. for information on products bearing the rca trademark since 1986 see rca trademark . for the record label of the same name see rca music group and rca records . for the home electronic audio and video connector see rca connector . for other uses see rca disambiguation . rca corporation fate acquired by ge in 1986 various divisions liquidated founded october 17 1919 ; 96 years ago 1919 10 17 as radio corporation of america defunct 1986 1986 headquarters new york city new york u.s. 1 key people david sarnoff first general manager products rca photophone electric phonograph videodisc rca televisions rca studio ii divisions rca records nbc website www.rca.com rca corporation founded as the radio corporation of america was an american electronics company in existence from 1919 2 to 1986 . general electric took over the company in late 1985 3 and split it up the following year . 4 the rca trademark is used by sony music entertainment and technicolor which licenses the name to other companies such as voxx international and tcl corporation for products descended from that common ancestor . 2 contents 1 origins 1.1 organization by general electric 1.2 establishment 1.3 broadcast expansion 2 radio 2.1 phonograph 2.2 separation from general electric 2.3 electronic television 3 diversification 4 later years 4.1 takeover and break up by ge 5 legacy 6 environmental record 7 photo gallery 8 see also 9 references 10 further reading 11 external links origins edit organization by general electric edit after world war i began in august 1914 radio traffic across the atlantic ocean increased dramatically after the western allies cut the german transatlantic telegraph cables . germany austria hungary and their allies in europe collectively known as the central powers maintained contact with neutral countries in the americas via long distance radio communications as well as telegraph cables owned by neutral countries such as the netherlands and denmark . in 1917 the government of the united states took charge of the patents owned by the major companies involved in radio manufacture in the united states to devote radio technology to the war effort . all production of radio equipment was allocated to the u.s. army u.s. navy u.s. marine corps and the u.s. coast guard . the war department and the navy department sought to maintain a federal monopoly of all uses of radio technology . the wartime takeover of all radio systems ended late in 1918 when the u.s. congress failed to pass a bill which would have extended this monopoly . the war ended in november of that year . the ending of the federal government s monopoly in radio communications did not prevent the war and navy departments from creating a national radio system for the united states . 5 on 8 april 1919 naval admiral w. h. g. bullard and captain stanford c. hooper met with executives of the general electric corporation ge and asked them to discontinue selling the company s alexanderson alternators used in the high power am radio transmitters of that era to the british owned marconi company and to its subsidiary the marconi wireless telegraph company of america . the proposal presented by the government was that if ge created an american owned radio company then the army and navy would effect a monopoly of long distance radio communications via this company . this marked the beginning of a series of negotiations through which ge would buy the american marconi company and then incorporate what would be called the radio corporation of america . 6 establishment edit original rca logo . a later variation of this logo was revived by bmg after it bought rca records from ge and is still used by sony music today . the incorporation of the assets of marconi wireless telegraph company of america including david sarnoff 7 the pan american telegraph company and those already controlled by the united states navy led to a new publicly held company formed by general electric which owned a controlling interest on october 17 1919 . 8 the following cooperation among rca general electric the united fruit company the westinghouse electric corporation and american telephone & telegraph at & t brought about innovations in high power radio technology and also the founding of the national broadcasting company nbc in the us . the army and the navy granted rca the former american marconi radio terminals that had been confiscated during the war . admiral bullard received a seat on the board of directors of rca for his efforts in establishing rca . the result was federally created monopolies in radio for ge and the westinghouse corporation and in telephone systems for the american telephone & telegraph company . citation needed the argument by the department of war and the department of the navy that the usable radio frequencies were limited and hence needed to be appropriated for use before other countries such as the united kingdom france germany and canada monopolized them collapsed in the mid 1920s following the discovery of the practicality of the use of the shortwave radio band 3.0 mhz through 30.0 mhz for very long range radio communications . citation needed the first chief executive officer of rca was owen d. young ; david sarnoff became its general manager . rca s incorporation papers required that a majority of its stock be held by american citizens . rca agreed to market the radio equipment manufactured by ge and westinghouse and in follow on agreements rca also acquired the radio patents that had been held by westinghouse and the united fruit company . as the years went on rca either took over or produced for itself a large number of patents including that of the superheterodyne receiver invented by edwin armstrong . citation needed over the years rca continued to operate international telecommunications services under its subsidiary rca communications inc. and later the rca global communications company . citation needed broadcast expansion edit by 1926 the market for commercial radio had expanded and rca purchased the weaf and wcap radio stations and networks from at & t merged them with its wjz the predecessor of wabc new york to wrc presently wtem washington chain and formed the national broadcasting company nbc . radio edit ge used rca as its retail arm for radio sales from 1919 when ge began production until 1930 . 