Variety (July 1954)

July 1$$4 ‘LET’S MAKE A In Which the Author Voices, the Opinion That ‘Night Will Alw&ys Fall’* In Rates and Ratings—Unless Something Is Done About It Having spent a notch under two decades in the land of the free offer and the home of. the brave client* I feel that I have more than a dilettante’s interest in dif- fering with a little, sort of indus- trial non-noodling that’s been go* ing on. The "fad'’ is quite recent and is becoming as popular as Scrabble or Gin Rummy and is being practiced by our best people. Frankly, the “fad” is to cut radio’s nighttime rates to keep advertisers happy (? ) —and then to cut nighttime pro- gramming costs to make ends meet. The only trouble is that the lis- tener doesn’t know—-and couldn’t care less—about the new bargain basement rates; but he is, of course, all too aware, of the bargain-base- ment entertainment. Time was when I could ■ enjoy a dinner party as affably as the fellow across the table, taking part with proper enthusiasm in both the nutriment and the conversa- tion dished up by whatever chap- ter of the local Vivisection So- ciety was assembled that evening. But now. ... By ROBERT A. SCHMID (V.P., Mutual Broadcasting System) on my left or the gentleman on my right (but do want to say to you who are still with us this far down the line) is that something can be done and should be done, about nighttime radio. I mean it. Here is a prescription that I can assure you actually wroks.. I know because we at Mutual have been following it in our nighttime pro- gramming for two years. And de- spite tv and everything else, our coajst-to-coast nighttime audience is up f7% over pre-tv levels, and our nighttime billings (thank you!) have.newer been so high. The prescription is based on this very sound formula* a. All good programming is good programming at any time. b. Nighttime can be as good a time as any time with sound block programming of name talent and crackling drama, music, news, and mystery. c: Stack these periods with stars whose marquee value will at- tract listeners and whose voice- appeal will hold them. ( We picked Madeleine -Carroll, George Sanders, Peter Lorre, etc.). d. Make full use of tape—it How To ' By HAL DAVIS (V.P., Charge of Promotion K it. E), £ firm,, ju$t to keep networks and heir affiliates happy. * Commercials: .Absolutely none. Bill to: All U. S. power and ight companies;' they’ll be de- ighted to finance this, epitome— simply because .it is bound’to keep people out of bed consuming cur- rent far into the night. / I don’t care whether you use either, both, or hdne of these sug- gestions, but. for the good of the istener and the good of'the in- dustry. .. . ‘How about making a night of it, boys?” What could be more pleasant j can deliver the stars and save you than to have a beautiful blonde money. Most tv artists today are dinner companion (all she caught \ eager to tape shows because of the from the host’s mumbled introduc- j minor drag on their time compared to the terrific requirements of television. e. Once you've got the period i set, leave it alone. Don’t jockey tion was that you were "in radio”) lean across the damask and con- fide, in an ear-splitting whisper, ‘When is radio going to do some- thing about nighttime program-: around. Sweat it out and out ming, hon?” I’ll tell you what! an{ j ou t g n d it'll bring 'em in and might be more pleasant than to ah- j j n an ^ ] n That’s the key to in- sWer that: A fortnight riding upcreasing listeners, mail-pull, and and down the Eiffel Tower in an ! sa i es< empty lift or sitting underground 1 Kentucky cavern (I meant J, B “‘ “ ‘ his , preseript ‘ on is ,i° 0 , .... tavprnt tough to take for some of our other ’ * ' network and station colleagues, in a cavern Everyone, I know, is an embryo Harriet Van Horne, of John Crosby. But the reason I’m tempted these days to rip out ipy assailant’s beautiful blonde tresses (by their beautiful brunette roots!) is not because she is wrong about then I have a really blue-sky sug- gestion (which makes better din- ner conversation anyway!) which I want to share with you. Note listen closely: Here is a program idea for the nighttime radio show to end all nighttime nighttime broadcasting, but be- i J n cause's!* is “so right. " ! r ? d, ° sh I ° l ws : and ans \ v " mtl What do yotf say to a dinner i «“»*: , I ‘,. sl Sf a -S , . 