Radio Markets BROADC%ASTING the Television NTELÉICSTING Study No
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OCTOBER 4, 1948 A Continuing Study of Major Radio Markets BROADC%ASTING The Television NTELÉICSTING Study No. 6 First for many years in New England radio . already first in New England television . and staffed and equipped to stay FIRST the favorite of more listeners than any other MN Boston station/ WHDH is the Favorite Station of More Boston Listeners than Network Station A!* WHDH is the Favorite Station of More Boston Listeners than Network Station B!* WHDH is the Favorite Station of More Boston Listeners than Network Station C, Network Station D, and all other stations combined!* If you are placing your advertising dollars in Boston and New England, "the favorite" is available at the lowest cost per thousand (Compare rates in SRDS). *Special survey made by The Pulse, Inc. 5000 watts CP 50,000 watts BOSTON Represented nationally by John Blair & Company Page 2 Boston. October 4, 1948 BROADCASTING Telecasting By J. FRANK BEATTY of a few electronic wings. The stores are big, busy and BOSTON, hub of New England, is famed for culture, colonial This year, radio business in the modern. The hotels are good. Of- Boston metropolitan area, includ- fice facilities are adequate and get- lore, baked beans and circuitous streets. ing a neighboring 60- kilowatter, ting better. Railroads move heavy Fortunately for those interested in earning an honest dol- should exceed $5,500,000. Compe- traffic, though with some incon- lar the city qualifies as one of the nation's principal centers of tition for this sizable take is keen venience due to lack of a union commerce and industry. -very keen. terminal. Even keener is the competition Being a rather steady and loyal For Boston emerges from a critical radio market analysis buyer, the average Bostonian is as a thriving area of 2,500,000 hard-working and high- buying among 100 assorted advertising agencies, including many of nation- hard to sway. Such a trait is humans who last year underwrote a $2,500,000,000 retail wide fame. This competition ap- made -to -order for radio's powerful business. pears to have induced occasional spoken word. Oh, there's culture and history in the city, like the books relaxation of rate practices. Fewer Some of Boston's advertisers just have been slow to adopt the rela- say. But a hundred citizens talk * than 30 agencies place the bulk of surprise many businessmen -only the city's radio business. tively new radio medium, but the over the deft strategies of Billy problem has a number of facets Southworth and Joe McCarthy to five metropolitan areas in the Every buyer of Boston time or U. S. have more people. space must consider the traditional when studied at close range. The every one who critically appraises newspapers still get the bulk o the symphonic attainments of Coupled with this population nature of Yankee citizens, though record is the amazing Massachu- overall shifting of the nation's retail advertising. The local Serge Koussevitsky and Arthur pals are rather on the gaudy in e Fiedler. setts radio ownership figure- populace in recent years has 98.9% saturation, highest percent- greatly diluted Yankee caution and in comparison to the "cautiously The place was baseball crazy conservative" broadcast operations. all summer, and daily the citi- age in the United States, aug- thrift. zens rejoiced or wept as the Red mented by relatively low station As a matter of fact, Bostonians Competition Angles card rates. exceptionally high Sox and Braves won or lost. The not only earn Agency executives point to sev- baseball aspect of the city is im- Distinguished Record pay but they spend well above the the eral important angles in the news- portant in that it bears out what Boston has a distinguished radio average of most cities. When paper-radio competition. They em- all who do business in Boston even- record. Two of its stations belong legendary tales of Yankee thrift phasize that newspapers offer at- tually learn -that Bostonians are to the quarter -century group and and conservatism are boiled down tractive inducements to the adver- loyal and back up their loyalty two more will soon be eligible. The to their essentials, the Boston agency is revealed tiser. For example, an with their pocketbooks. city's list of radio "firsts" is im- buyer and radio listener buyer can telephone a display ad Thus, Boston actually isn't much posing, and its current broadcast as a loyal purchaser whose tastes and the paper's relatively steady. to a newspaper let different from any of the other facilities rate right up with the and habits are staff do the layout, artwork and great metropolitan areas of the finest in the nation. Their man- The "cautious conservatism" tag engraving. The agency thereupon