believe that public service programs, wellproduced and well-advertised, are a challenge, a responsibility, and a giltedged, long-term investment in good JOEL CHASEMAN 7ir. of public service WAAM, Baltimore know about this kickback at all. 6. Time costs are easy to check but talent costs can be kited with magnificent ease on larger programs, under the right conditions. If a manufacturer on the West Coast is sent a bill from a small Pennsylvania station saying that Epsilom Hartgagle and his Manchunk Mountain Boys cost $150 a week, how can he tell they can be had for $50? Sometimes, a piece of talent, panting for bread-and-butter money, will lend himself to a kickback proposition. (On the other hand some stations make a profit on talent supplied to local clients through their own talent bureaus which are operated as a legitimate and valuable service to the sponsor.) 7. The retailer will buy a time-plustalent package from a producer or agenc) and receive a kickback from them. The station may or may not be involved. There have been instances reported where the station involved itself by making a deal with the producer or agency on time costs. Although in these producer-purchase cases the station does not bill the manufacturer, it does go along with the pretense that the rate card has been adhered to. These show packages also open opportunities to finagle with talent costs. 8. There are cases where a retailer is a consistent user of radio and uses the co-op money of a number of manufacturers. The retailer will receive a monthly bill from the station totaling all costs. Since the station may not break this expenditure down into invoices for individual manufacturers, the retailer bills the manufacturer on his own stationery. This writer saw such a bill received by a distributor which merely noted that radio costs from a sales campaign came to $1,000, and would the manufacturer kindly pay $500? When queried, the distributor's sales manager shrugged: "What can we do? He's a big outlet for us." This kind of pressure stands out like a sore thumb in the double-billing picture, and it suggests a question: "Do manufacturers want to stop doublebilling?"' Some answers to this question follow. One distributor of a well-known "big ticket" brand said: "Any advertising manager worth his salt knows what the cost of radio programs should be, and don't tell me any different. When a station is scrounging around for business and is offering deals left and right, the sales manager knows it. He also knows what kind of terms his large dealers should be able In Boston First National Bank through BATTEN, BARTON, DURSTINE & OSBORN, INC. Buys OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE BOSTON HERALD-TRAVELER CORP. WHDH 50,000 WATTS through 16 JUNE 1952