What's New at the Radio Show?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 948, 11 October 1957, Page 5

What's New at the Radio Show?

\VHILE mote and more New Zealand households are facing the problem of where to put that second car, the radio industry in Britain is getting ready to persuade every home to have two television sets afd two radios. The Radio Show at Earl's Court leaves one with the impression that Britons are becoming insiders looking out as more and mote millions are looking in at what the superior now term the idiot’s window. Other impressions are that TV sets are becoming bigger and radios smaller, that there are enough overseas ordersand. simple home-bodies--to keep everyone happy. There is something ironical about the latter because the show’s theme was the figure 21; BBC television came of age this year. Despite that, the ‘opening was not televised as in previous years, and viewers had to be content with voices and a caption on the screen reading: "You are listening to the official opening of the Radio Show, 1957." While the 21 motif was also evident in the greater number of 21 inch TV screens, the 17 inch set remains the most acceptable and accurate for twothird of the sales: at an average cost of £75, including sales tax, that is several pounds cheaper than last year-one of the achievements of the British electrical industry at a time of rising costs. Even more than the cost, what dictates the size of the set is the size of the room which it is to dominate. One result has been a patter of little feet so that what used to be table models ate now often "consolettes" perched on spindly legs like doll’s furniture. For anyone living in a palace and not a prefab, and with a bank balance to match, there is what the maker’s staff irreverently call the "spaghetti machine." This sideboard-like instrument includes radio and television, record player and tape machines, cocktail cabinet, shelves and drawers. It’s yours for only 600 guineas.

More in line with the rest of the show are the eight brands of portable TV. not much bigger than a show-box, with an eight-and-a-half inch picture, weight 20 Ib., and price 49 guineas. One bedside table can now take TV, radio, and the smallest-in-the-world four-speed radiogram, which a flick of a switch converts into an electronic baby-sitter listening for noises from the children’s room. In a Cigarette Packet Replacement of valves by transistors has brought back the miniature set, recalling the crystal set in a matchbox. For a shilling a week-the cost of tiny batteries-one can now run a radio set not much bigger than a _ cigartette packet, yet including a loudspeaker. To preserve the peace in buses and trains, the 13 oz. box can be slipped into the pocket while you listen with a deaf-aid. Using the now common printed circuits, an even smaller build-it-yourself| set is assembled inside a 20 cigarette packet. The new firm making it has five young directors, one only 28 years old. The managing director, Viscount Suirdale, says he has assembled the miniature sets himself without being sure how everything works. Hi-Fi and Lo There’s hardly a firm which doesn’t label its products hi-fi, which is an Alice-in-Wonderland term meaning whatever you like. If you- have £420 and room for three cabinets with 12 speakers, you can have a whole orchestra in your lap without any trace of distortion, but some of the hi-fi ranges from dubious to plain lo. And that’s where the simple souls start ako 6 in. The capacity of the public for fooling itself has seldom been betgr demonstrated than by radiograms with four-speed motors for 78, 45, 33 and 16 r.p.m. As one salesman was honest enough to admit: "There are no 16 r.p.m. re-

cords in this country; they’re just not practical. One designer came out with a four-speed model, and the rest had to follow so that customers could go one better than their neighbours. The public are clots." At least one of the public got her own back when the BBC was recording comments by visitors at the show. Over the loudspeakers came a woman’s

voice saying: "I don’t like some of the tripe they put out." Taken by surprise the interviewer could only say placatingly: "Oh, well, we must have a bit of tripe sometimes." However, it is not tripe that 5000 Commonwealth and foreign visitors, most of thern buyers, were there and that radio and electronic exports this year are expected to reach £45,000,000 or 20 times what they were just before the war.

J.W.

GOODWIN

(London)