Sponsor (July-Dec 1954)

COVER NORTH CAROLINA'S Rich, Growing "GOLDEN TRIANGLE" with WSJS TELEVISION CHANNEL 12 a 24-county market with retail sales of $1,028,000,000. (Sales Management 1954 Survey of Buying Power) NOW SHOWINGI-AU NBC COIOR SHOWS Interconnected Television Affiliate National Representative: The Headley-Reed Company 106 new c ,u were being shown. The < <>/<l limn <i \in \ Show? } ou -till heai about ii .i yeai later." /■ <»/ "reguloi ti advertising: Not long ago, Slocum Chapin, v.p. oJ VBC I \ . fired "II a blast at "spectaculars" ami othei infrequent t\ programing: "I believethal while 'fireworks' work well foi special occasions Buch as corporate Golden Jubilees, the present proven pattern <>f t\ program scheduling delivers the inure efficient and effective advertising. No once-a-month 'spectacular schedule can hope to match the total delivered audience or total number of commercial impressions delivered bj the average program with every-week frequency. Irregularis and novelt) <ln not by themselves create 'impact.' The novelt] of the spectacular wears off noticeably with each successive spectacular." \nil. as Koil Erickson, Y&R's manager of radio-tv account planning, stated to a group (jf Canadian air advertisers: ". . . there is no substitute for continuity whether you're selling hard goods or quick-mot ing items." Pm «i< i/miiiMj programs: The outlook is for an average increase of 25' ! this season, as against last, in the price of participations in the network "magazine" shows like Today, Morning Show and Paul Dixon. Other networkcontrolled shows in this category, such as Home. Tonight and Pinky Lee are too new to draw 1953-1954 comparisons. Most of this 25 r,'< average hike goes for time, not for talent. The network lineups for these shows have been constantly expanding. As a result network salesmen can nearly always show that cost-per-1.000 homes is going down even though the price of each participation may he going up. Last October, for instance, the timeand-talent price of a participation on Today was $3,947 on a 47-station lineup. The cost-per1.000 homes was then around $2.84. This October, the price will be $5,198 for a 52-station, coastto-coast hookup. Cost-per-1.000 homes will be, l>\ NBC TV's estimate, around $2.39. The price for each "insertion" in this magazine-concept show, in other words, has gone up 32' ', hut the costper-1.000 homes will have gone down bj L8 The same pattern applies to CBS IV Morning Show and I)u Mont's Paul Dixon. Morning Shou 's pi u e has gone from $3,236 (as of la-t Man In to a fall price of $4,069 hut the station lineup has gone from 54 to 02. Paul Dixon's price has been edging upward as the -how lineup ha progressed Iroin around 1" stations up to its fall lineup of 20. Bui both network feel tliat the cost increases which represent the pi ice mI time and talent — are canceled h\ the reduced cost-per-1,000 homes. Coat* by nhote types: One ol the contributing la< tors to the general in• iea-e thi tall iii network t\ program production costs i the strong trend toward big-name \ariet\ -hows. situation comedies framed around star-, and dramatic shows that are vehicles foi top-flight actors. The shift, for the most pait. ha been at the experts* mysterj and -uspense shows, qui/ shows that never won very hiyh rat • »The immediate impact of a television picture on the a\erage individual exceeds anything of a similar nature thai ha ever occurred in my lifetime. ^ ou got television impressions — and nevei forget thi simultaneously through your ear and eyes. These impressions register instantly in a dual capacity and accomplish reactions much swifter than any previous means of commune cation. Television is a new and nio\inj: force . . . that really has impact in tin fullest sense ol the word.** CLAIR McGOLLOUGB Preswfcnl WGAL, Lancaster ings, and other forms of programing that fall into the "modest success" category. In the case of mysteries, the shift i quite pronounced. In 1052. there were 18 whodunits of one sort or another sponsored on the four t\ webs. In 1953. the figure had dropped to 13. This year, there are onl\ nine just half that being aired on network two seasons ago. Mysterj costs have tended to hold to SI 5.000 a week or less for half-hour production. Most of these mysteries have been supplanted by situation comedies, which cost in 1954 an average of $26,000 or by straight drama-, costing an average of S21.500. \lo-t costl) -how type is still the n;irietj show which costs, with few exceptions, around $00.000 — nearly double that of hour-long drama-. * * * SPONSOR