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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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profits. You know, it's true in government, it's true in newspapers, it's true in the movies. It's a star system that we live in. Look at what's happening today with the salaries that are paid to sports stars. The extreme payments to the top artists, whether it's on the stage or screen or television, between the top and the bottom is very extreme. And I would guess that there's no way that you can correct this, because the marketplace sets the standard. And if you can command the circulation, you can command the money.

Q:

How did this affect the broadcasting side of things, in terms of selling programs to advertisers? Did it make putting news and public affairs into prominence more difficult?

Stanton:

Advertisers buy circulation for the most part. That's true today -- there was a period in radio when, I think, advertisers wanted to be identified with certain quality performers. There's very little of that today. There are some advertisers, for example, whose chief executives are very sports- minded and will make sure that their programs are bought more in the sports field. But on the other hand, their customers come from that segment, so it's debatable whether the advertiser is buying sports stars because the chairman of the board likes them, or the chairman's wife likes them, or something else.

I think agencies recommend the demographics of the audience to the advertiser. They try to fit the kind of people that are in the audience for the program to the kind of market that the advertiser is trying to sell. There are limits, of course. Agencies don't want to get mixed up, for the most part, in controversial programs. They don't like to get mixed up in questionable programs when it comes to taste. There have been cases where advertisers have backed off of sponsorship because of the involvement of the talent in questionable procedures and things of that kind. But these are fringe situations. Most advertisers and most programs are





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