Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

Census Reveals Radio's Hold on Country By MARTIN CODEL But Federal Figures, Now Nearly Complete, Fall Far Short of Actual Total of Receiving Sets in United States "HAVE you a radio?" the census takers asked each family canvassed during the 1930 census. All but four of the State reports are now available. From them it appears that at least one out of every three homes has a radio. State by State, the figures tell a forceful story of the hold radio already has on the American people as a social and economic force. Moreover, they are only portentious of the greater hold it is gaining as the saturation point is approached. ELOQUENT in the extreme is the story that Uncle Sam's radio set census tells of the hold that broadcasting has on the American people. Inadequate though they are — for more than 18 months have elapsed since the figures were gathered by the United States Census Bureau as part of the decennial census of population — the counts furnish the first official basic index to the size and placement of the American radio audience. To broadcasters and advertisers they furnish at least an irreducible minimum from which to estimate their "circulation areas," inasmuch as the figures, as compiled, are broken down very completely by states, counties within those states, and communities within those counties. As this is written, the figures are available for 44 states and the District of Columbia. Those for four of the most populous states in the Union remain to be compiled and released by the Census Bureau, namely, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Nor should we omit Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, whose radio listening families wei-e also counted. Certain internal problems in the Census Bureau, problems of appropriations and personnel not unusual in governmental agencies, have retarded the rate of speed with which it was originally hoped to issue the reports. Mechanical handicaps made it impossible to compile the radio figures along with the population figures. But all of the rest of the reports should be available before the close of the year, and then the first really official radio census will have been completed — as of April 1, 1930. MANY SETS UNCOUNTED THEREIN lies the first inadequacy of the census figures thus far made public. Many hundreds of thousands of radio receivers, indeed possibly several million, in view of the continuingly large volume of midget set sales, have been marketed since that date. The trade is estimating sales of around 1,000,000 sets of all kinds annually even in the face of the business depression. These include, of course, many replacements, but it is more likely that most midget buyers are new set buyers, and just as many persons can listen to a midget set as to a fine console. So the radio audience has not been cut down by the depression. Probably it has increased, for people are staying home more and spending less money. When they stay at home, they listen to the radio. It is the least expensive form of entertainment ever made available to man. »A second inadequacy in the figures results from the fact that the census enumerators simply asked each home visited: "Have you a radio?" Only the affirmatives or negatives were recorded, and those counted to make up the total. No effort was made to determine how many radios each family had in the home, whether it had a radio in its car or cars, whether there was a radio in its summer home, whether the family bread-winner had an office radio, radios in his factory or a radio at his club. All the census takers sought to learn was how many families had radios, and what was the average number of persons per family. As defined by the Census Bureau, the term "family" as used in making the count signifies a group of persons, whether related by blood or not, who live together as one household, usually sharing the same table. One person living alone is counted as a family, and, at the other extreme, all the inmates of an institution or all the persons living in a boarding house, are counted as one family. But an average number of persons per family is struck in each state separately. The third inadequacy, and probably the most noteworthy, rested in the hesitancy the census takers encountered among many families when the radio question was asked. The frequently published stories about radio in other lands, about how the radio listeners are taxed for the listening privilege, about how radio reception is contraband in some countries, about how some of our legislative and other lights would like to impose the European license system on American radio set ownership, were called to the minds of many families. Fearing that the radio question was merely the forerunner to a fee on reception in this country too, countless set owners gave negative answers when they should have given affirmative. Of that there is no doubt. WHAT FIGURES SHOW LASTLY, there is the matter of carelessness on the part of the census takers themselves. The home of the writer, for example, was not even canvassed in the 1930 census. Many of his friends tell him that they were not even asked whether they had radios, though they were asked all the other questions on the census forms. It is impossible to measure the factor of inefficiency and carelessness, but it is a factor none the less. (Continued on next page) OFFICIAL RADIO CENSUS BY STATES (Complete to October 15, 1931) No. of Persons No. of State Families Per Family Radios Per cent Alabama 592,530 4.5 56,491 9.5 Arizona 106,630 4.1 19,295 18.1 Arkansas 439,408 4.2 40,248 9.2 California 1,618,533 3.5 839,991 51.9 Colorado 268,531 3.9 101,376 37.8 Connecticut 389,596 4.1 213,821 54.9 Delaware 59,295 4.0 27,183 45.8 District of Columbia 126,014 3.9 67,880 53.9 Florida 377,823 3.9 58,446 15.5 Georgia 654,009 4.5 64,908 9.9 Idaho 108,515 4.1 32,869 30.3 Indiana 844,463 3.8 351,540 41.6 Iowa 636,905 3.9 309,237 48.6 Kansas 488,055 3.9 189,527 • 38.8 Kentucky 610,288 4.3 111,452 18.3 Louisiana 486,424 4.3 54,364 11.2 Maine 198,372 4.0 77,803 39.2 Maryland Massachusetts 386,087 4.2 156,465 42.9 1,024,527 4.2 590,105 57.6 Michigan 1,183,157 4.1 599,196 50.6 Minnesota 608,398 4.2 287,880 47.3 Mississippi 472,354 4.3 25,475 5.4 Missouri 941,821 3.9 322,252 37.4 Montana 137,010 3.9 43,809 32.0 Nebraska 343,781 4.0 164,324 47.8 Nevada 25,730 3.5 7,869 30.6 New Hampshire 119,660 3.9 53,111 44.4 New Mexico 98,820 4.3 11,404 11.5 North Carolina 645,245 4.9 72,329 11.2 North Dakota 145,382 4.7 59,352 40.8 Ohio 1,700,877 3.9 810,767 47.7 Oklahoma 565,348 4.2 121,973 21.6 Oregon 267,690 3.6 116,299 43.5 Rhode Island 165,811 4.2 94,594 57.1 South Carolina 366,265 4.8 28,007 7.7 South Dakota 161,332 4.3 71,361 44.2 Tennessee 601,578 4.4 86,229 14.3 Texas 1,383,280 4.2 257,686 18.6 Utah 116,254 4.4 47,729 41.1 Vermont 89,439 4.0 39,913 44.6 Virginia 530,092 4.6 96,569 18.2 Washington 426,019 3.7 180,229 42.3 West Virginia 374,646 4.6 87,469 23.4 Wisconsin 713,576 4.1 364,425 51.1 Wyoming 57,218 3.9 19,482 34.0 October 15, 1931 • BROADCASTING Page 15