Origins

     In the medium's early days, many radio set builders and listeners were not interested in hearing specific programs so much as listening to as many different stations as possible. This "channel-surfing" was called DXing-an abbreviation for distance. DXers kept track of the stations they heard in log books that recorded when they heard a station, the frequency and/or call sign, slogans, programs, and the city of origin. Some computed the distance to the stations they heard, and there were contests sponsored by radio clubs and radio magazines with prizes given to those who compiled the most stations and greatest total distance. Although the diary method existed in the early days of radio, until the rise of television diary-keeping was not the mainstay of radio audience measurement.

     The first systematic audience research using diaries was done by Professor Garnet Garrison at Wayne (later Wayne State) University in 1937, though he called it a "listening table." Garrison, who later taught for many years at the University of Michigan, was working on an "experiment developing a radio research technique for measurement of listening habits which would be inexpensive and yet fairly reliable." He noted that other methods most widely used at the time were the telephone survey, either coincidental or unaided recall, personal interviews, mail-sometimes called fan mail-analysis, surveys, and "the youngster automatic recording." He said that he had borrowed something from each method; since the listening table could be sent and retrieved by mail, it included a program roster, and was thought to be objective. The form he used was a grid from 6 A.M. to midnight, divided into 15- minute segments, that asked respondents to list stations, programs, and the number of listeners. Garrison concluded that "With careful attention to correct sampling, distribution of listening tables, and tabulation of the raw data, the technique ... should assist materially in obtaining at small cost quite detailed information about radio listening." While his method­ ology was not adopted for about a decade, Garrison's "listening table" is essentially the way radio audience estimates are obtained to this day.

     The Columbia Broadcasting System experimented with diaries in the 1940s but apparently thought the data was most applicable for programming research, for which it also used the program (or Lazarsfeld-Stanton) analyzer. CBS used information from diaries primarily to track such things as audience composition, listening to lead-in and lead-out programs, and charting audience flow and turnover. In the late 1940s, C.E. Hooper also added diaries to his telephone sample in areas that could not easily be reached by telephone. But this mixture of diary and coincidental data was never completely satisfactory. Indeed, one of the reasons for Nielsen's Audimeter winning out over Hooperatings was that the telephone method was confined to larger metropolitan areas, where TV first began to erode the radio audience. Hence, Hooper (unlike Nielsen) tended to understate the radio audience and therefore quickly lost the support of radio stations.

Arbitron Diaries

     It was not until the end of the 1940s that diaries were introduced on a large-scale basis for providing syndicated audience research. James Seiler, director of research for the National Broadcasting Company's station in Washington, D.C., had for several years proposed using diaries to measure radio. NBC finally agreed to try a survey, not for radio, but for its new TV station in the market, agreeing to help pay for several tests. Seiler set up his own ratings service company in Washington and called it the American Research Bureau. He thought the name sounded very official, even patriotic. Later the name was shortened to ARB, and then to Arbitron when instant television ratings in larger cities were gathered electronically.

     The American Research Bureau's first report was based on a week-long diary that covered II-18 May 1949. By that fall, the company was also measuring TV viewing in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Chicago and Cleveland were added the next year. In spite of covering more markets the company grew slowly as both TV and the new diary method gained acceptance. Diaries were placed with TV viewers identified by random phone calls. From the beginning, Seiler was careful to list the number of diaries placed and those "recovered and usable." Also, "breakdowns of numbers of men, women, and children per set for specific programs [could] be furnished by extra tabulation."

     Tele-Que, another research company, began diary-based television ratings in Los Angeles in 1947. In 1951 Tele-Que merged with ARB, thus adding reports for Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. During the 1950s ARB emerged as the prime rival to Nielsen's local TV audience measurement, especially after 1955 when it took over the local Hooper TV rating business. By 1961, ARB was measuring virtually every TV market twice a year and larger markets more often.

     Local radio reports using the diary method were begun by Arbitron in 1965, nearly a quarter of a century after Garnet Garrison had recommended the method for the audio medium. Arbitron quit the TV measurement business in 1993 and now confines itself to radio.

     The diary used by Arbitron today is not much different from the one used more than 50 years ago for television stations. Arbitron now measures more than 100 radio markets continuously and provides monthly ratings for about 150 areas for eight or more weeks each year. Diaries are still placed by phone call, then sent and retrieved by mail. A diary is sent to each member in the household who is 12 or older. The diary format asks the respondent to indicate each time she starts and stops listening to the radio, the call letters or station name, and suggests that if she is not sure of the call letters or station name, she should write in program name or dial setting. Respondents must also indicate whether the station is AM or FM and whether they are listening at home, in a car, or some other place. At the back of the diary are questions about age and gender for audience composition tabulations and other questions, typically on product usage.

     While most diaries are still placed by telephone calls, special care is taken to place diaries personally in Spanish-speaking homes and residences in high-density ethnic areas. After careful editing of the diaries' listening reports, audience estimates are published for each market in a "ratings book" and are available online to subscribers for other detailed analysis. In transferring diary entries into computer data, the operators have a number of aids and checks in the computer program that allow them to check the accuracy of call letters in each market and other information. Some radio programmers like to go to Arbitron offices near Washington, D.C., to study the diaries. Images of all entries are available and can be sorted to observe them in many different categories. By examining actual diaries, programmers or a consultant hired by a station can determine whether people remember call letters or station slogans correctly. Often diary keepers write other comments that might be helpful. More detailed statistical analysis is possible by consulting the ratings book online, which allows subscribers to tabulate persons in the sample by any or all demographic categories. Such manipulations of data allow computation showing favorite stations, sharing listeners with other stations, audience in zip code areas, the time spent listening to one station, and other categories, to name just a few.

Advantages

     As envisioned by Garnet Garrison, diaries offer some significant advantages that account for their popularity. They offer a relatively inexpensive method for gathering a lot of information over the weekly period. But there are problems associated with the method. Responses-the rate is reported in each rating book-are often from only half of the sample. Younger males, for example, have a low return rate. Since the listeners who are more likely to keep a diary and provide accurate information are also likely to listen to some formats more than others, there is continuing controversy about rating results. Recently the growing use of telephone answering machines, cell phones used out of the home, and other factors make it harder to obtain diary keepers. Nonetheless, millions of diaries recording radio listening and TV watching are processed each year, and the broadcasting industry, advertisers, and advertising agencies depend on (and pay a high price for) the information obtained from a very simple little book that has been around for quite a long time.

     How much longer the diary method will be used is not clear. Arbitron, in cooperation with Nielsen Media Research, is testing a small personal recorder that people might carry to keep tabs on all the wearer's electronic media use.