Long before Mike Jorgenson became a group owner and came to Phoenix (and long before I landed in Phoenix, too), Mike ran WBNS and WBNS-FM in Columbus, Ohio. He was a dapper sight in those days, always wearing a carnation in his lapel.
I was writing the TV/radio column for The Columbus Dispatch (before joining The Arizona Republic in 1979) and one day he called with an invitation. He was heading to Beltsville, MD to visit Arbitron and review all the diaries that had been tabulated for the most recent ratings report. He wondered if I'd like to join him on the company plane. I checked with my boss and we agreed that it might be fun to see just how accurate Arbitron was in recording listenership.
Mike felt Arbitron was bogus but it was the only game in town. So, we hopped aboard the plane (which was the newspaper's plane, too, as we had common ownership)and spent the better part of a day reviewing diaries. We found mistake after mistake in the tabulating: A person who reported listening to one station from 15:00 to 18:00 in military time (that's 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.) got credit for just 15 minutes of listening. Another diary showed that the leading Top 40 station got hours upon hours of listening - from a woman in her 70s. The diary was filled out by her teenaged granddaughter because "grandma can't see and write very well anymore."
You get the picture. I called Arbitron when we got home and posed hypothetical questions - What if someone had listed time spent listening in military time? "We'd catch it," the Arbitron spokeswoman assured me. Well, Arbitron didn't, and had screwed up repeatedly. I wrote the story, Arbitron went ballistic and Mike and I had a good laugh. He said the next time he went down to review diaries my mug shot was posted at the front door with instructions not to admit me.
Whether that was true or not, I don't know - but I do know that Mike brought a rare zest, honesty and fun to radio. He's among my most memorable personalities and I'll miss him.
I was writing the TV/radio column for The Columbus Dispatch (before joining The Arizona Republic in 1979) and one day he called with an invitation. He was heading to Beltsville, MD to visit Arbitron and review all the diaries that had been tabulated for the most recent ratings report. He wondered if I'd like to join him on the company plane. I checked with my boss and we agreed that it might be fun to see just how accurate Arbitron was in recording listenership.
Mike felt Arbitron was bogus but it was the only game in town. So, we hopped aboard the plane (which was the newspaper's plane, too, as we had common ownership)and spent the better part of a day reviewing diaries. We found mistake after mistake in the tabulating: A person who reported listening to one station from 15:00 to 18:00 in military time (that's 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.) got credit for just 15 minutes of listening. Another diary showed that the leading Top 40 station got hours upon hours of listening - from a woman in her 70s. The diary was filled out by her teenaged granddaughter because "grandma can't see and write very well anymore."
You get the picture. I called Arbitron when we got home and posed hypothetical questions - What if someone had listed time spent listening in military time? "We'd catch it," the Arbitron spokeswoman assured me. Well, Arbitron didn't, and had screwed up repeatedly. I wrote the story, Arbitron went ballistic and Mike and I had a good laugh. He said the next time he went down to review diaries my mug shot was posted at the front door with instructions not to admit me.
Whether that was true or not, I don't know - but I do know that Mike brought a rare zest, honesty and fun to radio. He's among my most memorable personalities and I'll miss him.