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Radio
In The Public Interest
20 years:
A VOICE IN THE
PUBLIC INTEREST
Oil company's sponsorship brings Metropolitan Opera broadcasts to some 12 million listeners
It has long been axiomatic that oil and water do not mix. Twenty years ago, there would have been few to argue that oil and opera would be any more compatible. Now, howe\'er, even the most doubting Thomas will concede that the radio recipe concocted by Texaco and the Metropolitan Opera not only make a musical mixture which wins friends for oj)era. but also influences customers for oil. It is also an outstanding example of consistent public service sponsorship.
This unusual partnership between one ol America's largest oil companies and her most lamous opera house began on December 7, 1940, when Texaco took over sponsorship oi the Saturday afternoon opera broadcasts. During the two subsequent decades, it is estimated that the firm has expended more than |10 million to bring opera to the American public. Approximately 12 million persons tune in regularly during the 25-week season, which has just Ijeen concluded on 191 stations over the CBS network.
Just what does Texaco expect to get out of these broadcasts? The answer is relatively simple — good will — that leatls people to Texaco dealer service stations.
V. S. RADIO
Mav ]9f>n
That this is frequently exactly what happens is illustrated by many letters thanking Texaco and testifying to the writers' use of Texaco products. Perhaps the ultimate in listener loyaltv was demonstrated by the gentlemen who telegraphed, "Thank you very much for the fine production of the opera today. While I am a stockholder of a major competitor of Texaco, for the month of January I shall buy gasoline from my nearest Texaco station."
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this romance with the opera is that Texaco exchanges its millions of dollars for less than a minute-and-a-half of commercial time during the whole of each of the three-to-five hour broadcasts.
Such long-term, dedicated devotion to the public service becomes even more impressive in the light of Texaco's easy admission that it possesses no accurate method to pinpoint the precise relationship between opera listening and product purchasing.
The firm and its agency, Cunningham & Walsh, must rely principally on thousands of letters and cards received each season from satisfied opera fans — many of whom take the opportvuiitv to express their lovalty and gratitude to the company which so faithfully
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