U. S. Radio (Jan-Dec 1961)

$7,l)00-$7,50() 20.5% $3,000-$5,000 10.3% Undei $3,000 . 5.7' ,, The QXR network average income is $8,998; ihe national average, $4,800, the station reports. Occupation, adult family members Professional, managerial technical . 69.5% ( llei ic al and sales 8.2 Craftsmen, foremen, operatives 5.6 Service and manual employees 2.3 Housewives, retired persons, students, others not employed 11.1 Total— 100% Obviously, il you want to teach those in the upper income brackets, in the middle and highei soc ial levels— in other words, excellent prospects foi an advertiser — you can reach them most efficiently and in the greatest numbers through Em. And you can reach them best in the evening hours, the prime linn hours which television has long c laimed as its own. Television still garners a top audience but not among the growing Im audience! The future On May I. the Federal Communications Commission finally approved the transmission of stereophonic music over Im stations. Beginning June I, fm stations for the first time were able to broadcast stereophonic music over a single channel. Listeners with properly equipped fm receivers are now able to receive stereophonic sound in their own homes. This will not interfere with normal reception on present-day monophonic receivers. Leaders in the broadcast industry feel that this new development will give fm a tremendous boost, and will be as important to the broadcasting industry as stereophonic recording was to the record business. This is of great importance to the fm industry. It is equally important to present and prospective fm advertisers. A concentrated selling program for this new method of receiving fm (and such an expanded program will break within the next fewweeks) , will increase the fm audience considerably and make this medium an even more effective advertising buy. ■ Henri, Hurst's Lee Randon is a multiple-medii and all-agency advertising professional The man who wrote this Em presentation, the full text of which appear in adjacent columns, is Lee Randon, an allround broadcast and advertising professional who has been active in the industry for some two decades. lie" currently director of atidio and video for Henri. Hurst & McDonald agency in Chic ago where, over the past decade, he has been smitten ever more seriottslv by the Im radio medium. He's been a writer, actor, electronics technician, producer of commercials as well as programing, film director and limebuyer. Two of hi industrial filmhave won awards: "Tie Tie Go Round" for the Chicago Printed String Co. and "The Cultured Wood Story" for Kroehler Mfg. Co., accounts at the agency where he has worked as a radio-tv film specialist for the past 10 years. After starting with the Chicago agency as film director, he moved to a post as manager of radio and tv in 1956, handling commercials and programing for such a diversified account list as Admiral, Linco bleach, International Shoe and Armour canned meats. Since then he's added responsibilities in two additional areas of vital importance to modern marketers: merchandising and media. In merchandising, he supervises sales training and sales promotion aids for manufacturers and their sales and dealer organizations. In media, he's been active as a timebuyer for the past 18 months and directs buying activity for such major accounts as Myzon (animal food and health products). A long-time proponent of fm, he sees marked signs of an upturn in commercial acceptance of the medium. In terms of this commercial appeal, "the fm picture has been very encouraging to those of us who believe in persuasive soft-sell. This type of copy, delivered straight by station announcers, has far outpulled the raucous and blatant commercials we have been forced to use so frequently on am. "I hope fervently," he says, "that as fm operators continue to veer away from the classic fm image that they will continue to insist on present soft-sell standards. There are as many, if not more, opportunities for creative selling within the soft-sell approach as in the present uninhibited am commercials." m 8 U. S. FM • August 1961 !