Radio: Hearing impaired

Radio sets, like other man-made contraptions, will not last forever. Last week the testimony of U.S. farmers and city folk alike showed that breakdowns were increasing among the 59,000,000 U.S. sets.

The farmer’s plight was serious. In some rural areas, over a third of the radios were out of order. Most of them (3,200,000) were battery-operated, and the supply of new batteries was slim. Farmers, who depend upon the radio for most of their world news and market reports, were also being cut off from weather bulletins, the latest Government regulations, other special services. City dwellers were stuck for repair parts, especially tubes, and repair men.

This predicament was no surprise to WPB’s Radio & Radar Division. It had reduced types of tubes from 600 to 114, devised new lines of other parts designed to save critical materials. But it had not been able to give manufacturers high enough priorities to get enough materials to make the parts.

Torrents of Tubes. WPB offered the farmer some relief. Battery production was up to 425,000 a month—enough to supply each farmer with a battery and a half for his set this year. But farmers were using their radios about two hours more daily than ever before, and would need more batteries than ever. Moreover, their battery requirements were already so far behind that production would be a long time catching up.

WPB had also authorized manufacturers to make 2,000,000 tubes a month (half of normal consumption) for civilian radios. This output (due next month) should keep the home front glowing, WPB figured, if no family operated more than one set (half of the 30,000,000 U.S. radio homes own three-quarters of the radios).