1 S e . guest who winters in Palm Beach, Talent. None but the highest Summers in Bar Harbor and has! paid m show - business hardly a rackful of Mainbocher rags to her name (except that she isn't really typical) when she tells you that too many Disk Jockeys (D. J.!s to you, old boy) give her the D. T.’s? And even if you deftly sidestep her, what do you say to the charming old geezer who has cor- nered the dental-supply industry and keeps flashing his own trade mark every time he smiles, and when he adds that he thinks night- time radio is just becoming a juke- box wired for sound. You can also count on at least one Arno-equipped matron from Westchester to chime in at this point about the dramatic radio program which she heard only last night for the third time (no, not on ; .tv—on radio!), ‘Even if she will agree with you that there may be room for repeating the best of Godfrey and the best of Groucho. can’t you carry a good thing too far? And what program manager really is proud of the rocketing revival of vintage scripts? Writers: Positively the best skills money caiti buy. Time Period: Scheduled to reach every American listener at bedtime*. Sponsor: .Some anonymous Chicago. Viewing habits among Chicago elementary and high school stu- dents have undergone little change from last year, according to North- western U. Prof. Paul A. Witty’s fifth annual survey of television among Chi school children, their parents and teachers.* Tele con- tinues to be the favorite leisure time activity of elementary school children—^while it’s less important to high school pupils, who spend about 14 hours a week at the set. Overall viewing dropped slightly —from 23 hours to 21^ for ele mentary school pupils, from 17 to 14 for high school students, from 19 hours to 16V£ for parents and from 12 to 11!£ for teachers. $et ownership has gone up consistently —it’s 969o (Witty says the satura tion point has been reached), but for teachers, set ownership is still below the norm, at 839c. Program favorites included syn- dicated film shows as well as net- work programs. Elementary school faves were "I Love Lucy” “My Little Margie,” “ROy. Rogers,” “Superman” and “Topper.” High school pupils preferred “Lucy,” “Dragnet,” “I Led Three Lives,” “This Is Your Life,” “Colgate Comedy Hour” and “Liberace.” Parents liked “Lucy,” “This Is Your Life” “See It Now,” #“What’s My Line?” “Kraft TV Theatre” and “Arthur Godfrey.” Teachers liked “What’s My-Line?” “Kraft,” Fred Waring, “Person to Person” and “Omnibus.” Just don’t pay any attention to the sales problems of your adver- tisers. Worry about ratings and j jokes and sheer entertainment. Then worry, about what happened to business* For the umpteenth tithe, Variety is loaning me space to propound my favorite theory. Clients still buy programs, to help sell mer- chandise. They have as little brand loyalty to talent as customers have to their'products. And in today’s market, a number one company has about a 24-hcur public franchise. Is tliat wrong? Not from where I sit. And the radio-television in- dustry might well take a look at what’s happened to the record peo- ple. Records, till very recently, have been merchandised in tradi- tional entertainment style. The record business refused to have the slightest truck with the notion that they were selling a product for money to people. This was the magic of entertainment-show business. And consumers could darn well try to find where these records were to be had—because the record companies weren’t going to help. Well, selling records is now a big business. You can get them in strangC places, such as supermar- kets. And the record business is taking a leaf from package goods in packaging and merchandising. And it’s not hurting at : a!l. Matter of fact, the business is growing. The difference is in the change from pure art to pure selling. Now pure selling might include a Tot of pure art, if that meets the require- ments for the sale. But radio and television as selling media must do much more than they have in the past if they want to not only hold, but develop new business. Maybe what the networks and stations need is a new kind of of- fice holder added to Fred Allen’s favorite targets. That’s a guy who can analyze what’s happening in a business or industry and convey that knowledge to everybody in the programming and sales end. ~ | Gotta, Ask For Right Chart | The. average client In the pack- aged goods field has much more appreciation of A. C. Nielsen's charts covering distribution and product position than he has of Mr. |What Can You Do With A Dame, Desperation to change the sub- ject, plus a glimpse of the brandy decanter on the sideboard, gener- ally induces enough courage to enable you .to get