Weaver's Magazine Concept: Notes on Auditioning Radio's New Sound/Part 1 of 3

"WITH A COURAGE born of desperation and destitution" was Variety critic Bob Chandler's apt description of the motives behind A.B.C.'s "New Sounds for You." This program is, according to its executive producer Drex Hines, an "effort to do in radio what the digest magazines do in the publishing field; that is, recognize that busy people appreciate a service which selects features especially for them." Robert W. Sarnoff, president of N.B.C., admits frankly that "Monitor" and "Weekday" are also moves of desperate destitution.

Radio lost two million dollars at N.B.C. in 1955. "The networks," in Sarnoff's judgment, "have to make these new forms work or else." Mutual Radio has made similar changes in programing and advertising; it calls the new pattern "Companionate Radio." Only well-fed C.B.S., relatively prosperous in terms of radio's diminished fortunes, rides out the storm with Godfrey and sponsored soapers. Even C.B.S. has had to overhaul its advertising structure, allowing many sponsors to underwrite a single program or series of programs through its "segmentation" plan.

Radio's new sound stems from changes TV has wrought in listening habits. Advertising has similarly shifted from an effort to assemble one big audience to a systematic attempt to expose one's message to a cumulative audience assembled seriatim throughout the broadcast schedule. A description of program con-tent in the new radio formats should be seen against the theoretical ideas of its pioneer, Sylvester L. Weaver, Jr.

The magazine concept in commercial radio breaks down some walls between educational and commercial broadcasting; an effort is made at the end of this paper to explore the possibilities of collaboration among mass educators, critics, and broadcasters in light of the educational implications of the "electronic magazine."

Radio itself is not in danger of extinction; it is in fact flourishing. In the first three quarters of 1955, radio-set sales increased over 40 per cent, from seven and a half to ten and a half million. Total TV set sales increased only 16.5 per cent, from five million in 1954 to six million in 1955. Largest gains were in auto, clock, and portable radios. C.B.S. has recently estimated a national total of one hundred thirty-two million radios.

TV, however, has radically changed where, when, and how these radios are used. Two out of three American homes have more than one radio set. Two out of three American-home radios are located outside the living room-bedrooms have 20 per cent; dining rooms and kitchens, 8 per cent; living rooms, 21 per cent; other rooms, 7 per cent. Four out of five radios are located outside the living room where nearly all the TV sets are. Most radio listening is done by individuals rather than by family groups.

Radio listening is up in TV homes and increases as the TV set grows older. Most daytime radio listeners do other things while listening; two out of three nighttime radio listeners concentrate entirely on listening. Since 85 to 90 per cent of the radio homes in TV cities own TV and 75 per cent of all radio homes are TV-equipped, radio has become an individual listener's medium.

TV has also changed the economic facts of radio advertising. As TV began to deliver the national market, advertisers used radio to plug holes in TV-network coverage. Spot campaigns and local-station advertising tended to siphon off what TV had left of network radio's revenue. Network radio faced bankruptcy unless it could devise new ways to lure back both listeners and advertisers. It sought to regain listeners by personalizing programing; it sought to regain advertisers by letting a sponsor gain a cumulative audience by small participation in many programs.

For instance, in the C.B.S. Segmented Program Plan, sponsors can underwrite five-minute segments of one or more of eleven big-name shows-among them, Bing Crosby and Amos 'n' Andy. Numerous possible combinations of participation are available. C.B.S. offers, for example, a segment each in all eleven programs with gross weekly audience of forty million for about $18,000. The rating point is being replaced by low-cost presentations of cumulative audiences for many programs.

The advantage of this type of advertising is that it can be tailor-made. Small companies can buy a few exposures; large ones can buy into all the programs if they want to. The national market can be saturated by a short campaign carried on major-network shows. High TV-production costs make it desirable for alternate-week TV sponsors to keep their product exposed on radio during off weeks. C.B.S., because it has been in the strongest financial position, has been able to concentrate on changes in advertising rather than in programing.

The remaining networks, on the other hand, had to get more listeners before the new participation advertising would draw many sponsors. Radio's new sound, then, is an attempt to lure back the laggard listener. N.B.C. started in the summer of 1955 with "Monitor," a week-end marathon from 8:00 A.M., Saturday, to midnight, Sunday. (Poor affiliate support of the eight hours from midnight, Saturday, to 8:00 A.M., Sunday, killed that segment.) Since the week end was a poor revenue getter to begin with, it was perhaps the safest place to experiment. There was the usual razzle-dazzle associated with Weaver enterprises. A science-fiction musical theme bloop-bleeped listeners to an awareness that something new was about to emerge from their loud-speakers.

(Part 1 of 3)