That is a corollary to "the older I get the less I realize I know".But ignorance is definitely an excuse for getting old. If we knew more when young, we'd figure out some way not to ever get old!
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93 KHJ Radio Aircheck
- Thread starter oldies76
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WMEX continued to hang on (and even seriously challenge WRKO in 1971 under PD John Garabedian), but they did drive WBZ out of the format in rather short order. WRKO went top 40 in March '67, and by fall WBZ had already begun making changes (and Drake didn't even take control there until that fall), and had gone MOR in early 1968. And this was with a superior signal to WRKO. What hurt WBZ is that their airstaff was all over 30 and sounded it.
Now back to LA...
I love the recollection of AM TOP 40. It was indeed a fabulous time. But this fabulous time is now 45 years old! Time to move on for us over 60. We can live in the past and enjoy it (nothing wrong with that) but realize we are now in a different era. How we over 60 accept the current values is important. If you don’t you will probably struggle.
I think it's fascinating and strange that KWIZ shows up in 1967 as that station, then as now, puts no signal in in LA day or night. Its 5 kW directional signal essentially covers only OC, portions of Long Beach, the far eastern SGV, and limited portions of the far western IE.
K-100, I think you mean KIQQ...
But in Arbitron, all those cities and areas were part of the LA Metro Survey Area.
And even when all the market had was Pulse and Hooper, the survey area was "Metro LA" that included all the suburbs that were toll free calls... so that included Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank, Long Beach and the areas that were just then starting to grow in the western SGV.
I used to listen to them on a transistor radio in Inglewood in the 60s.
Same station, same call letters, different positioner.
Have seen the current values system, and sorry, that is going to have to be a pass.
David, are/were you familiar with Foreign Exchange lines?
Yes, a physical connection into a distant exchange.
But the Pulse and Hooper surveys did not have local offices in each market to do surveys from. And they did not have lines out of New York into each market, as I'm sure you know the costs of those.
They subcontracted with individuals that used home phones to do the calls. The survey areas were defined as being the "Central Zone"
And surveys were not done continuously. They were done in larger markets usually twice a year for 4 weeks (or less) so installing a line would not have been cost effective.
If Pulse or Hooper lacked any office presence in some/most of the markets they surveyed, then yes, FX lines would have been exorbitant. But they could have subcontracted with persons who lived outside the core zones to outcall to other nearby communities that were non-toll for them. For instance, taking the NYC market, a sub living in Farmingdale could have called to W. Suffolk/E. Nassau numbers, another in Stamford could have hit Fairfield County CT, another one in West Orange maybe hits Union/Bergen Counties in NJ, etc. Not disputing that they didn't sell their services that way, but if they had wanted to be creative, there were possibilities that wouldn't have broken the bank. And had they done that, it's possible Arbitron might not have gotten the toehold and gained traction the way it did, destroying both other ratings companies in the process.
There's an expression in engineering -- I heard it from Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (Google the name) -- that there's a cost to doing something, but there's also a cost to not doing it. And often it's the "not doing it" cost that kills you. I never forgot that.
Pulse and Hooper had sales presence in various large agency centers, but the surveys themselves were done by local contract labor. They had meeting sessions, usually in the office of the company that did the local field work and then the people either used a phone bank at that center or used home phones.
Back in the 50's and 60's and well into the 70's, markets were much smaller geographically and it was adequate to survey just the area that was the cheapest to measure. In the earlier ratings of the "music radio" era, estimates did not contain data on how many persons listened... just the share of radio listening.
Here is a 50's Hooperating: https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Ratings/Hooper-Cleveland-Oct-1956.pdf
And another, from the 60's: https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Ratings/Hooper Mobile-Nov-1964.pdf
Arbitron achieved its dominance because they serviced agencies as much as they serviced stations. Once most agencies used Arbitron, stations cancelled Pulse and Hooper.
And ratings, even now, do only as much as stations can afford to pay for.
Pulse originated in New York City in 1941 as an alternative to Crossley's telephone surveys by adding door-to-door research - there were still a lot of households without telephones. They found much different listening trends between interviews conducted over the phone and interviews conducted door-to-door, with more listening during the day for non-phone homes, though less in early mornings. (see attached)
Pulse continued to use a hybrid of telephone and door-to-door interviews into the 60s. The in-person surveying was obviously more time-consuming, more expensive and kept the survey area to a much more confined area of the city.
Pulse continued to use a hybrid of telephone and door-to-door interviews into the 60s. The in-person surveying was obviously more time-consuming, more expensive and kept the survey area to a much more confined area of the city.
Attachments
i guess you had a really selective radio with KTYM 1460 right in your backyard !
Interestingly, The Pulse's last ratings report ever issued was for San Juan, PR, around 1978 IIRC (I have the book somewhere, I think). It was done only door to door.
Because of the logistics of door to door, it never expanded beyond the San Juan metro (MSA), not even to the San Juan/Caguas CMSA.
Eight dollar pocket transistor. We lived five miles due south of the stick. As the crow flies, it was only 25 miles to the KWIZ stick. At 5kw, not that hard.
Ha Ha...I see you were at the dead end of the antenna !...most of K-Time's daytime pattern is aimed north toward the SFV where it's actually very strong ! Funny now that KVEN 1450 Ventura no longer exists KTYM could probably modify their pattern and crank their daytime power up to 50 kw. But even if their signal covered Ventura county would anybody listen...they're a religious station broadcasting in Spanish...oh well...
Very common.
Most often, the record company would do a radio edit before even shipping the single if they thought it was going to be a hit. Store copies of "Me and Mrs. Jones" run 4:42, and so did early promo copies.
Columbia, which distributed Philadelphia International Records, got pushback from radio saying it was too long, so they cut a radio edit and "rush re-serviced" radio.
In the case of "Photograph", that ran 3:59. Ringo was a Beatle, so take it or leave it was Apple/Capitol's attitude. But some stations---including KHJ---just made their own edit.
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