RCA
Encyclopedia
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American
electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark
is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor. The trademark is used by Sony Music Entertainment
and Technicolor, which licenses the name to other companies like Audiovox
and TCL Corporation
for products descended from that common ancestor.
declared war on France
and Belgium
, the United Kingdom
declared war on Germany, and the United Kingdom and France declared war on Austria-Hungary
. This following the German and Austrian invasions of their neighbors, including Serbia
and the Russian Empire
, thus starting World War I
. Radio traffic across the Atlantic Ocean
increased dramatically after the western Allies cut the German transatlantic submarine communication cables (telegraph-only at that time, well before the first transatlantic telephone cable connected the United States
with France
in 1956.) Germany, Austria-Hungary, and their allies in Europe (the Central Powers
) maintained contact with neutral countries in the Americas, such as the United States
, Mexico
, Brazil
, Argentina
, Chile
, and Peru
via long-distance radio communications, as well as via telegraph cables owned by neutral countries such as the Netherlands
and Denmark
.
In 1917 the U.S. Government
took charge of the patents owned by the major companies involved in radio
manufacture in the United States in order to devote radio technology to the war effort. All production of radio equipment was allocated to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Coast Guard. The War Department
and the Navy Department
sought to maintain a Federal monopoly
of all uses of radio technology. However, the wartime takeover of all radio systems ended late in 1918, when the U.S. Congress failed to pass a bill which would have extended this monopoly; the War ended in November of that year.
The ending of the Federal Government's monopoly in radio communications did not prevent the War and Navy Departments from creating a national radio system for the United States. On 8 April 1919, naval Admiral
W. H. G. Bullard and Captain Stanford C. Hooper met with executives of the General Electric Corporation
(G.E.) and asked them to discontinue selling the company's Alexanderson alternator
s (used in the high-power AM
radio transmitters of that era) to the British-owned Marconi Company
, and to its subsidiary, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America.
The proposal presented by the government was that if G.E. created an American-owned radio company, then the Army and Navy would effect a monopoly of long-distance radio communications via this company. This marked the beginning of a series of negotiations through which G.E. would buy the American Marconi company and then incorporate what would be called the Radio Corporation of America.
The incorporation of the assets of Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (including David Sarnoff
,) the Pan-American Telegraph Company, and those already controlled by the United States Navy
led to a new publicly-held company formed by General Electric (which owned a controlling interest) on 17 October 1919. The following cooperation among RCA, General Electric, the United Fruit Company
, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation
, and American Telephone & Telegraph
(AT&T) brought about innovations in high-power radio technology, and also the founding of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the United States. The Army and the Navy granted to RCA the former American Marconi radio terminals that had been confiscated during the War. (Note: there were no commercial radio station
s anywhere in the world before 1922 when station KDKA
started broadcasting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
.) Admiral Bullard received a seat on the Board of Directors of RCA for his efforts in establishing RCA. The result was Federally-created monopolies in radio for GE and the Westinghouse Corporation and in telephone systems for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company.
The argument by the Department of War and the Department of the Navy that the usable radio frequencies were limited, and hence needed to be appropriated for use before other countries, such as the United Kingdom
, France, Germany, and Canada
monopolized them, collapsed in the mid-1920s following the discovery of the practicality of the use of the shortwave radio band (3.0 MHz though 30.0 MHz) for very long-range radio communications.
The first chief executive officer
of RCA was Owen D. Young; David Sarnoff
became its general manager. RCA's incorporation papers required that a majority of its stock be held by American citizens. RCA agreed to market the radio equipment manufactured by G.E. and Westinghouse, and in follow-on agreements, RCA also acquired the radio patents that had been held by Westinghouse and the United Fruit Company. As the years went on, RCA either took over, or produced for itself, a large number of patents, including that of the superheterodyne receiver
.
Over the years, RCA continued to operate international telecommunications services, under its subsidiary RCA Communications, Inc., and later the RCA Global Communications Company.
and WCAP
radio stations and networks from AT&T, merged them with its WJZ (the predecessor of WABC
) New York to WRC (presently WTEM
) Washington chain, and formed the National Broadcasting Company (NBC
).
, then the world's largest manufacturer of phonograph
s (including the famous "Victrola") and phonograph records. This included a majority ownership of the Victor Company of Japan
(JVC). The new subsidiary then became RCA-Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World
rights to the Nipper
trademark. This Trademark is also the trademark for the British music & entertainment company HMV
who now display Nipper in silhouette. RCA Victor produced many radio-phonographs and also created RCA Photophone
, a sound-on-film
system for sound films that competed with William Fox
's sound-on-film Movietone
and Warner Bros.
' sound-on-disc
Vitaphone
.
RCA began selling the first electronic turntable
in 1930. In 1931 RCA Victor began selling 33⅓ rpm records. These had the standard groove size (the same width as the contemporary 78 rpm records), rather than the "microgroove" used in post-World War II 33⅓ "Long Play" records. The format was a commercial failure at the height of the Great Depression
, partly because the records and playback equipment were expensive, and partly because the audio performance was poor (tracking ability depends upon, among other things, the stylus's radius of curvature, and it would require the smaller-radius stylus of the microgroove system to make slower-speed records track acceptably). The system was withdrawn from the market after about a year. (This was not the first attempt at a commercial long play record format, as Edison Records
had marketed a microgroove vertically recorded disc with 20 minutes playing time per side the previous decade; the Edison long-playing records were also a commercial failure.)
In 1930 RCA agreed to occupy the yet-to-be-constructed landmark building of the Rockefeller Center
complex, 30 Rockefeller Plaza
, which in 1933 became known as the RCA building, now the GE Building. This critical lease in the massive project enabled it to proceed as a commercially viable venture.
