Zenith's demise.

[Sandy G]

I'll bet a dollar to a donut within 5 years-10 at the outside- we'll see Chinese made cars here. Sure, they'll be shit at first-but they'll soon get the hang of it. They may even be Cadillacs. Yep, GM is reputedly gonna build a plant over there to make Caddys-they sell that many over there & figure the potential market is nearly limitless. Only real problem is that China doesn't have much of a modern road network-yet. China's insatiable demand for cars is one major thing that's got gas prices so high here-and it ain't gonna get much better, I'm afraid.-Sandy G.

[cmonty]

I fear you will win that bet even sooner. I recall a news report about a Chinese car that is supposed to show up here in about 18 months. Something in the same league as the old Yugo.

[bgadow]

Yeah, they are building Buicks over there now, but not importing them here yet. But the engine in one of the new Chevy's is made in China. There is a company working on bringing a Chinese car here very soon if they can jump it through all the hoops.

I was in a lowbuck discount store today, they had Orion 27" tv sets with American flags on them. I didn't bother walking over to see if they were a)made in the us b)rebuilt in the us (store sells lots of rebuilt stuff). It would seem like the easiest thing to do would be to import the boards from China then make the crt and cabinet here and throw it all together. Since those components are just empty boxes really why ship them around the globe? And not much labor to slap them together. But with a smaller set, 13" certainly, they are compact enough to just ship the whole works.

Saw a 13" color Zenith that looked to be c.1980 and it had an address on the back of Missouri.

My understanding is that Zenith mfg. is all gone, Thompson left in the late 90s, but that NAP is still running to some extent, maybe just big screens, down in Knoxville?

[peverett]

Motorola is still around making cellphones, police radios, and automtive controls systems in the US.

Several chip manufacturers, Freescale (spun off from Motorola), TI, Intel, and IBM all have manufacturing plants in the US. Some of the parts from these plants go into items such as TVs, stereos, and even cars that are produced in Asia.

Samsung and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation) also have chip manufacturing plants in the US.

Electronics manufacturing is definitely limping in the US, but not quite dead.

[mzeitlin3348]

It's interesting - but where is the best High-end Audio made? You don't see Asian labels - certainly not from China.

And when it comes to Cars - same thing holds. They make great everyday cars, but the winners...over and over again are the U.S. and Europe (German, Italian, etc.).

It seems to me that innovation and 'the - next - thing' are still a domain of the U.S. and even Europe. We don't see the next thing coming out of China - yet. Eventually - but not now.

So - Zenith died because innovation at Zenith died. And that's the moral of the story. We are at our best when we set the direction.

Truth be told - our Asian friends have been better at building what we invent better than we build it ourselves. Kenwood anyone?

Sony I believe was the first foreign maker to build sets in the US...originally in lovely downtown Compton CA (unsafe even at noon time). They then moved to the former VW assembly plant in Pennsy....not sure if they're still there, but last I heard they were building projection and large screen high end stuff there.

I don't recall specifically, but I think Philips, Panasonic maybe JVC build sets here (or perhaps did so until recently). Bonus points to the first person to correctly identify what JVC stands for and why (what the corporate connection is)

Anthony

[asynchronousman]

Not RCA Victor but Victor i.e. Victrola IIRC originally Victor Talking Machines but I don't know how the "-ola" part came about. Weren't there "Amberola" records?

[asynchronousman]

BTW I think the first Sony plant of real note was in San Diego (makes sense as there are docks there and Mexico is next door).

[sydsfloyd67]

Originally Posted by heathkit tv

I don't recall specifically, but I think Philips, Panasonic maybe JVC build sets here (or perhaps did so until recently). Bonus points to the first person to correctly identify what JVC stands for and why (what the corporate connection is) Anthony

A.,
Thanks. Almost missed the answer amid the static. NAP in Knoxville then? JVC, Japanese Video Corporation (Not Nippon Electronics Coproration) is building TVs in the US? 'American' company building TVs in the US was what i thought i recalled regarding Zenith and Thompson being the last (in Bloomington IN around '93).

-sf

[asynchronousman]

I don't know where that version of the acronym JVC comes in, but they still built "Victor" components at the last I checked for domestic and maybe Eurasian sale. YMMV

[asynchronousman]

Originally Posted by stereofisher

Sorry for the vent. Its too bad our companies have given up I miss Zenith, RCA, Motorola, etc. Both radio and TV.

Eric

I do too, but I rejoice that Micron kicks butt and takes names here in the Treasure Valley.

They're not dead though--I'm keeping them in jars on shelves in my living room Perhaps someday somebody will find speakers marked "Asynchronous" in their attic...

