Zenith factory pictures, Zenith's fate, etc.

[Carmine]

I just wanted to thank Doug myself for taking those pictures of the factory sites, especially since I strongly urged him to do so. Living in Detroit, I know how quick we are to bulldoze manufacturing history. I took the pictures posted below just before an "era" ended. The top picture shows my '77 NY'er in front of Chrysler HQ in Highland Park, MI just before the compnay moved to new Headquarters in the 'burbs, about 1995. At least this was a bittersweet picture. The lower picture with my '79 NY'er, shows the Chrysler sign where I worked just before being removed for the evil Daimler sign.

Someone else mentioned the fate of Zenith's headquarters now that the company builds everything in China/Korea...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "real" Zenith Electronics Corp. went bankrupt in about 1998. The assets were sold off, among them the buildings (which now appear to be multi-tenant industrial) and the actual name, logos, etc.

The Zenith name was purchased by the parent company of Gold Star in an effort to ditch Gold Star's reputation for building low-quality VCRs and TVs which would best be remembered for clogging landfills in the US.

Thus "real" Zeniths no longer exist, and the name is just used like some kind of propped-up dead body (ala Weekend at Bernie's).

I have heard that one of the nails in the coffin for Zenith (besides cheaper overseas labor and engineering) was our own greedy & corrupt US elected officials who bowed to Sony, Toshiba, etc. and agreed to an HDTV system that was uncompatable with our current NTSC system. At the time, Zenith was putting the finishing touches on a compatable HDTV system, (the FCC mandate at the time) so any shareholders who were hanging on for this breakthrough bailed-out and the company's stock became worthless.

Correct?

[andy]

...

[Chad Hauris]

Along the same lines I have seen the RCA brand used at Radio Shack on devices that used to be called Realistic and have no apparent connection to Thomson. They must be licensing the brand out to Radio Shack.
Also have seen some old brands resurface on cheap modern equipment like Garrard, Curtis Mathes, KLH.

[Steve D.]

Last year, wanting a change, I purchase at Radio Shack an RCA home theater sound system "in a box." You know the am/fm- amp and speakers all packaged together. It was 100 watts per channel 5.1 and all that. but to my surprise, Other then calling it an RCA, the box and instructions all stated "made for Radio Shack corp. by RCA. even the warranty was from Radio Shack not RCA. The name Thomson was not to be seen anywhere. I did return the crappy thing after a weeks use. I reinstalled my 15 year old RCA "Dimensia" series sound system that has less power but sure works well.

[bgadow]

6 or 7 years ago Kmart was selling lots of Philco branded stuff. I was in there one day and looked at a clock radio, it said the Philco name was owned by Kmart, with no Philips reference. Now the only Philco stuff I see on the US market are reproduction radios. In the catalog ads they say copywright Philips. Guess Kmart's license ran out quick.

Personally, the Realistic name held more weight with me than the current RCA. Before ruining what was left of Sarnoff's good name they used up Memorex's reputation. Wonder who will be next?

(RCA @ Radio Shack? Had to make a lot of old RCA dealers sick to their stomach)

[Jeffhs]

I was the one who mentioned Zenith's move to Korea. I was asking Doug what all those buildings at Zenith's corporate HQ in Franklin Park/Chicago were being used for, now that the company's manufacturing plant for all its products (radio and TV, not to mention home theater, etc.) has moved permanently to the Orient.

There was also mention made of the fact that Zenith is now just a meaningless brand name on televisions manufactured by Gold Star, and RCA has now apparently licensed the use of its brand name and logo to Radio Shack.

Well, there go two of what once were the best brands of TV's ever made. (A friend of mine has a 25-year-old RCA [when RCA still meant RCA] 12-inch monochrome portable set which still works great for him on cable.) I haven't seen the new "Zeniths" up close lately, so cannot comment on the quality of the sets' pictures or CRTs; however, as I have said several times in my posts to this and the SS/rectangular tube TV board, RCA, even though now owned by Thomson, still puts out some good TVs, though many sets have had problems with solder joints around the on-board tuner cracking and the EEPROM IC losing its programming when noise gets into the chip. My own RCA CTC-185A7 XL-100 (another meaningless label these days) 19" set was repaired twice because of a problem on the tuner board that had nothing to do with the tuner or the EEPROM; the problem, rather, was that the RF port to which the antenna/cable connects had snapped off the tuner board. The technician who repaired this works for the local TV shop in the next town; he told me that the RF port on CTC185s was mounted very flimsily and was a weak spot in these sets. He managed to reinforce the connector on mine with an improvised bracket the second time around; so far it's been holding up well (I had this repaired the second time about a year or more ago; the first repair was earlier the same year). In fact, the technician so much as told me if this problem ever occurs again, I should throw the set out and get a new one.