RCA demonstrated an all-electronic television system at the 1939 New York World's Fair
, and developed the USA's first television test pattern. With the introduction of the NTSC standard, the Federal Communications Commission
authorized the start of commercial television transmission on 1 July 1941. World War II
slowed the deployment of television in the US, but RCA began selling television sets almost immediately after the war was over. (See also: History of television
) RCA was closely involved in radar
and radio development in support of the war effort. These development efforts greatly assisted RCA in its television research efforts.
RCA was a major producer of vacuum tube
s (branded Radiotron) in the USA, creating a series of innovative products ranging from octal base metal tubes co-developed with General Electric
before World War II to the transistor
-sized Nuvistor
used in the tuners of the New Vista series of television sets. The Nuvistor tubes were a last hurrah for vacuum tubes and were meant to be a competitive technology against the newly introduced transistors. RCA also partnered with Tung-Sol
to produce the legendary KT88
/6550 hi-fi vacuum tube. Their combined power in the marketplace
was so strong that they effectively set the selling prices for vacuum tubes in the USA. Except for the main cathode ray tube
(CRT), the company had completely switched from tubes to solid-state television sets by 1975.
Antitrust
concerns led FCC to force the breakup of the NBC radio networks, a breakup affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. On 12 October 1943, the "NBC Blue" radio network was sold to Life Savers
candy magnate Edward J. Noble for $8,000,000, and renamed "The Blue Network
, Inc". It would become the American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) in 1946. The "NBC Red" network retained the NBC name, and RCA retained ownership.
, the cornerstone was laid for a research and development facility, RCA Laboratories, on Route 1
just north of New Jersey Rte 571
in Princeton, New Jersey
. This lab developed many innovations, such as color television
, the electron microscope
, CMOS
-based technology, heterojunction
physics, optoelectronic emitting devices, liquid crystal display
s (LCDs), videocassette recorder
s, direct broadcast television, direct broadcast satellite systems and high-definition television
. From 1988 to January 2011, the Lab was called Sarnoff Corporation
, a subsidiary of SRI International
, after which it was fully integrated into SRI.
During World War II and beyond, RCA set up several new divisions, for defense, space exploration and other activities. The RCA Service Coporation provided large numbers of staff for the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line
. RCA units won five Army–Navy ‘E’ Awards for Excellence in production. Also during the war, ties between RCA and JVC were severed.
In 1947 RCA-Victor developed and released the first 45 rpm
record to the public, answering CBS/Columbia
's 33⅓ rpm "LP".
In 1953 RCA's all electronic color-TV technology was adopted as the standard for American color TV; it is now known as NTSC (after the "National Television System Committee" that approved it). RCA camera
s and studio gear, particularly of the TK-40/41 series, became standard equipment at many American television network affiliate
s, as RCA CT-100
("RCA Merrill" to dealers) television sets introduced color television to the public.
In 1955 RCA sold its Estate large appliance operations to Whirlpool Corporation. As part of the deal, Whirlpool was given the right to market "RCA Whirlpool" appliances through the mid-1960s.
Despite the company's indisputable leadership in television technology, David Sarnoff in 1955 commented, "Television will never be a medium of entertainment".
RCA was one of several major computer
companies (see also: Computing
) that also included IBM
, Digital Equipment Corporation
, Burroughs, Control Data Corporation
, General Electric
, Honeywell
, NCR
and Sperry Rand
through most of the 1960s. RCA marketed the Spectra 70 Series (models 15, 25, 35, 45, 46, 55, 60 and 61) that were hardware, but not software, compatible with IBM’s 360 series, and the RCA Series (RCA 2, 3, 6, 7) competing against the IBM 370. These systems all ran RCA’s real-memory operating systems, DOS and TDOS. RCA’s Virtual Memory Systems, the Spectra 70/46 and 70/61 and the RCA 3 and 7 could also run their Virtual Memory Operating System, VMOS. VMOS was originally named TSOS (Time Sharing Operating System
), but was renamed in order to expand the system beyond the time-sharing market. RCA was credited with coining the term "Virtual Memory". TSOS was the first mainframe, demand paging, virtual memory operating system on the market. The English Electric
System 4 range, the 4-10, 4-30, 4-50,4-70 and the time-sharing 4-75 computers were essentially RCA Spectra 70 clones of the IBM System /360 and 370 range. RCA abandoned computers in 1971. Sperry Rand
officially took over the RCA base in January 1972.
RCA Graphic Systems Division (GSD) was an early supplier of electronics designed for the printing and publishing industries. It contracted with German company Rudolf Hell
to market adaptations of the Digiset photocomposition system as the Videocomp, and a Laser Color Scanner. The Videocomp was supported by a Spectra computer that ran the Page-1 and, later the Page-II and FileComp composition systems. RCA later sold the Videocomp rights to Information International Inc. (III).
RCA was a major proponent of the eight-track tape cartridge
, which it launched in 1965. The eight-track cartridge initially had a huge and profitable impact on the consumer marketplace. However, sales of the 8-track tape format peaked early on as consumers increasingly favored the compact cassette tape format developed by competitor Philips
.
On 17 September 1971, NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report read a news bulletin issued by the RCA Board of Directors just minutes before the broadcast, announcing the Board's decision to cease operation of its general-purpose computer systems division (RCA-CSD). This marked a milestone in RCA's move away from technology and into a diversified conglomerate. (The introduction by IBM of the 370 series required RCA to make a substantial new investment in its computer division, and the Board decided against making that investment.)
During the late 1960s and 1970s, RCA Corporation, as it was now formally known, ventured into other markets. Under Robert Sarnoff's leadership, RCA diversified far beyond electronics and communications, in a broader American corporate trend toward "conglomerates." The company acquired Hertz
(rental cars), Banquet
(frozen foods), Coronet (carpeting), Random House
(publishing) and Gibson (greeting cards), yet slipped into financial disarray, with wags calling it "Rugs Chickens & Automobiles" to poke fun at their attempt at becoming a conglomerate.
Robert Sarnoff was ousted in a 1975 boardroom coup
by Anthony Conrad, who resigned a year later after he admitted failing to file income tax returns for six years. RCA maintained its high standards of engineering excellence in broadcast engineering and satellite
communications equipment, but ventures such as the NBC
radio and television networks declined.
