Music Trade Review

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THE WORLD OF RADIO
NEXT RADIO TRADE SHOW
IN CHICAGO IN MAY, 1932
Chicago next May will again be host to
the Seventh Annual Convention and Trade
Show of the Radio Manufacturers' Associa-
tion, which attracted over 22,000 persons to
the same city last Jun«.
According to announcement by B. G.
Erskine of Emporium, Pa., Chairman of the
Show Committee of the Radio Manufac-
turers Association, the big annual Tadio
conclave at Chicago will be held during the
week of May 23, 1932, with headquarters
at Chicago hotels to be selected later, subject
to approval expected later by the RMA
Board of Directors. The RMA Show
Committee met at New York, October 13,
and decided unanimously upon Chicago and
the week of May 23 for the 1932 industry
events.
The RMA events for 1932 were advanced
to May for several reasons.
With the
national Republican and Democratic conven-
tions being scheduled in June and the na-
tional election campaign, expected to stimu-
late radio sales, in full swing, it was be-
lieved by the RMA Show Committee that
the earlier week of May 23 would give
manufacturers, jobbers and retailers more
opportunities to sell radio and also shorten
the period before the trade show in which
trade has sometimes been reduced.
Allied radio organizations, including the
Institute of Radio Engineers, the Radio
Wholesalers Association and the National
Federation of Radio Associations, are ex-
pected to cooperate with the Radio Manu-
facturers Association in "radio week," next
May. There will be reduced railroad fares
and manufacturers will be required to ex-
hibit current merchandise and permitted to
show other electrical products. Marked ad-
vances in television development also are in
prospect for the May, 1932, trade gathering.
E. J. DYKSTRA BACK WITH
TRANSFORMER CORP.
E. J. Dvkstra returned to the Transformer
Corp. of America as general sales manager
on October 1, after an absence of some
months, due to illness, at which time he had
resigned, but is now back in the harness at
work with great plans for the company's
future development.
President Siragusa said: "We are happy
to welcome Mr. Dykstra to his former posi-
tion, and if past records are any criterion,
we look forward to seeing a great deal of
activity in the sales department." The
Clarion plants are now shipping 19,000 re-
ceivers monthly, and the company estimates
that shipments for November will be ap-
proximately 25 per cent higher.
On October 1 R. E. Klank became ad-
vertising and sales promotion manager of
the Transformer Corp. He has been with
them for the past eighteen months, and his
success in publicity and sales promotion work
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
led to his promotion. Mr. Klank is well
known and liked in the industry, and has
successfully conducted a number of sales con-
tests among the Clarion distributor organiza-
tions which have been successful. He inti-
mated that the advertising program of the
company as now planned is intended to sup-
port in a generous manner the Clarion Radio's
1931 merchandising schedule.
TONK RADIO TABLE SET
PROVING VERY POPULAR
The recent, but already popular, addition
to the line of piano benches and small novel-
ty furniture made by the Tonk Manufac-
turing Co., of 1921 Lewis street, Chicago,
is what President Percy Tonk calls a Tonk
Radio Table Set. It is illustrated herewith.
TONK RADIO TABLE
This radio table, particularly for small type
receivers and bench, is built on the Over-
ton KD patents, is shipped in dust and mois-
ture proof cartons, and easily set up by any-
one. It is suitable not only for radio, but
for general use in the well-furnished home,
and the materials, construction, and finish
are of the same high standard that charac-
terizes all of the Tonk bench products.
55,000 PERSONS ATTEND
MILWAUKEE RADIO SHOW
More than 55,000 persons visited the ninth
annual radio-electrical exposition held in
Milwaukee, Wis., for a five-day period dur-
ing OctobeT. The total attendance last year
was 33,295.
Patronage of this year's show, according
to Walter Kluge, president of the Wiscon-
sin Radio Trade association, sponsor of the
show, has given the radio dealers and their
distributors new confidence in their business,
"and," he remarked, "the actual sales and
prospects gained were greater than at any
previous exposition."
Interest, too, he
pointed out, was manifest in models in
price range from $100 upward. "It all goes
to prove that there is business if it is gone
after," "Many retailers told me that they
felt highly repaid by taking part in the
exposition, for they made many valuable
contacts."
Addressing the Wisconsin radio dealers,
H. G. Erstrom, executive secretary of the
National Federation of Radio associations,
said that business in general and especi-
ally in the radio field, shows a decided
improvement,
"The buying public is get-
REVIEW,
N o v e m b e r , 1931
ting away from the midget price merchan-
dise," he said, "It wants quality, and is
willing to pay." He asserted that the pub-
lic is surfeited with merchandise of cheap
cost and similarly cheap quality, and the
trend in buying is for quality and good
value.
THIS MUSIC STORE MAKES
A GOOD PROFIT ON RADIO
Long recognized as successful merchan-
disers of pianos, and other musical instru-
ments, and sheet music, the Forbes-Meagher
Music Co., 27 West Main street, Madison,
Wis., also prides itself on its successful de-
velopment of radio business, thus rounding
out its merchandising service.
The company handles four lines of radios,
a number which gives the range of choice
necessary in a stone with their large trad-
ing territory, and yet small enough to allow
concentration and development of sales.
Radio set sales of the company increased
thirty-eight per cent in the past five months,
in comparison with the corresponding months
of 1930, according to J. E. Meagher.
"This gain is in spite of the drop in the
unit sales of radio," he said. "Sales of the
small mantel, or midget, type of radio has
been the chief cause. This meant that three
or four times as many people have bought
receivers during the past five months, than
for any other like period."
Mr. Meagher said that the public is
turning away from shops which are not
backed by a reliable reputation, and are
seeking out the reputable music house as a
source for their radio, just as they have been
turning to the strongest bank, and safest in-
vestments. Confidence which music dealers
have built up during years of merchandis-
ing musical instruments is now reaping its
reward, Mr. Meagher believes, since the
public more readily accepts the word of the
music dealer in favor of a certain brand of
radio, than any other concern selling radios.
During the summer the company's radio
department sold more small radio sets to
campers in and around Madison, and to
students attending the University of Wis-
consin, than in any previous season. This
additional development of their market
meant a good extra margin of business, and
they are going out after student business
again this fall.
The company handles its own financing
arrangements, for its merchandising, mak-
ing it possible for the customer to avail him-
self of its credit without negotiating with a
third party, of the payment of any financ-
ing charge except interest.
Elaborate Radio Department
In a new million-dollar store building, at
Twenty-first street and Broadway, Oakland,
Cal., recently occupied by the John Breuner
Co., dealers in housefurnishing goods, the
entire mezzanine floor is given over to an
elaborate radio department.
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