U. S. Radio (Jan-Dec 1961)

Iii 1937, a young graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University landed a job at NBC as a page boy. A bass soloist in his college choir, he wanted to make singing his career. In i In isc days NBC had the Page Boy Quartet, occasionally heard on the network. He made the quartet but not the career. For Robert E. Eastman, 18, now president of the representative firm bearing his name, chose a careei in radio that applied his bass voice to salesmanship instead. His rep firm, which represents radio station exclusively, is thriving with 43 bus\ accounts. It celebrated its third anniversary in June by moving into newl) decorated offices at One Rockefeller Plaza. Eastman is as enthusiastic about his company's future as he is about the prospects for radio. "Radio is on the threshold of tremendous growth," he says. "In the next five to 10 years, spot radio volume ma\ reach the billion dollar level." Eastman's projection is not a wild guess; it is based on 24 years of experience in both network and spot radio sales. He got his start in network. Three months after joining NBC as a page, he took an announcers' audition; but the network gave him a title— assistant eastern local program manager— and a salary— $25 a week. Eastman took both, turning down an offer to sing for $90 a week. In 1940, NBC Spot Sales tapped him for a selling job. He stayed one year and then, still with NBC, become the only local salesman for WEAF and WJZ New York, flagship stations of the Red and Blue net works. ABC Spot Sales was formed the following year, and Eastman left NBC to join its sales force. His long-term association with national spot radio continued the following year, when Eastman joined John Blair Sc Co. He had risen to executive vice president in charge of radio for Blair, when, in 1957, Leonard Goldenson, president of the American Broading Co., offered him (he post of president, American Radio network. Back in network with his colleagues at ABC, Eastman fashioned far-reaching plans to reorganize and vitalize network radio. But that summer their prog ress was interrupted and eventually halted by an ironic, isolated development — the Asiatic flu. ABC, dependent on revenues from American BroadcastingParamount Theatres Inc., the parent company, was caught short of funds; the flu scare forced scores of movie-goers to stay home and theatre revenues (hopped markedly. In April, 1958, Eastman resigned from the network, and set to work making some plans of his own. He transferred his office and installed a business telephone in his home in Waccabuc, N.Y. The first telephone call came from Dick Buckley, then president of WNEW New York. Would Eastman represent his station? His next call was from John Box Jr., presi dent of the Balaban Stations Inc. Would he represent WIL St. Louis and WRIT Milwaukee? Eastman gave the requests a week's thought. His affirmative answer put him into the radio rep business by June 2. He still has the two Balaban stations among his total of 43, but WNEW last spring announced it would represent itself directly to national advertisers. Robert Eastman is obviously a man who loves his work. A combination of imagination and hard work has made radio work for him. He is constantly looking for better ways to sell the medium. His most recent contribution is a radio presentation he plans to show to decision-makers in agency and client ranks. He thinks now is the time to break it— with long range goals in mind. "It is significant," says Eastman, "that there is now a growing awareness among agencies and advertisers that they have been missing something in spot radio; they have not understood its basic appeal and how to use it." But they want to understand and use it, he says, and hopes that his radio presentation will be as much an educational force as a selling implement. ■ 12 U. S. RADIO August 1961