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A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - morzh - 05-05-2015

A friend has asked me this:


1. how many consoles a year were manufactured in the US before the WWII?
2. How many of them were Philcos?
3. Are there numbers for every year published somewhere?

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - Paul Philco322 - 05-05-2015

I have some information in a book about the radio industry, it is no as specific as you would like. Anything by Hugo Gernsbeck who did the early magazines?

Paul

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - morzh - 05-05-2015

Thanks, Paul.

>>>>Anything by Hugo Gernsbeck who did the early magazines?

What did you mean by that?

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - Ron Ramirez - 05-05-2015

I think he meant, "Would there be any info out there compiled by Hugo Gernsback?"

Now...

There was a publication, I think it may have been Radio Retailing, that gave annual sales statistics for the industry as a whole - but as far as I know, they did not break these sales down by manufacturer, and they certainly did not break the numbers down to consoles vs. table models or what were once called "mantle" or "Baby Grand" sets which we now call "cathedrals" or "tombstones". Alan Douglas could confirm this.

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - Arran - 05-05-2015

(05-05-2015, 09:39 PM)Ron Ramirez Wrote:  I think he meant, "Would there be any info out there compiled by Hugo Gernsback?"

Now...

There was a publication, I think it may have been Radio Retailing, that gave annual sales statistics for the industry as a whole - but as far as I know, they did not break these sales down by manufacturer, and they certainly did not break the numbers down to consoles vs. table models or what were once called "mantle" or "Baby Grand" sets which we now call "cathedrals" or "tombstones". Alan Douglas could confirm this.

 I ran into some sort of article like that on the ARF site posting statistics about how many of what tube count, what cabinet style, price bracket, how many bands, etc. were sold, but it was from around 1936, and it did not give sales per manufacturer It was an interesting read, but of course it would never be able to answer the question regarding how many console radios were produced in total prior to the war.
Regards
Arran

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - JimZ - 05-06-2015

Ive never seen figures by type but here is the most recent discussion I observed

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=264942&hilit=Number+radios+made+depression+years

You could probably go thru the gallery here and tally up consoles by year and maybe arrive at a fair % consoles vs table sets by year
and maybe do a guesstimate for other brands...assuming their product mix was similar.
Or if you can find sales figures by year you might be able to get a rough idea what % of sales was likely to be consoles/table sets.

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - Paul Philco322 - 05-06-2015

Did he say why he wanted to know?

Curious George.

Paul

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - morzh - 05-06-2015

No. He did not.

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - Arran - 05-06-2015

Here is a link to that article I remembered, it is from 1936, though I am sure that there were similar issues of this magazine posting such statistics from later dates.

http://antiqueradios.com/36_08_radio_today/index.htm

Regards
Arran

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - morzh - 05-06-2015

Thanks everyone!

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - JimZ - 05-07-2015

Its sort of a shame that so little information is readily available for brands other than Philco. In retrospect its one of the reasons I was drawn to this site other than my near affection for some of the Philco classic models.
As a former "number cruncher" I really appreciate the digging and pure "time" that must have gone into finding and presenting all the data we find here. Frankly it mystifies me why detailed records don't seem to be available for other brands...not like accounting procedures suddenly appeared in 1995 or something.

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - Alan Douglas - 05-07-2015

Manufacturers weren't keen on giving out sales figures to competitors, and they had nothing to gain by doing so.

I'm sure RCA kept records of their licensees' sales, but there was no reason for their sharing that data with anyone else.

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - Joe Rossi - 05-07-2015

Morzh,

Check out americanradiohistory.com.  Under "Early Radio - Science" section, select Radio Today.  You'll see a grid of all the issues, choose January 1938.  Pages 9 & 63 thru 68 have some stats but not overly specific.  As Ron mentioned, Radio Retailing would probably have more info, but it isn't available free on-line.  There is a fellow out there who'll sell youall the issues on DVD, don't remember who that was. And our good friend Alan Douglas is correct, there was nothing to gain by publishing them in that era.  Business was cut throat.  Joe

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - Alan Douglas - 05-08-2015

I have the Radio Retailing and there are also industry statistics in Broadcasting (the June issues as I recall).  But while these figures may be broken down by table models and consoles, they're definitely not broken down by manufacturer.

RE: A question: old console radios manufacturing quantities - RadioSvit - 05-09-2015

Good evening.My name is Peter. I am from Ukraine and do not speak English. Sorry, but there is no other option how to use the services of an interpreter "Google."
This I asked Michael for me to find information about the number of issued radio before World War II. I really like the big American radio and therefore gather a collection of beautiful and well-playing devices. I am also interested in the information about the number of American radio each year. I want to promote strarye American radio collectors Ukraine. Thank you for the information.