RADIO GROWTH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 222, 19 August 1937, Page 14

RADIO GROWTH.

NEAV ZEALAND LICENSES. QUARTER OF MILLION. Radio broadcasting is a comparatively new development which New Zealanders have adopted with great readiness, the figures of growth in licenses during the last ten years being remarkable and comparing favourably with those of many more thickly populated countries. Radio licenses in force on June 30 last reached the record figure of 258,324, which includes 255,434 receivers (listeners), 1212 dealers, 975 experimental (amateur and research) and 683 free licenses granted to blind persons. How the totals have grown in ten years is shown by the following details of the receiving licenses in force as at June 30 in succeeding years:—1928, 34,434; 1929, 42,453; 1930, 50,095; 1931, 57,513; 1932, 73,216; 1933, 94,813; 1934, 129,146; 1935, 163,108; 1936, 206,562; 1937, 256,117. The latest total shows that the growth of the past year amounts to 49,555 licenses. The distribution of the receivers’ (listeners’) licenses at present is as follows: —Wellington district, 91,932; Auckland, 82,173; Canterbury, 46,999; Otago, 35,013. It is estimated that 72 per cent, of New Zealand households are now equipped with radio receivers. An accelerated rate of growth is demonstrated by the latest figures, the increase in licenses during tho first six months of last year having been 23,675, while during the first sixmonths of this year licenses have risen in numbers by 25,731.