In about 1980 RCA corporate strategy reported on moving manufacture of its television sets to Mexico. RCA was still profitable in 1983, when it switched manufacturing of its VHS VCRs from Panasonic
to Hitachi
.
Forays into new consumer electronics
products lost money. The SelectaVision
videodisc
system, not to be confused with the same trademark that RCA applied to its VCRs, never developed the manufacturing volumes to substantially bring down its price, could not compete against cheaper, recordable videotape technology, and was abandoned in 1985 for a write-off of several hundred million dollars.
In 1984 RCA Broadcast Systems Division moved from Camden, New Jersey
, to the site of the RCA antenna
engineering facility in Gibbsboro, New Jersey
. In the years that followed, the broadcast product lines developed in Camden were terminated or sold off, and most of the buildings demolished, save for the original RCA Victor buildings that had been declared national historical buildings. For several years, RCA spinoff L-3 Communications
Systems East was headquartered in the building, but has since moved to an adjacent building built by the city for them. The building now houses shops and luxury loft apartments.
and the company was renamed BMG Music
, for Bertelsmann Music Group.
G.E. then sold the rights to make RCA- and GE-branded televisions and other consumer electronics products to the French Thomson Consumer Electronics, in exchange for some of Thomson's medical businesses.
RCA Laboratories was transferred to SRI International
as the David Sarnoff Research Center, subsequently renamed Sarnoff Corporation
. Sarnoff Labs was put on a five-year plan whereby G.E. would fund all the labs' activities for the first year, then reduce its support to near zero after the fifth year. This required Sarnoff Labs to change its business model to become an industrial contract research facility.
The only RCA unit which G.E. kept was the National Broadcasting Company
. G.E. sold the NBC Radio Network to Westwood One
and all of its radio stations to various owners.
For information on the RCA brand after 1986, see RCA (trademark)
.
s and RCA Merrill/CT-100s and other early color television receivers are among the more sought-after collectible radios and televisions, thanks to their popularity during the golden age of radio
, their manufacturing quality, their engineering
innovations, their styling
and their name, RCA.
The historic RCA Victor Building 17, the "Nipper Building
", in Camden, New Jersey
, was converted to luxury apartments in 2003.
A plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
which RCA operated from the late 1940s to June 1986, released more than 250,000 pounds of pollutants
per year from its exhaust stacks. Tested by the EPA in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the groundwater at the facility is contaminated by trichloroethylene
(TCE) and 1,2-dichloroethylene (1,2-DCE). In 1991 and 1992, contaminants were detected in monitoring wells on the east side of the Conestoga River in Lancaster.
The shallow and deep groundwater aquifers beneath the Intersil Facility in Mountaintop, Pennsylvania, which RCA operated in the 1960s and later sold to Harris Semiconductor, contain elevated levels of volatile organic compound
s.
A site in Burlington, Massachusetts
which RCA used from 1958 to 1994 to make and test military electronics equipment, generated hazardous waste (VOCs
, TCE
, toluene
, ethylbenzene
, and xylene
s.
In Barceloneta
, Puerto Rico, an RCA-operated plant generated wastes containing chromium
, selenium
and iron
. Four lagoons holding chemical waste drained into the limestone aquifer
. Used water from the manufacturing process (process water), containing ferric chloride
, was treated onsite to remove contaminants and then was discharged into a sinkhole at the site. The treatment of process water created a sludge that was stored onsite in drying beds and in surface impoundments.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark
RCA (trademark)
RCA is an American trademark brand owned by Technicolor SA which is used on products made by that company as well as Audiovox, ON Corporation and Sony Music Entertainment...
is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor. The trademark is used by Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
and Technicolor, which licenses the name to other companies like Audiovox
Audiovox
Audiovox Corporation is an American consumer electronics company founded in 1965 and headquartered in Hauppauge, New York.Among the domestic brands now owned by Audiovox are: Acoustic Research, Advent, Code Alarm, Invision, Jensen, Prestige, RCA, and Terk. The international brands they own include...
and TCL Corporation
TCL Corporation
TCL Corporation is a multinational electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong, China. In 2010 it was the world's 25th-largest consumer electronics producer and sixth-largest television producer .TCL comprises three listed companies: TCL Corporation , which is listed on the Shenzhen...
for products descended from that common ancestor.
RCA's organization by General Electric
In August 1914, the German EmpireGerman Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
declared war on France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
declared war on Germany, and the United Kingdom and France declared war on Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. This following the German and Austrian invasions of their neighbors, including Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, thus starting World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Radio traffic across the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
increased dramatically after the western Allies cut the German transatlantic submarine communication cables (telegraph-only at that time, well before the first transatlantic telephone cable connected the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1956.) Germany, Austria-Hungary, and their allies in Europe (the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
) maintained contact with neutral countries in the Americas, such as the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
via long-distance radio communications, as well as via telegraph cables owned by neutral countries such as the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
.
In 1917 the U.S. Government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
took charge of the patents owned by the major companies involved in radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
manufacture in the United States in order to devote radio technology to the war effort. All production of radio equipment was allocated to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Coast Guard. The War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
and the Navy Department
United States Department of the Navy
The Department of the Navy of the United States of America was established by an Act of Congress on 30 April 1798, to provide a government organizational structure to the United States Navy and, from 1834 onwards, for the United States Marine Corps, and when directed by the President, of the...
sought to maintain a Federal monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
of all uses of radio technology. However, the wartime takeover of all radio systems ended late in 1918, when the U.S. Congress failed to pass a bill which would have extended this monopoly; the War ended in November of that year.
The ending of the Federal Government's monopoly in radio communications did not prevent the War and Navy Departments from creating a national radio system for the United States. On 8 April 1919, naval Admiral
Admiral (United States)
In the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, admiral is a four-star flag officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. Admiral ranks above vice admiral and below Fleet Admiral in the Navy; the Coast Guard and the Public Health...
