Sponsor (Jan-June 1953)

however, are likely to change. A good deal of criticism has been leveled at homemaking shows by viewer panels I such as that of Market Research Foundation, Inc.) who have stated that TV homemaking shows are often "repetitious" or "lack entertainment value."' Busy housewives have also griped that many homemaking shows are aired at a time (usually, around noon I when it is difficult to find time to watch them with any concentration. Local station managers, alert to the shifting winds of viewer opinion, are striving in many areas to revamp homemaking shows to retain the basic instructive appeal while adding a strong dash of showmanship. One enterprising packager on the West Coast, Chet Swital. has even concocted a new blend of cooking and entertainment. His show. Tid-Bit Time, is designed — not as a daytime vehicle — but as a late-night program for people who like to raid the refrigerator before bedtime. But even if TV homemaker shows undergo revamping in the near future, their appeals — and selling abilities — are likely to remain basically unchanged for advertisers for a long time to come. * * * on your Portland Sales Job You get more than spot announcements on KWJ) — Portland's" Family Station". You get special promotions, a product merchandising service and sales demonstrations — selling aides that build extra sales without extra personnel on the territory. It has worked for other advertisers — write for data on how you can put it to work for your product. KWJJ . * ■ " " Studio and Offices 101 I S.W. 6th Ave. Portland, Oregon Not'l Reps. — WEED & COMPANY AMERICAN AIRLINES [Continued from page 33) concrete developments. CBS Radio Spot Sales had quietly checked with five owned-and-operated CBS outlets — WCBS, WEEI, WBBM, KCBS and KNX— and a key affiliate, WTOP, and was ready to discuss time and talent costs for a series of post-midnight shows. Everything from an all-night program of super-classics to a nocturnal jazz concert had been proposed. Although American Airlines is famous for its willingness to take a chance on a new idea, AA's C. R. Smith doesn't like to go off half-cocked on a project. A sample one-hour record show was taped at New York's WCBS. It wasn't what AA wanted. Six more shows were taped before the present program formula was developed, and before AA actually signed a contract. Meanwhile, every available CBS announcer was tested in taped or live auditions. When the contract was signed last month, it proved to be a corker. Convinced that it had the right time slots and the right program format, AA made a deal for the largest single block of radio airtime in broadcasting history — 30,000 hours over a threeyear period in six markets. The cost for time and talent: an estimated $2,500,000. Starting date: 13 April. Measured off against the minimum potential audience, AA has an eyeopening advertising efficiency. Within the "intense service area'' (roughh. a 50% cut-off on coverage maps). CBS calculates that there are about 11,500.000 radio families. Also, according to CBS, nearly 2.000,000.000 "commercial impressions" will be made by the six all-night shows in the next three years. This gives A A a potential costper-advertising-impression of about $.001. Giving printed media everv possible benefit of the doubt, newspa| >«■ i and niaga/iiie> don I come u illm airline distance of that figure. The midnight-to-dawn l five and onehalf hours) shows also deliver plenty of advertising coverage to the sponsoring airline. By a conservative CBS estimate, something like !!<)', of American Airlines sales territory is within easy reach of the six CBS outlets. Four of the five AA geographic sales regions (Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. Exception: Dallas! have an after-midnight radio show operating in the key terminal city. In a sense, AA's six all-night shows are a sort of "network" coverage of its market, just as Barbasol's 1947 venture on 14 big stations — using the hour between 12 midnight and 1 :00 a.m. six nights a week — covered over 85% of Barbasol's U.S. market. The resemblance of AA's multi-market spot shows to a network operation doesn't end with wide coverage. The commercial and program planning is done with a near-national, rather than local, target in mind. At first glance, this looks like an impossible or impractical task. Radio experts for years have warned that local tastes in recorded-music shows and local disk jockeys vary widely. Results of carefully planned spot radio campaigns would seem to prove that even radio commercials have to be tailored to the requirements of individual markets if a sponsor wants optimum results from the campaign. Yet AA and CBS have managed to side-step this problem with a series of methods and compromises that make up an object lesson to all air advertisers in the proper use of after-midnight programing. Here's how the six all-night shows —on WCBS, New York; WEEI, Boston: WBBM, Chicago; KNX, Los Angeles; KCBS, San Francisco; WTOP, Washington, D. C. — are handled for American Airlines: Program policy: The problem which faced AA and CBS from the beginning was to find a type of program which would have the widest possible appeal in the greatest number of markets. Certain types of shows — like the chatter-and-records programs aired from several New York restaurants — have strong local appeals, but would be difficult to plan for a series of markets. Tastes in popular music vary considerably by sections of the U.S. ; New Yorkers shudder at the hillbilly tunes that are popular in the Southern part of the country, for example. Finallv. after a considerable amount of back-and-forth discussion between CBS and the R&R agency, a decision was made. The shows would be of a inusic-and-news nature — but the music would consist, not of popular Doggie in the Window recordings, but of classical and semi-classical melodies. CBS and AA had plenty of solid research to back up such a move. For over a year, WNBC— New York flagship rival to WCBS — had been airing 76 SPONSOR