Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

Lessons from The ^Mars Invasion' (Continued from page 20) f or QUALITY in ELECTUCAl TRANSCnniON PROCESSING OINCE the earliest days of radio the skill and exactness of our processed recordings have told their own story of a job well done. Today practically every well known transcription producer is a Clark client. If you are interested in quality transcription processing we are at your service. Phonograph Record Co. 216 High Str Humboldt 2-0880 22ncia Salle St. Central 5275 even frightened. But it would be an excitement based on the dramatic realism of the program. There would not be the intense feeling of personal involvement. He would know that the events were happening "out there" in the studio, not "right here" in his own state or his own county. In one instance a "correct" (esthetically detached or dramatic) standard of judgment would be used by the listener to interpret events, in another instance a "false" (realistic or news) standard of judgment would be employed. The number of listeners who dialed to the program after the preliminary announcement may be approximated by information obtained in two separate investigations. The data from each of these studies furthermore amply demonstrate that the time a person tuned in was a major determinant in shaping his later reactions. In a special survey conducted for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) the week after the broadcast, interviews were made throughout the country on 920 persons who had listened to the broadcast. Among other questions asked were "At what part of the program did you tune in?" and "Did you realize it was a play or did you think it was a real news broadcast?" Forty-two per cent said they had tuned in late. There was a very pronounced tendency for those who tuned in late to accept the broadcast as news, and for those who tuned in at the beginning to take it as a play. Only 12% of the persons interviewed listened from the beginning and thought they were hearing a news report. An Interruption? In the survey made T>y the American Institute of Public Opinion the question was asked "Did you listen from the beginning, or did you tune in after the program had begun?" Sixty-one per cent answered that they tuned in after the program had started, 35% listened from the beginning, 4% did not remember. Here again we find that those who tuned in late tended much more than others to regard the broadcast as news. Only 4% of the sample tuned in from the beginning and believed the broadcast to be a news report. Both of these studies lead to the same conclusion: That tuning in late was a very essential condition for the arousal of a false standard of judgment. To be sure, many people recognized the broadcast as a play even though they tuned in late. But for our present purposes it is important to raise and to answer the question of how anyone who tuned in at the beginning could have mistaken the clearly introduced play for a news broadcast. Analysis of these cases reveals two main reasons why such a misinterpretation arose. In the first place, many people who tuned in to hear a play by the Mercury Theatre thought the regular dramatic program had been interrupted to give special news bulletins. The technique was not a new one 'In The Mood' OF THE numerous letters requesting dedications that WWL, New Orleans, receives, one of the most unusual reached the station the other day. It asked a dedication for Augustin Peterman of Pascagoula, Miss., who celebrated his 110th birthday. Mr. Peterman is the father of 12, grandfather of 22 and greatgrandfather of 10. The request was for "In the Mood". after their experience with the radio reporting of the war crisis in October 1938. And it was a more usual procedure to accept such news reports as irrelevant to the expected program than as an integral part of it. Of the 54 persons in the CBS survey who listened from the beginning and thought the broadcast was a news report, 33 (61%) said that the interruption seemed to them authentic. The other major reason for the misunderstanding is the widespread habit of not paying attention to the first announcements of a program. Some people do not listen attentively to their radios until they are aware that something of particular interest is being broadcast. Since the beginning of the hour is concerned with station identifications and often with advertising, it is probably disregarded. About 10% of the 54 people who misinterpreted the broadcast although they heard it from the beginning said they had paid no attention to the announcements. These people obviously just happened to be tuned to the Columbia station and were not, like the others who erred, anticipating the Mercury Theatre. Anyone who studies the characteristics of radio knows that one of its chief shortcomings is its inflexibility as far as time is concerned. The listener must be at his dial at the right moment if he is to hear the program. In this respect print obviously enjoys an enormous advantage. Newspapers, magazines and books can be read when it is convenient to read them, whereas South Cardinals ONLY Regional CBS Station wcsc Charleston, S. C. 1000 watts Free & Peters, Representatives a radio program exists for a few brief minutes and then disappears forever. The broadcaster can point out, however, that comparatively few people do much reading. The disadvantage of radio has many practical consequences for the advertiser, the politician, or the educator. The advertiser does not want to send his expensive commercial announcement into an air thinned of potential customers. The clever politician does not want to waste his best oratory before he has attracted the greatest pos sible audience. The great bulk of the latecomers consist of people who either turn their dials casually at the beginning of the hour trying to find something that pleases them or of people who intended to listen to a specific program when it began but misjudged the time. The CBS survey showed that two-thirds of those who had tuned in late did not know what program they wanted to hear as they turned their dials, while 12% of the late-comers had actually intended to listen to the Orson Welles broadcast at the beginning. New Techniques Needed Tuning in late, then, is a normal aspect of the listening situation But now we discover that tuning in late may lead to mass hysteria. Such a phenomenon is so far rare but might conceivably become important in time of crisis or national emergency. In such situations it may be necessary to use different techniques to give news or infor mation, perhaps wording a report in such a way that late listeners could understand it without becoming frightened. This problem is important for our purposes now since we must discover why ap proximately 50% — an unusually high proportion — of the listener; to this broadcast tuned in late, a the combined figures of the Ameri can Institute and the CBS survey reported above seem to indicate The large percentage of listener; who tuned in on this special occa sion after the program had begur seems chiefly due to two reasons. Ir the first place, it must be remem bered that the Mercury Theatr^;^ program was competing with th( % most popular program of the week e, that of the versatile wooden hero Charlie McCarthy. The regulai weekly survey of Hooper Inc commercial research organizatiojBtes checking on the audiences of prc^ ^ grams, estimated the ratio of lis teners to Orson Welles and Charli McCarthy as 3.6 to 34.7. Accord ing to restricted "meter-checks the average family listens 48 min KFRU COLUMBIA, MISSOURI A kilowatt of power on 630 kc. daytime with 500 watts at night. A Sales Message over KFRU Covers the Heart of Missouri Til Page 70 • March 1, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertisin