Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1958)

13 Latter estimated cost of "stereo-lzing" present high-end phonos might result in as much as $100 to $150 added to retail list. He felt, as did others, gearing for stereo would not be difficult once the suppliers had set the component designs. Equipping for stereo to him means adding stereo cartridge to tone arm, replacing onechannel amplifier with dual-channel counterpart and adding second speaker — preferably a remote luiit 10 feet from "mother" set. Doing this with a $300-list monaural console phono would make $425 unit out of it and would prepare any maker for stereo. Such a unit would also give customer the option of playing a monaural record library, adding stereo discs slowly, and eventually adding a stereo tape deck for complete sound entertainment flexibility. Others agreed that such a unit would be desirable, would permit easy transition to stereo, and that increase of $125 at retail was "reasonable." One maker saw no reason why "stereo-izing" should not begin with the $150 console bracket. Trade Personals: Carl E. Lantz promoted to Admiral sales v.p., succeeding C. W. Johnson, who requested extended leave of absence; Richard J. Bamberry promoted to gen. sales mgr., succeeding Phil G. Kerr, whom Walter D. Krauter succeeds as mgr. of freezer-air conditioner div.; Harris Hesketh promoted to exec. asst, to Lantz . . . Terry H. Lee appointed by Hoffman Electronics in charge of diversification and new business development, at same time continuing as gen. mgr. of Television Diablo Inc. operating KOVR, Stockton (Ch. 13), recently sold by Hoffman to Gannett interests (Vol. 14:2) until transition is completed; he joins Hoffman April 1 . . . W. Herbert Lamb promoted to v.p.-TV picture tubes, Walter A. Weiss promoted to v.p.-radio tubes, Sylvania electronic tubes div. . . . Erwin Schuller named RCA director of finance, international sales . . . A. F. Schmahl promoted to customer relations mgr. for central region, Sylvania electronic systems div. . . . Robert J. Cohen, ex-Montgomery Ward, named adv. mgr. of TravLer; post includes additional duties of public relations & merchandising . . . Ted Fullmer promoted to national LP sales mgr. of Mercury Records Corp., replacing John Sippel who joins Billboard; Jules Rubenstein succeeds him as branch mgr. of Mercury Record Distributors, San Francisco; Bob Summers, ex-radio KYA, succeeds Rubenstein as promotion mgr. of branch . . . V. R. Martin promoted to gen. sales mgr., Philco Corp. of Canada, Toronto, succeeding Lloyd B. Kiely, recently named gen. mgr. of TV-radio div.. Zenith of Canada, Windsor ... Jay Carver promoted to mgr. of Electro-Voice wood products div., succeeded by Everett Leedom who rejoins company as adv. mgr. . . . Ted Weber promoted to managing editor of Electrical Merchandising, succeeding Robert W. Armstrong now public relations director of Whirlpool sales div. . . . Henry E. Hockheimer promoted to mgr. of field engineering dept., Philco govt. & industrial div. . . . Donald Allen Fraser, exchief of AMF engineering services, named DuMont field service sales mgr. ELECTRONICS PERSONALS: Edwin Dyke, ex-Collins Radio, named asst, chief engineer of Page Communications Engineers, Washington . . . Paul Petrack promoted to chief engineer for semiconductors, IT&T components div. . . . Pat Cicala named v.p., Waltham Precision Instrument Co. . . . R. W. Walter promoted to sales mgr., hi-fi components div., Thorens Co. . . . Joseph S. Jorczak, ex-Thiokol Chemical v.p., elected pres, of subsidiary National Electronics Labs, Washington, succeeding Frank C. Mallinson, resigned; Raymond T. Moore, NEL v.p., named director & gen. mgr.; Brig. Gen. Clyde K. Rich (USA ret.), named asst, to Moore; Charles Wall promoted to sales mgr. Top 100 Defense Firms: GE kept its No. 1 position among companies heavily engaged in electronics in new list of 100 top prime defense contractors released by Defense Dept, this week. As in earlier ranking reported in Oct. (Vol. 13:42), GE was fourth among all defense firms in July 1, 1950-June 30, 1957 tabulation in which GM replaced Boeing as biggest contractor among first 10: GM, Boeing, United Aircraft, GE, General Dynamics, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft, Lockheed Aircraft, AT&T, Curtiss-Wright. General Dynamics took over the No. 1 spot among the top defense contractors for the shortterm period, Jan. 1955June 1957. We’ve consolidated 2 new “top 100” lists in table below to show electronics standings (all dollar figures in millions, dashes after company name indicating it was not among first 100 prime contractors for period) : July 1950 Jan. 1955 June 1957 June 1957 Contracts Rank Contracts Rank GE $5,662.3 4 $1,928.0 3 General Dynamics 5,093.8 5 2,358.6 1 AT&T 3,096.7 9 1,339.0 6 Sperry Rand 1,708.2 14 430.1 18 Bendix Aviation . 1,694.2 15 546.4 16 Wastlnghmise 1,432.2 18 284.0 25 RCA 1,107.1 21 354.7 22 Hughes Aircraft 1.105.9 22 867.0 8 IBM 1,024.1 23 637.5 14 Avco 819.9 25 297.7 24 Hughes Tool (a) 792.0 26 Raytheon 771.6 28 397.4 19 IT&T 675.4 35 149.6 40 Philco . 586.6 37 182.3 34 Collins Radio 493.5 44 152.0 39 American Boch Arma 373.9 54 189.3 33 General precision Pkjulpm’t 370.5 57 146.5 41 Minneapolls-Honeywell 332.1 60 142.6 43 TTaTipltinp 240.6 71 Gllfillan Bros. 240.5 72 87.4 61 Lear — — 73.1 72 Mass. Inst, of Technology 236.7 74 104.4 51 Sylvania 234.4 75 Motorola 224.4 83 71.7 74 Cal. Inst, of Technology — — 68.5 81 Standard Coll — — 64.3 86 Dynamics Corp. of America 182.5 91 54.3 97 Burroughs 180.1 92 136.9 46 Admiral 168.8 95 (a) Awards to Hughes Tool Co. include awards to Hughes Aircraft div. prior to Dec. 31, 1953. Philip D. Reed, GE board chairman since 1939, will not seek reelection at April 23 annual meeting, will continue as chairman of finance committee and director until retirement in Nov. 1959. Veteran Wireless Operators Assn, holds 33rd annual banquet in New York’s Hotel Sherator-Astor, Feb. 27. Obituary Mitchell W. Edwards, 57, ex-sales v.p. of Yancey Co., Atlanta (RCA), died Feb. 17. Surviving are widow, one son, 2 brothers, 2 sisters.