"Out of Whack"

For an article which it published six years ago, the Reader's Digest investigated 19 radio repairmen in Manhattan, found 17 dishonest. Has the situation improved?

After conducting similar tests, the trade sheet Radio Daily reported that the situation in Manhattan is now simplified: 20 out of 20 repairmen investigated proved to be dishonest.

Reporter Irwin Rosten confronted each repairman with a portable radio "in perfect operating condition" except for a simple short circuit "in plain view." Some shops recommended repairs ("practically no two alike"): "a new condenser," "a short in the transformer," "a realignment job," "the oscillator is out of whack." Range of estimates: from $9 to $15. None mentioned the short circuit. What's more, the "radio servicemen" surreptitiously wrecked the volume control, the tuning control, two tubes and the batteries, putting the set "completely out of commission."

Radio Daily's blast at radio repairmen set up an immediate echo. Last week New York City Councilman Stanley Isaacs threatened to introduce a long-contemplated bill forcing radio repairmen (like plumbers, electricians, etc.) to pass municipal license tests. And membership in the two-month-old Associated Radio Servicemen of N.Y.. Inc. (whose pious principle is "to see that the public gets a good deal") hopped from 60 to 300.

Even if the association can impose a code of fair practices on the rest of New York City's 4,000-odd repairmen, there are still 91 other U.S. cities of more than 100,000, where the public is probably getting the same sort of "repair service" that Radio Daily found in Manhattan.

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