I can't afford to go out and buy a new TV every time it goes bad, which is why I purchased a three-year service contract for mine. At least until 2006, I'm covered if anything goes in the set, including the tuner, EEPROM or anything else except the RF input port to the tuner, and perhaps the CRT. Why RCA did not cover that (the repairs to the RF port) in the first service contract I had, I don't know.

IMO, the glory days of RCA and Zenith ended when the companies went overseas, if not before. The brand names and logos on the fronts of these sets, right beneath the CRTs, mean nothing anymore, since the televisions are no longer manufactured by RCA, Zenith or any other American company.

Many of the old-line TV manufacturers such as Admiral, Emerson, Philco, etc. are out of business today. Why? Because, again IMO, they couldn't compete with the Japanese, Korean, etc. market when United States retail stores and places like Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. in the '90s and maybe earlier started marketing sets with names like Sharp, Toshiba, Gold Star, et al., all of which are made overseas.

The same thing has in effect happened to RCA and Zenith. These companies exist today only as meaningless labels on TVs manufactured not in Chicago, Illinois or Camden, New Jersey, USA, but by companies the likes of Gold Star and other Korean/Chinese, etc. entities. We had better get used to having to repair these sets a lot more often than before, and for more catastrophic problems such as flyback or power supply problems, etc. as they aren't made these days like they used to be.

[Chad Hauris]

I think some of those old-time brands like Emerson, Packard Bell,
Admiral, Philco, had had it by about 1975 or earlier. This is when solid state sets pretty much displaced all of the tube sets made (except for GE). I own or have seen Sharp, Hitachi, Sony, Mitsubishi and Panasonic sets from the late 60's through the mid 70's and all have good performance.

These days sets are not repaired, they are trashed when they quit. I got a 2000 model Sylvania from the large-trash pickup last year! Problem with the switching power supply. These sets are selling from $60-100 at Wal-mart and it is not economical for people to send them out for repair.

[captainmoody]

Jeff, What are you doing to make the cable connector break off the set?
I have several RCA models up to a CTC195 and have never, ever had a problem with them breaking.
In the past, I would see ones come in that were broken but they were caused by a cat or something knocking the vcr off the shelf which would pull it off or by the over eager mechanic that uses a wrench to tighten it until it breaks off.

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Chad Hauris
I think some of those old-time brands like Emerson, Packard Bell,
Admiral, Philco, had had it by about 1975 or earlier. This is when solid state sets pretty much displaced all of the tube sets made (except for GE). I own or have seen Sharp, Hitachi, Sony, Mitsubishi and Panasonic sets from the late 60's through the mid 70's and all have good performance.

These days sets are not repaired, they are trashed when they quit. I got a 2000 model Sylvania from the large-trash pickup last year! Problem with the switching power supply. These sets are selling from $60-100 at Wal-mart and it is not economical for people to send them out for repair.

Chad,

I honestly believe the "throwaway" television era began about the same time Philco, Admiral, et al. went out of business, if not earlier. Case in point: I bought a 12" tube-powered TV in 1975 which was manufactured by Broadmoor and marketed by Kennedy and Cohen, the latter being a now-defunct retail chain which went out of business at the end of the '70s. My set worked for three years, then something shorted out (I don't know to this day what it was), the set started to smoke, and I put it out with my trash. By contrast, I bought a Zenith 12-inch monochrome portable in 1978 which was still working like a champ in 2000--22 years later. I threw it out that year, as in 1999 I had moved to my present very small apartment and had no room for any more sets (I already had, and still have, my two color sets, my RCA XL-100 in the living room and my Zenith Sentry 2 in the bedroom; the Zenith has worked with no problems whatever since it was new in 1995.)

In K-Mart's flyer in my Sunday paper I saw an RCA 19-inch TV for $119. Good grief, that's less than what I paid for my RCA XL-100 four years ago!

