I wonder what program directors would want to play?

[michael hagerty]

What was the common research method before the 70s?

A lot of radio stations surveyed sales at local record stores. Not a perfect method, but if you had stores you could trust, you could see what was getting big without your airplay, what albums were selling (which smart PDs realized was often people responding to single play by buying the LP) and even oldies that were suddenly selling again (exposure on TV, movies, at some event)----and what records weren't moving even after weeks of airplay.

And, of course, before call-out research, there was call-in. The request line. Not the best statistically, since only your most active listeners were likely to call in, but stations with large enough audiences (and in some cases, people specifically assigned to answer the requestline so the jock could concentrate on his or her show) could use those interactions to ask a question or two about what else that listener liked, what they were burning out on, etc. Trouble is, asking people who already listen to you what they think is not a great way to grow a station beyond perhaps longer listening. The advantage to call-out research was the ability to talk to your competitors' listeners, find out what they saw as the strengths and weaknesses of their first choice, and find ways to exploit that information.

 

[davideduardo]

What was the common research method before the 70s?

Record sales and even juke box plays, along with sources like Billboard, Cash Box, and, of course, Gavin.

Call-out current music research began in the mid-70's when singles sales pretty much died and format fragmentation made sales data useless as it did not identify who was buying records.

 

[davideduardo]

A lot of radio stations surveyed sales at local record stores. Not a perfect method, but if you had stores you could trust, you could see what was getting big without your airplay, what albums were selling (which smart PDs realized was often people responding to single play by buying the LP) and even oldies that were suddenly selling again (exposure on TV, movies, at some event)----and what records weren't moving even after weeks of airplay.

In bigger markets, though, record promoters would find which stores were on important station call lists and they would either give the owner extra free product for reporting priorities or they would give cash to employees to report songs as "moving up".

And, of course, before call-out research, there was call-in. The request line. Not the best statistically, since only your most active listeners were likely to call in, but stations with large enough audiences (and in some cases, people specifically assigned to answer the requestline so the jock could concentrate on his or her show) could use those interactions to ask a question or two about what else that listener liked, what they were burning out on, etc.

And record promoters would pay people to call and request songs, too.

Trouble is, asking people who already listen to you what they think is not a great way to grow a station beyond perhaps longer listening. The advantage to call-out research was the ability to talk to your competitors' listeners, find out what they saw as the strengths and weaknesses of their first choice, and find ways to exploit that information.

And call-out allowed for not only a score but a question about "liked it before but tired of it" or "never heard it".

The biggest advantage of callout was knowing the age and gender of the respondents and simply not talking to those that were not in your core target.

Early developers of call-out were Todd Wallace in Phoenix and Jack McCoy in San Diego. Systems were pretty basic, with callers having a cassette of 25 to 30 hooks and then pages torn out of phone books where they called "every 12th listing" today or "every 7th listing" tomorrow.

 

[CTListener]

Early developers of call-out were Todd Wallace in Phoenix and Jack McCoy in San Diego. Systems were pretty basic, with callers having a cassette of 25 to 30 hooks and then pages torn out of phone books where they called "every 12th listing" today or "every 7th listing" tomorrow.

Did they avoid certain parts of the phone book to make sure they were calling a decent number of people likely to listen to a Top 40 station? Otherwise, they might get stuck calling every seventh Ramirez in a market with two full pages of them, every seventh Washington in a market with a page and a half, right?

 

[davideduardo]

Did they avoid certain parts of the phone book to make sure they were calling a decent number of people likely to listen to a Top 40 station? Otherwise, they might get stuck calling every seventh Ramirez in a market with two full pages of them, every seventh Washington in a market with a page and a half, right?

Why would a "Ramírez" not listen to Top 40 back in the mid-70's? (Particularly in San Diego and Phoenix where call-out originated)

There is a great danger in using stereotypes to pre-qualify research recruiting.

In any case, to randomize recruits the way names were selected would be, for example, for one caller, "third column, even numbered page" and stations doing call-out would go through a dozen or so phone books a month. Usually there were four to six callers working from about 4 PM to 8 PM.

 

[seatownmedia]

Again, smaller markets usually didn’t budget for call out. Research was just looking at bigger stations playlist/AirPlay which was completely available in the 90’s and beyond. It sounds primitive because it was. As in cheap research.

