U. S. Radio (Jan-Dec 1959)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

EDITORIAL double vision VIEW FROM THE TOP The question ol whether or not agencies have been underselling radio has long been asked by people in the radio business. And revealing this attitude is a u. s. radio survey of 27 advertising agencies from coast to coast. Overwhelmingly, these admakers admit that agencies are selling radio short (see p. 23). But what is so sin prising is that these agencies, also overwhelniingly, say they believe radio is an effective advertising medium. Needless to say, the challenge ahead is to try to balance these two halves of the equation. In coniinciiiing on llie view from Ad Row, it is interesting to note that agencies seem to be harsher critics of radio than the men who actually pay the bills (in the October issue, a similar survey of advertisers was taken; see What Do Advertisers Think of Radio?) . PROBLEMS INVOLVED The problem areas in radio that agencies point to are programming and research. In the area of programming, greater imagination is urged. This is surely sound advice for any business. But the area of research remains a puzzle. There was a time when radio lacked a great deal in terms of surveys and projects. But the argument that radio suffers for lack of adequate quantitative and qualitative percentages seems to us less realistic than the argument that radio is over-researched. It is difficult to understand in this competitive age how some agencies can describe a medium as effective and then admit to underselling it. Can it be that these agencies have evolved such slick advertising formulae that they can afford to sell short a medium they describe as effective? We think not. We urge agencies to take a fresh look at today's radio. Perhaps a good way to start is to examine the success local advertisers and agencies are experiencing with radio. Local business today represents more radio dollars than spot and network combined. These hometown clients and agencies arc close to their points of sale; they know the pulling power oi radio. Of course, many national and regional agencies continue to do imaginative and new things in radio, and employ the medium on a fuUtime basis. But for those agencies that are not wholeheartedly promoting radio to advertisers, we suggest they take fresh stimulation from radio's local sales effectiveness story. An agency with branch offices should have its bureaus submit the case histories of advertisers who are successfully meeting local and national competition with radio. GATHERING STRENGTH At its fourth annual convention in Philadelphia at the beginning of this month, the Broadcasters Promotion Association gave testimony to the constructive efforts the industry has been expecting from the group. The meetings and discussion groups were well planned, well executed and stimulating. Some of these sessions will be analyzed in the December u.s. radio. We know the industry's promotion men and women, who are charged with the responsibility of communicating a station's image and activities to listeners and advertisers, came away with more than a hatful of new ideas and approaches. 64 U. S. RADIO • November 1959