Radio and television today (Jan-Dec 1940)

TO "CLEAR THE AIR" More pointers on Radio Today's campaign to stop radio noises, at a good profit. Manufacturers and dealers, service men and broadcast stations, even program sponsors, can help themselves by making the public conscious of the fact we can "Clear the Air," and that responsible radio dealers and service men are ready to "go to work" as soon as the set-owner permits them to do so. "Every little noise has a meaning all its own," and you must know what the sounds mean. Noise in a radio, as you well know, may come from a variety of causes. But just going ahead each in his own way, is not enough, on this big job. IT MEANS SET SALES Tour noise elimination work should always be done with an eye to future set sales. If you can do your work on a "satisfaction guaranteed" basis, and get better results than your competitor who sold the set, but couldn't satisfy the customer, you're in a mighty good position to sell the next set that customer buys. And customers do talk, too, and spread your reputation. Many a dealer, while operating his service department at a profit has found that up to 75 per cent of his set sales could be directly traced to his fine service work. A Broad Vision for NoiseElimination Drive Editor, Radio Today: In your "Clear-the-Air" drive, you have conceived a splendid campaign. My congratulations to Radio Today for undertaking this important task. After all, while there is nothing new in the radio-noise problem, little or nothing has been done so far about it. Such individual efforts as have been made until now, have gotten nowhere. Our industry has long realized that nothing short of a concerted effort on the part of everyone in the industry could really prove successful. Your campaign can be made to represent the entire industry. My personal suggestions are briefly: 1 Create a real interest among users of electrical equipment to exercise the Golden Rule in the matter of abolishing the radio-noise nuisance. Your "Radio Magic" network broadcasts can be of immeasurable aid in reaching the general public. Having created INTERFERENCE! Magnetic storms due to sunspots add to general uproar, creating static and blackouts on shortwave and wire lines. ?aoe^ SOUS**?* I / , rv\ k AW^Vk ' V / . 7 -nfefe N. y. World Telegram such general interest, you can follow up with newspaper publicity and perhaps syndicated literature for distribution among servicemen, dealers and jobbers. See that the trade knows about these activities and really cashes in on them. 2 Conduct a campaign among electric-appliance manufacturers so that noises will be suppressed at their very source. It might be well to evolve some sort of official seal for the "Clear-the-Air" campaign, to be made available only to those manufacturers whose products positively do not produce radio noises. Ask the general public and the trade to look for such approved appliances or equipment. 3 Set up some sort of "bureau of standards" whereby not only appliances and equipment but particularly so-called noise killers can be checked and approved. As you realize, some awful junk has been sold in the name of radio noise killers, particularly by the street hawkers. 4 Permit manufacturers of approved noise-killing aids to make use of the official seal or label both on their products and in their advertising. Encourage more extensive advertising of such merchandise. 5 See that proper lectures, either delivered personally or made available in the form of copy to be read, preferably with suitable slides, are available to service groups, jobbers, electric appliance manufacturers and merchandisers, etc. We need a lot of promotion along this line. 6 Encourage the public utilities to extend their noise-sleuthing activities. Give them due credit when found to be doing a good job, both in Radio Today and through publicity in their local newspapers. 7 Devote a section of Radio Today to this campaign, dealing with problems found, how solved, new equipment available, etc. Encourage advertisers to feature noisekilling equipment in this section. Needless to say, Aerovox is keenly interested in your campaign and is ready to back you up to the limit. A couple of years ago our engineers developed a rather complete line of noise suppressors including sufficient choice of types to handle the different {Continued on page 49) 22 RADIO TODAY