You are correct, Chad; there is no sense in having sets repaired these days, with new ones selling almost dirt-cheap. The RCA 19-incher I saw advertised by K-Mart sells for just one dollar less than what I have already put into my set; further, I just purchased a service contract on the TV which, again, cost just about as much as you or I would pay for a new set.

That's another issue which kinda' bothers me, now that I think of it. With new televisions of every Japanese, Korean, etc. make to be had for such dirt-cheap prices these days, why did RCA even bother offering me an extension on my present 3-year service contract? It doesn't make sense, considering the foregoing. I think RCA is simply trying to make money on service contracts, no more and no less, like everyone else. Further, I think (in fact, I am reasonably sure) these sets are being sold so cheaply because the stores want to get rid of their stocks of tube TVs ASAP--to make room for new shipments of widescreen HDTVs. Out with the old, in with the new, you know.

[Jeffhs]

captainmoody,

I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but the reason the RF port broke off the tuner board on my RCA XL-100 set the first time was simply that I was fiddling around too much with the cable from my VCR to the TV. I had been having problems with interference on certain cable and broadcast channels at the time, which I found I could temporarily eliminate by moving the VCR cable. I must have done it once too often, however, as eventually the connector broke off the board completely.

After the second time this happened (I don't care to go into the details of that), however, I learned my lesson. I do not even touch that cable now unless I have to, and even then I make certain I tighten the connector at the TV end of the cable only finger tight.

Come to think of it, the problems I had been having with interference on some cable/broadcast channels may well have been caused, at least in part, by the on-board tuner. I remember the technician having to unsolder the tuner cover to get to the RF port, then resolder the same cover after the repairs were completed. Since that cover (and whatever other connections the technician had to undo in order to replace the connector) were resoldered, I have had absolutely no problems whatever with the tuner or the EEPROM, and the picture on all channels is great on cable (Comcast digital)--like a picture postcard.

I think this set will go for years now. Someone in this forum recently mentioned that once the issues with the connections around the tuner are dealt with and corrected, these sets will go on for years with no further problems. I believe it. My set has been working very well for two years now (since the last repair) and has had absolutely no issues with the rest of the circuitry in the four years I have owned it.

[andy]

...

Had a couple of cousins who worked for Zenith back in the 60's. They told me some story about how their superior was a real butthead and they decided to get even with him by miswiring the HV so that when the sets went on the hot rack they'd blow with a shower of sparks.

Nice. Sounds like my family alright

Regardless, I think because my family is all from Chi that may have been why we always had Zeniths.....at least up till the Trinitron came out. I returned to the Zenith fold once I was out on my own, but once they sold out to the koreans that was the end for me.

Can't stand to give my money to foreign companies, especially the chinese---I will not be a party to helping them arm their military (this is not just my paranoia, do a little research)

Now back to our regular programming.......if anyone cares, I started a Yahoo group on Heathkit TVs, see link below. Thanks!

Anthony

[Sandy G]

Carmine- Luv the cars. A REAL car should have a wheelbase of at least 120", weigh at least 4000 lbs., & have a V-8 of at least 318 cubic inches. None of this silly-arse "litres" nonsense for me, thank you. TVs ? I remember if you had a Zenith or an RCA color roundie, it was big news, & all yr friends, neighbors & relations would come to see it. Remember "The following program is brought to you in LIVING COLOR on NBC" & the peacock animation ? Somehow it just ain't the same watching it on something made by a company in a place you can't pronounce.-Sandy G.

I agree with all the comments about the current Zenith not being up to par with some of the older brands. I have a 27" Zenith set that I bought last spring. Running it off the satellite dish, the picture quality is decent, but when I run it off my antenna, the picture quality and the signal level is pathetic. Now, when I want to watch off the antenna (usually the 3 channels from Watertown, NY--about 50 miles from me), I usually go into my bedroom and watch my 14 year old 20" RCA--which didn't have it's first servicing until this summer. And my sets are on a LOT--the older RCA's beat out the new stuff hands down!

I forgot to mention in an earlier post....since Carmine had taken those factory pix and made a comment about how Detroit has been knocking down so many factories in general, I thought this site may be of interest:
http://detroityes.com/
It's a "Ruins of Detroit" thing. Very interesting, in a looking at a car wreck sorta way. I fear for the Grand Blvd Packard plant.

Anthony (who has visited Checker in Kalamazoo and Kaiser in Ypsilanti)