W. H. G. Bullard and Captain Stanford C. Hooper met with executives of the General Electric Corporation
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
(G.E.) and asked them to discontinue selling the company's Alexanderson alternator
Alexanderson alternator
An Alexanderson alternator is a rotating machine invented by Ernst Alexanderson in 1904 for the generation of high frequency alternating current up to 100 kHz, for use as a radio transmitter...
s (used in the high-power AM
Amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...
radio transmitters of that era) to the British-owned Marconi Company
Marconi Company
The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...
, and to its subsidiary, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America.
The proposal presented by the government was that if G.E. created an American-owned radio company, then the Army and Navy would effect a monopoly of long-distance radio communications via this company. This marked the beginning of a series of negotiations through which G.E. would buy the American Marconi company and then incorporate what would be called the Radio Corporation of America.
Establishment
David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...
,) the Pan-American Telegraph Company, and those already controlled by the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
led to a new publicly-held company formed by General Electric (which owned a controlling interest) on 17 October 1919. The following cooperation among RCA, General Electric, the United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Westinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...
, and American Telephone & Telegraph
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...
(AT&T) brought about innovations in high-power radio technology, and also the founding of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the United States. The Army and the Navy granted to RCA the former American Marconi radio terminals that had been confiscated during the War. (Note: there were no commercial radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
s anywhere in the world before 1922 when station KDKA
KDKA
KDKA may refer to:* KDKA , a radio station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States* KDKA-TV, a television station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States...
started broadcasting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
.) Admiral Bullard received a seat on the Board of Directors of RCA for his efforts in establishing RCA. The result was Federally-created monopolies in radio for GE and the Westinghouse Corporation and in telephone systems for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company.
The argument by the Department of War and the Department of the Navy that the usable radio frequencies were limited, and hence needed to be appropriated for use before other countries, such as the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, France, Germany, and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
monopolized them, collapsed in the mid-1920s following the discovery of the practicality of the use of the shortwave radio band (3.0 MHz though 30.0 MHz) for very long-range radio communications.
The first chief executive officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of RCA was Owen D. Young; David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...
became its general manager. RCA's incorporation papers required that a majority of its stock be held by American citizens. RCA agreed to market the radio equipment manufactured by G.E. and Westinghouse, and in follow-on agreements, RCA also acquired the radio patents that had been held by Westinghouse and the United Fruit Company. As the years went on, RCA either took over, or produced for itself, a large number of patents, including that of the superheterodyne receiver
Superheterodyne receiver
In electronics, a superheterodyne receiver uses frequency mixing or heterodyning to convert a received signal to a fixed intermediate frequency, which can be more conveniently processed than the original radio carrier frequency...
.
Over the years, RCA continued to operate international telecommunications services, under its subsidiary RCA Communications, Inc., and later the RCA Global Communications Company.
Broadcast expansion
By 1926 the market for commercial radio had expanded, and RCA purchased the WEAFWFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
and WCAP
WCAP (defunct)
WCAP was a short-lived radio station that originated in Washington, D.C. during the early-to-mid 1920s. It was owned by AT&T, and its call letters allegedly derived from the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, the local telephone company controlled by AT&T which, based on available reports...
radio stations and networks from AT&T, merged them with its WJZ (the predecessor of WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
) New York to WRC (presently WTEM
WTEM
WTEM — branded ESPN 980 — is a sports radio station licensed to Washington, D.C. and serving the Washington metro area. It is the flagship of a sports talk trimulcast with WWXT in Prince Frederick, Maryland and WWXX in Buckland, Virginia, all affiliated with ESPN Radio and owned by Red Zebra...
) Washington chain, and formed the National Broadcasting Company (NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
).
Radio
G.E. used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales from 1919, when G.E. began production, until 1930. Westinghouse also marketed home radios through RCA until 1930.Phonograph
In 1929 RCA purchased the Victor Talking Machine CompanyVictor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
, then the world's largest manufacturer of phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
s (including the famous "Victrola") and phonograph records. This included a majority ownership of the Victor Company of Japan
JVC
, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
(JVC). The new subsidiary then became RCA-Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
rights to the Nipper
Nipper
Nipper was a dog that served as the model for a painting titled His Late Master's Voice. This image was the basis for the dog and trumpet logo used by several audio recording and associated brands: His Master's Voice, HMV, RCA, Victor Talking Machine Company, RCA Victor and JVC.- Biography :Nipper...
trademark. This Trademark is also the trademark for the British music & entertainment company HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
who now display Nipper in silhouette. RCA Victor produced many radio-phonographs and also created RCA Photophone
RCA Photophone
RCA Photophone was the trade name given to one of four major competing technologies that emerged in the American film industry in the late 1920s for synchronizing electrically recorded audio to a motion picture image. RCA Photophone was a sound-on-film, "variable-area" film exposure system, in...
, a sound-on-film
Sound-on-film
Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track,...
system for sound films that competed with William Fox
William Fox (producer)
William Fox born Fried Vilmos was a pioneering Hungarian American motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s...
's sound-on-film Movietone
Movietone sound system
The Movietone sound system is a sound-on-film method of recording sound for motion pictures that guarantees synchronization between sound and picture. It achieves this by recording the sound as a variable-density optical track on the same strip of film that records the pictures...
and Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
' sound-on-disc
Sound-on-disc
The term Sound-on-disc refers to a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or playback sound in sync with a motion picture...
Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
.
RCA began selling the first electronic turntable
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
in 1930. In 1931 RCA Victor began selling 33⅓ rpm records. These had the standard groove size (the same width as the contemporary 78 rpm records), rather than the "microgroove" used in post-World War II 33⅓ "Long Play" records. The format was a commercial failure at the height of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, partly because the records and playback equipment were expensive, and partly because the audio performance was poor (tracking ability depends upon, among other things, the stylus's radius of curvature, and it would require the smaller-radius stylus of the microgroove system to make slower-speed records track acceptably). The system was withdrawn from the market after about a year. (This was not the first attempt at a commercial long play record format, as Edison Records
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
had marketed a microgroove vertically recorded disc with 20 minutes playing time per side the previous decade; the Edison long-playing records were also a commercial failure.)
