RCA and You

[Carmine]

If you read the book "The Rise and Fall of the American Electronics Industry" (1993) you'll pretty much think of Sarnoff as the devil, and see how he taught the Japanese to protect their domestic market from competition, use this stream of profits to subsidize dumping in the American market, and how to buy influence in American politics to keep the whole racket running. Sarnoff was awarded the highest honor that could be given to a non-native by the Japanese government. His first overtures to the Imperial Japanese government (instructing them on patent monopolies) began in the 1920s, but Sarnoff really got into high gear after Zenith broke-up their US patent extortion racket in the 50s by challenging them in court. Japanese patent royalties were worth more than their US sales revenues, and were a primary driver for the GE takeover.

True this book was written by Zenith's general legal council (who's name escapes me) but it is quite thoroughly researched and footnoted. Before you label it "Japan bashing", you should realize that it's not applied to Sony corp, which saw early success based on the quality of their products, rather than low-cost dumping.

For these reasons, I've never understood the reverence for Sarnoff or RCA's fairly disposable "printed circuit and tube" products. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that his monument is abandoned and in ruins is somewhat poetic justice.