Exit Crossley

Radio's most famous linesman passed into limbo last week. The Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting, Inc., sponsor of the "Crossley rating" system, closed its Manhattan office and went out of business. Cause of death: radiomen decided last summer that the industry-financed C.A.B. was duplicating the independent telephone poll of C. E. Hooper (TIME, May 25, 1942).

C.A.B., organized by radio advertisers in 1929, early hired pioneer market researcher Archibald M. Crossley* to measure the unseen audience. In up to 81 U.S. cities for 16 years, Crossley aides thumbed through telephone directories, called subscribers at random, asked them what program, if any, they were listening to. By this method, C.A.B. tried to estimate the number of telephone subscribers tuned in to any show. No attempt was made to learn what they thought of the broadcast. The fact of listening was enough. Soon, "Crossleys" were used as defense for programs good & bad. But even top stars like Jack Benny and Edgar Bergen worried more about their "Crossleys" than their hairlines.

C.A.B.'s passing boomed Hooper. Of Crossley's 92 exclusive clients, 80 had switched to Hooper last week. Until a better system comes along, radio would continue to judge itself by telephone.

*Whose 1936 election day prediction gave Alfred M. Landon ten states. Actual count: two--Maine and Vermont.

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