be United States, once its renowned agements can be described in most thus is applicable but it can't clan order a stack of mats and place top layer of culture is penetrated. cases as "cautiously conservative." interpreted as "old- fashioned." the copy regionally or nationally However, it possesses definite The city's radio traditions, no- Boston, as a visitor to 'the area with practically no production cost. characteristics that make it out- ble and daring, are getting a bit quickly learns, is a thoroughly mod- Now comes the frequent bonus- standing to those who dispense of a shaking up as new facilities ern city, with all improvements a nice free reader for the news goods and services via radio and take the air. At this writing there such as subways, wide avenues, columns, effectively pointing up the other media. are 17 AM stations and another in elevated railway, tunnel, conven- paid -for copy, one of many "mer- First of all, Boston is the most the works, along with two TV and ient and large airport, and more chandising aids." The papers densely populated area in the na- many FM outlets. The situation than its share of parks and recrea- tion. Furthermore -and this will may eventually lead to the clipping tion facilities. (Cont'd on Boston 4) BROADCASTING Telecasting October 4, 1948 Boston Page 3 ( Cont'd from Boston 3) The Bay Area tional spot salesmen recognize this, and Boston has a substantial cen- mostly carry free station program ter of station representatives. listings but charge premium rates Boston likes to point out that it for radio -page advertising. is keystone of "the largest con- Since the "extras" of advertising , population community in costs are kept to a minimum, some the United States, possibly in the Bost on advertisers are tough world." Its metropolitan district prospects for a radio salesman (nearly 2,600,000 within 25 -mile anxious to sell a good program radius) is bounded by Lowell -Law- based on careful production and rence-Haverhill to the north, Wor- rehearsal. They just plain don't cester to the west, Providence to want to pay for the higher- priced the southwest and Fall River -New type of locally produced broadcast. Bedford to the south. Include them Offsetting this is the supply of and you get an overall total of co-op and transcribed packages 4,300,000 in- people, the third largest now available, along with avid concentration of population in the terest in sports and news pro- nation, outranked only by New grams. Many of the newscasters, York and Chicago districts. announcers, women's com- sports Separated on the west by only mentators and weather experts the width have and faithful followings. of two small towns is the large 400,000 -population Springfield dis- That's especially true in the case trict. The Boston of the weathermen, somewhat of a Chamber of radio phenomenon. Commerce puts it this way: "Bos- weather ton has more metropolitan districts In Boston they take their in proportion its seriously. What's more, they do to size than any something about it -they listen to other state; and therefore repre- the radio. Two stations have their sents the most highly concentrated own fulltime weather prognostica- market, mile for mile, to be found tors, equipped with all the latest in America." devices. At WEEI, CBS -owned Statistics station, E. B. Rideout has several programs a day. Thousands build As one of the first four or five their daily agendas around his industrial areas, Boston district forecasts and explanations, and plants employ 314,000 wage - businessmen plan their operations earners who are paid nearly $700,- on the scientific predictions he has 000,000 a year. Factory output is been turning out for two decades. figured at $3,500,000,000 by the WCOP has "The Old Salt," State Dept. of Labor & Industries. Ralph M. Barker, who operates a Over half the state's industrial club has as one of its main motives fective Boston radio listening area, wage- earners live in the area. similar service and commands an the joint development of the city's with a population of about 3,500,- eager audience. He and Mr. Ride - Labor -management teamwork is radio standards. 000 from Cape Cod, through south- reflected in U. S. Labor Dept. data out, along with extensive weather The metropolitan area teems ern Hampshire and along the programming at other stations, New showing Massachusetts had the with churches, many of them Maine coast. Within this area are fewest number of "man- days" of eater to those New Englanders The city 922,750 radio homes in which Bos- who the steeped in historic lore. idleness during the last war -year subscribe to popular itself is about 75% Catholic with ton are said to be the axiom: "If you don't like our New stations and first postwar year of any large the Protestant faiths dominating most popular.