In 1930 RCA agreed to occupy the yet-to-be-constructed landmark building of the Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
complex, 30 Rockefeller Plaza
GE Building
The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the midtown Manhattan section of New York City. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC...
, which in 1933 became known as the RCA building, now the GE Building. This critical lease in the massive project enabled it to proceed as a commercially viable venture.
Separation from General Electric
In 1930 the U.S. Department of Justice brought antitrust charges against RCA, General Electric and Westinghouse. As a result, G.E. and Westinghouse gave up their ownership interests in RCA. RCA was allowed to keep its radio factories, and G.E. and Westinghouse were allowed to compete in that business after 30 months.Electronic television
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
, and developed the USA's first television test pattern. With the introduction of the NTSC standard, the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
authorized the start of commercial television transmission on 1 July 1941. World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
slowed the deployment of television in the US, but RCA began selling television sets almost immediately after the war was over. (See also: History of television
History of television
The history of television records the work of numerous engineers and inventors in several countries over many decades. The fundamental principles of television were initially explored using electromechanical methods to scan, transmit and reproduce an image...
) RCA was closely involved in radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
and radio development in support of the war effort. These development efforts greatly assisted RCA in its television research efforts.
RCA was a major producer of vacuum tube
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
s (branded Radiotron) in the USA, creating a series of innovative products ranging from octal base metal tubes co-developed with General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
before World War II to the transistor
Transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
-sized Nuvistor
Nuvistor
The nuvistor is a type of vacuum tube announced by RCA in 1959. Most nuvistors are basically thimble-shaped, but somewhat smaller than a thimble. Triodes and tetrodes were made, although tetrode nuvistors are rare. The tube is made entirely of metal and ceramic. Making nuvistors requires special...
used in the tuners of the New Vista series of television sets. The Nuvistor tubes were a last hurrah for vacuum tubes and were meant to be a competitive technology against the newly introduced transistors. RCA also partnered with Tung-Sol
Tung-Sol
Tung-Sol was a manufacturer of lamps and vacuum tubes in Newark, New Jersey.Tung-Sol developed the first successful car headlight in 1907 and the first two filament high and low beam headlight in a single bulb in 1913. Tung-Sol was also responsible for the first flashing turn signal.In the 1920s...
to produce the legendary KT88
KT88
The KT88 is a beam tetrode/kinkless tetrode vacuum tube for audio amplification.- Features :The KT88 fits a standard eight-pin octal socket and has similar pinout and applications as the 6L6 and EL34. Specifically designed for audio amplification, the KT88 has similar ratings to the American 6550...
/6550 hi-fi vacuum tube. Their combined power in the marketplace
Market power
In economics, market power is the ability of a firm to alter the market price of a good or service. In perfectly competitive markets, market participants have no market power. A firm with market power can raise prices without losing its customers to competitors...
was so strong that they effectively set the selling prices for vacuum tubes in the USA. Except for the main cathode ray tube
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
(CRT), the company had completely switched from tubes to solid-state television sets by 1975.
Antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
concerns led FCC to force the breakup of the NBC radio networks, a breakup affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. On 12 October 1943, the "NBC Blue" radio network was sold to Life Savers
Life Savers
Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped mints and artificially fruit-flavored hard candy. The candy is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in aluminum foil rolls....
candy magnate Edward J. Noble for $8,000,000, and renamed "The Blue Network
Blue Network
The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...
, Inc". It would become the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(ABC) in 1946. The "NBC Red" network retained the NBC name, and RCA retained ownership.
Diversification
In 1941, before the attack on Pearl HarborPearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, the cornerstone was laid for a research and development facility, RCA Laboratories, on Route 1
U.S. Route 1 in New Jersey
U.S. Route 1 is a United States highway which parallels the East Coast of the United States, running from Key West, Florida in the south to Fort Kent, Maine at the Canadian border in the north. Of the entire length of the route, of it runs through New Jersey...
just north of New Jersey Rte 571
County Route 571 (New Jersey)
County Route 571, abbreviated CR 571, is a county highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The highway extends from Route 37 in Toms River Township to Route 27 in the Borough of Princeton.-Ocean County:...
in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
. This lab developed many innovations, such as color television
Color television
Color television is part of the history of television, the technology of television and practices associated with television's transmission of moving images in color video....
, the electron microscope
Electron microscope
An electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a beam of electrons to illuminate the specimen and produce a magnified image. Electron microscopes have a greater resolving power than a light-powered optical microscope, because electrons have wavelengths about 100,000 times shorter than...
, CMOS
CMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits...
-based technology, heterojunction
Heterojunction
A heterojunction is the interface that occurs between two layers or regions of dissimilar crystalline semiconductors. These semiconducting materials have unequal band gaps as opposed to a homojunction...
physics, optoelectronic emitting devices, liquid crystal display
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
s (LCDs), videocassette recorder
Videocassette recorder
The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...
s, direct broadcast television, direct broadcast satellite systems and high-definition television
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. From 1988 to January 2011, the Lab was called Sarnoff Corporation
Sarnoff Corporation
Sarnoff Corporation, with headquarters in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, was a research and development company specializing in vision, video and semiconductor technology....
, a subsidiary of SRI International
SRI International
SRI International , founded as Stanford Research Institute, is one of the world's largest contract research institutes. Based in Menlo Park, California, the trustees of Stanford University established it in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. It was later...
, after which it was fully integrated into SRI.
During World War II and beyond, RCA set up several new divisions, for defense, space exploration and other activities. The RCA Service Coporation provided large numbers of staff for the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line
Distant Early Warning Line
The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland...
. RCA units won five Army–Navy ‘E’ Awards for Excellence in production. Also during the war, ties between RCA and JVC were severed.
