Zenith Radio Corp., Chicago IL
With the development of the „Trans Oceanic“ travel receiver, Zenith was a pioneer in the development of „world band radios“ that made receiving shortwave signals possible while traveling.
Company History
The company was founded as „Chicago Radio Laboratory“ in 1919 and acquired an Armstrong license to build regenerative receivers back in 1920, initially they manufactured high-end sets for the amateur radio market. In late 1920, the businessman Eugene F. McDonald joined the company and renamed Zenith Radio Corporation.
When in 1924, the „Companion“ was presented as first portable radio receiver ever, McDonald could convince the polar researcher McMillan to take the set on his Arctic expedition; in 1925 Zenith equipped the next expedition with a transceiver to stay in connection with the homeland.
As E. McDonald loved to travel onboard his yacht and bothered not to have any news in his remote fisherman's cabin on one of the Canadian lakes, he ordered his development lab to construct a highly sensitive portable receiver - the original Trans Oceanic Clipper with its shortwave loop antenna „Short Wave Magnet“ and coverage of mediumwaves and five shortwave radio bands was born.
McMillan reported similar reception performance on his Arctic expedition as McDonald had experienced in his remote fisherman's hut - the receiver went into production in October 1941 and was soon used by military personnel to receive messages from home, albeit set did never meet military requirements.
The Trans Ocean series was continued with several tube models until the Trans Oceanic Royal 1000, which presented in 1957 was the first solid state model. Unfortunately Zenith could not keep up with the technological development in the early 1980s, their receivers came without a frequency counter or digital synthesis and had no success.
Another focus of Zenith was the development of hearing aids and of television sets, the wireless remote control was also an invention of Zenith; In 1999, the Zenith television division was taken over by the Korean company LG Electronics.