An odd omission

[joeekaitis]

Whirlpool's corporate site features a decade-by-decade history of the company but shows no ads from the 1950s and 1960s. There's also no mention of their relationship with RCA. Even a search of the site turns up nothing about RCA.

Why would they want to rewrite history and pretend the trademark "RCA Whirlpool" never existed?

http://whirlpoolcorp.com/about/history/default.asp

 

[knitwits1975]

How long were the two companies affiliated?

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Hmm...

That is rather odd... I wonder what e-mailing them and asking about this omission would turn up.

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Hmm...

That is rather odd... I wonder what e-mailing them and asking about this omission would turn up.

 

[Unimatic1140]

In their 1940's section they claim:

"Shortly after the war, the company became the world's first to introduce a milestone product that has become a standard today: the top-loading automatic washer. In 1948, another first: the company markets a Whirlpool brand automatic washer, thus establishing dual distribution — one line of products for Sears, another for Nineteen Hundred."

That is completely wrong, Blackstone was the first top-loader in 1941. And in 1947 GE and Frigidaire had top loading agitator automatics, they all came out in the Spring of '47 at the same time as the Kenmore, so Whirlpool is wrong here again.

 

[deeptub]

As far as I know, the only "relationship" between Whirlpool and RCA was that WP paid RCA for the right to use the RCA logo to bring more recognition to the Whirlpool brand. WP was never owned by RCA nor vice-versa.

T.

 

[rickr]

In the 1960's RCA owned Whirlpool, NBC, and Beatrice Foods.

 

[portendere]

Probably because RCA

...well, the trademark, anyway...is currently owned by General Electric, one of Whirlpool's competitors.

GE bought Radio Corporation of America in the '80s, and wasted no time spinning off the electronics business (and its own) to Thomson of France. My understanding is that the trademark is actually still owned by GE, but licensed exclusively to Thomson, which in turn has turned it over to a Chinese joint venture that actually makes the electronics these days.

GE probably still retains the rights to the RCA name in major appliances. Some RCA appliances were made by GE, similar to Hotpoint models.

Search our trademark database

A search you complete before applying for a trademark registration to make sure your trademark is available to register for your particular goods or services, and to make sure that no other trademark conflicts with it.

tess2.uspto.gov

 

[frigilux]

Wow, I didn't realize RCA owned NBC back then. I guess one DOES learn something new every day. Thanks for that tidbit, Rick

 

[dalangdon]

Most corporations

particularly on their Customer Service level, don't know their own history. As companies get absorbed into other companies, the corporate archives are usually donated to somebody, and the company loses its past.

For example, Westin Hotels, which used to be based here in Seattle, got sold to Starwood, and all of the Westin archives were donated to Washington State University. I work in the Westin Building (the former Westing headquarters) and hardly anyone who works there even knows why it is called that. I only know it because I used to work there for Westin.

 

[volvoguy87]

RCA & NBC

RCA and NBC were related for decades, even before the Whirlpool/RCA association. RCA and NBC were related in the 1930s, or possibly in the late 1920s. It was a logical association because RCA made radios and radio equipment and by supporting NBC, RCA was assured that their products would have a market. In an odd twist, FM radio was invented in the 1930s by Edwin Armstrong who also built radios to recieve FM broadcasts. RCA bought into FM and took control of the technology, made changes to render pre-existing FM systems obsolete and shelved it. All this so that AM NBC wouldn't be threatened. FM was used by the allies during WWII, but the AM vs. FM debate wouldn't proceed until after television became common. By the time television was becoming common, the major broadcasting networks, like NBC, switched from radio to Television. With the primary market becoming television, FM radio was free to evolve and by the 1990s it was mostly complete. How many popular stations are there today broadcasting in AM?

I love my old radios, if design gets any finer than my 1937 Philco cathedral, I don't want to know about it. It looks great and sounds great too.

Great topic, keep em coming.
Dave

 

[tolivac]

I did a little work in former NBC affiliate stations-you could tell it immediately because of ALL RCA equipment.AM is still VERY popular today-and will make a strong comeback with Digital IBOC(In Band digital on carrier)"HD" broadcasting.It can make AM almost FM quality.The problem with AM today is not the stations-but the RECEIVERS-most have no reponse above 3Khz.Any AM transmitter and AM broadcast system is flat from 50Hz-15Khz and less than 3% distortion.Listening to aM on a wide reponse receiver is startling to most peole-they then think its FM!And AM can have better bass reasponse than FM.I have worked with AM transmitters that could be flat to 15Hz!You see the building lights flash when you test at that frequency.Was a 50Kw Continental 316.And that rig worked well with stereo AM as well.And yes-those older TRF AM receivers would give you the wide response that modern sets WON'T give.In many city areas-AM is popular becasue of no multipath interference from tall buildings.And AM can have longer range with the same transmitter power.In fact some electric utilities Use lower frequency AM stations to activate the "Load management" systems to turn off or on water heaters and AC in homes."Water heater" stations as they are sometimes called-and its EXTRA revenue for the station.Its a subsonic signal that is low level injected into the station signal.Its too low level to hear.-and below the frequency reponse of most radios.