So many stations are to be erected in the next few years that production and competition may drive the price of receiving sets down to $150. They now cost from $300 to $2,000.

One manufacturer is making a set with a picture 6 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches to be marketed for $275. Another is talking about a 15 by 20 picture outfit to retail for less than $300.

But all this talk of television sets is meaningless so far as the Northwest is concerned until sending stations are available to service them. Each station operates within a limited range and a large number are required to comprise a coast-to-coast hook-up.

When television becomes commonplace, it is predicted, ranks of radio talent will undergo a change as great as occurred in movie personnel when talking pictures came in.

Update: Television usage in the United States skyrocketed after World War II with the lifting of the manufacturing freeze, war-related technological advances, the gradual expansion of the television networks westward, the drop in set prices caused by mass production, increased leisure time, and additional disposable income. While only 0.5 percent of U.S. households had a television set in 1946, 55.7 percent had one in 1954, and 90 percent by 1962 (wikipedia.com). Today, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates 98.9 percent of households own a color television. A 2006 law requiring over-the-air stations to cease analog broadcasting by February 2009, growth will be in the new format of high-definition television sets, commonly referred to as HDTV. Current studies have estimates ranging from 28 to 50 percent of households are already HD. A tech market research group, In-Stat, predicts programing and lower costs on HDTV sets will result in 82 percent HD households by 2010.