Radio Daytime Serials

Abstract

business with the major webs. For further evidence of their popularity, take a gander at, say, the Elaine Carrington soaper, When a Girl Marries, with its daily audience pull in excess of 7,000,000. Budgeted at about $2,000 weekly for talent-production costs (that's about par for the daytime serial), it's understandable that, so far as the bankroller is concerned, it's still a good b.-o. investment. Even a low-rating soaper, such as the brace of Sterling Drugs-sponsored shows, Amanda and Second Husband, recently canceled, invited a daily listener pull of two to three million. For low-budgeted programming, it's understandable why daytime radio remains the top media for a mass sales pitch. Thus Variety, being primarily alerted to the commercial potentialities of radio, has made it its business to be cognizant of the soapopera trends. The opinions expressed in the radio review columns are those of the reviewer; he's in the fortunate position of never being influenced by business-office or advertising-department edicts. His job is to evaluate shows in terms of both the showmanship aspects of the show and the commercial payoff. Since no amount of ridicule on the part of comedians, critics, etc., has been able to remove the serials from the daytime listening roster, Variety as a trade publication has realistically tried to appraise this form of radio entertainment on its merits as dramatic fare servicing a segment of the public that seems to demand just this dish. Its critics give it the same analysis, production-wise, that they do to all other shows that they review. Each new program is reviewed after having been heard cross-the-board the first week of its appearance. All reviews are based upon actual hearings, not from studio performances or reports. Since the same radio serials continue