BROADCASTING.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18150, 13 August 1924, Page 12

BROADCASTING.

DEVELOPMENTS IN AMERICA. Some interesting facts about the growth of broadcasting in America were given by Mr G. H. Blakemore, who has just returned to Sydney from a stay of several months in that country. The use of radio sets has now become so common, he says, that no one is prepared to take a city flat unless an apparatus has been installed in it with the furniture. There are 350 broadcasting stations, and the number is increasing at the rate of 10 a week. Most of these have a horse-power varying between 100 and 1000. A month or two ago there were 11,000 firms dealing in radio sets, and they could not keep up with their orders. - A total of 25,000,000 people were handling radio. As one walked along the street radio music and radio speeches blared forth from doorways, as the gramophones and player pianos do here from some of our music shops. For fiveshillings a set the size of an ordinary lead pencil could be obtained. There was no need to put up an extensive aerial, for the aerial was provided in ti collapsible and easily portable form, and could be established on a tabh* without inconvenience. The newspapers had all recognised the value of broadcasting, and by means of continuous services of market reports, general news, and educational lectures on such subjects as fruitgrowing, were giving themselves a splendid advertisement and greatly increasing their circulations. There was no attempt at specialised advertising by the broadcasting companies because as soon as people began to hear a long rigmarole about someone's collars and someone else's tooth paste they switched over to another station, and listened to matter of a more entertaining nature. AU broadcasting was done on low-wave lengths, the higher ones being reserved fc? Government services*.