A brief history of wHAT RESEARCH DID IN THE 30’S AND STILL DOES TODAY
Listen to a quick intro on research history by Chuck:
Jan here.
Ask anyone what they love about radio, and they’ll tell you. It’s that simple. Reach out, find out what your listeners love, and create a message that reaches into the center of their need. Grab their ear, grab their heart, and you have a friend.
Rating systems have changed since the 1930’s. Back then, in the “golden age of radio,” rating systems were much more personal. And in some ways, more immediate and accurate.
It all comes down to making friends, but how does one make friends? Claude Hooper knew. Based in America, Claude Hooper, a former marketing research analyst, started measuring radio and TV popularity in 1934. During that “golden age”, Claude was taking the pulse of the radio listener in a way that had never been done before. C.E. Hooper’s “Hooperratings” became the rising star—the go-to, trusted source for radio show popularity.
So how did this bit of history come up anyway? It all started with a story about life in Cincinnati—in the 50’s.
Chuck here.
My Dad has been in radio from the day I was born. He was in radio when it was network block programming—and almost no one thought about the “listener.” He tells of a well-known station in Cincinnati that was a harbinger of listener-first. They came up playing “Purple People Eater” for two straight weeks. Yep. Two weeks. Then flipped to rock ‘n roll. They debuted in the Hooperratings at a 78 share. Now, shares were figured differently back then, but you get the idea. The listener won, eventually.
Jan here.
But how did Hooperratings work?
“Reach out and touch someone.” Some of you may remember that AT&T marketing slogan. Well that’s exactly what Hooper did. Hooperratings were based upon phone calls made “coincidentally” to listeners in 36 cities in the US. What made his method unique, besides being highly personal, was that it allowed him to find out what the listener was focused on at that particular moment. Immediately and personally. This was favorable among the listeners, who didn’t really like having to remember what they were listening to 2 hours ago, much less 24 hours ago. C.E. Hooper made calls every 15 minutes (an exhaustive and expensive process). The results were tallied and distributed to advertisers, networks and radio stations. The industry largely lived and died by these reports, and relied upon their accuracy.
What might we take from all this?
In the 1940s and for some time after, when someone in the radio industry asked, “How’s your Hooper?” they were really asking about the size of a radio broadcast’s audience. You can find more information on each of these important components on our website, including information on listener research that is even more helpful, in-depth and actionable than what was done in the 1930’s.
At Finney Media, we love to work alongside you on your Hooper with heart connection, talent and story. Click here to read our next blog
Sources can be found HERE.
