Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

16 r AUGUST 17, 1959 j Nine component manufacturers aggregated 24% increase in sales, 101% rise in profits over 1958 1 during 2nd-quarter 1959, with 22% higher sales and 158% more profits during first half. J Companies represented in our tabulation: Diversified group — Daystrom, GE, General Telephone & f Electronics (first-half tabulation only), RCA, Raytheon, Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Westinghouse. Consummer electronics group — Admiral, Hoffman, Motorola, Packard-Bell, Philco, Wells-Gardner, Zenith. Components— Erie Resistor (first half only). General Instrument (2nd quarter only), Globe-Union, International Resistance, P. R. Mallory (2nd quarter only). Muter, Oak, Standard Coil (first half only), Timg-Sol. Where only first-half or 2nd-quarter results were used, compatible companion figures weren't available. Second half of 1959 will show continued gains over 1958, in opinion of nearly all electronics industry leaders, although probably at lower rate of increase — because business had started to come out of recession about this time last year. TV-RADIO PRODUCTION: m statistics for the week ended Aug. 7 (31st week of 1959): July 31 -Aug. 7 Preceding wk. 1958 wk. ’59 cumulative ’58 cumulative TV 121,581 91,507 114,556 3,251,244 2,569,811 Total radio 184,692 191,895 168,196 8,121,616 5,457,483 auto radio 39,219 47,436 42,693 3,195,472 1,711,627 CAPEHART SOLD TO DYNAMIC: The old-line TV-radiophono name of Capehart is due for a spirited revival early next year as a result of the purchase of the Capehart Corp. by up-&-coming hi-fi manufacturer Dynamic Electronics-New York Inc. The company was purchased from Benjamin & Robert Gross, who had acquired it from ITT in 1956 (Vol. 12:18-20, 24). ITT, in turn, had bought the ailing Capehart-Farnsworth Corp. in 1949, still operates the remaining Farnsworth Electronics Co. as part of its Federal Radio & Telephone div. Dynamic purchased the stock & all trademarks and rights to the name Capehart, including the Capehart Corp. and Capehart International Corp. It plans to bring out a complete line of Capehart hi fi — both packaged & component systems — ^next January. The line will include complete TV combinations (with stereo phono & stereo AM-FM). Pres. Jack M. Winer told us the company will now emphasize the Capehart line, maintaining the Dynamic trademark for a secondary line. He said his company currently is “interested in TV only in conjunction with stereo,” has no thought at present of making TV-only models. Capehart products will be made in the Dynamic plant at Richmond Hill, Long Island. Dynamic inherits no new manufacturing facilities in the transaction. Capehart’s recent hi-fi lines had been produced in England, and its small TV output made by U.S. private-label manufacturers. Dynamic originally operated a chain of appliance stores, which was discontinued in 1952 when the firm went into the electronics manufacturing business. In addition to its hi-fi business — 50% of which is private-label for department & furniture stores — Dynamic is engaged in military & industrial electronics production. It also is a large producer of TV accessories such as indoor antennas. A recent expansion increased its plant area to 125,000 sq. ft. Winer told a stockholders meeting last week that the Dynamic hi-fi line, which now is priced from $179 to $495, will eventually be realigned to the $250-&-less bracket, with the Capehart line beginning at $250. Capehart sets will be distributed on a direct-to-dealer basis. For the year ended March 31, 1959, Dynamic reported total revenues of $3,132,653, net income of $225,834, as opposed to $1,389,683 in revenues and $83,606 in net profit for the fiscal year ending in 1958. EMERSON IN JAPAN DEAL: Add the name of Emerson to the growing list of U.S. radio manufacturers selling Japanese-made transistor portables. Pres. Benjamin Abrams has signed an agreement with Standard Radio Corp. of Japan for 100,000 radios to be sold to Emerson’s international div. Abrams told us that at least some of the sets will be sold overseas, and others may be sold in the U.S., “but not under the Emerson or Du Mont label.” GE, meanwhile, is preparing to market a new shirtpocket 6-transistor radio using some Japanese components. A GE official told us that the set uses Japanese parts (including the speaker) in sizes & designs which are unavailable in the U.S. The set — “designed, engineered and manufactured in GE’s Utica, N.Y., radio plant” — ^will list at $34.95. Shipments will begin next month. Other U.S. set manufacturers now buying Japanese radios and/or radio components include RCA (buying only for resale in overseas markets, at least for the time being). Motorola, CBS’s Columbia phono, dept., Olympic. All other radio makers are surveying the situation carefully, and most now have representatives stationed in Japan looking over the field. Undoubtedly, other not-yet-publicized deals have already been concluded. If Emerson does market Japanese sets in U.S. under a new trade name, it may well establish a new have-yourcake-&-eat-it trend toward dual radio lines — a simon-pure, made-in-U.S. line and a secondary line to compete with other Japanese-made radios. The move is reminiscent of Philco’s old lower-priced (but American-made) Transitone table-model line, which, in pre-TV days, competed with off-brand sets. Bucking Japanese-made sets. Admiral is readying a new low-priced 7-transistor set designed to “outJapanese the Japanese.” Using all American-made components, Admiral is understood to be planning to offer it at a “price better than any Japanese set.” I Miniaturization project started last year by RCA under a $5 million Signal Corps program will be expanded under a new $2.38 million contract. With the initial micromodule project approaching an automated production stage, the new electronic-equipment agreement with the Signal Corps provides for development & use of a wider variety of micro-elements.