Zenith Retro Signage Adventure
9Zenith Retro Signage
Zenith Electronics, LLC, is an American research and development company that develops ATSC and digital rights management technologies. It is owned by the South Korean company LG Electronics. Zenith was previously an American brand of consumer electronics, a manufacturer of radio and television receivers and other consumer electronics, and was headquartered in Glenview, Illinois. After a series of layoffs, the consolidated headquarters moved to Lincolnshire, Illinois. For many years, their famous slogan (borrowed from Crown Piano maker George Bent of Chicago, used through the 1890s) was "The quality goes in before the name goes on".[2] LG Electronics acquired a controlling share of Zenith in 1995; Zenith became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1999. Zenith was the inventor of subscription television and the modern remote control, and was the first to develop high-definition television (HDTV) in North America.[3]
The company was co-founded by Ralph Matthews and Karl Hassel[4] in Chicago, Illinois, as Chicago Radio Labs[5] in 1918 as a small producer of amateur radio equipment. The name "Zenith" came from ZN'th, a contraction of its founders' ham radio call sign, 9ZN. They were joined in 1921 by Eugene F. McDonald,[5] and Zenith Radio Company was incorporated in 1923.
The fledgling company soon became known for its high-quality radios and electronic innovations. Zenith introduced the first portable radio in 1924,[5] the first mass-produced AC radio in 1926,[5] and push-button tuning in 1927.[5] It added automobile radios in the 1930s with its Model 460, promoting the fact that it needed no separate generator or battery, selling at US$59.95.[6] The first Zenith television set appeared in 1939, with its first commercial sets sold to the public in 1948.[5] The company is credited with having invented such things as the wireless remote control and FM multiplex stereo. For many years Zenith used the slogan "the quality goes in before the name goes on". This phrase was used by the Geo. P. Bent Piano Company of Chicago as early as 1906.[2]
Zenith Retro Signage Adventure
Zenith established one of the first FM stations in the country in 1940 (Chicago's WWZR, later called WEFM, named for Zenith executive Eugene F. McDonald), which was among the earliest FM multiplex stereo stations, first broadcasting in stereo in June 1961. The station was sold in the early 1970s and is now WUSN.
Zenith pioneered the development of high-contrast and flat-face picture tubes, and the multichannel television sound (MTS) stereo system used on analog television broadcasts in the United States and Canada (as opposed to the BBC-developed NICAM digital stereo sound system for analog television broadcasts, used in many places around the world.) Zenith was one of the first companies to introduce a digital HDTV system implementation, parts of which were included in the ATSC standard, starting with the 1993 model Grand Alliance. They were one of the first American manufacturers to market a home VCR, selling a Sony-built Betamax video recorder starting in 1977.
The 1962 Illinois Manufacturers Directory (50th Anniversary edition) lists Zenith Radio Corporation as having 11,000 employees, of which at least 6,460 were employed in seven Chicago plants. The corporate office was in plant number 1, located at 6001 West Dickens Avenue (north of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific railroad tracks), where 2,500 workers made radio and television sets and Hi-Fi stereophonic phonographs. Plant number 2 was located at 1500 North Kostner Ave., where 2,100 employees made government electronics, radio and television components, transistors and hearing aids. Plant number 3 was located at 5801 West Dickens Ave. (also north of the Milwaukee Road tracks), where 300 employees made electronics and did servicing. Plant number 4 was located at 3501 West Potomac Ave., where 60 employees handled warehousing. Plant number 5, located at 6501 West Grand Ave., employed 500-600 workers and manufactured government Hi-Fi equipment.
A subsidiary of Zenith, the Rauland Corporation, located at 4245 North Knox Avenue, employed 850 workers who produced television picture tubes. In the mid '60's, Rauland produced the RCA 21" round color CRT; in 1965 it added a 21" rectangular 21" color CRT. In 1966, Rauland bought the Keebler cookie plant in Melrose Park, Illinois for production of color CRTs. Rauland's Niles, Illinois, plant made flat-face radar picture tubes, night vision microchannel image tubes for the military, and many specialty tubes. The other Zenith subsidiary in Chicago was Central Electronics, Incorporated, located at 1247 West Belmont Ave., where 100 employees made amateur radio equipment and performed auditory training. Another Central Electronics plant was located at State Route 133 and Grandview in Paris, Illinois, where 500 employees made radio receivers, with the total Zenith work force in Illinois being thus at least 6,960.[7]