Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

DAYTIME PROGRAMS CHANGE Blue Network. After Siiroeij of Radio Listening Habits. Introduces Broadcast Innovations in Schedule - "Whij" of Success is Outlined By Edgar Kobak Executive Vice President, Blue Network Company BLACK CATS and an umbrella opened in the house bi'ing bad luck—and a daytime radio profrram which does not portray the ever- lasting agonies of a beautiful fe- male is doomed to defeat. "Nonsense," said the Blue Net- work, which refuses to believe in superstitions. "Three of a kind— all superstitions. Women do not turn pale with fear if they hear a variety or musical program while the sun is shining. Let's find out the truth." It was in this mood that the Blue set out to conduct a survey of day- time listening habits which would give a complete picture of the day- time radio audience. Urging us on were the advertisers who wanted to take advantage of the lower time cost of the daytime hours but hesi- tated to compete with the dramatic serials, many of them seemingly as well-established as Rommel once appeared to be in North Africa. With the brains of our program department teeming with new ideas fur daytime programs, and several programs which had broken with tradition already on the air, we de- termined to get the housewife's opinions about what she hears dur- ing the daytime hours, the types of programs to which she listens and, incidentally, the effect of wartime activities on listening. Our ques- tions were answered by 5,000 house- wives in 77 cities, towns and farm communities. Our findings dumped in the lap of the daytime serial heroine the most difficult problem of her career. Because we backed up our conten- tion that a considerable proportion of the programs currently broad- cast are wasted on deaf ears and that there is a demand for a new- type of program. The result of the survey, in short, gave the "why" of the success of the Blue's inno- vations— to mention only two — "Breakfast at Sardi's," sponsored coast-to-coast by Kellogg and Min- ute-Man Soup, and Coca-Cola's "Morton Downey." How did we arrive at these con- clusions? Here are the facts. While 79 per cent of the total network commercial daytime hours are de- voted to dramatic serials, only 50 per cent of the total listening time is devoted to this type of program. Only 53 per cent of housewives lis- ten to daytime serials, and 36 per cent of all housewives and 28 per cent of those who do listen to the serials think there are too many on the air. The fact that one per cent think there arc too few might be of interest to a psychiatrist. In contrast, 20 per cent say there are too few serious music pro- grams, 12 per cent say there are too few popular music programs, while only 10 per cent say there are too many of the latter. That daytime listeners want new and varied types of entertainment can be seen in the discrepancy be- tween daytime hours and total lis- tening time devoted to serials, and the demand for a difl!"erent type of program. The findings on the most popular types of programs—81 per cent of radio families listen to news, 53 per cent to serials, 49 per cent to popular music, and 32 per cent to serious music—indicate that spon- sors of daytime serials fail to reach the 3G per cent of women who use their sets daily but listen to other types of programs. .MORTo.x Downey, show.n here i.n his chef's garb, is scoring a success in ONE of blue network's NEW PRORGAMS. In line with our consistently- stated belief that "the program's the thing" was the finding that nine out of ten radio families turn on their sets at some time during the day, for an average of 2.6 hours, but, contrary to general opinion, only 19 per cent of the women leave their sets tuned to one station and 51 per cent listen only to certain IH'ograms. With regard to the effect of war- time activities on daytime radio habits, 26 per cent of the house- wives say they are listening more to their radios during the daytime. Another interesting discovery is the fact that 7 per cent of the radio homes now have men engaged in night shifts who were not so em- ployed a year ago, indicating that nighttime programs have lost 7 per cent of the male audience—now available at some time during the day. Our survey did not attempt to prove that the Blue Network is the best advertising medium—in fact, we asked no (juestions about station or network likes and dislikes. We merely grew impatient with what we considered an unjustified taboo and chose the most forthright method of overthrowing it. The findings are available to all net- works and agencies alike. We did, incidentally, bolster our reputation as an organization which is not afraid to think along new and un- tried paths in a business which too often bows to tradition. (24 RADIO AGE]