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Q: radio set ownership in New York City, 1938 ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: radio set ownership in New York City, 1938
Category: Reference, Education and News > General Reference
Asked by: narrative-ga
List Price: $2.00
Posted: 16 Jan 2003 10:32 PST
Expires: 15 Feb 2003 10:32 PST
Question ID: 144290
How many people owned radios in the New York City area in 1938?
Answer  
Subject: Re: radio set ownership in New York City, 1938
Answered By: omnivorous-ga on 22 Jan 2003 15:18 PST
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Narrative --

We've done a little research and can give you a good estimate.  The
1940 population of New York City was 7.5 million, according to the
Encyclopedia Britannica.  Family sizes were close to 4 people per
family (they are about 2.5 people per family today), making for about
1.9 million households.

The New York Times, on Dec. 25, 1938 carried a report from the
National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) saying that 80%
of the 19.7 million families with incomes above $1,070 had radios. 
This would probably match pretty well to New York at the time, as it
was then the metropolitan area with the highest per capita income.

That would put radios in 1.5 million of the estimated 1.9 million
households.

Some other things to note:
*  the Federal Reserve reported that radios were the category with the
largest increase in December, 1938 (holiday) sales at department
stores, increasing by 13.8%
*  NEMA says that the nationwide market for radios has a potential of
4 million units.  The average radio cost $53.
*  35 million phonograph records were sold in 1938
*  "Radio vision" was introduced at the 1938 New York World's Fair. 
You know it as "television."
*  On the eve of Halloween, 1938, Orson Welles, 23 years old, sent the
New York area into a panic with the broadcast of H.G. Wells 'War of
the Worlds' over the CBS radio network.  NY Times the next day read,
"Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact."
The Museum of Hoaxes
"The War of the Worlds" (undated)
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/war_worlds.html

Search strategy:
Encyclopedia Britannica; Proquest Historical newspapers for NY Times;
American Almanac.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA
narrative-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars
Great. Thanks!

Comments  
Subject: Re: radio set ownership in New York City, 1938
From: neilzero-ga on 16 Jan 2003 18:05 PST
 
My guess is 80% of the families units (see below)owned a radio in New
York City and near by. About 1/4 of these were crystal sets or other
radios rarely listended to, because they worked poorly or not at all.
About 1/2 of the people who lived alone or with strangers, had (some
stollen rather than owned) radios they listened to annually or
oftener. So only about 1.5 million people out of the 9 million
reasonably close to New York City had no radio where they lived. The
poulation of the 7? bouroughs was about 7 million in 1938.  Neil

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