Editorial Notes

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 8, 2 September 1932, Page 4

Editorial Notes

Wellington, Friday, September 2, 1932.

JN less than six years, the number of radio sets in this country has grown from a mere handful to 78,000 and the number of listeners to more than 350,000. In the United States, where broadcasting is almost ten years old, there are in operation some 16,000,000 receivers, while in Denmark three families in every five possess a set. These impressive facts cause one to speculate as to where the limits will be. It has at various times been estimated that saturation point would be repre: sented by 75 per cent. of the familie: possessing a radio set. This being the case America and Denmark, each -with over 60 per cent. of their homes equipped with a receiver are peril‘ously near the saturation point. Yet in face of all this the American radio industry is setting out on a £50,000,000 enterprise for the coming season, and British manufacturers are installing plant for mote extensive production than ever before. And they will not be disilusioned providing their product: are sound. Even with one radi: in every home there is. a huge potential market both for replacements and for new families, Radic is now sufficiently simple and trouhle free to have its place in every home, and is rapidly becoming cheap enough for everyone to afford. Some families will even be disposed to have more than one set so that the varying tastes of the household can be catered for. But the biggest potential market for new radios and new listeners is the new families of which in New Zealand some 10,000 come into being each year. Every one of these is a potential licensee. for probably at least one member of the new family has been a listener, and no one who has habitually listen~ ed will be happy without a radio. Radio can no more reach a satura-

tion point than can the market for houses or furniture. 2 * +. ‘HE future for radio is bright. In New Zealand alone 200,000 homes are without radio, and next year there will be 10,000 more families to swell this nurnber More sets mean more licenses, better programmes and consequent further expansion. It is an example of the eternal spiral--licenses, . programmes, expansion. And with the wheels of industry again beginning to turn over we can look forward to big things in radio. Not even at its worst could the depression hold back ‘he progress pf radio-certainly it was the means of causing the manufacturer in many cases to build down to a price instead of up to a standard, but that is by the way. In the last two years New Zealand has invested over half a million pounds in radio and 20,000 more people have become ‘regular Hsteners. Before Christmas there will be 80,000 licenses, ind providing the economic recovery ‘s well under way there will be very yearly 100,000 at the end of next year, And everi theri we shall only be keeping pace with the new mar* kets that are being opened up and still leaving that 200,000 homes untouched. , s % ® ()N the surface jt may seen that radio offers golden opportunities for all and sundry ; dealer, salesman, technician, artist and all who are car ried in their wake. But radio, even more than before, js exacting, The dealer must be careful, yet not conservative; he must giye radio more and more attention, for it car and will make ot break him. The salesr man is no longer the technician who oxplains to alj-and sundry the operation of a dozer controls, but he must know sufficient to inspite faith; he must be a listener who knows wher _ and where to find the distant stations and must know or at least appreciate tone and music. Of paramount importance he must be a psychologist. The technician.is no person. who has gtaduyated from the ranks of the amateur constructor. He must be a student of electricity and radio, in whose fundamentals he must he thoroughly wel] versed, He must be adaptable and quick te learn, and to be suceessful as a free Jance must be convincing in his procedyre and manner. The artist is

the one 6 whom the public takes the greatést heed. It has already éliminated the second-rate amateur entértainer, and is on jts way to eliminate all but the best the country can produce. .The demand for records is only jne instance of the publi¢’s intolerance of "local" artists. And as the public becomes mote musically-educated and the rean

ceivers are improved it becomes still more ¢ritical. * * * AND s50 radio evolves in demanding higher standards in all its phases and taking its toll of all those who have entered its portals thinking that through the ether lay the way to Eldorado.