In 1947 RCA-Victor developed and released the first 45 rpm
Revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...
record to the public, answering CBS/Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
's 33⅓ rpm "LP".
In 1953 RCA's all electronic color-TV technology was adopted as the standard for American color TV; it is now known as NTSC (after the "National Television System Committee" that approved it). RCA camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s and studio gear, particularly of the TK-40/41 series, became standard equipment at many American television network affiliate
Affiliate
An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...
s, as RCA CT-100
Ct-100
For the Bajaj motorcycle, see Bajaj CT 100Introduced in April 1954 the RCA CT-100 was the second all-electronic consumer color television set in the USA, preceeded by the Westinghouse H840CK15 by a few weeks. The color picture tube measured 15 inches diagonally. The viewable picture was just...
("RCA Merrill" to dealers) television sets introduced color television to the public.
Despite the company's indisputable leadership in television technology, David Sarnoff in 1955 commented, "Television will never be a medium of entertainment".
RCA was one of several major computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
companies (see also: Computing
Computing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
) that also included IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
, Burroughs, Control Data Corporation
Control Data Corporation
Control Data Corporation was a supercomputer firm. For most of the 1960s, it built the fastest computers in the world by far, only losing that crown in the 1970s after Seymour Cray left the company to found Cray Research, Inc....
, General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
, NCR
NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation is an American technology company specializing in kiosk products for the retail, financial, travel, healthcare, food service, entertainment, gaming and public sector industries. Its main products are self-service kiosks, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, check...
and Sperry Rand
Sperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the twentieth century...
through most of the 1960s. RCA marketed the Spectra 70 Series (models 15, 25, 35, 45, 46, 55, 60 and 61) that were hardware, but not software, compatible with IBM’s 360 series, and the RCA Series (RCA 2, 3, 6, 7) competing against the IBM 370. These systems all ran RCA’s real-memory operating systems, DOS and TDOS. RCA’s Virtual Memory Systems, the Spectra 70/46 and 70/61 and the RCA 3 and 7 could also run their Virtual Memory Operating System, VMOS. VMOS was originally named TSOS (Time Sharing Operating System
Time Sharing Operating System
Time Sharing Operating System, or TSOS, was an operating system for RCA mainframe computers of the Spectra 70 series.RCA was in the computer business until 1971. Then it sold its computer business to Sperry Corporation; Sperry offered TSOS renaming it to VS/9...
), but was renamed in order to expand the system beyond the time-sharing market. RCA was credited with coining the term "Virtual Memory". TSOS was the first mainframe, demand paging, virtual memory operating system on the market. The English Electric
English Electric
English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...
System 4 range, the 4-10, 4-30, 4-50,4-70 and the time-sharing 4-75 computers were essentially RCA Spectra 70 clones of the IBM System /360 and 370 range. RCA abandoned computers in 1971. Sperry Rand
Sperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the twentieth century...
officially took over the RCA base in January 1972.
RCA Graphic Systems Division (GSD) was an early supplier of electronics designed for the printing and publishing industries. It contracted with German company Rudolf Hell
Rudolf Hell
Rudolf Hell was a German inventor. He was born in Eggmühl, Germany.From 1919 to 1923 he studied electrical engineering in Munich....
to market adaptations of the Digiset photocomposition system as the Videocomp, and a Laser Color Scanner. The Videocomp was supported by a Spectra computer that ran the Page-1 and, later the Page-II and FileComp composition systems. RCA later sold the Videocomp rights to Information International Inc. (III).
RCA was a major proponent of the eight-track tape cartridge
8-track cartridge
Stereo 8, commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track, is a magnetic tape sound recording technology. It was popular in the United States from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s, but was relatively unknown in many European countries...
, which it launched in 1965. The eight-track cartridge initially had a huge and profitable impact on the consumer marketplace. However, sales of the 8-track tape format peaked early on as consumers increasingly favored the compact cassette tape format developed by competitor Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
.
Later years
David Sarnoff, whose ambition and business acumen had helped RCA become one of the world's largest companies, turned the company over to his son Robert in 1970. David died the next year, aged 80.On 17 September 1971, NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report read a news bulletin issued by the RCA Board of Directors just minutes before the broadcast, announcing the Board's decision to cease operation of its general-purpose computer systems division (RCA-CSD). This marked a milestone in RCA's move away from technology and into a diversified conglomerate. (The introduction by IBM of the 370 series required RCA to make a substantial new investment in its computer division, and the Board decided against making that investment.)
During the late 1960s and 1970s, RCA Corporation, as it was now formally known, ventured into other markets. Under Robert Sarnoff's leadership, RCA diversified far beyond electronics and communications, in a broader American corporate trend toward "conglomerates." The company acquired Hertz
The Hertz Corporation
Hertz Global Holdings Inc is an American car rental company with international locations in 145 countries worldwide.-Early years:The company was founded by Walter L. Jacobs in 1918, who started a car rental operation in Chicago with a dozen Model T Ford cars. In 1923, Jacobs sold it to John D...
(rental cars), Banquet
Banquet Foods
Banquet Foods is a subsidiary of ConAgra Foods that sells various food products, notably frozen pre-made entrées, meals, and desserts.Banquet was founded in 1953, with the introduction of frozen meat pies. Banquet first hit the store shelves in 1955, offering frozen dinners. Soon after that,...
(frozen foods), Coronet (carpeting), Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
(publishing) and Gibson (greeting cards), yet slipped into financial disarray, with wags calling it "Rugs Chickens & Automobiles" to poke fun at their attempt at becoming a conglomerate.
Robert Sarnoff was ousted in a 1975 boardroom coup
Boardroom coup
A boardroom coup is the sudden overthrow of the management or governing body of a corporation by an individual or small group of individuals, usually from within the company.-Notable examples:...
by Anthony Conrad, who resigned a year later after he admitted failing to file income tax returns for six years. RCA maintained its high standards of engineering excellence in broadcast engineering and satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
communications equipment, but ventures such as the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
radio and television networks declined.