[maxm]

Zenith had another plant in Missouri in the 80s, it seems like they made mostly little 13" color sets there, I have one of them.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by maxm

Zenith had another plant in Missouri in the 80s, it seems like they made mostly little 13" color sets there, I have one of them.

I have a 19" Zenith color set, new in 1995, which was assembled in Mexico, but the company was still in the Chicago area as "Zenith Electronics Corporation" of Glenview, Illinois. I had another Zenith color set in the '80s which had a label on the back clearly proclaiming "Zenith Electronics Corporation" in Missouri (don't recall the city off the top of my head). I also had a Zenith four-mode stereo system with 8-track, etc., in the early eighties which was built for Zenith in Korea by an unnamed electronics firm.

IMO, I think Zenith as we used to know it actually disappeared years before they sold out to Gold Star, given the fact that much of Zenith's audio gear was made offshore by the '80s (my 1980 Zenith R-70 AM/FM radio was made in Korea, also, to the standards of Zenith in Chicago, and my H-480 AM/FM stereo Zenith clock radio [also 1980 vintage] was built in Taiwan) and their televisions were being made offshore by then as well (yes, even their fabulous System 3 color consoles, but the ones built in the '70s must have still been made half decently; I have a friend whose parents owned a System 3 console set with remote and had it 15 years before it finally conked out--they replaced it with a 25" RCA "Guide Plus" set that went all of two years before the CRT blew, but that's another story).

Every new Zenith TV I've owned since the late '70s was actually built either in Mexico or offshore. The only American-made Zenith radios I own anymore, however, are my H511Y (1951) and my Royal 1000-1 TO (Zenith's first transistorized T/O; mine was probably one of the first, built by the original Zenith Radio Corporation in Chicago), not to mention a wood-cased K-731 AM/FM set from 1963. You can be sure I'll hold on to these three radios, as they are pieces of Zenith history the likes of which we will never see again. I like the design, sound and the superb build quality of the R-70 as well, so that one will be a "keeper" also. Had the dickens of a time finding a replacement for a missing battery box for my T/O (finally found one a couple months ago at John Kendall's Vintage Electronics of suburban Baltimore, on his website), but it was worth it for a radio so well built and which sounds every bit as good as a good table set.

[YamahaFreak]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I have a friend whose parents owned a System 3 console set with remote and had it 15 years before it finally conked out--they replaced it with a 25" RCA "Guide Plus" set that went all of two years before the CRT blew, but that's another story).

I still have a Zenith Space Command 25" console, and it has one of the best pictures of any TV's I own. It's at least 25 years old. I play my NES and SNES on it.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by YamahaFreak

I still have a Zenith Space Command 25" console, and it has one of the best pictures of any TV's I own. It's at least 25 years old. I play my NES and SNES on it.

It's difficult, in fact almost impossible, to say why your SC is still going strong after 25+ years, while my friend's folks' System III console gave up after 15. Theirs went West because of a power supply problem, I think, but that can happen to any TV, even brand new ones. They had even worse trouble with the RCA Guide Plus set that replaced the Zenith (CRT burned out after just two years), but that's so easy to explain it's ridiculous. By 1990 RCA branded TVs were being manufactured by Thomson, using CRTs of questionable reliability. My own CTC185, bought new when I moved here six years ago, still has its original CRT and makes a beautiful picture on the cable system here in my town. I guess it depends on whether you get a set with a good CRT. I have been told, here at AK, that in general the CRTs used in Thomson-built RCAs are very troublesome, but if you are lucky enough to get one with a good tube, it will last years without giving one bit of trouble. However, the 1990s-vintage RCA/Thomson sets had quite a bit of trouble with the ground points around the on-board tuner. If these were not resoldered properly early on, the jungle IC could lose its programming due to noise getting into the chip, which in turn would have been caused by shaky connections at those ground points. I had my RCA repaired for a tuner problem shortly after I purchased the set; the work was done in my apartment, so I was able to see what the technician was doing. He not only fixed the problem I called him for (RF port snapped off the tuner PC board), but he also resoldered every joint around the tuner. If he hadn't done the latter, my TV wouldn't have lasted anywhere near six years (going on seven as I write this).

Your Zenith was manufactured several years before the company left Chicago and went to Korea, which explains why it's still giving you good service after 25+ years. I have a 19" Sentry II Zenith of 1995 vintage that still works well and still has its original CRT. This amazes me, since 1995 is right in the middle of the time frame during which Zenith was having so much trouble with the CRTs in their sets.

