Sponsor (May-Aug 1957)

At a glance, here's what's new at the four radio networks American's entire operation, top to bottom, is being re-oriented in the direction of its station affiliates. Why? Because its new president, Robert Eastman, thinks the network function of today is to supplement the program schedule of the strong local station and to return more revenues to the affiliate than ever before. This means depth programing along local station lines: in news, live and recorded music, use of strong non-tv personalities — all flowing naturally into and away from local programing so that continuity is effortless and almost unnoted. Eastman has surrounded himself with a group of new top echelon men steeped in station rather than network philosophy. He's building several hour-long live shows to replace some of the current dramatic programing; new slide film and high-fidelity presentations for client and agency showing. Now planned and in the works: a new station compensation plan and a re-appraisal of current network time charges for fall selling. American is taking a program tack similar to Mutual's, a selling and promotion approach more like CBS' and NBC's. Mutual undoubtedly has seen the biggest upsets of any network in the past year. But, having hit the bottom, it finds that "up" is its only direction. And "up" goes even farther than Mutual anticipated. Today the network is essentially a program service of news, music and sports, with occasional one-shots thrown in. It's a bartering operation, feeding X number of shows to its affiliates free in exchange for Y number of time periods which the network can then sell to national advertisers. This rules out station option time, the eternal problem of station clearance. It also gives, according to Jack Poor, MBS president, a pre-clearance guarantee of 83% of the Mutual lineup. Poor is getting what he hoped for: strong independent stations moving in as affiliates, advertiser interest in a pre-cleared package. Operating costs have been cut and the network thinks it's well on the way to being in the black. The glamor of network radio as it used to be is gone for Mutual, says Poor. But he thinks this kind of a limited operation can sustain itself as a significant part of radio and as a solid buy for clients. Columbia is the most constant element in radio networking, and certainly the most stable of the four networks. Its management, programing and sales concepts remain pretty much the same because they've added up to a winning formula over the recent years of network decline. They have the most money coming in. the biggest daytime audiences, the most fixed programs. For these reasons, and many others, the 1957 changes at CBS are extension? rather than revisions. President Arthur Hull Hayes is directing an aggressive sales organization which is hitting hard on the need for creativity in commercial content and for development of nighttime program periods. CBS aims for new and more varied shows as more advertisers — the blue-chips especially — come into the network ranks and swell the program investment fund. Programing is still the thing, in CBS thinking — it's what gets and keepaudiences and the block around which successful local operations revolve. It bagged the biggest network radio client in years three months ago: Ford Motor Co. has signed for $5.5 million (gross* There's been a crescendo of interest in NBC on the part of spon sors and prospects as a result of the new intensity and enthusiasn with which the network is being promoted and sold. Network executives, under the direction of Matthew J. Culligan, vice presi dent in charge, are using flair and drama to sell a lot of old radie concepts in a new way. The best known gimmick — and it hashown itself to be far more than a mere springboard into a sales pitch — is the Imagery Transfer concept. For this, Culligan and his staff advocate special copy approaches and appeals for the special medium of radio. This idea of a transference of a product or concept image as a result of a radio trigger has brought many a new advertiser into the NBC lineup. NBC's program structure is centered on such sound sales successes as Monitor on weekends and Hot Line with its hourly news. The network hits hardest on news and music but plans to put more spadework into other types of programing. It's looking most of all for a saleable daytime formula — saleable both to clients and to the affiliates