9 westinghouse also marketed home radios through rca until 1930 . 10 phonograph edit rca trademark exhibit at heritage museum in big spring texas 2004 photograph in 1929 rca purchased the victor talking machine company then the world s largest manufacturer of phonographs including the famous victrola and phonograph records . this included a majority ownership of the victor company of japan jvc . the new subsidiary then became rca victor . with victor rca acquired new world rights to the nipper trademark . this trademark is also the trademark for the british music & entertainment company hmv who now display nipper in silhouette . rca victor produced many radio phonographs and also created rca photophone a sound on film system for sound films that competed with william fox s sound on film movietone and warner bros. sound on disc vitaphone . the acquisition of victor also gave rca superior manufacturing and distribution capability with its newly acquired factories in camden new jersey which added the manufacturing of radios as well as phonographs and records . 11 rca began selling the first electronic turntable in 1930 . in 1931 rca victor began selling 33 rpm records . these had the standard groove size the same width as the contemporary 78 rpm records rather than the microgroove used in post world war ii 33 long play records . the format was a commercial failure at the height of the great depression partly because the records and playback equipment were expensive and partly because the audio performance was poor ; it would require the smaller radius stylus of the microgroove system to make slower speed records perform acceptably . the system was withdrawn from the market after about a year . this was not the first attempt at a commercial long play record format as edison records had marketed a microgroove vertically recorded disc with 20 minutes playing time per side the previous decade ; the edison long playing records were also a commercial failure . also in the thirties rca sold the modernistic rca victor m special a polished aluminum portable record player designed by john vassos . it has become an icon of thirties american industrial design . 12 in 1930 rca agreed to occupy the yet to be constructed landmark building of the rockefeller center complex 30 rockefeller plaza which in 1933 became known as the rca building now the comcast building . this critical lease in the massive project enabled it to proceed as a commercially viable venture . 13 in 1932 rca introduced the duo jr. turntable designed to be plugged into radios . 14 separation from general electric edit in 1930 the u.s. department of justice brought antitrust charges against rca general electric and westinghouse . as a result ge and westinghouse gave up their ownership interests in rca . rca was allowed to keep its radio factories and ge and westinghouse were allowed to compete in that business after 30 months . ad for the beginning of regularly scheduled television broadcasting in new york city by rca nbc in april 1939 via station w2xbs the forerunner of today s wnbc electronic television edit rca demonstrated an all electronic television system at the 1939 new york world s fair and developed the usa s first television test pattern . rca began regular experimental television broadcasting from the nbc studios to the new york metropolitan area on april 30 1939 via station w2xbs channel 1 which evolved into wnbc channel 4 from a transmitter atop the empire state building . 15 at the same time rca began selling their first television set models in various new york stores . 16 with the introduction of the ntsc standard the federal communications commission authorized the start of commercial television transmission on july 1 1941 . world war ii slowed the deployment of television in the united states but rca again began selling television receivers almost immediately after the war ceased . see also history of television rca was involved in radar and radio development in support of the war effort . rca ranked 43rd among united states corporations in the value of wartime military production contracts . 17 this greatly assisted rca in its television research . rca was a major producer of vacuum tubes branded radiotron in the united states creating a series of innovative products ranging from octal base metal tubes co developed with general electric before world war ii to the transistor sized nuvistor used in the tuners of the new vista series of tv sets . the nuvistor tubes were a last hurrah for vacuum tubes and were meant to compete with the newly introduced transistor . their combined power in the marketplace was so strong that they effectively set the selling prices for vacuum tubes in the us . by 1975 the company had completely switched from tubes to solid state devices in their television sets except for the main cathode ray tube crt . antitrust concerns led fcc to force the breakup of the nbc radio networks a breakup affirmed by the supreme court of the united states . on october 12 1943 the nbc blue radio network was sold to candy magnate edward j. noble for 8 000 000 and renamed the blue network inc . it would become the american broadcasting company abc in 1946 . the nbc red network retained the nbc name and rca retained ownership . television test pattern created by rca in 1939 rca television quad head 2 color recorder reproducer used at broadcast studios in the late 1960s 70s