Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

RADIO BROADCAST. appropriation. What is needed now is a little Harry Kirtland logic—or Ben Sweatland knowledge—and properly applied." —DEALER B. A FEW NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS "Below are listed a few things that we think the manu- facturers should stop doing: 1. Advertising competitive demonstrations and urging a cus- tomer to try out all makes of sets. When he has tried out 8 or 10 of them the profit of 3 sales are eaten up. 2. Stop advertising getting distance. There are places where the best set made will not get a thing. I know a location where no set made will even get the local station one mile away. 3. Stop advertising 10 days free trial. We do not leave a set over night. 4. Stop coming out with new models in the middle of the big season. New models should come in June. They are now coming in January and February and business slackens up right after Christmas. "We find the manufacturer loses much that should really be produced. The advertising in newspapers does bring in- quiries. These, in turn, are turned over to one or two ' distri- butors' on a certain day of the week, or the 'distributors' re- ceive them alternately. By the time they reach the dealer in the particular neighbor- hood, at least ten days to two weeks or more have passed. In the meanwhile the in- terested prospects have pur- chased something else. From sad experiences we have dis- covered that most radio pros- pects make up their mindsvery quickly." — DEALER C. YCI 3DI 1QS Y BETTER SERVICE NEEDED "The success of a radio set depends as much on the service rendered by the distributor or jobber as by the manu- facturer, if not more so. We cancelled a good franchise at one time because the jobber gave little or no service." — DEALER D. ADVERTISE THE DEALER "It is our opinion that every manu- facturer's ad in newspapers should carry a list of authorized dealers. It is educational. Customers will go to reliable dealers instead of 'gyps.'"— DEALER E. ADVERTISING SHOULD CONSIDER LOCAL CONDITIONS "Manufacturers advertise here in Great Falls where we are 500 miles from the nearest station in the same manner that they advertise in the metropolitan district where listeners are in the shadow of the towers of the transmitter. It seems to us that different conditions call for dif- ferent tactics in newspaper advertising." — DEALER F. LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI (Conductor, Philadelphia Orchestra): "The big thing in radio is this—that it per- mits us to bring our music to the people, in no matter what station in life, in every part of the world." X D. E. REPLOGLE (Television Com- mittee, R.M.A.): "That television will require distinct and new re- ceivers separate from the radio broadcast receiving set is now assured from the progress being made in the laboratory." X PAUL G. ANDRES (Temple Corpo- ration): "The use of the earth's magnetic field will open up com- munication channels that are not affected by water and land barriers which, in the case of ether waves, now are at a premium." X J. B. KNIGHT, JR. (DeForest Radio Co.): "The South has be- come definitely radio-minded, in spite of its slow start." X J. E. SMITH (National Radio Institute): "The unexpected and steadily increasing demand for radio-trained men by marine and air radio, broadcasting, production, merchandising, and service organ- izations has caused the demand to exceed the supply." SELLING MODERN RADIO And finally, here is an interesting dealer letter which points out that manufacturers should try to sell the advan- tages of modern radio entertainment in their ads. "The radio situation as we see it is decidedly unhealthy. Public interest in radio entertainment is very keen, but the public is being terribly confused by the ridiculous conflict of advertising claims by manufacturers who seem to think that they are dealing with a wholly imbecile public. Years ago in the automobile trade, they had just about the same sort of orgy of extravagant advertising—everybody claiming the biggest and the best, but no one giving any facts to sup- port his claims. "Right now, the newspapers in this section are full of the sort of ads that might be expected from a flock of blue-sky promoters, each claiming that some particular make of radio is the only one worth considering, but none of them providing any evidence or reasons to back their claims. "Meanwhile, no manufacturer of radio is doing anything constructive to help me send twenty-five or thirty-thousand old sets—sets that are no longer fit to be kept in service—to the scrap heap, by advertising in a way that will help sell the idea of up-to-date radio entertainment and its superior- ity over what could be had from the old five-tube neutrodynes and four-tube bloopers. " No manufacturer is telling newspaper and magazine read- ers anything about the real delights of owning any of these modern sets. They are all good and any one of them is a mile ahead fof the goods we were selling a couple of years ago, but a lot of our prospective customers think they are enjoying the best there is in radio, when as a matter of fact all they are getting is a lot of squeaks. They do not know what they are missing, but they read these ads in the papers and conclude that the radio manufacturers are a pack of liars and the result is a lot of extra resistance to over- come when we try to sell them a new radio receiver. "If some radio outfit would come out with a fine of advertising that doesn't depend entirely on bragging about the latest model (n.p., accent- ing the pleasures to be had from a modern receiver and throwing in a few facts and specifications) the pub- lic could not fail to be impressed. It would be so different from the usual type of copy. " Personally, we think we are rapidly approaching the time when it will be in order to have two or three sets in every house. We have begun to cover our field. But we should try to do a better job before the public gets altogether disgusted with us. We must sell our sets by pointing out the real advantage of listening to up-to- date radio equipment." 26 • NO VEM BER 1929