The Alarm Klok Klub

 That this show ever existed at all is baffling, that it ran for 30 years is even more unusual, that there were others just like it is inexplicable. Because of his tenure on the program, it's host, Frank Cope is recognized by some as the nation's first disc jockey. In 1930, KJBS-AM was purportedly running an an all-music format. That sounds non-specific by modern standards, but things were different then. KJBS-AM was an oddly licensed station, with two tower sites.  It wasn't granted authorization to operate full time at 50 kw until 1977. So the Alarm Klok Klub didn't sign on in Hayward until 5:00 AM, but it ran until 8:00 AM.  Like a normal daytime the station signed off at sunset. But then they signed on again from San Francisco at 10:00 PM, and off again at 3:00 AM. [info courtesy of David Kaye] This was to avoid interference with WTAM. More here.

The Author of Raised on Radio, Gerald Nachman grouped the program alongside the Milkman's Matinee, and with other early DJs like Jack Sterling, John Gambling, Al Jarvis, and Peter Potter.Frank Cope  was born in Utah, and had previously worked at KLO-AM, which signed on in 1929. He started on "The Alarm Klok Klub" on San Francisco's KJBS on March 3rd, 1930. The program ran 6 days a week, only sitting out Sundays. Some sources claim that Cope left KJBS in 1952, but I prefer the date given by Bayarearadio.org, coinciding with the sale of KJBS to Argonaut Broadcasting in 1959. Rumor has it that he tried out at KSFO-AM but didn't fit in and moved on to the car business. He died in 1974, he was 72. 

1020 KYW-AM launched a similar program in 1930, no doubt influenced by the Alarm Klok Klub. Theirs was called the "Musical Clock."  It debuted on April 14th, sponsored by the Marshall Field Company.   Sears picked up the sponsorship in 1935. It's host, Miss Halloween Martin, was just 28 years old. She was a DePaul University grad with a little acting experience who was then working at a news paper. She gave the time, temperature and weather every 5 minutes from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM, and spun light classical, pop and jazz. In 1934, when KYW-AM moved to Philadelphia, the "Musical Clock" moved to WBBM-AM.  The show was finally cancelled in 1944, and Martin crossed the street to WCFL-AM.

Chicago had at least two other "clock-type" morning shows concurrent with Martin's. WMBI a Morning Clock program that started no later than the mid 1940s. It was still running in 1986 hosted then by Bob it ran from 6:30 to 8:00 AM. On November 18th 1941, W75C began simulcasting WMBI’s programs on the FM band. they later changed calls to WDLM and they too carried the Morning Clock. According to author Arnold Passman, writer of The Deejays (mandatory reading) there were plenty more. At WBT-AM, Lee Everett was hosting the "Morning Clock" starting in 1934. At about the same time, in New York, John B. Gambling was hosting the "Morning Clock" on WOR-AM. Some of the programs were more zany than others. At WDAE-AM  in Tampa, there was another musical clock program. This one had a time signal on the program which was the sound of a guy grinding his teeth. Ugh.

The Variety Radio Directory of 1938, lists yet more for which I have no other corroborating reference, "Alarm Clock" on KWTN and CJOC, 'The Alarm Clock Club" on CKCK, the "Alarm Clock Frolic" on WPTF, another "Alarm  Clock" on KWOS, the "Alarm Clock Program" on KFJB, "Alarm Clock Revue" on WBRC,  "Alarm Clock Salute" on WNAC, the "Alarm Klock Klub" on KIEV, and a different "Alarm Klock Klub" on KVOG in Salt Lake City. There was even an "Alarm Clock Serenade" on WICC. I'm sure there were even more, but this programming novelty has been dead for decades. In it's place we have the morning zoo, which is less novel but more local.

Radio Ratings Part 5: The First Scandal!

I should clarify the title.. the first big scandal. There had already been little ones. Any ratings system that raises any station or programs standing inherently lowers another. It's a zero sum game. So for every step forward there was a flurry of back room deals, bribes, and sabotage to attempt to stop progress. Within the context of the resistance to Arbitron's PPM I am reminded of the previous hullabaloo in 1963. But it was the radio networks that invited statisticians into the fray in the first place. they were hiring them to debunk any system that was a detriment to their ad revenues.