back to safe ground through a, basic, factual comparison between the American way. of radio, with all its hor- rendous commercials, and the British system, with its tax-sup- ported, plug-free wireless fare. But ^even here you are trapped. Just after you’ve explained that our blessed British cousins actually listen to their radios less than ’aIf As much as we do—the social Ein- stein of the “g { ve-radio-back-to-th'e peoples” league turns to you dues tioningly. It just so happens, She says, that last evening she .timed the number and length .of commer cials on her favorite radio show with her new stop-watch. Her findings do more than anything you’ve eaten in days to upset your digestive tract. What I seldom admit to the lady - '* “jEzSt- Nielsen’s rating charts. And all those basic documents should be shown to producers,talent. and anybody , else connected with a pro- gram; ■ ; .j;; . Maybe It’s not their job to worry about such- matters. But when cancellations - come through, the speculations, are rife*, grim, and generally without any knowledge whatsoever Of the basic reasons be- hind the moves. The problem in the radio-tv;buslness seems to be a lack of perspective concerning the relative importance of these media in business. Advertising successfully means proper consideration of all media in terms of the sales problem pre- sented. by the client. AtK&E, r for example, Joe Braun, our boss of Media, has to supervise daily de- cisions between all kinds of mediae In so doing, he and his department work closely with gents like Wick Crider, who runs the radio-tv op- eration. Even though Crider has helped boost K&E radio : tv bill- ing in the past few years, his recommendations are arrived at after long sessions with media and the account groups on what would seem best for a given situation. The buying of a radio or tv prop- erty is only the beginning of the marriage. And the divorce rate in these media is considerably higher than the national average. Because the client buys programs to meet a selling heed, all other considerations are secondary. And ir the program isn’t used to sell correctly, and isn’t merchandised correctly, that program stands a good chance of being dumped for something else; not necessarily in the same medium. These are itchy times. And it behooves all in. the business to •inderstand the basic facts of life. Individually, and collectively, we must understand what a client makes, how it is made, how it is sold, who sells it and to whom and who is supposed to make a profit on the Whole deal. . That has nothing to do with a staff of writers who turn out jokes. The client has long experience with expensive machines and .pro- duction facilities - costing much more than the average comedian. He buys these machines in the full confidence that they will deliver as advertised * and stand up for a long time. He expects his adver- tising to deliver in the same man- ner. And if it doesn’t, he replaces what he's doing with something which has a better chance of de- livery. Clients, themselves, are finding much of their profit these days in new items. Even the most tradi- tional of companies is looking around for something new to diver- sify and expand its lines. What, then, is the chance of traditional thought in radio and television to survive? None. It’s an exciting opportunity for a lot of new business for everyone. Radio and television are dramatic and stimulating. They can stir people to* talk and act.* They also produce much that is routine, com- monplace and just plain boring. In the long run, they will succeed as media when they accept their position in the selling structure of the. advertiser.. That does not mean they must give up creative programming. It does mean, that sales sense must be added to creative programming if they are to remain fn business. The handwriting has moved from the wall to the contracts. ' • i] , l‘Vi-ii--iT i‘'iri-|W'i-'iri'irirriiiTii11<rtnwwW«W JACK SHAINDLIN Musical Director Louis de Rochemont’s “Cinerama Holiday” * Frisco’s 1st Simulcast Sari Francisco. The first local audience program to be regularly simulcast in. San Francisco goes On* the air Sept. 4 when KGO-TV takes over Dean Maddux’ “Budda’s Amateur Hour.” Maddux, who has broadcast the show for 18 years with KFRC, switches stations for a weekly half- hour stanza, 7-7:30 p.m. on Sat- urdays. Show will score another first as it will mark the debut of KGO-TV’s new Studio A in the new KGO building pn Golden Gate Avenue. The 1,000 square foot studio is the largest in San Fran- cisco.