RCA Grew From Radio Pioneer to Major Firm

RCA, now a giant electronics, communications and entertainment conglomerate, was born in late 1919 as Radio Corp. of America, a child of Westinghouse and the company it now intends to merge with, General Electric.

Radio Corp. promptly acquired the assets of Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America and jumped into the fledgling broadcast industry, selling radios and owning some of the nation’s first radio stations.

In 1926, National Broadcasting Co. was organized to handle the company’s radio broadcast operations. Three years later, through the purchase of Victor Talking Machine Co., Radio Corp. acquired its famous trademark white-and-black mutt named Nipper, who peers into the horn of a cylinder phonograph.

GE and Westinghouse divested Radio Corp. in 1930. The two firms also sold Radio Corp. some manufacturing facilities and rights.

Developed First TV

Radio Corp. developed the first black-and-white television set in 1939 and began selling TVs commercially after World War II.

The company continued to grow over the years, becoming a major defense contractor in the 1950s and eventually expanding into such diverse areas as food production, greeting cards, book publishing, financial services and the rental car business.

But the wide diversification caught up with RCA, as the company later became known. By the 1970s, the mixture of unrelated, low-margin businesses was causing RCA to turn in year after year of below-average performances.

Management turned over rapidly during that decade with three chief executives trying their hands. Under Edgar Griffiths’ tenure from 1975 to 1981, several unrelated businesses were sold.

The restructuring to focus RCA on communications, entertainment and electronics continued under Thornton F. Bradshaw, who engineered the sale of eight large noncommunications operations including CIT Financial and Hertz Corp. Net income was $341 million last year, an eight-fold increase in income since 1981, the year Bradshaw became chairman and chief executive.

The chief executive post was taken over earlier this year by Robert R. Frederick, a former General Electric executive who had been RCA’s president and chief operating officer since 1982.