"Dirt-Cheap" Receivers

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 11, 25 September 1931, Page 6

"Dirt-Cheap" Receivers

American Market Flooded "THE latest issue of "Radio," the American radio trade magazine, con tains some interesting information on the subject of reduced dealers’ profits and cheaper radios. It is admitted that while the "dirt-cheap" set is having a serious influence on the radio market and that dealers’ profits are reduced to a minimum, it is not agreed that the cheap receiver is doomed, at least, "not while the public dictates its desires to those of its ranks who have set themselves the task of satisfying those desires. The cheap radio is here. And it may become cheaper." A number of comparisons’ is then drawn between the radio industry and other what might be termed "domestic" industries. To quote one: "Most people ride around in automobiles that cost six or seven hundred dollars, on terms. ..- Another large class of people spread themselves a bit and pay fifteen hundred or. two thousand dollars for the added comfort and class of a larger car. The chosen few buy automobiles with silver hardware ranging in price up to eight thousand dollars. The manufacturers of certain quality cars continue to thrive through the years in spite of price competition that is as tough as any run up against by the manufacturers of expensive radio receivers. ... "People buy according to what they ean afford. Due to this depression--surely you have heard it mentionedwe are completely incapacitated when it comes to fixing the blame for the huying trend toward low-priced sets. We say it has been the dirt-cheap receiver that brought it on. Maybe so. Maybe, also, the dirt-cheap receiver was a depression measure and has been responsible for sales that would not otherwise have been made. "When times return to normal people will buy according to their whims and fancies instead of getting by as cheaply as humanly possible. Those who have learned to appreciate the entertainment and musical values of various radio receivers will stretch themselves to the point of buying the set that will give them reproduction

that will satisfy their craving for things a little better than those that satisfy the herd. "Those who have furnished themselves with dirt-cheap sets are now developing that taste and discrimination that will make them junk their present music boxes and buy good ones when the optimistic times are here again. Radio contends that the dirt-cheap set has its place. We admit that right now, during the depression, it is taking the places set aside for more expensive receivers. But we feel absolutely certain that once the buying public gets over its big scare, the dirtcheap job will be locked into the border lines marked off for it, and every radio dealer will have a shelf full of them for those who can’t afford a better one. He will feature, however, the fair priced, attractive looking, fine sounding radio receiver he could safely sell his mother-in-law."