Broadcasting (Jan - June 1941)

MERCHANDISING and MARKETING MAN AVAILABLE Two years intensive merchandising and marketing experience with established network. BACKGROUND: Agency, plus several years selling for nationally known newspaper and radio station representatives. Good knowledge national markets. Interested In establishing or heading up merchandising department of recognized agency or radio station. Initial salary important to wife and children's well being. Address Box 134, BROADCASTING More Listening, CAB Finds (Continued from page 20) dent's address was covered by NBC Red and Columbia; Mr. Willkie's talk by NBC Red and Blue, Columbia, and Mutual. Sports During the year the CAB also reported on numerous sports broadcasts including regular reports on football and baseball plus special events such as prize fights and the Kentucky Derby. On May 4, 15.2% of the set owners heard the latter event broadcast between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. BOXING — Joe Louis continued to be a great favorite with radio IT'S SURE-FIRE! And if you want an attentive audience in Roanoke and southwest Virginia, tell your story over WDBJ! Because listen: WDBJ is the top station in this neck of the woods. And our listening area embraces an audience that spends upwards of $400,000,000 at retail a year. What's more, we have convincing evidence that our buying suggestions produce surprising results! Would you like to know more? ROANOKE, VIRGINIA FREE & mm, \M. Excliiih e National Kt'preseii/al/m Owned and Operated by the TIMES WORLD CORP. CBS Affiliate • 5000 Watts Day • 1000 Watts Night • 930 Kc listeners. The Louis-Godoy fight on June 20, 1940, rated 37.9. One Sept. 6, 14.7% of set owners reported listening to the Billy Conn-Bob Pastor fight. On Dec. 16, the Joe LouisAl McCoy fight rated 22.1%. None of these ratings came close to the figure of 47.6 scored by Louis and Pastor in 1939 nor the 63.6 attained by Louis and Schmeling in 1938. The latter was broadcast over two networks. FOOTBALL^The ratings for college football broadcasts follow : 19i0 19S9 Oct. 5 25.1 Oct. 7 23.6 Oct. 12 28"5 Oct. 21 37.3 Nov. 2 3l'4 Nov. 4 35.7 Nov. 16 35"0 Nov. 18 36.2 Dec. 2 36.0 BASEBALL— During the baseball season the CAB reported monthly on listening to baseball broadcasts. The figures are for actual broadcasts of the games, both major and minor league, heard in the 33 CAB cities. In 1940, interest became more intense month by month as the struggle for the pennants became more furious. This contrasted with the experience in 1939 when the Yankees ran away with the American League race. The ratings for the two years follow: 19J,0 1939 April-May 15.9 17.7 June 17.7 17.2 July 18.2 18.7 August 19.3 17.6 September 19^ 16.2 Average 18.1 17.5 The average rating for the Wo^ld Series between Detroit and Cincinnati was 25.2 compared vdth 21.3 for the 1939 series between the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds. The games were broadcast over the Mutual network in both years. CAB Organization The foundation for the CAB was laid by the radio committee of the Association of National Advertisers in January, 1929. As a result of the committee's discussion of a study made by Crossley Inc., a number of leading advertisers employed that organization to make individual surveys. Later these were combined into a report for the ANA and at the same time Crbesley was requested to submit an outline for a cooperative investigation which would include "the checking of program popularity." The ANA appointed a special committee to work out the details. The field work was started by Crossley Inc., on March 1, 1930. In 1934 the CAB was reorganized, taking its present set-up as a mutual, non-profit organization with a governing committee of six, three of whom are appointed by the ANA and three by the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies. This committee sets all policies, business, financial and research. Crossley Inc. is still employed to do the field and technical work. The CAB is the official organization for rating radio programs. It is supported by leading advertisers, agencies and networks on the basis of their respective stakes in radio. The Method Used The loosely defined term "recall" should not be applied to the technique the CAB now uses. As the result of 12 years of practice, constant experimentation and revision, it is now using a method which perhaps would be better defined as "the triple check method of identification". Under this method the listener need not remember the exact program name. He or she needs to give sufficient information about the program to enable the investigator by cross checking station, time, or description of the program, to enter it on CAB records as having been heard. This method has several outstanding advantages such as speed, accuracy, economy. It obtains the answer to the vital question "Has the program made an impression?"— a factor which the advertiser, to be successful, must know. Fifty-two investigators, making calls at eight stated times each day, working simultaneously 168 days of the year in 33 major cities from coast to coast, complete 700,000 interviews based on more than 1,100,000 telephone calls. The geographical distribution of calls coincides roughly with the distribution of radio sets and calls are distributed by income groups in accordance with the distribution of radio set ownership by income groups. Thus the criticism leveled at most telephone surveys, that they reach an undue proportion of persons in the upper income groups, has been eliminated as far as the CAB is concerned. Reports Issued The results of these investigations are sent to subscribers in the form of 24 semi-monthly reports which include ratings for each sponsored network program. Each rating which appears is a percentage of set owners and not of listeners. To illustrate simply: If, out of each 100 set-owners who are interviewed in the area covered by a given program, 20 report that they heard it, then the rating which appears in the report is 20. The number of stations carrying a program does not affect the size of the rating. Semi-annually two complete analyses of radio program audiences are prepared and sent to subscribers. These reports analyze all programs by type, compare programs by length of broadcast, give varia r NBC BLUE WJHP JACKSONVILLE P LORI DA H. G. WELLS, JR., General Manager Represented nationally by JOHN H. PERRY ASSOCIATES WM. K. DORMAN, Mgr., 225 West 39tli St., N. Y. CITY CHICAGO DETROIT ATLANTA PHILADELPHIA Page 50 • January 15, 1941 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising