Evening star., 1928-12-23
RADIO BECOMES
BILLION INDUSTRY
Alternating Current Receiver
Called Secret of Most
of the Progress.

NEW YORK [P-Radio. having
discarded its baby shoes for seven
league boots, looks in retrospect to
1928 as the year that put it in a class
bordering upon a billion dollar indus
try.
Catching its breath after the COM
pilation of a mass of figures, 1t has
concluded that its efforts for the last
IL months have developed a business
estimated at more than $3.50, 900, 900.
with the alternating current receiver
as the secret of most of the progress.
Self-contained sets that plug into
the light socket without attention to
batteries or eliminators have given the
listener something for which he had
been pleading since the early days of
broadcaSting. His eagerness to buy
was reflected by the fact that dealers
experienced difficulty in keeping even
tube supplies up to the demand.
Revolutionary Improvements in set
design were nil after the AC outfit got
into maximum production. The few
changes were due largely to refine
mentS needed to iron out circuit kinks
that developed with alternating cur
rent operation. Most of the elabora-
tiop was In cabinet construction to
please the eye of the housewife.
Better instrument.
Today the AC tube is much better
instrument than the early models.
Dangers of burnoutS due to fluctuat:ng
input voltageS have been eliminated as
far as possible
Appearance of a superpower tube
hlled a need brought on by the dyna-
mic speaker, which requires a separate
current supply for its driving unit 1t
functions more satisfactorily when fed
by power amplifier.
Another new tube, the shield grid,
came into prominence last New Year.
Ut created its greatest excitement
among the fans building their own and
numerous circuits for its use were
manufacturers placed the tube in their
products despite its high amplification
factor without oscillation in a RADIO
frequency socket
The usual ref1nements in componentS
and accessories kept step with the
cther adVancementS.
Television Gets Start.
Attention of the experimenter was
drawn toward television after the de-
ciSion of a number of stations to run
tests on both the broadcast and short
wave bands. Transmission of instan-
taneous light is not yet adaptable to
everyday use, but it was given start.
Broadcasting became a more i'm
portant factor when politics sought its
aid to bring the candidate to the voter,
spending approximately $2,000,000 for
Nationwide hookups and individual
station broadcasts. Politics, which in
cluded the broadcasts of the national
conventions, also was credited with in
creasing the sale of receivers.
Chain broadcasting of sponsored
programs from coast to coast became
almost daily event, and numerous
features originating in New York found
many listeners along the Pacific.
Schools more and more adapted ra-
dio to the classroom, and many were
the instances where it was used to aid
in instruction.
An important development in the
industry centered around the greater
effort at stabilization, mergers of a
number of important companies result
ing. AS the year ends, leaders express
the belief that. the pulse of radio is
Steadier than at any other holiday
period Of its existence.