|
During his time at
Zenith, Ray worked on the design of a number of different portable radios,
including these model numbers: R40, R50, R60, R100, R125, R130, R265, R285
and R555. These radios spanned a timeframe from approximately the late
1950s to the mid 1960s. The photos on this page show different views of
the R50 radio, which was introduced in 1960 as Zenith’s shirt-pocket sized
radio. There were several colors available, including the subtle “avocado”
green shown above left. At this time Zenith was in fierce competition with
Japanese imported radios, which were much less expensive. As shown above,
Zenith used American made transistors (Texas Instruments, in this case) and
also made a point of advertising a commitment to the American worker (the
label at left was attached to the back of the radio). The battle with the
Far East imports was ultimately lost by Zenith, but not without years of
competition. In the late 1960s, Ray was involved in a corporate effort to
reduce cost, first by using a Hong Kong based Zenith manufacturing
facility, and then with direct import of Japanese made Zenith radios.
______________
|
