Radio Popular in Germany

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 51, 1 July 1932, Page 8

Radio Popular in Germany

Over Four Million Licenses ACCORDING to a dispatch in the London "Observer" at the end of Janaury, there are now upward of 4,000,000 listeners in Germany. The total has swollen by over half a million within the past year, this great

expansion being directly due, curiously euough, to the depression which has afflicted Germany. As the wireless license amounts to 6d a week, Xhis gives the Post Office'a revenue of weil over £4,000,000 a year. The ‘broadcasting companies require for their technical and artistic staff, including ‘programme contributors, the sum of £2,000,000, according to preliminary Ministerial calculations. Sixty per cent. of the license fee is therefore deducted immediately at postal ‘headquarters, and the rest distributed among Germany’s broadcasting stations. In view of the increase in total revenue, an agitation arose for reduction of the license fees from 2/- a month to 1/6 a month. Accordingly the Prices Commissioner was instructed to investigate the question, and he was surprised to find that the recent notable increase in numbers was directly 'due to the reductions made in salaries and wages. These reductions made visits to the cpera, the theatre and the ‘cinema an impossibility for many more people than formerly, consequently they took up radio. In spite of tes} investigations, Cabinet decided not # reduce the license fee on the ground that wireless does not come under the héad of, a vecessity of life. An interesting point illustrative of the German psychology is mentioned in the dispatch. This ‘is that German listeners, however desperate the poyerty that afflicts them, do not attempt to evade their responsibility.in registration. The reason is that the average German dare not play pirate, even if he desires. In the poorer quarters of the city it is rare for neighbouyato be really friendly on account of the constant differences that exist on the subject of the stairs, . dust-bins, the communal washhouse, and a dozen other domestic evils» The commonest form of retaliation when radio first began to be popular was to play the part of informer to the Post. This meant a confiscation of the receiving set and a fine as well; hence the forced honesty of the German poor. The distribution of space at Germany’s various broadcasting stations shows very clearly what the various localities are interested in. Whereas literary and intellectual Berlin devotes only 52 per cent. to musical items, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Breslau devote GO per cent. to music, Leipzig 61 per ceut., Stuttgart 62 per cent., Konigsberg 66 per cent, and Hamburg 70 per cent., with the other cultural centre, Munich, just overtopping Berlin by 1 per cent. with 53 per cent. Berlin and Munich have the highest per cent. of lectures or talks, 33 per cent. and 31 per cent. respectively,» with the other 15 per cent. and 16 per cent. devoted to "literary ’ items." Frankfurt follows then with a balanced programme of 20 per cent. literary features and 20 per cent. talks, but Hamburg is literary to the extent ¥ of only 9 per cent. of its programmes, Leipzig 11 per cent., and the other stations ranging from 12 per cent. to 14 per cent. After Berlin and. Munich, Leipzig has most "talks," which fill 28 per cent. of the programme, while other stations range from 20 to 26 per cent. All Germany is unanimous in declaring that no space at all should be devoted to advertising, which has till now filled about 20 minutes of Berlia morning programmes,