The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-24
Radio Poll | |ByHooper, BiqTosk
BY JACK GAVER

United Press Staff C0rrcSp0ndentl
 New York, Aug. 24.-CUP) There ls an outfit in this town that, if yoS so much as breath int a radio microphone, will record your blood pressure, T. O., resistance to hlcndes and whether your breakfast eggs were fried, poached or boiled.
 At least that's the somewhat dizzy impression that remains after being put through the mazes of c. E. Hooper, Inc, where the futures of such fragile things as advertising agencies, radio networks, soap4mak- CTS and performers are blessed or damned in figures as cold as a dead cheroot. It is the mecca tow- ara which the inmates of the radio industry bow thrice upon arising in the morning just for luck (and a lot of good it does then.)
 What Program, etc.?
 Wherever you are across the land, that voice that comes over the tele- phone with the nnouncement, "This is a nationwide survey of radio lis- tening. Were you listening to your radio just now?" is part of the implacable system knownl to the trade as Hooperatings. This sort of thing goes on every day in some 70 cities. The Eooperater records the prgoram and station being lis- tened to, the size of the audience in each home called and the product sponsoring the broad, if the listener knows this.
 Hour after hour these statistics are fed into the New York office where more than 130 employees keep busy transcribing them and feeding them into complicated machines that turn out small cards punched full of holes which tell the whole story to the initiate. And from these come those twice monthly reports so eagerly awaited by the workers in the radio industry, like this:-
 We the People .......... 12.5
 Vox Pop ................ AU.4
 Hit Parade ............. 70
 Can You Top This? ...... 8S
 Etc. These figures mean that of an average 100 radios checked 12.5 were tuned to the We People pro- gram and so on down the list. From this it is easy to approximate close ly the number of actual listeners any given program will have.
 Follow Pattern
 The women who make the tele- phone inquiries follow a rigid set of questions. They get smart-alecky answers now and then but for the most part the public cooperates beautifully. As rule the question: CTS are matrons who once were telephone operators. They work in their own homes two and a half hours at a stretch with two and a half hour rest periods in between during the hours of 8. m. to 10 D. m. They alternate between day. time and nighttime checking. The numbers they call are chosen by a special system from regular tele- phone directories. When 8 listener is contacted he won't be called again for at least year.
 The big thing with Hooper are the chicks in g key cities in which all four of the radio networks have station affiliates. But besides that the firm checks in 40 other cities where three, two or only one net work may be represented. Conse. quenaly, besides the all-important national or network ratings, Hooper supplies city surveys and any num- Der of by-product reports such as special compilations for manufact- urers of advertising agencies.
 The power of Hooperratings is demonstrated by the fact that in many contracts sponsors specify that the talent they hire be paid on a sliding scale commensurate with