© Mark Ollig
The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company was established July 20, 1897, the world’s first wireless electronic communications enterprise.
It was founded to market the inventions of Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who pioneered wireless telegraphy.
Headquartered in England, it was renamed Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company in March 1900.
The company’s American subsidiary, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (later American Marconi Wireless), was established in 1899.
The US had also been pioneering wireless technology.
In 1900, Nikola Tesla was granted US Patents 645,576 and 649,621 for a wireless power transmission system that included technologies enabling wireless communication.
Tesla’s innovations laid the groundwork for many of the wireless technologies we use today.
From 1899 to 1900, the US Navy conducted experimental wireless telegraphy technology trials.
American inventor Lee de Forest developed the three-electrode Audion vacuum tube in 1906, which significantly improved radio signal amplification and detection.
The General Electric Company (GE) began the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) Oct. 17, 1919.
RCA would assume the radio rights of GE and was initially established with involvement from several companies, including Westinghouse Electric Corp., to take over the assets of American Marconi Wireless.
General Electric (GE) acquired the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America for $3.5 million Nov. 20, 1919, along with the US rights to Marconi’s wireless technology.
Reportedly, the US Navy pressured Marconi to sell its American subsidiary to ensure that the transatlantic radio technology would be under US control, ultimately leading to GE’s acquisition of Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America.
RCA gained control of radio-related assets and patents from various companies, including American Marconi Wireless, General Electric, Westinghouse, AT&T, and the Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Company.
By 1926, vacuum tube technology had rapidly advanced, along with the growing AM radio presence in the US.
That same year, RCA established the National Broadcasting Company, pioneering the formation of national radio networks.
In 1929, RCA acquired the Victor Talking Machine Company, known for its “Victrola” phonograph record players and the iconic “His Master’s Voice” logo, with the dog Nipper listening to the speaker attached to a gramophone.
It was renamed the RCA Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America. RCA Victor was a leading record label that signed iconic artists such as Elvis Presley.
In 1932, the US government sued General Electric in a federal antitrust lawsuit for monopolizing the radio industry. As a result, General Electric had to sell RCA to allow for more competition, which enabled RCA to grow independently.
In 1936, RCA conducted experimental television broadcasts in the New York area, using a limited number of television sets primarily for its employees.
One of the main attractions at the 1939 New York World’s Fair was RCA’s “The Magic Brain,” a large display resembling a radio with lights illuminated in sequence. The display showed how a TV signal traveled from a camera to a transmitter and a TV screen, and a narrator explained the process.
In 1940, developers at RCA supplied six CXAM radar systems to the US Navy, marking the first radar deployment on US naval vessels.
CXAM: C represents the Navy classification, X refers to the X-band frequency range, A indicates air-search, and M stands for microwave.
Four years earlier, RCA manufactured the VT-138 vacuum tube, a round electron-ray indicator tube commonly used in radios as a tuning aid with a glowing green indicator.
During WWII, miniaturized versions of these electron-ray indicator tubes were adapted for use in military proximity fuses attached to ordnance, such as bombs.
NBC’s New York station, WNBT (now WNBC), began airing regular commercial television broadcasts July 1, 1941.
Manufacturing and public sales of RCA’s CT-100, the first commercially available color TV, began March 25, 1954.
In November 1955, RCA Victor purchased Elvis Presley’s contract from Sun Records for $35,000 (about $411,000 today) and began selling what turned out to be many millions of vinyl records.
In 1968, the RCA Victor Division was renamed RCA Records and continued to release Elvis’s music on records, eight-track tapes, cassette tapes, and compact discs (CDs).
In 1986, General Electric acquired RCA Corporation for approximately $6.28 billion, gaining control of NBC’s television network holdings (then known as NBC, now NBCUniversal), along with other RCA assets.
In 1987, GE focused on core areas like broadcasting (NBC) and financial services (GE Capital), selling some RCA assets, including its consumer electronics manufacturing operations, to Thomson-Brandt, S.A., a French multimedia and electronics manufacturer.
GE retained ownership of NBC until 2011, when Comcast acquired a 51% majority stake in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake. Two years later, Comcast obtained GE’s remaining 49% portion.
RCA was founded 105 years ago, and though the company itself may be gone, its trademark name and logo, now owned by Talisman Brands in Houston, TX, live on through licensing agreements for various consumer electronic products.
RCA Records remains an exclusive label under Sony Music Entertainment, and its history is one which seems to echo Elvis’ recording of “All Shook Up.”
My music collection contains the 1972 RCA Victor label (with Nipper) stereo LP record album of “Elvis as recorded at Madison Square Garden,” and an Elvis Presley 1973 RCA eight-track tape cartridge.
