David Tate (radio broadcaster)
Encyclopedia
David Helene Tate served as President/CEO of Rantel Research, Inc. of Laurel, MD, a broadcast radio audience marketing company, from 1979-1997. Rantel's area of professional specialization was mostly in radio format
s targeted at young-adult audiences as measured by Arbitron
of Columbia, MD. While companies like Arbitron were focused primarily on measuring radio audience listening levels, or audience ratings, Rantel concentrated on measuring the underlying motivations of radio listeners, i.e., why a listener would prefer one radio station
over another.
Before serving at Rantel, Tate worked as a journeyman on-the-air radio host
(disc jockey
) from roughly 1967-1973. Tate's first professional radio broadcast experience was as a volunteer broadcaster, as the afternoon on-air host at Christian-formatted WGTS
-FM, Takoma Park, MD, from 1967-1970. Tate served under the tutelage of WGTS station manager, Joseph Spicer, Ph.D.
During the bulk of the period from the early 1970s until 1979, Tate served as a radio station program director
for "popular music" radio stations, where his duties occasionally required him to serve on-the-air as well.
, of KABC
-AM radio in Los Angeles, CA.
During its 17 year existence, the Rantel company focused on developing computer software and services for radio audience market research. During this time, Rantel created products and services for about 1100 broadcasters in the U.S., as well as in South Africa, Italy and Australia.
As the Rantel company slowly achieved prominence in radio during the 1980s, it probably became best known for its introduction of computer-assisted data collection and delivery systems, statistical analysis
and audience-segmentation techniques, through its development of some of the earliest incarnations of PC-based software applications for the nascent field of radio audience research, during the 1980s and 1990s.
In the mid-1980s, Rantel developed the first Computer-assisted telephone interviewing systems for its own use and later licensed these systems to other industries, such as political polling organizations. In the mid-1990s, Rantel developed the first Microsoft Windows
-based Computer-assisted personal interviewing systems for radio audience research and the first Windows-based audience research data delivery and analysis systems for radio broadcasting under the direction of lead programmer Kris Earl Phillips (also a former broadcaster).
In the late-1980s and 1990s, the company introduced software-based audience analysis
techniques for radio broadcasters, by seeking to commercialize techniques derived from the field of Multivariate statistics
; procedures like Cluster Analysis and Factor Analysis
, which were drawn from academic experimentation and market research
being performed for Fortune 500
firms, such as Procter & Gamble
.
During the 1980s, the Arbitron Company was developing the Portable People Meter
, or PPM, technology to replace its self-administered, seven-day radio diary method to collect radio listening data from Arbitron survey participants. The radio diary had been the most generally-accepted method of measuring radio listening since 1964. Rantel became an early evangelist for the new PPM method, because Rantel researchers had performed many audits of Arbitron radio diaries during its early years and were keenly aware of the weaknesses of the seven-day radio diary method.
In 1995, Tate, then CEO of Rantel Research, was selected by The Radio & Records
(R&R) trade newspaper to help create the brand-name, survey sampling, data accumulation, processing and reporting of the Callout America national radio listening audience popularity survey of songs published in the Top 40 and Country & Western airplay charts of the R&R newspaper. Tate managed the publication of the first three months of the Callout America service directly from the Radio & Records editorial offices on Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles, while the data collection for the service was being managed from Rantel's national telephone interviewing center in Maryland. This service is currently being continued by Bullseye Marketing Research, Inc., of Nashville, TN, as of January, 2011.
The relaxation of radio station ownership rules allowed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996
forced many suppliers to the radio industry
to close operations, due to the resulting reduction of intramural competition between stations in radio markets throughout the U.S. and Rantel Research, which required a competitive radio marketplace for its products and services, was not immune to these market forces
. Rantel closed its operations in January, 1997 and Tate retired from broadcasting.
, Bethesda, MD (1970) and studied Broadcasting at Columbia Union College
(now Washington Adventist University), Takoma Park, MD (1967–1970).
, who served as Treasurer of the United States
from 5/31/1928 through 1/17/1929. The Tate family in America derives from Scotch-Irish descent, beginning with the first direct ancestor, Lt. David Tate, who arrived in what would become the United States circa 1750, while in military service to the King of England, according to American historian and genealogist Penelope Johnson Allen. Allen published the history of the Tate family of Eastern Tennessee in The Chattanooga Times newspaper, in 1936.
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
s targeted at young-adult audiences as measured by Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
of Columbia, MD. While companies like Arbitron were focused primarily on measuring radio audience listening levels, or audience ratings, Rantel concentrated on measuring the underlying motivations of radio listeners, i.e., why a listener would prefer one radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
over another.
