U. S. Radio (Oct 1957-Dec 1958)

report from Canada w Canadian Radio Stations Push for Power Increases, Donald Cooke Declares There is a trend in Canada at the present time toward radio station power increases, according to Donald Cooke, president of Donald Cooke Inc., New York, and representative lor 22 Canadian stations. "The frecjiiencies are there and many stations are taking advantage of their present prosperity to improve their facilities." he says. Mr. Cooke expects the extended coverage to draw new advertising both locally and nationally. "Our best year for Canadian sales was 1957." he declares, "and the first six months of this year have shown a further billings increase on every station we represent." Mr. Cooke also notes that many Canadian stations are charging higher rates parth as a result of heavier business and, in some cases, to meet the cost of raising their power, "a very expensive proposition." Justified Increases In Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, three of Canada's five largest markets, rates on Mr. Cooke's stations have risen approximately five percent, he says. Rate increases can be justified, in his opinion, because of the tremendous reach of the medium. .\s of a year ago, according to the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, there were 4,055,000 Canadian households, of which 3.894.000 owned radios. More than 2.8 million of these homes possessed one radio; 739,000 had two. and 188.000 had three. There were, then, only 161,000 households without radios in Canada. Radio stations themselves are increasing in number with a total in January 1958 of 200, of which 24 belong to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and 176 to private broadcasters. This is opposed to 119 radio stations in operation in 1955. While the number of these stations applying for power increases cannot be made public, according to the Telecommunications Branch of the Department of Transport, Ottawa, all indications are that a significant percentage are seeking power hikes and that most of them will be granted. Power Boosts Mr. Cooke reports that six of his Canadian stations have recently been granted power boosts by the CBC: CKVL Montreal has jumped from 10,000 watts to 50,000; CHLO St. Thomas, Ont., CHUB Nanaimo, B. C, and CKLG Vancouver, B. C, have gone from 1,000 watts to 10,000; CKTR Three Rivers. Que., and CFAM Altona, Man., have jumped from 1,000 watts to 5,000. Among the reasons for the trend to higher wattage is that the radio industry is anticipating advertiser demand for increased coverage. Since many cities in Canada are now too small to support television stations (there are only five cities in the dominion with more than 400,000 persons), radio people feel that advertisers and agencies are going to rely more heavily on the sound medium as population and consumer demand increase. Attract Business In addition, stations are interested in power increases for competitive reasons, hoping to attract business to their particular operations because of their wider coverage. Due to the relatively small number of stations in Canada and the widely dispersed population, stations are trying to blanket groups of outlying towns to include as many people as possible within range of their signals. • • • KFAL RADIO FULTON, MISSOURI Prime radio service to four principal cities of Central Missouri. • FULTON • MEXICO • COLUMBIA • JEFFERSON CITY The real measure of KFAL-Ads is found in RESULTS! Cash Register Results! If you are "Survey Conscious" . . . then a good look at NCS#2 will show that of Stations heard throughout Central Missouri, KFAL is on top of the situation with more listeners per Daily Average Day. time Circulation than any other Central Mi.ssouri Station regardless of power! Low Cost-Per-Thousand Earnilies and High Effectiveness means KFAL-RADIO every time! Contact — WARREN STOUT, National Sales Manager KFAL RADIO Tel 1400 Fulton, Missouri 900 Kilocycles 1000 Watts Top-drawer advertisers are buying WGN You're in good conipanj' when you join smart time-bu.yers who select WGX to sell millions of dollars worth of goods for toi> drawer clients. Exciting new programming in 1958 makes WGN's policy of high quality at low cost even more attractive to vou. WGN-RADIO CHICAGO, ILLINOIS U. S. RADIO September 1938 53