Sponsor (July-Dec 1953)

aire have been to station; which are using it for on-the-air promotion of their sponsors and programs. The extensive exploitation scheme available with the program may be partly responsible for this way of utilizing the new Xi\ drama show. Q. What advertisers are using transcribed programs? A. All four of the transcription firms surveyed reported healthy increases in the number of advertisers buying their shows. Xi\ records 600 different advertisers as using or having used its Communist for the FBI program, now in its second year. These include such national names as General Electric. Kaiscr-Frazer. Corn Products Refining (Mazola) and. regionally, Carolina Power & Light, Mid-Continental Oil. and Farmers Insurance Group. RCA boasts among sponsors of its shows such firms as Borden, General Electric, Frigidaire, Charles Antell. Procter & Gamble, and Jacob Ruppert Brewery. Brewers (at least 150), auto dealers and bakeries are the leading categories of sponsors using Charles Michelson's productions. Pabst Brewing is spon soring the Phil Rizzuto Sports Caravan program in several markets; Lever Bros, uses the firm's soap operas in markets not covered by its network radio and TV purchases; other Michelson advertisers include Pontiac Dealers, Nash Dealers, General Motors, Qualitv Bakers of America. General Baking (Bond Bread), Blackstone Washing Machine and Squire-Dingee (new Midwest advertiser, maker of Ma Brown food products). Q. What are the current costs of transcribed programs? A. As always, costs of transcribed syndicated programs vary widely, depending on the station and the size of the market. Both Ziv and RCA report a sponsor can buy their shows for about the same as last year (RCA programs range from $3 to $150 per program). But Goodman and Michelson point to reduced costs. An advertiser can purchase a Goodman soap opera for from $3 to $75 per program; a dramatic show for from $6 to $200 a stanza. Michelson says that since station time rates have gone down somewhat and since his shows are based on time rates, there has been a 5 to 10/r YOUR PRODUCT I N TEXAS' LARGEST SPANISHLANGUAGE MARKET! 40 National Accounts ARE NOW USING KCOR, SAN ANTONIO TO SELL THE BIG 45 COUNTY MARKET Anacin Cheer Jax Beer Black Flag Coca Cola Joy Bordens Milk Crustene Lone Star Beer Breeze Dickies Clothes Lucky Strike Camay Fab Lilt Camels Falstatf Beer Lydia Pinkham Cameo Starch 4-way Cold Tablets Maxwell House Carnation Feenamint Mercury Champ Dog Food Folgers Coffee Mejoral Charles Antell Crand Prize Beer Oxydol * WRITE FOR THE NEW BELDEN LATIN-AAv Packard Pearl Beer Purasnow Flour Royal Crown SSS Tonic Shinola Stanback Steins Clothes Supreme Crackers Tide SURVEY 5000 Watts Day — 1000 Watts Night KCOR Bldg., San Antonio, Texas Richard O'Connell KCOR New York Manager New York, N. Y. Harlan J. Oakes & Associates Los Angeles, San Francisco & Chicago TEXAS' FIRST AND MOST POWERFUL SPANISH-LANCUACE STATION reduction in his program costs to advertisers. In an attempt to reduce costs not oidy a small percentage but a great deal for a national or regional advertiser interested in selected multi-market use of a transcribed show, Goodman has worked up a special sales plan called "Operation Buckshot." Ordinarily, if an advertiser wants to use a transcribed show in. say, 80 markets (says Goodman i , the usual syndication procedure is to add up the prices for each city requested, then give the advertiser a discount on the total amount; but even after allowing a substantial discount, the cost usually turns out to be quite prohibitive. Under "Buckshot," the advertiser is charged for his list of markets not on a syndication basis, which takes the markets one by one. but on a network basis, in which only the number of markets is considered. This number is applied as a proportion of a total network price I which Goodman regards as the price for about 300 markets). Under this scheme, the advertiser pays only a nominal amount extra I $1 or $2 per market I for (1 I each market which has over 250,000 population; (2) each 50.000-watt station. "Buckshot"' embraces 11 shows of half-hour and quarter-hour length, includes soap operas, dramas, mysteries, musicals, religious hymns, and a kid show. The thing that these programs have in common is that they do not come under the AFTRA regulations and so can be rebroadcast indefinitely at no extra cost. An advertiser can purchase anv one or more of the shows to get the "Buckshot" benefits. ( An interesting sidelight here is that one of the "Buckshot"' programs, a detective show called 30 Minutes To Go, is being produced in Australia with American actors; this production abroad sidesteps the AFTRA salary regulations calling for re-use payments, points up another wa\ of bringing transcription costs down. I Library services Q. What new developments has this year seen in the library service field? A. Sales curves at the radio library services are up again this year, accord I Please turn to page 126) 110 SPONSOR