Before serving at Rantel, Tate worked as a journeyman on-the-air radio host
Radio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
(disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
) from roughly 1967-1973. Tate's first professional radio broadcast experience was as a volunteer broadcaster, as the afternoon on-air host at Christian-formatted WGTS
WGTS
WGTS 91.9 FM is a Christian radio station broadcasting from Takoma Park, Maryland, USA, and serving the Washington DC Baltimore area in a contemporary Christian music format....
-FM, Takoma Park, MD, from 1967-1970. Tate served under the tutelage of WGTS station manager, Joseph Spicer, Ph.D.
During the bulk of the period from the early 1970s until 1979, Tate served as a radio station program director
Program director
In service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
for "popular music" radio stations, where his duties occasionally required him to serve on-the-air as well.
Rantel Research
In 1979, Tate co-founded Rantel Research, Inc., with partners Steven A. Smith (VP/Operations, later COO) and Charles E. Helene (VP/Statistics And Analysis). The name, "Rantel Research" stood for, "Radio and Television Research", although Rantel's business activities centered mostly in the radio broadcasting field. The Rantel company was not affiliated with the radio talk-show host, Al RantelAl Rantel
Al Rantel is a conservative talk show host. Rantel's most recent contract was with KABC radio, Los Angeles, California . Rantel is unusual in being an outspoken conservative who is openly gay...
, of KABC
KABC
KABC may refer to:* KABC , a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States* KABC-TV, a television station licensed to Los Angeles, California...
-AM radio in Los Angeles, CA.
During its 17 year existence, the Rantel company focused on developing computer software and services for radio audience market research. During this time, Rantel created products and services for about 1100 broadcasters in the U.S., as well as in South Africa, Italy and Australia.
As the Rantel company slowly achieved prominence in radio during the 1980s, it probably became best known for its introduction of computer-assisted data collection and delivery systems, statistical analysis
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
and audience-segmentation techniques, through its development of some of the earliest incarnations of PC-based software applications for the nascent field of radio audience research, during the 1980s and 1990s.
In the mid-1980s, Rantel developed the first Computer-assisted telephone interviewing systems for its own use and later licensed these systems to other industries, such as political polling organizations. In the mid-1990s, Rantel developed the first Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
-based Computer-assisted personal interviewing systems for radio audience research and the first Windows-based audience research data delivery and analysis systems for radio broadcasting under the direction of lead programmer Kris Earl Phillips (also a former broadcaster).
In the late-1980s and 1990s, the company introduced software-based audience analysis
Audience analysis
Audience analysis is a task that is often performed by technical writers in a project's early stages. It consists of assessing the audience to make sure the information provided to them is at the appropriate level. The audience is often referred to as the end-user, and all communications need to...
techniques for radio broadcasters, by seeking to commercialize techniques derived from the field of Multivariate statistics
Multivariate statistics
Multivariate statistics is a form of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one statistical variable. The application of multivariate statistics is multivariate analysis...
; procedures like Cluster Analysis and Factor Analysis
Factor analysis
Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...
, which were drawn from academic experimentation and market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
being performed for Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
firms, such as Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
.
During the 1980s, the Arbitron Company was developing the Portable People Meter
Portable People Meter
The Portable People Meter is a system developed by Arbitron to measure how many people are listening to individual radio stations and television stations, including cable TV. The PPM is worn like a pager, and detects hidden audio tones within a station or network's audio stream, logging each...
, or PPM, technology to replace its self-administered, seven-day radio diary method to collect radio listening data from Arbitron survey participants. The radio diary had been the most generally-accepted method of measuring radio listening since 1964. Rantel became an early evangelist for the new PPM method, because Rantel researchers had performed many audits of Arbitron radio diaries during its early years and were keenly aware of the weaknesses of the seven-day radio diary method.
In 1995, Tate, then CEO of Rantel Research, was selected by The Radio & Records
Radio & Records
Radio & Records was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It originally started out as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006, up until its final issue in 2009.-History:The company was founded in 1973 and...
(R&R) trade newspaper to help create the brand-name, survey sampling, data accumulation, processing and reporting of the Callout America national radio listening audience popularity survey of songs published in the Top 40 and Country & Western airplay charts of the R&R newspaper. Tate managed the publication of the first three months of the Callout America service directly from the Radio & Records editorial offices on Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles, while the data collection for the service was being managed from Rantel's national telephone interviewing center in Maryland. This service is currently being continued by Bullseye Marketing Research, Inc., of Nashville, TN, as of January, 2011.
