Philadelphia
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July 12, 1948 A Continuing Study of Major Radio Markets NG BROA TId y.N. Th. Weekly J ECASTINC Study No. 3 Philadelphia -Wrd oi a S'eriel WHAT'S NEW IN TELEVISION ? Take a Look at WPTZ In the Merry, Merry Month of May.. 52 ADVERTISERS on WPTZ When 52 experienced, "show -me" adver- projection equipment, two -way relay to New York tisers buy time on this one Philadelphia for NBC network origination -just to name a few. television station they must have had more Or knowing how to use these facilities. Nine years of compelling reasons than just a desire to get actual television station operation coupled with Philco's sixteen years of active television experi- on the TV bandwagon. ence have produced at WPTZ what many consider It could be coverage. With WPTZ's new antenna to be the best trained, professional staff and crews system topping downtown Philadelphia by almost in the business! a thousand feet, the Philco station reaches out Or maybe it's the alacrity with which the boys in roughly 50 miles to offer television service to the commercial department will tell you what WPTZ 3,306,000 people! Here is one of the nation's fast- and the Philadelphia television audience have to est growing television audiences, already second offer you and your clients. Drop us a note or, better largest (42,000 receivers) in the country. yet, phone- Or facilities perhaps ... WPTZ's well equipped PHILCO TELEVISION BROADCASTING CORPORATION studio, three complete mobile units, art and scene Architects' Building, Philadelphia 3, Pa. shop, film production crew, 16mm and 35mm Telephone: LOcust 4 -2244 r TELEVISION AFFILIAT E WPTZ FIRST IN TELEVISION IN PHILADELPHIA BROADCASTING Telecasting Page 2 July 12, 1948 The Third of a Series la 71yr"Y731d`= By HERMAN BRANDSCH AIN a manufacturing and distributing cards with those in other cities PHILADELPHIA has been called the nation's third market, center. Immense quantities of raw shows how low are these rates. "The Workshop of the World," "The City of Homes" -and materials are at hand. Remembering that Philadelphia's such less complimentary descriptives as "Corrupt and Con- Within Pennsylvania alone are listening audience is estimated up tented." the nation's leading production to 10,000,000 persons in Eastern There are scores of other pat similar areas. But it is important, centers of coal, coal tar, pig iron, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Dela- phrases about Philadelphia. The in making a true evaluation of the steel, ferrous alloys, cobalt, sand, ware and Maryland's Eastern validity of many of these phrases bargain rates to consider the eco- stone, slate, lead pigments and Shore, with an annual buying is not to be discounted. They tell nomics of the market. sulphuric acid. The city of Phila- power of 10 billion dollars, it is a sponsor much about the city - Such an analysis reveals: delphia alone boasts 5,000 indus- startling to contrast the rates of but not enough about the city Philadelphia is America's trial establishments, and adjacent its powerful stations -both AM whose annual radio billings reach third city, producing about 4% of counties add another 1,000. Four and TV -with those in other areas. the five million mark. the country's manufactured goods. out of every five types of manu- KYW Philadelphia, 50 kw West- What a sponsor needs to know In its metropolitan area are facturing common to the American inghouse station, for example, most of all, Philadelphians say, is close to four million people, industrial scene are to be found charges $500 an hour for Class this little appreciated fact: Phila- with an estimated 10 million in there. Annual production of such A time, as does the 50 kw WCAU, delphia is an unparallelled bargain the listening area. Within a 100 - industries is estimated at about owned by the Bulletin. rate radio town. Few markets any- mile radius, which includes New four billion dollars. This $500 an hour figure com- where can offer a radio sponsor York City, is an area containing pares with $650 an hour charged more for his money. 