Sponsor (July-Dec 1952)

II. Canadian radio: cheapest way to Huge listenership, little competition, low cost per thousand are Q. What does Canadian radio have to offer the American sponsor? A. Here"? a rundown based on the comments of expert? queried by sponsor: 1. High listenership. "Not having been in competition with television. Canadian radio gets a higher listening audience for its shows than U. S. radio. sa\s Lee G. Frierson, Ruthrauff X Ryan's supervisor of all Lever Bros, operations lor the agency in New York. "Daytime soap operas, for example, obtain ratings oftentimes in the 20's, a feat not duplicated in the States." Actually the top seven French daytime soap operas out of Montreal had ratings ranging from 20.1 for Maman Jeanne to 29.2 for Rue Principale. in May. acording to Elliott-Haynes. Canadian research organization. In the same period the top nine English daytime soap operas ranged from 10.1 to 16. but at night. Charlie McCarthy, top English-language show in Canada, had 29.1 while Lever Bros/ in Homme et Son Peche 1/4 Man and His Sin I shot up to 41. These are all network shows. Manv local shows range higher. Frierson adds: "The spread of the Canadian population over its vast area makes radio an ideal advertising medium to reach the Canadian people. Outside of Toronto and Montreal, little entertainment is offered to Mr. and Mrs. Canada, and radio is looked to eagerly as a prime source of information and relaxation." 2. Less competition per station. Most of the stations in Canada are in one-station markets, they get 80-90% of the sets-in-use and sets-in-use run high (40-50$ |. Actually 93 out of the 155 commercial stations have no competition in the same town. Result: The sponsor gets most of the listening audience. Frank C. Murray, manager of Horace Y Stovin & Co.'s Montreal office, cites CJBR, Rimouski, Quebac, as an example. Ii "consistently" 66 draws between 90 and 100% of the total audience, he says, according to coincidental telephone listening studies. Other examples, based on ElliottHaynes reports for June: Lever Bros. Lux Hour of Romance & Mystery pulled 84.6% of the listening audience with 42.4$ of the total sets in use over CKGB, Timmins. Ontario. With 41.8% of the sets turned on, Radio-Carabin, sponsored by Canadian Breweries, won 81.5% of the audience over CKCH. Hull. Quebec. And in the two-station city of S\dne\. N«>\a Scotia, which has a government and a private station. CJCB (private) held from 63.8 to 91.3$ of the audience every night of the week from 6:15 to 10:00 — with one exception. Sets in use ranged from 36.5 to 44.8%. CJCB's highest-rated program in June: Charlie McCarthy, sponsored by CocaCola, with 39.2. Its one exception. British Concert Hall, had the lowest rating. 19.1. ( CBC's CBI, the government station, used the occasion to grab 51.4$ of the audience and a rating of 21 with Tunis' Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. I 3. Canadian radio audiences are greater than in the U. S. Pat Freeman, the Canadian Assn. of Broadcasters' sales and research director, cites two reasons: la) more people per station; l b I people have less diversion in the form of TV. movies, sports, night clubs. Regarding people per station, there are 2,355 U. S. AM station for 156 million people or 66,325 persons per station. In Canada there are 154 commercial AM stations fo: 14 million people or 90,967 persons per station. But Freeman points out that the 635 I . S. FM stations also have to be counted, which reduces the average to 51,875 per station. "In other words."' he savs. "there are 75$ more persons per radio station in Canada than in the U. S. And the above calculation does not take into account the tremendous TV competiI Please turn to page 72) English station: S™ (Toronto» :on;of '»> E"?|ish o stations serving 10 million Canadians. Newscaster Gordon Sinclair wins fans with Scout appeal French station: ^ Fre"ch *t?+Ion.s ,se/ve 4 JmI"lon :Cana; dians. Ventriloquist Armand Marion and Charlotte boost Kellogg sales over CKVL, Verdun, Que. SPONSOR