RADIO BOOMS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 113, 9 November 1933, Page 21

RADIO BOOMS

NEW YORK EXHIBITION

A month ago in these notes it was reported that the~ British radio exhibition Held at Olympia in August had attracted 225,000 visitors, and resulted in orders for new business aggregating £26,000,000. This great total was increased by the Scottish and Manchester shows to a total estimated to reach the astonishing amount of £40,000,000, nearly three millions and a half more than last year. It is evident that the British exhibition is a very different proposition from its American equivalent, the annual radio show in New York This big fixture was held in September, in Madison Square Garden. The British exhibitions are used as wholesale fares, where the manufacturers display their latest productions and "the trade" places' its orders in a setting which is a highly popular rendezvous for the public. In New York, too, the tiublie crowd the show: the September exhibition attracted a total of 200,000 visitors in tea days. But the business done there is of a different kind, retail rather than wholesale, and the total turnover was, in sterling, about £350,000. . ; ■ As a result of .the reaction of the public to the 1933-34 merchandise, both set makers and radio tradesmen are predicting an unusually successful season ahead, said the "New York Times," commenting on the result of1 the exhibition. Eadio men especially are optimistic. They point out that this should bo a good season for radio because hundreds at the show either purchased on the spot for later delivery or ordered demonstrations at home when the sets reach retail outlets. The reaction of one of the largest radio manufacturers in the East was indicated by an official of that organisation, who said the show was tho best he had seen in many years. "It produced more interest; and actual sales than any show in which we have ever, been represented," he said. An authoritative but unnamed visitor to the New York show commented that it was more electrical tban radio, "which is rather difficult for one to understand after having visited tho London and Berlin radjo expositions," and also expressed surprise that television was unrepresented, whereas it figured prominently in the European displays. ' It is still a cause for astonishment that the public demand for radio apparatus climbs and eliinbs; notwithstanding the relative poverty of the public. Tho British show, with its remarkable success", is surprising enough, even allowing for the recent recovery of business, but in America tho conditions aro so severe that one might have expected such a luxury trado to have shown signs of uncertainty.