ZENITH ELECTRONICS CORPORATION

Zenith Electronics Corporation's beginnings were very modest. In 1918 two ham radio operators, Karl E. Hassel and R. H. G. Mathews, began manufacturing radio equipment at a kitchen table under the name Chicago Radio Laboratory. Hassel ran an amateur radio station with the call letters 9ZN, from which they named their first product Zenith. In 1921 these two men were joined by Eugene F. McDonald Jr. McDonald, already a self-made millionaire when he joined the company, was pivotal to Zenith's growth. He was much more than a financial backer. McDonald's flamboyant style was echoed in the company's dramatic advertising methods. This style, coupled with innovative genius and an ability to sense changes in public tastes, meant that for more than three decades McDonald was Zenith in the public perception. The company was incorporated as Zenith Radio Corporation in 1923 and it officially began to manufacture under the Zenith name.

Zenith's inventors and technicians kept the company at the forefront of the infant radio industry. In 1924 Zenith introduced the world's first portable radio. Two years later Zenith introduced the first home radio receiver that operated directly from regular AC electric current. Another early accomplishment was the first automatic push-button radio tuner, which was introduced in 1927. That same year saw the first use of the famous Zenith slogan, "The Quality Goes In Before The Name Goes On." By the late 1920s Zenith was in 12th place in a $400 million industry.

During the Great Depression (1929–1939) Zenith's sales dropped from $10 million in 1929 to less than two million dollars in 1932, but the company managed to stay afloat. Just prior to U.S. involvement in World War II (1939–1945) Zenith became a pioneer in television and FM radio broadcasting. In 1939 Zenith's station W9XZV went on the air as the first all-electronic television station. This was followed the next year by W9XEN, one of the first FM stations in the United States and the first in the Midwest. By 1941 Zenith had risen to second place in a $600 million industry, behind only RCA. Although World War II caused a decline in normal consumer business, this decline was more than offset by war production. Zenith manufactured radar, communications equipment, and high-sensitivity frequency meters.

Following World War II Zenith concentrated on improving television. The company introduced its first line of black-and-white television receivers in 1948. While experimenting with color television in its laboratories until the quality was up to the company standard, Zenith continued to work on its black-and-white televisions. The company invented the first wireless remote control in 1956 which revolutionized television tuning, and it held the leading position in black-and-white television production from 1959 on.

The color television breakthrough came in 1961, when Zenith introduced a ten-receiver line of color sets. Demand for these sets grew so quickly that the company had to expand its facilities. Also that year Zenith's experimental stereophonic FM broadcasting system was approved by the FCC as the national standard. Color television improvements continued steadily. In 1969 Zenith introduced the patented Chromacolor picture tube, which set the standard for brightness in the color television industry for many years. By 1972, the year it introduced a line of 25-inch televisions, Zenith was number one in production of color television sets. Between 1972 and 1978 Zenith was able to maintain the leading position in the fiercely competitive U.S. color television market, but the company was overtaken by RCA in 1979.

Starting in the 1970s the entire U.S. electronic consumer goods industry was under increasing competitive pressure from Asian manufacturers. Manufacturers from Japan, Taiwan, and Korea began selling great numbers of electronics products in the United States at prices below what U.S. companies could afford to offer. As a result, Zenith's share of the television-set market fell steadily in the 1970s and 1980s. Searching for a turnaround, the company entered the personal computer field in 1979 but exited that sector in 1989, finding it to be just as competitive as that of television. Zenith marketed its last radio in 1982 and changed its long out-dated name to Zenith Electronics Corporation in 1985. In 1988, continuing its long tradition of innovation, Zenith became one of the earliest proponents of high-definition television, the super-sharp digital television technology that was supposed to replace the standard analog television.

From the mid-1980s into the late 1990s Zenith lost money every year except for 1988, when it reported a modest $12 million profit. By the mid-1990s the company had shifted most of its manufacturing to Mexico in order to cut costs. By that time the company was also the last of the American-controlled television manufacturers. That changed in 1995 when LG Group, based in South Korea, purchased a fifty-eight percent stake in Zenith. The company's financial condition continued to worsen. In May 1998 Zenith announced that it planned to restructure under the protection of bankruptcy laws, intending to emerge from bankruptcy as a wholly owned subsidiary of LG Group.

See also: RCA-Victor

ZENITH ELECTRONICS CORPORATION

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