Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

data 'joing back to the pre -television yearri948. j Commenting on the study, Hayes I points out that Nielsen has provided I the radio industry with the longest continuing audience-measurement records. "Nielsen reports," he says, "give us the largest single accumulation of information about national radio audiences before and after television became a major medium. Now the books seem to be closed on this service, we felt that we — and the industry — would find it most interesting and valuable to review the data." Hayes reported CBS Radio Research findings in four main areas. Three are dealt with here. The fourth, CBS' findings on how it — as related to the other networks — fared in this analysis, is in a sidebar accompanying this story. First: the combination of an increase in radio homes, plus the renewal of audience attention to radio, has resulted in total home-hours of radio use for the winter of 1963-64 virtually equalling January, 1948, a pre-tv high point. Second: not only total homehours but average hours spent with radio per home per week show a striking turnabout in the years following the first effects of television. In January, 1948, the average home spent 35 hours a week with radio. This figure declined 50 percent — to just over 17 hours a week — ^by July, 1956. But now it is back up to almost 25 hours a week, or well over three hours per home per day. Third: listening to network-affiliated stations represents a larger share of audience in proportion to unaffiliated stations than is assumed by some advertisers and agencies. The network stations comprise about 32 percent of all U.S. AM stations, yet these stations now account for 46.4 percent of the listening. It's also worth noting that the network stations' share of audience has been on the increase in recent years; in 1960, for example, these stations accounted for 42.9 percent of the listening. From the CBS Radio Network's analysis on these points, summary figures disclose that the growth in radio households, coupled with renewed national audience interest, has resulted in a total-home-hours figure for 1963-64 almost exactly equal to this dimension of radio usage in 1948. The network's research estimates that there were 1,320,000,000 home hours of radio use per week in January, 1948. In the winter of 1963-64, there were an estimated 1,299,000,000 homehours of radio use per week, or 98 percent of the earlier, pre -television figure (see chart on page 46). In this connection, the radio industry's general health has been reflected all along in the growth of radio homes and the increasing number of radio sets being purchased by the listening public. Radio homes have increased by 40 percent since 1948, going from 37,623,000 to 52,500,000 in 1964. The national set count has almost tripled during the past 16 years. In January, 1964, the U.S. set count exceeded the total U.S. population by 24,000,000. There were 190,809,000 people in the United States and 214,353,000 radio sets. Moreover, radio set ownership in recent years has been growing faster than the population— -by an eight to one ratio. The nation's population increased by 8.4 million in the three-year period, 1961-63. In the same period, radio set sales totaled an estimated 70.8 million (see charts on page 44). In January, 1948, average radio listening was reported at slightly over 35 hours per home during a typical week. (It should be noted that NRl studies in 1948 measured in-home, plug-in set listening only.) Four years later, by April, 1952, national weekly radio listening had declined to 26 hours a week. At that time, only 12 percent of the total listening occurred on automobile and portable radio sets. By July, 1956, national radio usage had dropped to 17 hours, 18 minutes weekly. But the decline Total U.S. Radio Homes 1948 1952 1956 1964 Source; U.S. Radio Homes, A. C. Nielsen Co., estimates as of January 1 of each year. Total U.S. Radio Receivers 1948 1952 1956 76,991,000 ■■^■■■■■i 214,353,000 i Source: U.S. Radio Receivers, Radio Advertising Bureau estimates as of Jan. 1 each year (sets in homes, aufos, public places). October 26, 1964 45