What The Listener Likes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 223, 1 October 1943, Page 10

What The Listener Likes

| From the Radio Correspondent of /

the

Manchester

Guardian

"Tv BBC has for six years now been continuously responsible for "Listener Research" which, by a combination of different methods, gives a fairly close record of the reactions of a widely varied public to all kinds of programmes, The BBC uses its detailed inquiries about listening as a guide, not as a dictator. Before the war, this system of research was largely in the experimental stage, but the three years since the war began have confirmed its usefulness. It secures really representative figures, and not merely figures which are capable of proving anything. The system depends upon voluntary co-operation, and the readiness with which this is offered goes a long way to demonstrate the public’s good-natured interest in the BBC. During the war, there have been only the two programmes, Home and Forces, and while the "Forces" was specifically designed to meet "canteen conditions" (that is, continuous noise making concentration impossible), research shows that it has met a widespread need on the part of the civilian public. The figures show that 35 per cent to 45 per

cent of listeners use the Home Service and 55 per cent to 65 per cent use the Forces. Hostility is Revealing The figures showing hostility to certain programmes are just as revealing as those. showing ,popularity. When we come to look at the more detailed figures for many types of programme there are some very clear trends. If the letters "A," "C" and "E" are used to denote listeners who are respectively enthusiastic, neutral and hostile, the following table can be made of their attitude towards 17 types of programme (these figures refer to the year ended June, 1942; more recent inquiries show that some remarkable changes have taken place):Proportion of the listening public classified as-

Thus variety, .cinema organs, and parlour games are the most popular, while marked hostility is shown to chamber music, symphony concerts and poetry. Recently, however, one finds that variety registers only 35 per cent ‘instead of 51 per cent, that cinema organ popularity has declined from 34 per cent to 27 per cent, and that, on the other hand, hostility to chamber music and symphony concerts has fallen from 46 per cent to 38 per cent, and from 40 per cent to 29 per cent. Reiigious services have increased in popularity. There has thus, for whatever reason, been an increase in the seriousness of public taste. An amusing footnote is that the taste for brass bands remains absolutely fixed. How Tastes Differ / Inquiry into divergences of taste among different "socio-economic" groups shows these results; some programmes are least popular with the upper and most popular with the lower income groups, as this table shows: Proportion of each socio-economic group classified as "A" (enthusiastic).

Then one finds exactly the reverse of this in the following figures, where popularity is greatest in the upper and lower income groups

Proportion of each socio-economic group classified as "A" (enthusiast).

There are, of course, other trends which amplify these. Church organs are not only more popular with the upper class, but are listened to more by the old than the young. On the whole, the older the listener the. more serious; youth does not listen much in the evening; then again, the oldest age groups tend to go to bed, so their listening falls off. Women listen more than men in the day, naturally, and slightly more in the evening also. Men are more addicted to military bands, brass bands, talks and discussions; with women, plays, musical comedy, dance music and parlour games are more popular. The liking for parlour games, incidentally, is one of the few tastes that do not vary with income; the others are plays, religious services, and brass bands. The recurrence of the "brass band" motif suggests that this représents something particularly stable, since it varies neither with income nor with the passage of time. The one really surprising conclusion of research into listening habits is that the working classes listen markedly less to news bulletins thar do any other people. One would have expected to find at least an equally distributed interest in the day-to-day progress of a world war.

4 Type of programme Variety : a Musical Parlour games Plays .... Ke Cinema organs. vies Dence music .... jes Military bands Brass bands .. Church organs Grand opera .... sas Symphony concerts .... Chamber music cuin Talks ae es Short stories .... deee Religious services

Type of programme Variety Musical comedy Cinema organs Dance music .... Military bands

Upper . Lower Workmiddle middle ing class class class Type of programme p-c. p-c. p-c. Church organs ERS} 14 12 Grand opera ... Seer > a 8 Symphony concerts .... 27 16 6 Chamber music ae ae ® 8 3 Talks i ‘mice 34 21 Discussions _.... tne, Oe 28 16 Short stories .... eee 22 15 Poetry saad FREED il 4