In about 1980 RCA corporate strategy reported on moving manufacture of its television sets to Mexico. RCA was still profitable in 1983, when it switched manufacturing of its VHS VCRs from Panasonic
Panasonic
Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
to Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd.
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group as part of the larger DKB Group companies...
.
Forays into new consumer electronics
Consumer electronics
Consumer electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver...
products lost money. The SelectaVision
SelectaVision
The Capacitance Electronic Disc was an analog video video disc playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using a special needle and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records....
videodisc
Videodisc
Videodisc is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access circular disc that contains both audio and analog video signals recorded in an analog form...
system, not to be confused with the same trademark that RCA applied to its VCRs, never developed the manufacturing volumes to substantially bring down its price, could not compete against cheaper, recordable videotape technology, and was abandoned in 1985 for a write-off of several hundred million dollars.
In 1984 RCA Broadcast Systems Division moved from Camden, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
, to the site of the RCA antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
engineering facility in Gibbsboro, New Jersey
Gibbsboro, New Jersey
Gibbsboro is a Borough in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 2,274.Gibbsboro was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 8, 1924, from portions of Voorhees Township, based on the results of a...
. In the years that followed, the broadcast product lines developed in Camden were terminated or sold off, and most of the buildings demolished, save for the original RCA Victor buildings that had been declared national historical buildings. For several years, RCA spinoff L-3 Communications
L-3 Communications
L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. is a company that supplies command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training devices and services, instrumentation, space, and navigation products. Its customers include...
Systems East was headquartered in the building, but has since moved to an adjacent building built by the city for them. The building now houses shops and luxury loft apartments.
Takeover and break-up by G.E.
Business and financial conditions led to RCA's takeover by G.E. in 1986 and its subsequent break-up. G.E. sold its 50% interest in then-RCA/Ariola International Records to its partner BertelsmannBertelsmann
Bertelsmann AG is a multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers , which makes it the most international media corporation in the world. In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated...
and the company was renamed BMG Music
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
, for Bertelsmann Music Group.
G.E. then sold the rights to make RCA- and GE-branded televisions and other consumer electronics products to the French Thomson Consumer Electronics, in exchange for some of Thomson's medical businesses.
RCA Laboratories was transferred to SRI International
SRI International
SRI International , founded as Stanford Research Institute, is one of the world's largest contract research institutes. Based in Menlo Park, California, the trustees of Stanford University established it in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. It was later...
as the David Sarnoff Research Center, subsequently renamed Sarnoff Corporation
Sarnoff Corporation
Sarnoff Corporation, with headquarters in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, was a research and development company specializing in vision, video and semiconductor technology....
. Sarnoff Labs was put on a five-year plan whereby G.E. would fund all the labs' activities for the first year, then reduce its support to near zero after the fifth year. This required Sarnoff Labs to change its business model to become an industrial contract research facility.
The only RCA unit which G.E. kept was the National Broadcasting Company
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. G.E. sold the NBC Radio Network to Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
and all of its radio stations to various owners.
For information on the RCA brand after 1986, see RCA (trademark)
RCA (trademark)
RCA is an American trademark brand owned by Technicolor SA which is used on products made by that company as well as Audiovox, ON Corporation and Sony Music Entertainment...
.
Legacy
RCA antique radioAntique radio
An antique radio is a radio receiving set that is collectible because of its age and rarity. Although collectors may differ on the cutoff dates, most would use 50 years old, or the pre-World War II Era, for vacuum tube sets and the first five years of transistor sets.-Morse only sets:The first...
s and RCA Merrill/CT-100s and other early color television receivers are among the more sought-after collectible radios and televisions, thanks to their popularity during the golden age of radio
Old-time radio
Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
, their manufacturing quality, their engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
innovations, their styling
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
and their name, RCA.
Nipper Building
The Nipper Building is a colloquial name for The Victor condominiums, and originally, Building 17, RCA Victor Company, Camden Plant. The structure is a historical building located in Camden, New Jersey...
", in Camden, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
, was converted to luxury apartments in 2003.
Environmental record
A former RCA facility in Taiwan's northern county of Taoyuan polluted groundwater with toxic chemicals and led to a high incidence of cancer among former employees. The area was declared a toxic site by the Taiwanese Environmental Protection Agency. Both GE and Thomson spent millions of dollars for cleanup, removing 10000 cubic yards (7,645.5 m³) of soil and installing municipal water treatment facilities for neighboring communities. A spokesman for RCA's current owners denied responsibility, saying a study conducted by the Taiwan government showed no correlation between the illnesses and the company's facilities, which shut down in 1991.A plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
which RCA operated from the late 1940s to June 1986, released more than 250,000 pounds of pollutants
1,1,1-Trichloroethane
The organic compound 1,1,1-trichloroethane, also known as methyl chloroform, is a chloroalkane. This colourless, sweet-smelling liquid was once produced industrially in large quantities for use as a solvent...
per year from its exhaust stacks. Tested by the EPA in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the groundwater at the facility is contaminated by trichloroethylene
Trichloroethylene
The chemical compound trichloroethylene is a chlorinated hydrocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear non-flammable liquid with a sweet smell. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, which is commonly known as chlorothene.The IUPAC name is...
(TCE) and 1,2-dichloroethylene (1,2-DCE). In 1991 and 1992, contaminants were detected in monitoring wells on the east side of the Conestoga River in Lancaster.
The shallow and deep groundwater aquifers beneath the Intersil Facility in Mountaintop, Pennsylvania, which RCA operated in the 1960s and later sold to Harris Semiconductor, contain elevated levels of volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary, room-temperature conditions. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and...
s.
A site in Burlington, Massachusetts
Burlington, Massachusetts
Burlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,498 at the 2010 census.- History :It is believed that Burlington takes its name from the English town of Bridlington, however this has never been confirmed....
which RCA used from 1958 to 1994 to make and test military electronics equipment, generated hazardous waste (VOCs
Volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary, room-temperature conditions. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and...
