A Historical Review of Radio Research in Sweden
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A Historical Review of Radio Research in Sweden CECILIA VON FEILITZEN How has Swedish radio research develo- the 1st of January, 1925. This program- ped? Which problem areas have been stud- ming was, and still is, free from advertising. ied, by which institutions and with what fi- The shares were at the outset owned by the nancing? A review of these matters is ma- press (2/3) and radio salesmen (1/3). Be- de here, based on time periods correspon- fore the national network was built out, ding to the reorganisations of radio, and private local radio stations were also allo- with that the altered forms of radio distri- wed, but only for a few years. Radio thus bution and programme policy, since this became a joint-stock company but with evolution appears to be one of the most parliament regulating the annual grants, important causes of growth and changes in and a radio law and an agreement with the radio research. The periods are sometimes state laying down the broad outlines for more relevant to radio, sometimes to TV, programming. No one outside Radiotjänst but valid for both, as the public service had the right to influence what was broad- media in Sweden and research about cast, but complaints about possible viola- them have, to a great extent, been institu- tions against law and agreement could, af- tionally connected up until 1992. The sum- ter broadcasting, be made to Radionämn- marising discussion asks in whose interests den (The Radio Council), set up in 1936. and for what purposes the radio studies In 1994, this function was taken over by have been performed. Granskningsnämnden för radio och TV (The Broadcasting Commission); thus the 1925-1955 same general construction is still valid. Apart from 1925, the first years radio On Radio listeners had a varied programme menu of During the period 1925-1955, radio in facts and education, entertainment and Sweden was the only medium on the air. music to choose from during 7-8 hours a Trial broadcasts could be heard even in the day, mainly in the evenings. On Sundays, early twenties, but AB Radiotjänst (Swed- there were 12 hours of broadcasting. How- ish Broadcasting Corporation), the inde- ever, news and programmes on current af- pendent, politically established, licence fi- fairs were few. For example, during the nanced company with sole right to broad- first seven years, the news was limited to a cast national radio in the service of the quarter of an hour each day at 9.15 p.m., public, started its regular programming on and then only slowly increased by a few 23 short newscasts at other times of the day. lation to what was broadcast. Approxima- It was Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) tely 155,000 persons or 43 per cent (The News Agency of the Press), not Ra- responded (this group is not representative diotjänst, that had been given responsibility of the licence holders, who in their turn for the radio news activity, and TT did not are not representative of the other mem- want radio to compete with the press for bers of the household). Various genres of the news. Not until 1937 was Radiotjänst traditional light music of that time topped permitted to start a programme on current the list. High up on the list were also talks, affairs of its own, Dagens Eko, but still news, as well as sketches and cabaret. At with TT as the supplier of news bulletins. the bottom of the list landed modern When the war ceased in 1945, Radiotjänst dance music, i.e., mainly jazz, and different wilfully broke the agreement on TT´s news forms of serious music. monopoly. From 1947 and thereafter, Ra- More genuine surveys were done dur- diotjänst was lawfully allowed to broadcast ing the war and afterwards. In 1943, when news bulletins of its own, in addition to around 70 per cent of the population had those of TT, but they were not regularly access to radio at home, the size and com- set up until 1956 (Elgemyr 1984a). position of the radio audience during one Until the last year of the period, 1955, week were studied at the request of Radio- radio had pauses in broadcasting during tjänst. Peaks in listening were observed du- the day one could mainly listen in the ring news broadcasts according to the mornings, mid-days and evenings. In 1955, study, nearly 80 per cent of yesterdays ac- radio broadcasting began to develop faster, tual radio audience (not of all persons with as radio then got its second channel, P2, access to radio) listened at 7 p.m. but via the FM-system. old-time dance music, the gramophone hour, entertainment programmes, radio plays and morning devotions also attracted On Radio Research 40-50 per cent of the actual audience. On During the beginning of the 20th century average, these listeners heard 2 1/2-3 up to the Second World War, little media hours a day (Svenska Gallupinstitutet 1943, research existed at any level in Sweden. SOU 1946:1). Afterwards, some people Exceptions were mainly some literature re- have been amazed by this daily listening search done within the discipline of litera- time and the high per centages shown for ture science and some press research with- many programmes in the report, and con- in the disciplines of history and political cluded that radio during the war was an science. extremely important mass medium. Even When it comes to radio, however, Tele- if that is not to be doubted, it is worth grafstyrelsen (The Board of Telecommuni- mentioning that listening time per listener cations), in consultation with Radiotjänst, today is about the same but with the dif- arranged in 1928 a kind of voting enquiry ference that listening is spread out around (Radiotjänst 1929, SOU 1935:10). All the the clock and across many radio channels, then licence holders (still less than one with the consequence that each single pro- fourth of the households had radio) recei- gramme reaches a much smaller audience. ved a postal questionnaire and were asked After the war, some studies were made what they wanted to hear more or less of about listening to special radio program- for 20 programme items nota bene, in re- mes. Further, audience surveys were per- 24 formed about the role of radio in the elec- If we use a simple transmission para- tion campaigns of 1948 and 1950. (Until digm of the mass communication process, 1969, Radiotjänst mostly ordered the large, nowadays abandoned by many media re- quantitative data collections from institutes searchers but at that time a common model on the market.) It appeared that election and therefore appropriate in this context programmes on the radio were of much sender>message>medium>receiver the more interest to the public than correspon- focus of radio research during 1925-1955 ding content in the press, film and other can schematically be delineated as in figure 1. sources. Also, in 1947, the living habits of Thus, the problem areas of research du- the Swedish population were studied to ring this first period were, above all, the ac- find out about suitable broadcasting times. tual and potential radio listeners. Also, the This last study has often been somewhat studies on the role of radio in the elections ironically referred to afterwards, since it mainly focused on the listeners, even if showed that 79 per cent of the population they, in a broader sense, touched on the so- was already awake at 7 oclock a result cietal function of radio for formation of that astonished the middle class radio staff. public opinion and for democracy, as well. The consequence was that morning pro- When looking from this period into the fu- grammes were broadcast one hour earlier, ture, we see that these three problem areas at 6.15 a.m. the actual and potential audience, along In 1948-49, Radiotjänst also tested a with the political role of radio comprise new method, so-called listening councils the agenda of radio research for a long (in the form of discussion forums). These time to come. Even if a few studies were were carried out relatively regularly during carried out at universities, it was altogether some ten years. At the same time, the num- radio itself that initiated and financed re- ber of customary listening studies (mostly search during this period. ratings) increased. A survey about the elec- tion campaign on the radio in 1954 was 1956-1968 contracted out to a university political sci- ence department. In 1955, Radiotjänst es- On Radio and TV tablished its own Section for Listening Stu- This period starts when Sweden got its dies. first TV channel. Radiotjänst began trial Figure 1. The Direction of Radio Research 1925-1955 Research institutions sender contents medium audience researchers at - voting enquiry Radiotjänst/insti- - audience ratings tutes on the - listening councils market - living habits - the role of radio in the elections universities - listening to special programmes - the role of radio in the election 25 TV transmissions a few years earlier, but it On Radio Research was in 1956 that regular TV broadcasting got going. Radio and TV were, thus, inte- The first years of this period were domina- grated within the same company. In 1957, ted by surveys about radio listening, al- ownership was broadened: 40 per cent of though TV viewing was studied as well. the shares were owned by the press, 40 per 1958 was the year, however, when the first cent by popular movements and 20 per comprehensive TV ratings were perfor- cent by trade and industry.