Sponsor (Jan-Apr 1958)

SETS IN USE SIGN ON TO 6 PM-24,6 6 PM TO SIGN OFF-50.8 ? SHARE OF AUDIENCE 100%! THE CALIF -ORE TV TRIO bridges the entire $485,803,000 retail sales gap between Portland & San Francisco Three Markets — One Billing CHANNEL 2 Klamath Falls, Ore. CHANNEL 3 Eureka, Calif. CHANNEL 5 Medford, Ore. KOTI KIEM KBES CBS >NBC ABC THE SMULLIN STATIONS CALIF-ORE TV TRIO, Don Telford, Mg ask blair-»/m^ national associates ..*. representatives Oallu, Detroit. JickionvllU, 8t Louli. I Sponsor backstage contin Which makes it all the more a pity that people like Dean Roscoe Barrow, Congressman Emanuel Celler and others of their ilk find it profitable to build and further their own careers on efforts to restrict and hamper network development. As CBS's Frank Stanton has often and eloquently pleaded: In this time of crisis it is more vital than ever before in the nation's history that the networks, both radio and television, be kept as strong and as solvent as possible. The FCC is, of course, in the throes of pursuing an investigation based on the recommendations in the Barrow report, and the networks, having no other alternative, are spending untold amounts of additional money and hours of invaluable manpower preparing their answers to the 20 December letter sent to them by the FCC. The reps vs. the Barrow report It was especially heartening recently to see such a staunch competitor of the networks as Ed Petry, of the rep firm bearing his name, speak up in behalf of the networks. Petry 's statement, of course, concentrated largely on the question of option time, and said: ". . . to hobble the networks through a further unwarranted, unnecessary and undesirable restriction of network option time would do a disservice to every person in the country now enjoying the wonders of television. Other aspects of the recommendations in the Barrow report could be equally damaging to effective network operations in all kinds of important areas. It is our fervent hope that every sound-thinking and honest organization in the industry will speak up, if and when given the opportunity, in the networks' behalf. Certainly ever) station affiliated with a network should make itself heard, either singly or through group action. And it is even to be hoped that some Earsighted and industry-minded independent will raise their voices in cennection with some of the more blatantly cocke\eil aspects of the Harrow report. Another drive at the networks It is discouraging, too. to see another drive aimed al the networks at this very time. I'm talking about the renewed and louder-thanever hue and cry raised by Campbell-Ewald's Philip McHugh on the old theme that tv prices are out of line and have reached their ceiling. McHugh was so quicklv joined, of course. b\ other agencj leaders, that the whole recent move began to smack of the successful efforts of the Association of National Advertisers to reduce radio rates, several years ago. Whether advertisers will be as successful in knocking down tv rates remains to be seen. It's slightly ironic that ABC TV's substantial progress as a third and effective major television network is one of the prime reasons McHugh and other agency men set forth for hitting the webs over the head for reduced rates, while the same web's growth is apparently disregarded by Congress and the FCC. For the imbalance several years ago among the four webs, with Dumont and ABC losing their shirts against solidh entrenched CBS and NBC was quoted by the web-hunters as being responsible for their investigations and reports. Now that free competition has resolved the situation into one which finds three strong webs healthily competing against one another, the web-hunters seem to be unaware of ABC TV's amazing strength and continuing growth. The web-hunters seem unaware, but the agencies and advertisers aren't. Do you wonder v\hv network executives are inclined toward a slight bitterness and cynicism? t^ SPONSOR • 25 JANUARY 1958