WNBT (NBC), 1941 Rate Card – Part A
On September 4, 2012
- TV History
WNBT (NBC), 1941 Rate Card – Part A
When I first saw this, I was stunned. At first, I thought they wanted $120 for a 60 second spot, but no…it was $120 per hour to sponsor a show. That’s more like it, especially when you consider that there were only 2,000 sets in the NYC area. When you see (in Part B below) what shows were on, think again about this rate card.
Here are some cost of living prices from 1941:
Average Cost of new house $4,075.00
Average wages per year $1,750.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 12 cents
Average Cost for house rent $32.00 per month
Beautyrest mattress $39.50
Average Price for a new car $850.00
$1870 in today’s money, according to Wolfram-Alpha’s inflation calculator.
Um, that’s $120 for ONE HOUR of programming!
No periods of less than 5 minutes sold.