Time-compression : can it revolutionize political radio advertising?

Political candidates who choose radio as a campaign tool face problems such as high media costs and cluttered air time. This study attempted to examine the merits of an electronic editing technique called time-compression as a means of mitigating these problems. Time-compression involves increasing the rate of information flow per unit of-time, while maintaining a normal pitch.

The time-compression innovation was studied in relation to four 30-second political radio commercials from Howard Baker's l978 Senate campaign. The instrument used to compress each commercial was a Variable Speech Controller (VSC). A total of 56 subjects was randomly divided into two groups of 28 subjects each. A rotational design was used so that one group acted as the control group, hearing the commercial at normal speed, while the other group acted as its counterpart, hearing the commercial at a 30% compressed speed. The data-gathering process involved two kinds of questionnaires--the first administered after hearing each of the four commercials, the second administered two days after the initial testing.

Results indicated an inverse correlation between increasing the speed of a political radio advertisement and favorable perception of that advertisement. The hypotheses concerning candidate image, interest in the message, iv

immediate recall and speed awareness, were rejected. One hypothesis--recall after a two-day period--was accepted.

The study was limited by the subpar audio quality of the tapes, the atypical subjects, and the artificial laboratory environment. Despite these limitations, this study provided insight into the potential merits of time compressed political radio advertisements.