Obituary

Tom Church, 61, who advised: ‘Think audience’

Published in Current, issue 0506, 2005
By Mike Janssen

Tom Church, who helped to transform public radio by popularizing the use of audience research, died March 13 in McCall, Idaho. He was 61.

Church had suffered from lung cancer and emphysema for some time, but the cause of death was not determined.

As a research associate at CPB in the 1970s and later as founder and president of the Radio Research Consortium, Church furnished Arbitron ratings to stations and, more importantly, taught them the rewards of understanding and using the numbers. His work transformed public radio’s on-air sound and programming strategies.

He took to the job with a missionary’s zeal and a sharp sense of humor, conducting workshops where he pushed station executives to focus on audience growth at a time when few knew — or even cared to know — the size of their audiences.

“Virtually every p.d. and g.m. in public radio attended one of these workshops, which is how Tom changed public radio,” says George Bailey, a researcher and close friend of Church’s who joined him as a presenter at the workshops.

Church, Bailey and colleague David Giovannoni stirred fears that tracking listener data would commercialize and corrupt public radio. The debate persists, but research achieved a far more respected place in the programmer’s tool belt due to Church’s wit, intelligence and persistence.

“Tom’s legacies permeate public radio,” Giovannoni says. “He challenged us to become better broadcasters, and he showed us how to become more important in the lives of more people. Every day millions of Americans benefit from his thinking.”

In 1994, Church and Giovannoni shared CPB’s Edward R. Murrow Award, considered public radio’s highest honor. Church was “almost embarrassed” by the award, says friend and longtime RRC Board member Steve Meuche.

“His contribution is enormous, and he never really wanted any accolades for what he was doing,” Meuche says.

Church also received NPR’s Edward E. Elson Award and an honor from the Public Radio Regional Organizations.

“Think audience”

Early in his career Church worked as director of client relations and sales manager for Media Statistics Inc. and was manager of radio specials for Arbitron. While working for Arbitron he provided audience data to the recently established CPB and first became excited about public radio, says his wife, Joanne. He joined the CPB staff in 1976.

“Tom’s early innovation was to reorient CPB’s approach to audience data from the ‘big picture’ of a national audience to the market-by-market, station-by-station reality at which programming decisions are made and listeners tune their dials,” wrote Tom Thomas and Terry Clifford, co-c.e.o.’s of the Station Resource Group, in a Murrow Award nomination letter.

CPB funding was in jeopardy after President Reagan took office and there were fears that its research department would be shuttered, Joanne Church says. So in 1981 the Churches launched RRC in the basement of their Maryland home. 

The nonprofit began as a 14-member alliance. Today 600 public radio organizations and 100 religious noncommercial stations subscribe to Arbitron data through RRC.

Church “really started the whole discussion in public radio about paying attention to your audience — knowing how many people listen and who they are,” says Craig Oliver, RRC’s president from 1994 to 2000.

The message was simple, yet revolutionary. “Think audience,” read the posters and stickers he handed out, which ended up on the walls at stations.

The role of audience research, still a touchy subject today, was even more divisive in the late ’70s. At an early public radio conference, Oliver says, attendees debated the importance of having an audience at all.
“Somebody who is a p.d. now who wasn’t in the system five or 10 years ago would say, ‘They had a discussion about what?’” he says. “But they did.”

In the ’80s, Church took part in a campaign to double public radio’s listenership and encouraged programmers to polish the nuts and bolts of their on-air sound, stressing positioning, continuity and promotion./p>

That meant ending habits that today would sound outlandish. Hosts used to sign off by saying, “I’m going to go now — goodbye! See you tomorrow,” remembers Meuche. Church urged stations to end the practice, which he said spurred listeners to tune away.

RRC recognized stations that grew their audience by giving them awards at the Public Radio Program Directors Conference. Church helped to create PRPD, lending moral and financial support to the organization’s founders. He also gave office space to Oliver, the organization’s first director.

Church led RRC until he brought in Oliver as president in 1994 and remained as chairman until last year.

An infectious wit

Colleagues fondly remember Church’s sense of humor. He created RRC’s “corporate seal,” a stuffed toy marine mammal named Ralph. Stations that have increased listening to an impressive degree are honored with RRC’s Ralph Award (and their own stuffed seals) at the annual PRPD conference.

At RRC’s first board meeting, Church gave Meuche a contraption built from an Erector set, equipped with a crank and a sign that said “Move the agenda.” When meetings dragged, Meuche, the board’s secretary, was charged with turning the crank.

Marcia Alvar, PRPD’s co-founder and present president, recalls leaving Church’s workshops with stomach muscles aching from laughter. “He made people feel that being part of what he did was really special because it was just so much fun,” she says.

“In his personal life, Church was — in VALS terms — an Experiential,” Bailey says, citing a psychographic category. When Church suffered a heart attack in Idaho and was rushed by air to a hospital in Boise, Bailey remembers, “The first thing he said to me was, ‘I got to ride in a helicopter!’”

Church spent his early years in Connecticut and in Syracuse, N.Y., and earned an associate degree in radio, TV and film from the University of Maryland. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1962 to 1966 in the field of communications and cryptography maintenance. PRPD plans to honor Church at its conference this fall.

Church did not want a formal memorial service, but RRC suggests contributions in his memory to Child Reach (childreach.org); the Snowden Wildlife Sanctuary in McCall, Idaho; or public radio stations. More information is available at rrconline.org.

Church is survived by his wife; by sons Peter of McCall and David of Clarksburg, Md.; granddaughters Abigail and April; grandson Nicholas; and a half-brother, Gerald.

Copyright 2005 Current