Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

STATIONS A spirited defense of 'modern' radio: Adam Young report testifies that it works A 24-page study designed to dispel the "myth" that '"modern radio" caters mainly to rock 'n' roll-loving teenagers is being released today (Monday) by Adam Young Co. [At Deadline, May 26]. The special report on "The Audience of Modern Radio" — based on a Pulse study conducted last fall in 10 major markets — contends that: (A) the audience of "modern" radio stations is predominantly adult (84.9% as against 11.7% teenagers and 3.4% children); (B) "modern" radio stations reach more adults than "oldline" network affiliates (50% more in the 6-9 a.m. period, 80% in the 9 a.m.-3 p.m. period, 60% in the 3-6 p.m. period); (C) "modern" radio stations reach more impressionable younger women than "old-line" network affiliates (85% more). Markets in which the Pulse study was conducted were Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans and Seattle. Only in the latter market did the Young companies pick on a "compatible affiliate," KING Seattle — a station that, says President Adam Young, programs "similarly to independent stations." KING is an ABC Radio affiliate. In the nine other markets the study contrasted an independent with a network affiliate. "We picked Pulse," Mr. Young said last week, "because in most agencies station buying is done according to Pulse. We felt their [Pulse's] findings would impress agency buyers." Mr. Young further explained that while his report concentrated on major markets, sample surveys conducted in smaller mar kets (e.g., Greensboro, N. C.) tended to bear out his feeling that listening habits don't change very much in non-metropolitan areas. The Young companies represent stations in five of the 10 markets analyzed but the findings in those five were not confined to client stations, Mr. Young points out. In releasing the study, Mr. Young said he resents the "muddled thinking" that equates modern radio with rock 'n' roll music. Although his personal tastes in music don't include R & R he maintains a Voltaire-like attitude towards it. He will defend to the death a station operator's right to include R & R in his music selections assuming such programming can be justified in terms of the broadest mass audience appeal and, through it, advertiser impact. "Our salesmen found," he explained, "too many agency timebuyers who picked stations not on up-to-date market and audience factors but on reputations the stations had built over a period of years. Apparently it made little difference to these buyers that their image of stations had long been shattered by the arrival of modern radio." Rock 'n' roll, according to Mr. Young, is but "one small facet of modern radio today." Granted, he said, that the single most important element of modern radio MR. YOUNG is the kind of music that inevitably determines station popularity, by itself music is not the total answer to the development of modern radio. A modern station, as opposed to "traditional" independents and network affiliates, also will stress local public service and news programming and will innovate "where others have feared to tread," Mr. Young asserted. In the realm of news broadcasts, a modern radio station will open with local news — usually delivered by on-the-spot reporters — and will rely as little as possible on wire service copy, he said. Another thing, according to Mr. Young: modern radio station management must control music policy to the very last record "unless it wishes to surrender program dictates to the likes and prejudices of its various disc jockeys." A traditional radio station, said Mr. Young, will depend almost primarily on the Top 40, thus wind up with a station that has no personality of its own. People today must have a reason to turn to any given station; "people no longer listen to stations per se . . . they pick a station because they expect something." Not only does Mr. Young feel that Top 40 is a misnomer when thought of as R & R ("After all, the No. 1 hit at WINS New York last week was the non-R & R All I Do Is Dream' . . .") but that it is a complete fallacy that stations can buy audiences by means of gimmicks. "No station has enough money to 'buy' its audience . . . Furthermore, in the final analysis no station can keep its audiences — assuming for a minute that it can buy listeners— unless it services their likes and needs." As regards the rock 'n' roll controversy, Mr. Young feels that it has been "fostered by the trade press and a certain radio net YOUNG'S PREMISES 1. The audience of 'modern' radio stations is predominantly adult. The Young-Pulse tabulations of the 10 markets showed the modern radio station with adult audience ranging from a high of 88.8% in New York to a low of 79.6% in New Orleans. . 'Modern' radio stations reach more adults than 'old-line' network affiliates. [ihowmg % more odulls reached by 'modern' stoilons lhan are reached by "otd-l.ne' affiliates) 6-9 a.m. 9 a.m. -3 p.m. notions. The modern station was ahead of the "old-line" in all instances save three, all during the 6-9 a.m. period, in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Milwaukee. 3. 'Modern' radio stations reach more of the impressionable younger women than 'old-line' network affiliates. {showing % mote women 16-35 yeors o< oge ■ reoched by 'modern stations than ate reached by 'old-line' affiliates] AVERAGE NUMBER OF YOUNG WOMEN REACHED PER '1. HOUR OL MS MS-Modern Stations OL-Old-Line Affiliates The modern radio lead in the eight markets tabulated (New York and Seattle were omitted from this section) ranged from 233% in Cincinnati to 29% in Los Angeles. 2 Broadcasting June 2, 1958 • Page 77