The talking machine world (July-Dec 1927)

26 The Talking Machine World, New York, November, 1927 Artistry in Radio Design Has Widened Market "Blending of the Artistic With the Design of the Engineer Most Important Advance in Radio" By Walter Rautenstrauch President Splitdorf Radio Corp. WHEN beautj came to grace radio cabinet design radio acceptance turned to radio demand. For there is always a demand for the beautiful. By the same token ugliness became an immediate outlaw. The most important advance in radio from the viewpoint of practical selling was the blending of the artistic with the design of the engineer. It would be a simple matter to justify the attention now being given to the aesthetic from the corner of the artist. Beauty is its own justification, but, at the same time, in this age of applications dealing strictly with practicalities, the natural question arises: "Does it pay?" car!" Beneath this and the radio remark is the universal "demand" for things that are beautiful. It was a great day for radio when this fundamental was recognized and radio brought in tune, so to speak, with this great fundamental of life. Times Have Changed in Radio Demand It would be a simple matter of detailing the various steps by which radio cabinet design was improved to give a surface indication of the increasing radio market during the comparatively few j^ears since radio broadcasting came to thrill the world. The early boxlike, makeshift enclosing of the apparatus interested a SPLITDORF RADIO Sold by JOHN W.WHITAKER Des Moines Poster Emphasizing the Beauty of Radio Nor is it enough to point to other fields where beauty rules and pays handsome dividends. We must confine the discussion to radio alone, to prove our point, and draw on outside experience onlj' to incidentally boost our argument and conclusions. Beauty Widens Radio Market An immediate and, of course, most important effect of the building of artistic radio products has been to widen by a great margin the radio market. It is not going too far, in my opinion, to say that by making radio beautiful in design we give to it universal acceptance if not universal demand. This, in effect, is the same as stating that by housing radio apparatus in beautiful cabinets a situation is created where immediately upon observing the furniture one unconsciously feels or consciously exclaims: "I want that!" It is somewhat the sort of thing that happens when an automobile with graceful lines passes by and you say: "What a beautiful limited number of people. The novelty of radio interested more. So long as getting of DX stations was the principal lure there was sufficient urge to make a sizable market for radio receivers. But there came a day when "getting" stations near or far was not enough. Here began the desire for beauty in radio, the beauty that charms the ear. This was satisfied by improvements in engineering design to give quality of tone. About the same period simplicity of operation began to be asked for and the demand was met. Without going through all the technical phases I should like just to leap over everything to the time of what we call the "modern" radio set, that is to say, a receiver put out by a reputable manufacturer, giving good performance and embodying all the necessary technical framework to do so, in a word, a receiver "that works well." But if the market for radio is widened because of the fact that untold thousands have become interested in owning receivers because of the appeal of the cabinet to the eye, the responsibility of the manufacturer has increased. It is virtually a duty to-day to design cabinets that are in keeping with certain definite ac Walter Rautenstrauch cepted furniture eras as much as such demand must be met by the furniture makers themselves for other articles of furniture. The Dealers' Day Has Come In the retail field of radio there never was a time when the worth-while dealer had such a marvelous opportunity as now. Because the biggest element of the market by far is not in the slightest degree interested in the technicalities of radio and because two of the most powerful elements are present to-day to enhance the story to the customer, the average radio dealer is in position to make real money and cash in on the fact that radio has now caught up with that generally elusive and generally undefined "what do the people want?" I refer to the convenience and simplicity to be had in the all-electric receiver and the beauty of the cabinets available to-day. The standardization of individual manufacturers' receiver units makes it possible for the dealer to feature beauty of design in a manner to appeal to the individual taste of his customers. It is no longer a case of: "Here is the set. I am sorry you don't like the cabinet. But the set itself, you'll admit, works wonderfully well." To-day the same unit is available in various artistic cabinets and this fact alone enables the dealer to widen his range of customers. Strengthened Sales Appeal In an article of this length it is not possible to offer many specific suggestions to the dealer on how he should feature beauty of design to get the best results out of his advertising, window and interior displays and out of direct mail. Nevertheless, it is apparent at a glance that beauty of design gives an unending source for variegated appeal to the people. Broadly, there is the general appeal of beauty in interior decoration which will permit the dealer to say things in his advertising and do things with his windows and interiors that were {Continued on page 27) National Record Albums Made of the best materials and finished by experienced workmen PORTABLE ALBUMS ALBUMS FOR CABINETS ALBUMS BOUND IN CLOTH or ART MISSION Churns for Export Our Specialty Write tor list of 19X7 styles and prices National Publishing Co., 2S9''245 South American St., Philadelphia, Pa.