Evening star., 1934-04-08
High Fidelity Radio Sets
Seen as Next Development
Musical Spectrum to Be Widened by Engineers,
Adding Enjoyment for Ears Keen
to Deficiencies.

| been meeting intermittently for the
last few months to devise a definite
plan of procedure.
A GAINST the 17,95O,OOO radio re-
"A ceiving sets in use in the United
States, and 1,182,000 in Canada
as of January l, 1884, Europe now
pridefully points to the fact that its
radios have nearly doubled in the last
four years to reach a total of
1882 ,465 registered and licensed sets.
If the so-called pirates" or people
who evade paying the license fees re-
quired by their countries were also
counted, it is certain that Europe's
total would surpass that of the United
States.
Indeed, Europe's gain on the United
States has been steady one. for radio
there has enjoyed in recent years
some of the boom that American
radio had up to 1880. Formerly the
United States had more radios than
all the rest of the countries of the
world combined The latest Euro
pean count does not include Russia,
whose total is unavailable, but it has
been claimed for that country that it
has an audience of 100000 listen
ing through community or private
sets.
3,50O,O00 in 1888.
The European figures for the end
of 1888, excluding Russia, have just
been made available by A. R. Bur-
rows, director of the International
Broadcasting Union at Geneva, Switz-
erland. Mr. Burrows estimates that
more than 3,5OO,OOO European homes
added radios in 1888 and this is in
terpreted as meaning an addition of
100000 people to the radio audi
ence. 1t is generally calculated that
there are four listeners to every radio.
Tremendous gains were recorded
last year in almost all countries, but
most notably in England. Germany
and France. The last named country
until last year, and its total registra-
ton at the end of the year was
1,367,7l5.
Demand Highest.
Leading all countries in the per
capita number of radios is Denmark.
with one radio counted for slightly
less than every seven persons. The
United States and Great Britain come
nearest to this record, having one
radio for about every seven persons.
Burrows shows that 5,973,759 radios
were licensed in Great Britain at the
end of 1888, but later figures from
England show that this jumped to
6,124,O0O at the end of January, 1884
This is a ten-fold increase over 10
years ago.
Germany's total at the end of 1898
was 5,052 607; Sweden, 666,368: Hol-
land, 648,275; Czechoslovakia, 573109;
Denmark, 532992; Austria, 5O7, ,479;
Belgium, 465,7al; Italy. 365 900;
Hungary, 328,179; Poland, 311,287;
Switzerland, 30O,O51.
x *
THE onslaught on clear channel
l. broadcasting continues, with two
more such wave lengths going
into the duplication class. Effective
April 90, the Federal Radio Commls-
sion has authorized KRLD, Dallas, to
operate full time on the 1,040-kilo-
cycles clear channel simultaneously
with VITO, Hartford. At the same
time, it authorized KTHS. Hot
Springs Ark, to operate simultane-
ously with WBAL, Baltimore, on the
1,O6O-kilocycle clear channel
Thus all four stations gain full time
in lieu of their former time sharing
arrangement whereby KRLD and
KTHS divided the ,040-kilocycle
channel. and VITO and WBAL di-
vided the -kilocycle channel.
Station WESG, Elmira, N. Y, under
the shift goes from its daylight as
signment on 1,O4O kilocycles to day
time operation on $50 kilocycles.
The grant is labeled experimental
and is for SO-day test to determine
whether mutual interference results.
Formerly each of the four stations had
its wave length to itself for specified
periods under the commissions clear
channel arrangement whereby only
one high-power station can occupy a
clear channel at night. However, of
the 40 clear channels set aside under
the 1928 ALLEGATION, there now remain
only 81. The commission has author
lied duplication in most instances,
and in two cases the American clear
channels have been designated for
| sharing with Canada.