The Day The Ratings Book Arrived at KAAY

WAKE UP!

As I write this it is 9:30 AM Tuesday morning and there has not been one visitor to this blog. As a friend to take a look at this blog. Help me get the numbers up.

NUMBERS...Those of you in the broadcast business knoq you live and die by the ratings.

In my days at KAAY, Pulse was the major rating service. Hooper was still around but not doing much. We all knew the approximate date it should arrive but never the exact date. If we ordered the book, we could get some advance numbers. The arrival was a big event, usually in the manager's office. He would get first peek. Then he would pass out copies to the department heads so we could start pouring over the numbers. There was usually something for everyone. Brother Hal and the black station were always tough to beat.

Pat Walsh was a rating fanatic. He had a huge file of rating books. While he was still alive and getting ready to move to an apartment, I helped him find a home for the rating books. (3 huge boxes). I found a guy in Arizona with an interest in them.
We paid the freight, and shipped them to him with the promise he would copy them and pass them on to someone else with an interest in them.

Too bad he had the bad experience of turning over historical documents (Ear on Arkansas master tapes) to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Rating books serve the purpose of keeping jocks honest. When someone would start bragging to Pat about how good they were, he would reach down to the files and pull out a book and set the straight.