Title: C. E. Hooper, Inc. Records
Inclusive Dates: 1936-1951

Creator:

• C.E. Hooper, Inc.

Call Number: U.S. Mss 41AF

Quantity: 3.6 c.f. (9 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Records of a market research firm specializing in radio and television audience measurement. The collection consists primarily of “Hooperatings,” or reports on radio listening to major network stations in selected U.S. cities, 1936-1947. Also included are newsletters, pamphlets, and related material produced by the firm for its subscribers.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0041af

C. E. Hooper, Inc., produced widely accepted reports on radio listening which dominated the field of audience measurement from the late 1930's through the 1940's. Known as Hooperatings, these reports provided broadcasters and advertisers with information on program audience size in selected U. S. cities serviced by the major networks.

The Hooperatings were first produced in the fall of 1934 by Clark-Hooper, Inc., a newly incorporated market research firm of Claude E. Hooper (1898-1954) and L. Montgomery Clark. Initially concerned with the print as well as the broadcast media, the joint enterprise ended in 1938 when Clark left and Hooper began to devote himself exclusively to measuring radio listening. Hooperatings were started at the urging of magazine publishers, who were concerned that network program audiences be more adequately measured. They felt that the reports of the Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting (CAB) of Archibald Crossley were exaggerating the size of radio audiences. Relying initially on the coincidental method of George Gallup rather than the Crossley “recall” method of telephone interviewing, Hooper succeeded in deflating the CAB figures and later, in 1946, replaced the Crossley service. Although he had begun measuring television audiences and had refined and expanded his radio services by the late 1940's, Hooper bowed to the national competition of A. C. Nielsen in 1950. Until his death in 1954, Hooper concentrated, by agreement with Nielsen, on local radio and television ratings.

For additional information see Frank W. Nye's “Hoop” of Hooperatings: The Man and His Work (Norwalk, Conn., 1957) in the Society Library.

The C. E. Hooper, Inc., collection consists mainly of reports on radio listening produced for subscribers, 1936-1947. There is also a small amount of miscellaneous material, 1944-1951, which accompanied radio and television reports not represented in the collection.

The REPORTS section has an incomplete set of monthly and semimonthly reports, 1936-1947; semiannual summaries, 1936-1938; and three special reports, 1944-1947. The first vary in title, methodology employed, and information given as Hooper refined and expanded his services. For the most part the reports detail radio listening habits, indicating sets in use, actual program listeners in a potential audience, audience ability to match network programs with sponsors, and the amount of rating change from previous reports. They are semimonthly for December, 1936 to September, 1938, and for 1942-1947. The monthly reports occur between October, 1938, and September, 1941. Hooper began by reporting only nighttime listening; he started daytime ratings in February, 1938. Represented here are day and night reports for February, 1938, to December, 1941, and 1943 to 1947. There are only night reports for 1942. Beginning dates for some of the additional data in the reports include: separate reports for large and small cities, 1938; the ratings of networks by time periods, July, 1939; lists of the top programs, February, 1942; and a breakdown of listeners by men, women and children, January, 1944. In many cases, much of the promotional material which accompanied these reports has been retained.

The semiannual reports, 1936-1938, summarize by graphs and tables the findings of semimonthly reports for January to June and July to December. Also based on semimonthly reports, three sets of publications -- Sectional Reports, a Chartbook, and Comprehensive Reports, 1944-1947 -- provide special data analysis. The Sectional Reports, May, 1944-April, 1946, each cover four months and arrange program data by geographic area for daily half hour periods of network broadcasting. They list aggregate four month figures for daily listening. The Chartbook, April-June, 1946, employs graphs and tables to detail audience trends and includes retrospective comparisons with other years as well as with previous months in 1946. Included here is information on listening by day, night, season, and program category. The Comprehensive Reports, 1946-1947, are quarterly and contain Sectional and Chartbook reports and a third section entitled “Uniform Network Competition.” This new Hooper service lists network programs alphabetically and, by bar graphs, shows how they performed against other network programs broadcast in selected cities.

The MISCELLANY section consists of a number of items, 1944-1951, which were sent to Hooper subscribers. Most of this material accompanied reports which are not found in this collection. Included are convenient radio and television rating summaries, “Pocket Pieces,” and copies of the Hooper newsletter, HiLights, and related material. There are also two pamphlets explaining the purpose and methodology of Hooperatings, 1945 and 1947.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the University of Wisconsin Speech Department, Madison, Wisconsin, November, 1961, and the National Broadcasting Company, New York City, November, 1970. Accession Number: MCHC61-072 and MCHC70-119

Processing Information

Processed by R. H. Tryon, 1978.

	Series: Reports
Box   1 Folder   1-4	Semiannual Summary Reports, 1936-1938
	Monthly and Semimonthly
Box   1 Folder   5-9	1936, December-December, 1938
Box   2 Folder   1-7	1939, January-June, 1941
Box   3 Folder   1-7	1941, July-April, 1943
Box   4 Folder   1-7	1943, May-June, 1944
Box   5 Folder   1-8	1944, July-April, 1945
Box   6 Folder   1-9	1945, May-January, 1947
Box   7 Folder   1-11	1946, February-January, 1947
Box   8 Folder   1-6	1947, February-November
Box   8 Folder   7-8	Sectional Reports (three times yearly), 1944, May-April, 1946
Box   8 Folder   9	Chartbook, April-June, 1946
Box   8 Folder   10-12	Comprehensive Reports (quarterly), 1946-1947
	Series: Miscellany	⇧
Box   9 Folder   1	Radio and TV Pocket Pieces, 1948-1951
Box   9 Folder   2-3	HiLights and related material, 1944-1951
Box   9 Folder   4	Pamphlets re Hooperatings, 1945 and 1947