A Word from the Sponsor

Listeners' complaints about radio's rash of commercial spots are no longer news, but last week the squirm turned and the howl came from a longtime sponsor. Writing "as an advertiser who has been spending over $1,000,000 annually in radio" to plug his pain-relief tablets, Dol-cin Corp.'s Board Chairman Victor van der Linde reported to MBS that he had cut his appropriation for radio spots to a piddling $100,000. Reason: the "sheer multiplicity" of plugs, including many for competing products within a few minutes of each other, proves that stations are suffering from "a diarrhea of orders" and "haven't got enough sense to keep up the entertainment values."

On Thanksgiving Day, van der Linde complained, MBS's Manhattan station WOR managed to cram 26 commercials into 65 minutes--one every 2% minutes. In a single hour on WOR. listeners were being told they must get Mericin, Susta-min 2-12, Mentholatum, Myopone, Anacin and InfraRub--all, like van der Linde's own Dolcin, supposed to relieve pain.

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