How America Adopted Radio: Demographic Differences in Set Ownership Reported in the 1930-1950 U.S. Censuses

摘要

Radio set ownership data reported in the U.S. Censuses of 1930, 1940, and 1950 suggest that several factors affected the rate of radio adoption during these decades. Although a majority of U.S. households were radio-equipped by 1931, substantial numbers of poorer Americans, especially those living in the South, could not afford sets until much later. A majority of African American families, the poorest of all, did not own radios until well into the 1940s. It was not until 1950 that 95% of all American households owned receivers.