LICENSE FEES

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 34, 9 March 1928, Page 4

LICENSE FEES

CRYSTAL V. VALVE SHOULD THE *EK BE REDUCED? With the near approach of March 31, When all listening-in licenses have to be renewed, the question has been asked by a correspondent why the license fee paid by crystal set users should not be reduced. ‘The correspondent considers that the owners of valve. sets, having more stations to which they can tune in to, should pay more than crystal set owners, On the fact of it, this seems a reasonable argument, but when one looks into the question, one is inclined to think that it is the valve set owners whose fee should be reduced. A writer "Dial? in the Christehurch Sun" thus sums up the position :-'‘Crystal Set" writes In last evening’s Sun" asking when the Government is going to reduce the license fee. Whiat’s biting him? Doesn’t he know that it is Lecanse of the crystal set users that the fee is as Ligh as it is? If there Were no crystal sets there would. be no need for four stations in New Zealand, for 2YA would serve all valve sets users from North Cape to Bluff. — If there were only one station there would he only a quarter of the expense to the Broadcasting Conipany. And if there vas only a quarter of the expense the license fee conid be a quarter of what it is. That is the grievance we valve set ewners have against the crystal set ewners. It is adding insult to injury for "Crystal Set" now to suggest that we valve set: owners who have spent twetity times whiat crystal sct users lave spent should continue to pay the w0s. fee, while orystal set users, who are responsible for the present fee, should have theirs reduced, Personally, I think that 30s. a year is little enough for a valve set user who has four New Zealand stations to chose from, and vertainly not enough for a crystal set user who has been directly responsible for his local station having been erectDed,