On Thursday 15 June 2006 18.49, Lou Judson wrote:
Without the confidence of its dealers in 1923, RCA Victor, founder of the phonograph and record business, could never have started radio down its billion-dollar road.
Oh. My. Gosh. History should not be written by ignorant corporate PR hacks! :)
1. What dealers in 1923? RCA and Victor did not merge until 1929, and Victor
in 1923 would not touch radio with a ten foot pole. (Was RCA even
manufacturing at that point? I thought in 1923 the Aeriolas were still being
made by GE and Westinghouse...)
2. If anyone could be said to have founded the phonograph and record business,
realistically I think the Graphophone Company comes pretty close. It was
their reworking of Edison's phonograph that spurred Edison to make his own
drastic changes, which began a competitive marketplace for the sound
recording/reproduction industry. Berliner meanwhile had invented the
Gramophone during that same period, but it would be another eight or nine
years before he was able to set himself up in business and begin producing
records.
Of course, when that trade advertisement came out in 1949, few in RCA's marketing department probably knew or cared about the history of their industry - they were out to pave it over with their miraculous new 45 RPM Microgroove record.
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