The relaxation of radio station ownership rules allowed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996
Telecommunications Act of 1996
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years, amending the Communications Act of 1934. This Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, was a major stepping stone towards the future of telecommunications, since this was the...
forced many suppliers to the radio industry
Radio industry
The "radio industry" is a generic term for any companies or public service providers who are involved with the broadcast of radio stations or ancillary services.Radio broadcasters can be broken into at least two different groups:...
to close operations, due to the resulting reduction of intramural competition between stations in radio markets throughout the U.S. and Rantel Research, which required a competitive radio marketplace for its products and services, was not immune to these market forces
Market Forces
Market Forces is a science fiction novel by Richard Morgan, first published in 2004.Set in 2049 in the wake of a global economic downturn called the Domino Recessions, it follows up-and-coming executive Chris as he plunges into the profitable field of Conflict Investment...
. Rantel closed its operations in January, 1997 and Tate retired from broadcasting.
Education
Tate is a graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High SchoolBethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is a Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, public school named for two of the towns it serves along with Kensington and Silver Spring, Maryland. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda, an unincorporated community in Montgomery County...
, Bethesda, MD (1970) and studied Broadcasting at Columbia Union College
Columbia Union College
Washington Adventist University is a Seventh-day Adventist liberal arts university operating in Takoma Park, Maryland, United States. Since 2008, when its new president Weymouth Spence announced a restructuring, the school has seen its enrollment increase by 50%.- Academics :WAU is accredited by...
(now Washington Adventist University), Takoma Park, MD (1967–1970).
Genealogy
David Tate is the grandnephew of Harold Theodore TateHarold Theodore Tate
Harold Theodore Tate was Treasurer of the United States from May 31, 1928 until January 17, 1929, serving under President Calvin Coolidge. While holding that post, his duties included being the signatory on United States currency....
, who served as Treasurer of the United States
Treasurer of the United States
The Treasurer of the United States is an official in the United States Department of the Treasury that was originally charged with the receipt and custody of government funds, though many of these functions have been taken over by different bureaus of the Department of the Treasury...
from 5/31/1928 through 1/17/1929. The Tate family in America derives from Scotch-Irish descent, beginning with the first direct ancestor, Lt. David Tate, who arrived in what would become the United States circa 1750, while in military service to the King of England, according to American historian and genealogist Penelope Johnson Allen. Allen published the history of the Tate family of Eastern Tennessee in The Chattanooga Times newspaper, in 1936.
Sources
- Leaves from the Family Tree, by Penelope Johnson Allen, reprinted in The Chattanooga Sunday Times, December 6, 1936 (This article erroneously names Oscar Tate as Treasurer of the United States. Oscar was the brother of H. T. Tate. and the grand-uncle of radio broadcaster, David Tate).
- Excerpts from History of Tennessee, The Goodspeed Publishing Co., Nashville, TN 1887.
Links
- Wikipedia: Harold Theodore Tate, U.S. Treasurer, May 31, 1928 until January 17, 1929Harold Theodore TateHarold Theodore Tate was Treasurer of the United States from May 31, 1928 until January 17, 1929, serving under President Calvin Coolidge. While holding that post, his duties included being the signatory on United States currency....
- Wikipedia: Washington Adventist University, Notable Alumni and Former Students
- Wikipedia: WERQ-FMWERQ-FMWERQ-FM is a commercial radio station located in Baltimore, Maryland. It features an Urban music format and is known by its listeners as, 92Q. It is operated by Radio One of Lanham, Maryland, which operates 53 radio stations in 16 metropolitan areas in the United States and is the largest...
- Wikipedia: WCGQWCGQWCGQ is a radio station broadcasting a Contemporary Hit Radio music format. WCGQ is licensed to serve the community of Columbus, Georgia, USA.-Current:...
- Wikipedia: Bethesda-Chevy Chase High SchoolBethesda-Chevy Chase High SchoolBethesda-Chevy Chase High School is a Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, public school named for two of the towns it serves along with Kensington and Silver Spring, Maryland. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda, an unincorporated community in Montgomery County...
- Kris Earl Phillips Biography
- http://books.google.com/books?id=2IUf_1YZAQkC&pg=RA1-PA160&lpg=RA1-PA160&dq=%22conducted+extensive+auditorium%22+and+%22rantel+research%22&source=bl&ots=-IlrHAmMxh&sig=PiLZmk7dyRsLxiqtx_voj-ri6sU&hl=en&ei=kXCKTNjjHcP6lweH9Z3iCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22conducted%20extensive%20auditorium%22%20and%20%22rantel%20research%22&f=falseGoogle Books Result: Future Radio Programming Strategies: Cultivating Listenership in the Digital Age, by D.T. MacFarland]
- Google Books Result: The Radio Station, by Michael E. Keith
- The Association Between Music Research and CHR Radio Stations' Arbitron Ratings, by G. Heller
- Google Books Result: Billboard Magazine, Oct 26, 1996
- DCRTV Mailbag: October 11 to October 20, 2000
- Broadcast "aircheck" recording of David Tate as, "David Tate" on WEAM-AM/Arlington, VA, Summer, 1974