18,000,000 people and the greatest Quaker City Stands High by KNX Los Angeles, $575 by There are two reasons for this: market in the world; these people As Cultural Center KMOX in St. Louis, $560 by WBZ First, time rates are astonishingly have a per capita spendable in- All this indicates a great metro- Boston. And throughout the coun- low. Second, regardless of rates, come rated at 70% greater than politan center, economically. Cul- try, many stations with less power, quantity and quality of prospec- the remainder of the country. turally, the city has few equals, reaching fewer listeners than even tive purchasers are high. Of the nation's ten largest with high standing as an educa- the smaller Philadelphia stations, An advertiser seeking to enter industrial areas, Greater Phila- tional, medical, scientific, literary, charge more for time. WPEN, for the airwaves of the Philadelphia delphia has the highest percentage religious, music and art center. example, which claims to deliver market has at his disposal the fa- of owner- occupied dwellings, about All in all, it is an area a radio more listeners per dollar spent cilities and brains of large radio 15% above the average for such sponsor should find profitable, even than any other station in Phila- organizations -and at rates which districts. if its stations did not offer low time delphia, charges but $150 an hour are low when compared to other It is strategically located as rates. A quick comparison of rate (Continued on page 4) BROADCASTING Telecasting July 12, 1948 Page 3 Philadelphia retail chain. At one time, Wana- maker department store owned (Continued from page 3) WOO, a license since withdrawn. Much has been made for 5 kw of the re- its facilities. Oddly, tail many station executives seem un- background of the operators of Philadelphia aware of this peculiarity of their radio stations. The own market. charge often has been leveled that radio was just a sideline, and there- Gordon Gray, sales manager of PENNSYLVANIA fore was Philadelphia, held back. There seems WIP and Benedict little to justify the charge. Gimbel Jr., station president, are among Philadelphia station execu- Reading Radio's Start in Twenties tives who have been selling spon- N. J. Was Inauspicious sors on the viewpoint PHILADELPHIA that "any Harrisburg When radio radio buy in Philadelphia is a good started going com- buy." mercial in the early twenties, there Camden were few who knew much about it. 'Competitive factors keep the The pioneers in new field price Wilmington the al- tags on radio time low. Per- most of necessity had to come from haps as good a reason as any is other businesses. And the men from that Philadelphia has been a big ThM D. Baltimore the retail business brought to radio printed -word town since the days a business sense. A big boost to of Ben Franklin. Newspaper rates Philadelphia radio came in 1924, have been low and radio has com- ;Woehington when the Levys, Dr. Leon Levy, peted with them. a dentist, and his brother, I. D. In latter years, however, it seems VA. Levy, a lawyer, bought WCAU for more probable that radio rates $25,000. At that time WCAU didn't have been kept down merely even bother to broadcast Saturday through competitive factors among nights, for Philadelphians, conser- stations. Newspapers seem able to vative though they be, had more raise advertising rates and circu- exciting pastimes than radio. But lation prices with what takes on the Levys entered the Philadelphia the appearance of unanimity, but radio scene with the determination manufactur- in 1922 when no less five of the fiercer competition among sta- cilities are large radio than of making WCAU a separate busi- AM now on the tions seems to have prevented any ing plants which make Philadel- the nine stations ness and an outstanding radio-minded. Much of the threw out roots in one form or station. concerted action. phians air This had a salutary effect in radio born another. They were WCAU, If Philadelphia is a bargain ra- of the world has been local radio, and put a $6,000,000 dio; town, is the purchase of time in the workshops of the area. In WDAS, WFIL, WHAT and WIP. was founded price tag on the station when it there really a cheap buy-or, like the Quaker City are the plants of A sixth outlet, KYW, was purchased the the year before in Chicago, but by Bulletin a so many bargains, does the prod- Philco, boasting the longest TV year ago. production lines in the world, and moved to Philadelphia in 1934. uct delivered turn out to be on the In 1934 another River, in WIBG and WTEL were started in big boost came shoddy side? The local reply to this across the Delaware with the transfer of KYW from Camden, RCA shops, 1925, WPEN in 1929. A tenth, question, of course, is that Phila- the Victor Chicago to the Quaker KYW, in electronics WJMJ, is locked in litigation and City. delphia radio is truly a bargain. producing everything one of the bright stars in the needed by the industry. has yet to broadcast. Westinghouse chain, Philadelphia's Radio Row The fact that the industry has for a time WIP Started shared studio space with WCAU. is grown in Philadelphia's own back Concentrated In Gimbel's Store Now, however, the 50 kw stations yard, so to speak, has had a pro- Radio -to -back in facilities in the Quaker found effect on radio in the Quaker Much of early Philadelphia ra- are situated back their largely located City are in a strip, City.