The Press: Red Rag

To the bull spirit of U. S. newspapers, a red, red rag is radio’s blatantly exaggerated “coverage claims.” Last month mild-mannered Alexander Woollcott became an unwitting toreador in the radio v. newspaper ring. Seizing upon his radio praise of John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice & Men (“I look upon [it] as a masterpiece”) the book’s publishers plastered newspapers in Chicago, Boston and New York with the claim that Pundit Woollcott had spoken thus “in speaking to 69,540,000 people.”

Nearest to a radio circulation audit is the Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting rating issued twice monthly and giving the percentage of radio sets theoretically tuned in on 250 leading U. S. radio programs, based on actual checks of homes in 32 key areas. Accepted figure for U. S. families owning radio sets Jan. 1, 1937 is 24,500,000. C.A.B.’s rating for Mr. Woollcott’s program during the period of last month’s advertisements was 5.1%. Calculating 3.5 listeners for every U. S. radio, Mr. Woollcott’s listeners were not 69,540,000 but 4,373,250.