Billboard Magazine
Radio Response Ratings
San Francisco (3rd Cycle)
March 26, 1966
“Not a popularity poll,” the notes proclaim, yet this survey of local and national record industry personnel based in the Bay Area shows popular personalities and stations at the upper levels in influential categories in early 1966, according to Billboard magazine.
The ratings, used by stations to promote sales by showing the influential power of their personalities, shows stalwarts KYA (pop singles), KSFO (pop LPs and comedy records), KSOL and KDIA (R&B), KJAZ (jazz), KKHI (classical) and KABL (“conservative”) getting the lion’s share of recognition, with KYA’s Johnny Holliday and Gene Nelson and KSFO’s Don Sherwood, Jack Carney and Al Collins tabbed as notable individual influencers.
Under the heading of Top Disk Jockeys By Time Slot, the entire KYA air team — Gene Nelson, Ed Hider, Mike Cleary, Johnny Holliday, Tony Bigg, Tommy Saunders and Sean O’Callaghan — dominate, sweeping the category.
The notes conclude, “The ratings likewise point up the importance of music of all types in building audiences and creating the framework conducive to influencing the listener to purchase other products and services advertised on radio stations.”
SOURCE: Bay Area Radio Museum Collection, courtesy of Johnny Holliday.
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