You know, everything has to be sold. Someone has to sell you that their specific hamburger is the juiciest, or their bathroom tissue is preferred by bears, or their morning radio program is reasonably entertaining. *cough*. In this life you are a seller and someone being sold. You might be sold by a girl scout, or a Facebook post, or a billboard, or a commercial…well, you get the idea.
I am firmly in the “seller” category. As a writer of commercials (some of which we trust are amusing) my job is to sell you something without it being too mundane.
You know who else gets sold to? Program Directors! I’m one of those too you know. I get emails enticing me to add new programs or one-time specials to the KCOW lineup. Some of these I choose to put on the air. Most I do not. It’s the same in television. As I’m sitting here listening to music I’m scrolling through old issues of Broadcasting Magazine…a typical geek-ish hobby of mine. I find it interesting to see how the big Hollywood studios tried to convince TV station owners, program directors and other underlings why a certain show would be great for their program schedule.
We’re going back to the late 60’s and early 70’s for these examples of salesmanship (salespersonship?).
“U-123” and “U-50” are movie packages, sold to television stations ro fill holes in various time slots. With the dawn of cable and streaming local TV stations very rarely purchase movies. But back in the day every studio had multiple packages available.
“Jeannie has beautiful figures.” Yuk yuk yuk. (Most of the decision makers back then were male.) Just a side note, WPIX is one of the great independent television stations in these United States. When I was in college I got the delightful task of writing imaging for our college station’s voice, a fellow named Doug Paul. Doug is no longer with us, but his voice is eternal:
Listen to this really carefully and you’ll hear him say “89-point-1 The Point”. That was WBSU, the radio voice of SUNY Brockport! Okay, where were we…
My favorite Twilight Zone episode is “Time Enough At Last”. I even have a little figurine of Mr. Bemmis, the poor soul who wants only to read his books….I won’t spoil it. Honestly, the vast majority of Twilight Zone episodes are pretty spectacular.
Viacom started out as CBS Films, and was a pretty huge distributor of TV product as you can see above. I can count ten of these series that are still airing in reruns on MeTV.
When I was a kid my Dad sometimes called me “number one son”, which only many years later did I make the connection to Charlie Chan movies. Note WHEN-TV Syracuse, my home turf! That station is now WTVH.
Remember when TV stations did these jingoistic hometown pride promos? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Yes, even Tom and Jerry required a little salesmanship. Cartoons and other childrens programming were big business for decades…but, like the movie packages, cable and streaming put the last nail in that coffin.
It’s kind of sad really. Local TV stations used to have a wonderful variety of entertainment programming…movies, cartoons, old sitcoms, and the like. The modern local TV station lineup is clogged with court shows, talk shows, and 5 and-a-half-hour local newscasts. Ah well. Time marches on.
Hey! Since you made it all the way to the end of this thing, how about some RADIO selling!
Then and now!
Permanency! Hey, 27 years and counting…I’ll vouch for that!