Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

■ .^ :, r MONROE, LOUISIANA Jlftrzm ALL OTHER STATIONS COMBINED NORTHEASTERN L AND REACHES A AMERICAN BROADCASTING CO. TRANSCRIBED AND AVAILABLE 27-4 i That's a whale of a rating, Buc that's what the Texas Rangers get at WGBI, Scranton, Pa. They get it with their famous transcription service — which features the western and folk songs that never grow old. And they get the tall Hooper at 6:30 p. m., too, when there is a 37 per cent sets in use figure. Yes, Scranton listens to and likes the Texas Rangers. It's no wonder WGBI renews year after year. Buy the Texas Rangers transcriptions for your market. They build a big audience at WGBI and at scores of other stations, too. They can do the same lor you. Wire, write or telephone. The Texas Rangers AN ARTHUR B. CHURCH PRODUCTION Pickwick Hold • Konioi City 6 Mo. LISTENERS "TELL ALL" (Continued from page 21) in front of a radio receiver is certain to stimulate the quantitj "I Listening to a \ small check made by a nondiary research group has thus far revealed, however, that the increase in listening, over a seven-day period, does not affect the validit) oi diary-revealed listening tacts. I Maries permit of an intensive sampling ■ ■I .1 station's entire listening area on a stratified! basis. Thus if a sponsor desires to know just how the middleincome housewife listens, it's possible to give him that information. Typically, Nutrena Mills, a farm feed sponsor, didn't think that they were reaching the audience they wanted on a broad-coverage station covering rural areas. They had instructed their agency to request a shift from 7-7:15 a.m. to 8-8:15 a.m. Since it was rural coverage Nutrena desired and since the program was on the air before coincidental surveys, no figures were available for them until the station had a diary study made. The diary figures revealed that both the actual and the potential audience was bigger at 7 a.m. than at 8. Besides, the audience composition figures indicated that while there were 88 men per hundred sets in use at 7 a.m. there were only 59 men at 8 a.m. Since feed is sold to men Nutrena not only stayed where they were but increased the number of times they were on the air (from five to six times a week). It wasn't stratification that forced another sponsor, this time a local funeral parlor, to change its program and time. The station, a major market 5,000-watt CBS affiliate, was building and holding a good share of the early a.m. audience but delivering practically no audience to the network when the station joined the net. Diaries revealed that the program sponsored by the mortuary, Treasured Memories, which came directly before the station joined the network, was treasured only in the mind of the sponsor. Its lugubrious mood was a sharp break from the previous programs and chased the audience right away from the station. Diary figures convinced the sponsor to shift his program and to schedule lighter music. Since diaries reveal audience turnover in detail it was possible recently for a big station to go to an advertising agency and show the latter that while the agency thought that it had scheduled topaudience spot announcements for a sponsor, all selected spots had the same audience, i.e.. account had not been taken of audience turnover — it was reaching the same audience time and time again. The agency studied the diary report and rescheduled its spots. A CBS affiliate in the West had been scheduling the Columbia School oj the Air between Bright Horizons and Perry Mason. What the School did was dissipate the Bright Horizons audience and force Perry Mason virtually to start a new broadcast day, with no audience. Result: Perry Mason was shifted to follow Bright Horizons and inherited a sizable audience from that daytime strip. Few sponsors are out to sell the entire radio audience. Most advertisers know from their own research departments just who determines the purchase of the products they have to sell. Station diary studies tell just who listens when. They are accurate indices of radio listening in each station's complete area, something available for only one or two stations from any other form of research. They are made usually once a year or bi-yearly, since unless there's a vital change in program line-up listening habits do not change quickly. These studies are being made today by Audience Surveys, Inc., C. E. Hooper, the Buck Chicago group, and a number of small survey organizations. The diary idea had its birth at CBS under Frank Stanton's research direction, details being handled by Charles Smith. Field work was handled for CBS by Industrial Surveys, Inc., until other contractural obligations forced the Sam Barton organization to drop this type of survey. At that time the work was carried on by C. E. Hooper. Recently Benson and Benson of Princeton, N. J., did the field work for CBS's owned and operated station KMOX, St. Louis, Mo., after having done similar work for WHAS, Louisville, Ky. Much of the early CBS program acumen is said to have originated in the information developed by the diaries. (Please turn to page 48) tit, minutes is judged 15-minule listening. * lllhoagh lodm's diaria run on a 24-hour batisi, it's fair la assume that telephone mils made erery quarter ram ' a ",_ to '/ p.m. I /'»' hours would develop Hie knot of information mealed in a diary. This uouht >»■ i>'i quarter-hour calls a day. Actually \udiInr. rereal thai thus far Ihey haren t made a iliary report for a slnlion in an areti irhere Hit, it \ ') hour service. ^Stratification of a sample it making certain il reprefair cross section of the populal ion of thi : include the proper proportions of different income brackets, of home, automobile, telephone, and refrigerator ■ lementary, high school, and college graduStratification may go further than this if necessary and include color, age, tex, and any number of factors hat thit is not necessary in a diary study since it is a report, not a rtuds of individuals, t" unslralilied sample can completely innilidite research conclusions. ^Refusals to cooperate in a surrey usually stem from the suhject matter hut it's possible with very little incentive being offered respondents to olitam as high as a'JSO per rent return on any simple consumer surrey. 46 SPONSOR