Crossley Tops

To lie-abeds or people in the shower, the chirrupy voice that sometimes phones at 8 a. m. to ask what radio programs you heard last night may seem a Galluping nuisance. But from radio's point of view, the early-bird checker for Crossley, Inc.* is doing a mighty important job. She, and 50 other such investigators in 33 major network cities from coast to coast, are "counting the house," for in the radio business, "Crossley ratings" are the official box-office count. Crossley's boss is the Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting, instituted eleven years ago by a fact-lacking group of advertisers and ad agencies, and now subscribed to, for from $40 to $300 a month, by 63 sponsors, agencies, broadcasters, etc.

Last week, in the fortnightly trade journal Broadcasting-Broadcast Advertising, C.A.B.'s statisticky Manager Alcuin Williams Lehman reported on the Crossley ups & downs (i.e., audience preferences) for 1939.

First in the hearts of radio listeners all year, with a Crossley rating over December of 40% or better of all radio homes sampled, was Chase and Sanborn's whittled imp, Charlie McCarthy. Second: Jack Benny. Third: Lux Radio Theatre. Next, in finishing order at year's end: Fibber McGee & Molly, Kraft Music Hall (Bing Crosby), Major Bowes, Bob Hope, Fitch Band Wagon, Kate Smith, Pot o' Gold. Fred Allen, in the first ten since 1934, finished eleventh.

* An industrial research outfit, not to be confused with Powel Crosley Jr.'s radio enterprise, WLW Cincinnati.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.