Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1955)

TOP-LEVEL CHANGES-WHAT THEY PRESAGE: This was a week of drastic changes in the top executive & sales personnel of several important TV-radio manufacturing companies — and the implications appear far more significant than the mere announcements. They presage an intensified effort by some of the second-rung manufacturers to improve their positions in the market as against front-running RCA, Philco, Admiral, Motorola, GE & Zenith who represent very nearly 60% of the present TV business. Items; Henry C. Bonfig, third-ranking Zenith executive after pres. E.F. McDonald and exec. v.p. Hugh Robertson, quit job of sales v.p. which last year paid him $40,000 salary plus $56,763 bonus, to become pres, of CBS-Columbia Inc. He replaces Seymour Mintz , and has been replaced at Zenith by Leonard C. Truesdell, TV-radio sales v.p. Chester G. Gifford, who retired recently as pres, of Schick Inc., post now held by ex-RCA consumer products v.p. Joseph B. Elliott, becomes pres, of Avco Mfg. Co.'s Crosley & Bendix appliance divisions as well as an Avco v.p., taking over from James D. Shouse, Avco v.p. & director, who resumes active duties as chairman of the Crosley Broadcasting Co., operating 4 TV stations & one radio — his original field. Leonard F. Cramer, ex-Avco v.p. & gen. mgr. of its CrosleyTV-radio div. , onetime DuMont v.p., joins Magnavox as v.p. & gen. mgr. of TV-radio-phonograph div. Dan D. Halpin, who left RCA post of mgr. of TV receiver sales in Aug. 1952 to join DuMont as gen. mgr. of TV sales, resigns to become asst. gen. mgr. in charge of marketing and gen, sales mgr, of Westinghouse TV-radio div. , Metuchen, N.J. He succeeds Richard L. Sandefur, resigned. He serves under gen. mgr. Edward J. Kelly, who recently succeeded T.J. Newcomb, retired. At DuMont, his duties are being taken over by Wm. C. Scales, gen. mgr. of receiver sales div. under v.p. Wm. H. Kelley. It's noteworthy that Truesdell was once Crosley sales mgr. , later headed Bendix radio div., joined Zenith in 1946; that Mintz quit as Admiral v.p. in charge of advertising about year ago to go to CBS, where he was at once also elected a v.p. & director of parent CBS Inc., to which posts Bonfig will succeed; that Bonfig joined Zenith 11 years ago after 13 years with old RCA Mfg. Co., which he quit as a v.p. Bonfig' s salary hasn't been disclosed, but he acquires stock options and, as he put it, "the kind of deal I couldn't reject." Mintz plans to acquire an interest in a small electronics factory, owned by a friend; he leaves his job well-fixed by virtue of an option on 2500 shares of CBS stock at 47% granted in March 1954. * 4: * * Battle for strong distributorships, long under way and rendered all the more difficult by the well-heeled and well-entrenched positions of old-line firms that give RCA, Philco , Motorola & Zenith such strong competitive positions, is the prime problem facing CBS-CoIumbia and other "pretenders" to the 9-year-old TV trade. That is main job 57-year-old Henry Bonfig confronts at CBS-Columbia which, despite a tremendous TV-radio publicity machine and the huge finances behind it, has not yet been able to win as much as 1% of the market. Therein lies the key to the basic competitive problem, not only for TV-radio but appliances handled by the same firms. Crosley tried to hypo TV-radio distribution by way of its prize Bendix washing machine line, which it abruptly pulled away from long-standing distributors who were handling rival TV-radio lines. Admiral is inclining more and more to factory-owned distributorships, with 21 already — most of any except GE & Westinghouse, which have own national distribution subsidiaries. The Big 4 — RCA, Philco, Admiral, Motorola — and close running Zenith have always insisted on private franchisers, though they keep a few of own. Philco , and to a lesser extent Crosley, manufacture year-round lines for their distributors, designed to equalize seasonal humps. RCA under pres. Frank Folsom has been working toward that end. It's doubtful whether CBS wants to go into "white goods" too. 11