Sponsor (July-Dec 1952)

buy proportionate!) more, thus balancing the picture. But. advertisers who have taken the extra step into Negro-appeal media can tell a different story. Results of air advertising designed specifically for Negro ears, and in the 150-odd Negro newspapers and publications which reach over 3.000.000 Negro readers each week, have shown that the intense loyalt) to these media pays off in sales. If an advertiser is wise and skillful in his use of Negro-appeal media, particularly air advertising, he is likely to reap a reward that is entirely out of proportion to what he might expert. He is no longer merelj adding a sort of "supplemental" coverage to his regular advertising. He is reaching a market which, more and more, looks to its own media for news and entertainment, and to the advertising in this media for goods on which to spend a $15.I II K 1,1 )( )( ).( II II ) annually income. * * * RADIO FACTS {Continued from page 33 I half-hour weekly disk jockey show and has since boosted the total to 22 hours per week, reported as follows to sponsor: "There are approximately 65.000 Negroes in Charleston County, and with our clear-channel coverage 1 1.000 watts on 730 k.c. ) we figure about 300.000 in our primary area, with about 85'a having radios." Montgomery, Ala. Tom Sewell. general manager of Montgomery's WMGY. made his own checkup recentl\ on his Negro audience, stating: "Montgomery County is about 43*/r Negro, with a population of 140.000. In the Negro homes I have visited, both urban and rural, 75% or more have radios in their homes, and are loyal listeners to the programs beamed at them." Louisville, ky. — According to U. S. Census figures, there are about 80.000 Negroes in the metropolitan area of Louisville, with a buying power of some $70,000,000. Some 37$ of the 30.000 Negro families own their own homes. Station WLOU reported to SPONSOR that radio saturation here was about 78.5' i . idanta, Ga— In a special study conducted for \\ I.HI). a pioneer station in Negro programing. Atlanta Universitj reported that "there are 1.8 radios per IVearo home in the Atlanta area." Ac cording to U. S. Census figures, there are nearly 175,000 Negroes and some 50.000 Negro families in Atlanta, with a total annual purchasing power of over $100,000,000. Neiv Orleans — Independent station WBOK estimates that there are 208.000 Negroes in New Orleans, and some 500.000 in its listening area. The station was the 10th station to come on the air in New Orleans when it bowed on in February 1951. Since then, it has made a marked success as an "integrated" I i.e.. part Negro, part white programing I station, estimates that today some 86.4$ of New Orleans families own radios. Q. Is there any "rule of thumb" in determining how many Negro homes in an area serviced by a Negro-appeal station have radios? A. On the basis of the individual station surveys listed above, and in discussions with station reps, agencymen. media representatives and others. SPONSOR suggests the following as a rough guide to estimating Negro radio ownership: 1. In cities above the Mason-Dixon line, and in the Midwest and Pacific regions, radio set saturation will be between 90$ and 98% of the Negro homes in the area. It's best, however, to check further with stations and representatives for individual market statistics and for the exact percentages for specific areas. 2. In cities below the Mason-Dixon line, throughout the South and Southeast, radio set saturation is less, running around 75$ to 85$ as an average, with jumps into the high 90's for the principal metropolitan areas. Again, check closely for individual markets, as the figures may vary. Q. Are stations with Negro programing network affiliates, or independent outlets? A. Station reps estimate that more than nine out of 10 Negro-appeal stations are independents, with a good percentage of them having come on the air since the end of World War II. Networks, and network outlets, have not bothered to any great extent with the Negro market, preferring to develop a "general family" pattern of listening. Independent stations, on the other hand, have often built their successes on programing to fractional audiences with foreign language, music-and-news, sports, and other "specialized appeal" types of programing. The independent station, therefore, that airs a sizable amount of Negroappeal programing is just another example of the non-network station that is building its listening by programing directly at a fraction of the total listening audience. Q. Is television a factor in reaching the Negro market? A. It goes without saying that Negro families own and enjoy TV sets, particularly since the trend in the U. S. Negro population has been toward metropolitan centers, where 61$ of them now live. Due to the large amount of in-home entertaining that is done in urban Negro families, there is a corresponding interest in TV as one of the forms of home entertainment, primarily during evening hours. Purchases of TV sets by Negroes varies with income, but there has been considerable activity in set sales to Negroes in the lowr and middle-income brackets. Even in 1949, when a 10inch table model set would bring $295 at retail, some 56% of the TV sets bought by Negroes went into homes where the family income was in the $2,000-$5,000 a year bracket, according to a survey made by the Federal Reserve System. Today, with set prices considerably below the 1949 levels, even the below-$2,000-a-year homes are beginning to fill up with TV. A sponsor estimate of TV-equipped Negro homes would be about 850.000 in the U. S. However, no major TV outlet has, at the time sponsor went to press, decided that the time has arrived to start programing to the Negro as a "fractional audience." Some of the TV stations in the largest video areas, such as New York. Chicago and Los Angeles, are talking about it, but nothing much has happened. Until there's a real competition for TV audiences, and until more independent, non-network-afliliated TV stations emerge, there's not likely to be much in the way of special Negro-appeal video fare. Q. Does the major appeal of Ne 78 SPONSOR