I shudder to think what the reliability record of LG's flat-panel HD sets must be. I do know, however, that I would never buy a new TV with the lightning-bolt "Z" on it nowadays. That symbol is just a marketing icon; it means absolutely nothing. LG is simply using it on their televisions to protect their intellectual property rights to the symbol. The guts are still the same low-quality garbage found in LG and many other TVs made offshore today. (I hear even some Sonys are made offshore by another Korean electronics firm.) Unfortunately, however, this is nothing new. I bought an off-brand 12-inch portable TV when I graduated high school 30.5 years ago (1975). The set lasted all of three years before giving up the ghost (I turned it on one afternoon and saw a plume of smoke rising from the circuit board; something had shorted in there). I pitched the off-brand set and bought a Zenith solid-state B&W portable the next day; the new Zenith lasted 22 years without giving me one bit of trouble--nice sharp bright picture, good sound, and good reception with a monopole antenna in the near-fringe area where I lived at the time. I got rid of it in 2000 only because of space limitations when I moved. I also had two Zenith 13" color portables, one 1979 vintage, one 1982, that also gave me excellent service. Again, the only reason I gave them up when I moved was the space problem, which I have described in other posts.

I can only hope those sets went to good homes and didn't wind up in the landfill (I wasn't even living at my former residence in late 1999; my dad's widow cleaned out the house and later sold it after I left, so I have no way of knowing what happened to those TVs), as they were still working very well, with the 1979 set (Zenith L1310C) having only tuner issues (the detents were shot on both the VHF and UHF tuners). These sets made excellent pictures, however, and were built very solidly...well, at least the 1982 set that replaced the L1310C was; I wouldn't say the '1310 was made all that solidly if the detents on both tuners quit after only a few years. The reason for the 1310's successor's long life (at least 20 years) with no tuner drive train problems was probably that the set had one-knob electronic tuning; once the UHF stations were set up and the channel number tabs installed, the UHF tuning was ordinarily forgotten as was the VHF fine tuning (this set had switchable AFC, but the instruction manual suggested switching the AFC on and leaving it on after properly fine-tuning all stations in the user's area).

I know nothing lasts forever, but anything one pays a good deal of money for should last at least a few years. Time was when you could buy a TV set, for example, and it would last 15-20 years or more. Today's sets, by contrast, even the flat-panel HD sets, are throwaways and generally do not last longer than a couple years, often giving up the ship immediately after or shortly after the warranty expires. I'm not making this up; I have read right here in these AK forums of new TVs made by such formerly respected companies as RCA, Zenith, Magnavox, et al. which come in for repair service, only to have the technician find that the set has developed some very costly repair problem. In many cases the warranty may have just expired or else, if it is still in force, does not cover the problem being repaired. Another common situation is the TV with some years (5, 10 or more) on it that comes into the shop with a very severe problem such as a burned-out CRT, flyback, etc. that will cost more than the set is worth (or what the owner paid for it when it was new) to be repaired. These sets are generally pitched immediately, or at least as soon as the owner gets the repair estimate, as it is not cost-effective for the customer to have it repaired; for what the customer would pay to have the old one repaired, he or she could buy a brand-new set. With the change to digital TV coming in about three years, many people are getting rid of their perfectly good analog CRT sets (I see them all the time on ebay, at dirt-cheap BIN prices and very low starting bids--some as low as one penny) and replacing them with flat-panel plasma/LCD HD sets. It just makes sense, especially since, even though analog CRT TVs will work with digital signals using a converter box between the cable and the set, they will not produce a HD picture. However, as I said, at this stage of their development, HD flat-panel sets are still prone to repair problems that often show up just after the warranty expires. Heaven forbid an owner of a HDTV flat-panel set would have trouble with the video driver ICs in his/her new set. The ICs are actually molded into the ribbon cable going between the panel and the chassis, so if the chips go West for any reason, the entire panel must be replaced. This is probably why so many relatively new FP sets are winding up being sold as-is on ebay or being thrown out with the trash these days. I saw one on the bay just recently that had a cracked screen; these show up very often, being advertised as "parts sets" or something similar. Many FP sets are severely damaged by soda cans or other heavy objects being hurled at the screens by irate viewers or children; many times the sets are not worth repairing, especially if they have a few years on them.

All of the foregoing is too bad, but, as former CBS-TV anchorman Walter Cronkite used to close the "CBS Evening News", that's the way it is in this age of outsourcing and companies leaving the United States for offshore destinations. It would be nice if things weren't like this, but they are, so the best any of us can do is to accept it, and, if we can, to make the best of a bad situation.