Lawsuit against RCA and RCA lost!

[julianburke]

Here is a lengthy document in which RCA was sued for defective equipment from start to finish in building a UHF station in Texas and as a result, the station went bankrupt in less than a year after going on the air. RCA was found to be liable and had to pay $1 million for this one. Notice the TK42 camera that never worked and was shipped as such! Also a parted out & scrapped film chain camera system that wasn't supposed to be sold and was shipped to them! No wonder GE had a strong presence down there! Let's see, when was Sarnoff's son canned as Chairman of the Board? What a major screwup for RCA and who oversaw this catastrophe??

Quote: "The evidence showed that RCA did deliver three different cameras which were inoperable. RCA sent Fredonia a TK-42 camera, costing $27,000, which John Barbour, an employee of RCA's project management department, testified was inoperable. The testimony of John Cassidy, RCA's Manager of Project Management and Administrative Services, corroborates Barbour's account. RCA also sent Fredonia a TK-26 camera which Barbour admitted had been subject to cannibalization. An RCA internal memorandum showed that this camera was intended to be scrapped by RCA and not sold. A second internal RCA memorandum shows that RCA considered the TK-26 camera not fit for resale or refurbishing after Fredonia returned the camera to RCA. A TP-6 projector RCA sold Fredonia was also intended to be scrapped as shown by an RCA internal memorandum. RCA contends that the TK-26 camera and the TP-6 projector were repaired before the station went on the air and did not cause a delay."

Seems like RCA was floundering as early as this 1973 lawsuit! (and likely earlier-did RCA get smug in their dominance of broadcast around this time?)
BTW, it looked like they were buying some used and refurbished equipment. A TK42 was $62,000-67,000 new.

http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/522085