 

[davideduardo]

Again, smaller markets usually didn’t budget for call out. Research was just looking at bigger stations playlist/AirPlay which was completely available in the 90’s and beyond. It sounds primitive because it was. As in cheap research.

In a number of formats we had access to major station adds, moves, drops through Gavin starting in the late 50's and then ones like Hamilton's report and FMQB and then R&R and a variety of others. That showed us what other stations were playing, and gave us an idea on songs we might consider, add or drop.

By the 70's, we had this kind of data for every major format.

 

[b-turner]

Being in smaller markets in the 1980s, I can attest to the fact we looked at about 8 to 10 stations around the nation that were after the same audience we were after. We'd analyze why they went on this or that, what local influences might have on those decisions and then adapt the information to create a guide for our station to follow to some degree.

I recall one of those stations, a rock leaning CHR, began adding classic rock tracks to replace their mainstream oldies in the mid-1980s. We called the station to find out how that was going over. It would be a few years before classic rock appeared as an actual format.

We simply had no budget to do anything else but we actually were pretty cutting edge by being influenced by some much bigger stations elsewhere. You might say we enjoyed being the leader and yet had the cool factor as well.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I recall one of those stations, a rock leaning CHR, began adding classic rock tracks to replace their mainstream oldies in the mid-1980s. We called the station to find out how that was going over. It would be a few years before classic rock appeared as an actual format.

That happened where I live. The AOR went Top 40 (or CHR, if the term was used then), and one of the Top 40s started playing classic rock on a special show because it wasn't available anywhere else, and it was popular.

 

[davideduardo]

That happened where I live. The AOR went Top 40 (or CHR, if the term was used then), and one of the Top 40s started playing classic rock on a special show because it wasn't available anywhere else, and it was popular.

CHR was introduced by R&R around 1971 (Correction: 1981) so that its charts would be "different" from those in Billboard, Cash Box and Record World which were mostly sales / shipment based. The idea was to make "Radio" (The "R" in CHR) dominant for their chart.

 

[gr8oldies]

Some stations just left it to the instincts of their music directors. WDRC Hartford had a highly respected one in Bertha Porter.

WDRCOBG.COM: Bertha (1/17/26)

Bertha Porter, music director at WDRC Hartford compiled by Ed Brouder

www.wdrcobg.com

Most of us old timers remember Rosalee Trombley, the legendary Music Director of CKLW, who called dozens of record stores, monitored the charts from other regional markets, bigger and smaller, monitored black radio in Detroit (that's how we got a single release of "Bennie and the Jets" from Elton John, went to clubs and found out what was hot there. In those days, Rosalee was the Pope and artists and label reps came in every week for their audience.

 

[gr8oldies]

In bigger markets, though, record promoters would find which stores were on important station call lists and they would either give the owner extra free product for reporting priorities or they would give cash to employees to report songs as "moving up".

And record promoters would pay people to call and request songs, too.

And call-out allowed for not only a score but a question about "liked it before but tired of it" or "never heard it".

The biggest advantage of callout was knowing the age and gender of the respondents and simply not talking to those that were not in your core target.

Early developers of call-out were Todd Wallace in Phoenix and Jack McCoy in San Diego. Systems were pretty basic, with callers having a cassette of 25 to 30 hooks and then pages torn out of phone books where they called "every 12th listing" today or "every 7th listing" tomorrow.

"I already got my lawn inspected CLICK"

 

[michael hagerty]

CHR was introduced by R&R around 1971 so that its charts would be "different" from those in Billboard, Cash Box and Record World which were mostly sales / shipment based. The idea was to make "Radio" (The "R" in CHR) dominant for their chart.

R&R launched in October of 1973. The first use of CHR as a format descriptor was 1980. Up to that point, R&R simply called Top 40 "Top 40" in its editorial copy, and after briefly heading the chart "SINGLES", it became "The Back Page" and the "National Airplay 30".

 

[davideduardo]

R&R launched in October of 1973. The first use of CHR as a format descriptor was 1980. Up to that point, R&R simply called Top 40 "Top 40" in its editorial copy, and after briefly heading the chart "SINGLES", it became "The Back Page" and the "National Airplay 30".

My typo. Should be 1981. R&R of course did not exist in 1971. And it was called Radio & Records in its first years, too.