, TCE
Trichloroethylene
The chemical compound trichloroethylene is a chlorinated hydrocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear non-flammable liquid with a sweet smell. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, which is commonly known as chlorothene.The IUPAC name is...
, toluene
Toluene
Toluene, formerly known as toluol, is a clear, water-insoluble liquid with the typical smell of paint thinners. It is a mono-substituted benzene derivative, i.e., one in which a single hydrogen atom from the benzene molecule has been replaced by a univalent group, in this case CH3.It is an aromatic...
, ethylbenzene
Ethylbenzene
Ethylbenzene is an organic compound with the formula C6H5CH2CH3. This aromatic hydrocarbon is important in the petrochemical industry as an intermediate in the production of styrene, which in turn is used for making polystyrene, a common plastic material....
, and xylene
Xylene
Xylene encompasses three isomers of dimethylbenzene. The isomers are distinguished by the designations ortho- , meta- , and para- , which specify to which carbon atoms the two methyl groups are attached...
s.
In Barceloneta
Barceloneta
Barceloneta may refer to:*Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, municipality in Puerto Rico.*Barceloneta, Barcelona, beach and a neighborhood in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona, Spain**Barceloneta...
, Puerto Rico, an RCA-operated plant generated wastes containing chromium
Chromium
Chromium is a chemical element which has the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6. It is a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point. It is also odorless, tasteless, and malleable...
, selenium
Selenium
Selenium is a chemical element with atomic number 34, chemical symbol Se, and an atomic mass of 78.96. It is a nonmetal, whose properties are intermediate between those of adjacent chalcogen elements sulfur and tellurium...
and iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
. Four lagoons holding chemical waste drained into the limestone aquifer
Aquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...
. Used water from the manufacturing process (process water), containing ferric chloride
Iron(III) chloride
Iron chloride, also called ferric chloride, is an industrial scale commodity chemical compound, with the formula FeCl3. The colour of iron chloride crystals depends on the viewing angle: by reflected light the crystals appear dark green, but by transmitted light they appear purple-red...
, was treated onsite to remove contaminants and then was discharged into a sinkhole at the site. The treatment of process water created a sludge that was stored onsite in drying beds and in surface impoundments.
See also
- AmpliphaseAmpliphaseAmpliphase is the brand name of an amplitude modulation system achieved by summing phase modulated carriers. It was originally marketed by RCA for AM broadcast transmitters.- How it works :...
- Berliner GramophoneBerliner GramophoneBerliner Gramophone was an early record label, the first company to produce disc "gramophone records" .-History:...
Company, whose Canadian operation became RCA Victor of Canada - Empire State Building broadcast stations
- HMVHMVHis Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
His Masters Voice - RCA Mark II Sound SynthesizerRCA Mark II Sound SynthesizerThe RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer was the first programmable electronic music synthesizer and the flagship piece of equipment at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Designed by Herbert Belar and Harry Olson at RCA, it was installed at Columbia University in 1957...
- RCA connectorRCA connectorAn RCA connector, sometimes called a phono connector or cinch connector, is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry audio and video signals...
- CMOS 4000 series
- RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, joint venture between RCA and Columbia Pictures
- RKO PicturesRKO PicturesRKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
, founded in part by RCA - RCA PhotophoneRCA PhotophoneRCA Photophone was the trade name given to one of four major competing technologies that emerged in the American film industry in the late 1920s for synchronizing electrically recorded audio to a motion picture image. RCA Photophone was a sound-on-film, "variable-area" film exposure system, in...
, Motion Picture sound recording - ElectrofaxElectrofaxAn electrofax is an electrostatic printer and copier technology where the image is formed directly on the paper, instead of first on a drum as it would be in xerography...
- Harold H. BeverageHarold BeverageDr. Harold Henry "Bev" Beverage is perhaps most widely known today for his invention and development of the wave antenna, which came to be known as the Beverage antenna and which for the last few decades has seen a resurgence in use within the amateur radio and broadcast DXing hobbyist communities...
vice president of research and development at RCA Communications Inc - Ernst F. W. AlexandersonErnst AlexandersonErnst Frederick Werner Alexanderson was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who was a pioneer in radio and television development.-Background:...
RCA's first Chief Engineer, 1920–1924 - George H. Brown, research engineer who headed RCA's development of color television
- ColortrakColortrakColortrak was a trademark used on several RCA color TVs throughout the 1970s to the 1990s. After RCA was acquired by General Electric in 1986, GE sold the RCA consumer electronics line to Thomson SA...
and Colortrak 2000Colortrak 2000Colortrak 2000 was one of RCA's brand names for their high-end television models produced from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, the other being Dimensia. The RCA Colortrak, however, was not a high-end model. The Colortrak 2000 chassis was identical to the Dimensia tabletop model. Colortrak 2000s...
, notable trademarks for RCA's early color television sets - Dimensia, a high-end advanced trademark TV for RCA
- RCA RecordsRCA RecordsRCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
- Claude Robinson, American pioneer in advertising and opinion survey research
- Film ChainFilm chainA film chain or film island is a television - Professional video camera with one or more projectors aligned into the photographic lens of the camera. With two or more projectors a system of front-surface mirrors that can pop-up are used in a multiplexer. These mirrors switch different projectors...
—RCA TK-26, TK-27 and TK-28 - Professional video cameraProfessional video cameraA professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...
s—TK 47 and more - Victor Company of Japan (JVC)JVC, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
External links
- RCA History from Thomson Consumer Electronics
- Intech Contractors/Construction Managers. The Victor Project. Converting the "Nipper" building into apartments
- RCAGlobal.com - a web site dedicated to what was RCA Global Communications
- The Victor Lofts
- RCA Radio Central, Rock Point, Long Island, NY
- RCA Taiwan factory pollution
- RCA TV equipment archive