I am reminded of a quote from the film A Few Good Men "You can't handle the truth!" That was truly that was the issue. The networks really didn't give a crap about accuracy. They just wanted to validate higher ad rates. When it began to backfire with the possibility of lower ad rates they shit a collective brick. They all complained but only Stanley Breyer had the cajones to pick a fight. In 1950 with the growing use of the multiple ratings systems it became clear that they were all generating conflicting data. This data determined ad rates which determined ad revenues. Some ad buyers tried to correlate listenership to sales to measure ad effectiveness. Instead of working, it just made everybody look bad. The listenership numbers sometimes outright defied the sales numbers.

It was radio station 1100 KJBS-AM that bitch-slapped the entire industry. They used both the Hooper and Pulse data and were furious about the discrepancies between them. Station Manager Stanley Breyer ran a full-page advertisement in the trade magazine Broadcasting-Telecasting, headed, “Two Umpires Behind the Plate Isn’t Any Good in Broadcasting, Either.” (If anyone has a scan of that ad, or there whereabouts of Stanley Breyer please fill me in.)

NAB formed a "Special Test Survey Committee" to investigate radio ratings. Essentially every business attached to marketing, advertising an media chimed on on the issue. The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) polled its members in 1952, on the issue. Their members asked for an “ending [to] confusion in radio and TV audience ratings." A bigger uglier committee was formed. They took in hundreds of pages of testimony. Then as they were about ready to issue a report the chairman of the committee Dr. E. L. Deckinger actually said "This study will be the Kinsey Report of the TV industry.” The scandal actually really hurt some agency's. For some that had been already losing companies to the already dominant Arbitron and Nielsen it was the beginning of the end.

But somehow in 1954 the Recommended Standards for Radio and Television Audience Size Measurements report lacked the promised Kinsey-level of punch. Both NAB and ARF really failed on their own to produce any action beyond printing thick reports and thinning out the industry. So they took a shot at congressional action. It wasn't' the first time they'd tried to flex that lobbyist money but it was probably the first time they went the brute force method. (It began a long-standing tradition)

Senator A. N. "Mike" Monroney, chairman of the Senate Interstate and Commerce Committee. It was a smaller but far meaner and uglier committee. It was 1956 and they had already been having hearings on TV. Monroney prodded Senator Warren Magnuson (pictured) into investigating the ratings topic. Magnuson sent perfunctory letters to the ratings companies inquiring as to their techniques. Magnuson then held a hearing on June 26th 1958. The concepts were so academic, and the elected officially so ignorant that the hearing degenerated into an educational briefing. Nielsen, Sindlinger, Roslow, and and Seiler escaped unharmed. Later that year the TV quiz show scandal seemed to distract everyone and the stink under the porch settled down. Ultimately I think the consensus was that the ratings systems were imperfect not rigged. More here.

So history repeats itself. The dissenters of PPM are the stations who incur losses under the more granular data. thankfully the Senate Interstate and Commerce Committee is pretty disinterested in ratings. They're much more focused on white space auctions, satellite radio mergers and cross-ownership regulations...

WTAM and KJBS

*I'm going to be exceedingly clever and run a 5 day series next week and tie back into this post. In the 1930s and 40s it was common for clear channel allocated station to share time. This required that one of the two stations go dark at sunset to avoid crosstalk. This created a legal and practical link between stations that were physically hundreds of miles apart.

In this example I am referring to KJBS-AM and WTAM-AM. WTAM both originally owned by S.E. Lawrence and Theodore Willard, the owners of the Willard Storage Battery Company.

Radios unlike phonographs of the era, required electricity. This was in many cases the first household item that did. These homes, in many cases were not connected to the power grid or in fact lacked a grid to connect to. They were battery powered. So it's not surprising that battery manufacturers sponsored some radio stations and programs.

KJBS went on air as 1271 KFUQ-AM in 1925, changing call letters to KJBS that same year. Their 5 watts covered parts of San Francisco from a small studio above their garage on Bush Street. The wussy signal was hammered by 1000 watt KTAB starting a series of frequency moves. More here. In May 1928 the Willard Storage battery Co. sold off WTAM to the Electric Illuminating Co. ending the novelty.

In the 1930 KJBS was granted permission to broadcast at night while WTAM went dark . Previously t KJBS had gone off the air at sunset. as part of thsi new all-night programming KJBS began broadcasting police bulletins on behalf of the SF police Department. (this was before two-way radios.) In 1937 they moved into a space adjacent to the Williard Battery Shop. The sharing was over.

WTAM was KYW-AM briefly and then became WWWE-AM in in 1965 under the ownership of Ohio Communications. Today they're owned by Clear Channel. KJBS is KFAX today, calls they picked up as an all-new station. Today they run completely dull religious talk.