To No One in Particular: The history of broadcasting in the RCA era
If RCA does not make it, we don't need it!
The author heard this very early in his career from his boss. RCA goes back to the beginning of radio broadcasting. Yes Marconi came before, but it didn't take long for the U.S. arm of Marconi to come under RCA's control. RCA itself started as a consortium of sorts, before it finally sorted out as a stand alone entity. It dominated radio and eventually television technology for over seven decades, While it wasn't always first, or the best with new innovations, it was always in the game, It prodded along with meticulous determination pushing the technological bar forward in what generally amounted to generational leaps about once a decade. This methodology worked until it didn't.
Eventually the Japanese came on the scene and while they didn't produce products that were expected to work for 10 to 20 years as RCA's often did, they introduced small implemental changes in their offerings every couple of years. So it didn't matter as much if their products didn't last 10 years. Also Japanese products usually worked right out of the box. Often a new product from RCA needed a field service tech to show up with it to make it operational.
