Evening star., 1932-03-06
Behind the Microphone
BY THE RADIO EDITOR.

| sold 3,420,00O sets, these includ-
ing phonograph combinations and
automobile receivers.
Favorable factors facing the in
dustry as 1882 gets under way in
clude, according to the radio pub
lication, the national average of
one million new homes a year and
the prospect of notable advances
in television. Further gains are
expected from the growing popu-
larity of automobile radio sets
and of Short-Wave receivers.
The income from tubes last year
was $65, 5,550,000. The total is
smaller than the 1880 income of
$119, 100000, but is aScribed to re-
ductionS in tube prices. The total
of tubes sold in 1881 was So, 500, 900
which compares with 100000
for 1890.
The complete radio units sold
last year closely approached the
1880 total of 3,827,00O sets. Last
years dollar volume was conSid-
erably behind the 1880 income of
$500, ,951 500, not because of any
real market loss to the industry,
but because of reduced prices on
sets. This drop also includes the
essentially rock-bottom prices
made necessary in sales of mid
get sets.
A SIXTH national radio audi
"A ton with first-place prizes of
$4,000 each for the young man and
young woman singers rating high
est in their respective groups was
announced last week by the At
water Kent Foundation. AS in
previous years, the door is opened
in the 1882 addition to any non
professional singer between 18
and 25.
Forty-four Washington singers
competed in the 1881 addition
The winners were Ina Marie Holt
zscheiter and Edwin C. Steffe,
who represented the District on
the semi-finals in New York last
November.
WHEN the Republicans and
w Democrats hold their presi-
Dental nominating conventions
in Chicago, television pick-ups
may be established alongside the
radio microphoneS on or near the
rostrum of the convention hall so
that pictures as well as words of
the participating notables can be
broadcast. This is announced on
authority of the Radio Manu-
facturerS' Association, represent
ing the majority of the producers
of radio equipment in this
country.
If the conventions are televised,
it is almost a certainty that tele-
vision will be employed by the
campaigning candidates later and
that 1t will also be used during
the presidential Inauguration in
March, 1888.
The exact nature Of the polit-
ico-viSion plans are not known,
nor have the publicity head
quarters of the two major parties
here entered into any arrange
ments as yet. Such arrangements
as are made will probably be with
convention headquarters in Chi
cago, and the teleViSing will un-
doubtedly be done over local Chi
| cago stations. 1t will not be done
on a national scale as there are
no television networks in eXis-
tence as yet, and all television Is
being done on a localized scale.
Chicago has three visual broad
| 80 Il
have a few more. The National
Broadcasting Co. now operates
| W9XAP, the 2,500-Watt television
station established by the Chicago
Daily News and connected with
WMAQ; the Chicago Federation
of Labor is rebuilding it's W9XAA,
operating with 500 watts and con-
nected with VIGIL, and Western
Television Co. has W9XAO with
500 watts and connected with
WHO. In addition, the Chicago
Tribune's WGN proposes shortly
to add a televiSion adjunct, and
in Milwaukee there is an ultra
high frequency visual station
operated with 500 watts by the
Milwaukee Journal.
The images that will be broad
cast from the convention hall,
except for unusual conditions
such as sometimes prevail for
DIX listening, will be confined to
reception by those having tele-
viSors in and near Chicago. For
the most part, the images are still
in a crude state, though the fea-
lures of those televised can readily
be recognized. Television, so the
experts say, is now at about the
same stage of development as
sound broadcasting of 10 years
ago.