The Kolster Radio Corporation was an electronics manufacturer and distributor [1] based in Newark, New Jersey, which went bankrupt in January 1930. [2] It bore the name of its chief research engineer, Frederick A. Kolster. In June 1928, the Columbia Phonograph Company announced plans to market a radio receiving set built by Kolster Radio. The product was sold in the United States, Europe, and Japan. [3]
Three receivers were appointed on January 21, 1930, to handle the failure of the company, which was located at 200 Mount Prospect Avenue in Newark. The business possessed considerably more assets than liabilities. However, because of overproduction, it suffered an inability to raise cash to fulfill its immediate obligations. [2]
Under a plan approved by receivers, the Kolster plant in Newark reopened after March 1930. The production facility fulfilled the completion of 15,000 partly built radio sets. These were sold to Kolster distributors for US$500,000. [4]
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company founded on September 25, 1928, based in Schaumburg, Illinois. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company demerged into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011. Motorola Inc. was renamed Motorola Solutions and is legally the direct successor to the original company after the demerger from Motorola Mobility. Motorola Mobility was sold to Google in 2012, and acquired by Chinese company Lenovo in 2014.
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Company. In 1932, RCA became an independent company after the partners were required to divest their ownership as part of the settlement of a government antitrust suit.
Metromedia was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMont Television Network ceased operations and its owned-and-operated stations were spun off into a separate company. Metromedia sold its television stations to News Corporation in 1985, and spun off its radio stations into a separate company in 1986. Metromedia then acquired ownership stakes in various film studios, including controlling ownership in Orion. In 1997, Metromedia closed down and sold its media assets to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
WOR is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York City. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, including The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Sean Hannity Show, and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. The independently syndicated Dave Ramsey Show is heard at night. Since 2016, the station has served as the flagship station for co-owned NBC News Radio. The station's studios are located in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan at the former AT&T Building, with its transmitter in Rutherford, New Jersey. WOR began broadcasting in February 1922 and is one of the oldest radio stations in the United States with a three–letter call sign, characteristic of a station dating from the 1920s. WOR is the only New York City station to have retained its original three-letter call sign, making those the oldest continually used call letters in the New York City area.
Emerson Radio Corporation is one of the United States' largest volume consumer electronics distributors and has a recognized trademark in continuous use since 1912. The company designs, markets, and licenses many product lines worldwide, including products sold, and sometimes licensed, under the brand name G Clef, an homage to Emerson's logo.
1 Wall Street is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, on the eastern side of Broadway between Wall Street and Exchange Place. 1 Wall Street, designed in the Art Deco style, is 654 feet (199 m) tall and consists of two sections. The original 50-story building was designed by Ralph Thomas Walker of the firm Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker and constructed between 1929 and 1931, while a 36-story annex to the south was designed by successor firm Voorhees, Walker Smith Smith & Haines and built from 1963 to 1965.
Melville Corporation, formerly based in Rye, New York, was a large retail holding company incorporated by Ward Melville in 1922 from Melville Shoe Company. It became CVS Corporation in 1996 under a massive reorganization plan. The company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker MES, before changing its ticker to CVS.
Philco was a pioneer in battery, radio, and television production. In 1961 the company was purchased by Ford and was known as Philco-Ford from 1966. Ford sold the company to GTE in 1974, and it was purchased by Philips in 1981. In North America, the Philco brand is currently owned by Philips. In other markets, the Philco International brand is owned by Electrolux.
WRNY was a New York City AM radio station that began operating in 1925. It was started by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing Company to promote his radio and science magazines. Starting in August 1928, WRNY was one of the first stations to make regularly scheduled experimental television broadcasts. Experimenter Publishing went bankrupt in early 1929 and the station was purchased by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company to promote aviation. WRNY was deleted in 1934, as part of a consolidation on its shared frequency by surviving station WHN.
Experimenter Publishing was an American media company founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1915. The first magazine was The Electrical Experimenter (1913–1931) and the most notable magazines were Radio News (1919–1985) and Amazing Stories (1926–2005). Their radio station, WRNY, began broadcasting experimental television in 1928. In early 1929 the company was forced into bankruptcy and the Gernsback brothers lost control of Experimenter Publishing. The magazines did not miss an issue and were quickly sold to another publisher. The Gernsbacks promptly started new magazines to compete with their former ones.
KPQ is a News/Talk formatted radio station, licensed to Wenatchee, Washington, United States and serving the North Central Washington region. The station is owned by Cherry Creek Media.
Davega Stores was a consumer durables, appliance, sporting goods, and apparel chain which operated 27 stores in the metropolitan New York City area in 1954.
Kent Automatic Garages were popular in a number of metropolitan areas from the late 1920s through the early 1960s. They enabled customers to park their cars for an hour or longer with a standard rate of $.50 per hour for the first two hours, and $.05 for each additional hour or fraction thereof, for a twenty-four-hour period. One of the first Kent Automatic Garages was at 44th Street, just east of 3rd Avenue and the other a block west of Columbus Circle.
Insull Utilities Investment Inc. was a corporation securities firm based in Chicago, Illinois which became insolvent in 1932. It was formed in December 1928 with assets of $23,000,000 to $24,000,000. The firm was started by Samuel Insull, a former president of Chicago Edison, Commonwealth Edison, People's Gas Light & Coke Company, and Central Indiana Power Company. He was also chairman of the Corporation Securities Company of Chicago, which had a net worth of more than $80,000,000 on February 15, 1930. The latter business was created to acquire securities of Insull Utilities Investments and other Insull operating and holding companies.
Deco Refreshments, Inc. was a restaurant chain in Buffalo, New York which operated thirty-nine restaurants in 1929. It was started in December 1926 with an initial capitalization of $150,000. This increased to $250,000 in February 1928. Deco Refreshments, Inc., is significant because of its growth in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Its stock was popular and was included in the portfolio of the Niagara Share Corporation, which held 7,580 shares of Deco Refreshments, Inc., in February 1931.
The Universal Wireless Communication Co., Inc. was an American telegraph company, based in Buffalo, New York from 1928 to 1930.
Zonite Products Corporation was a New York City based company formed in 1922. Headquartered in the Chrysler Building, it became a leader in the medical preparations field starting in 1930. In February 1930, it purchased for $215,000 the New Brunswick manufacturing plant of Reichardt Cocoa & Chocolate Company. By April 1931, Zonite's subsidiaries became concentrated in a single production facility. These included Zonite, Forhan's toothpaste and antiseptic, Argyrol, and Larvex. Annette's Perfect Cleanser Company was acquired in March 1932.
Kolster-Brandes Ltd was an American owned, British manufacturer of radio and television sets based in Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent.
Majestic Radios was an American radio brand from 1927 to 1955, trademarked as "The Mighty Monarchs of the Air". Noted for their high quality, they were initially manufactured by the Grigsby-Grunow Company of Chicago. After Grigsby-Grunow's demise in 1934 during the Great Depression, Majestic Radios continued to be made through subsequent corporate ownership changes and reorganizations for another twenty-two years. The Majestic Radio & Television Corporation was formed to produce the radios in the 1930s and 1940s. Following Majestic Radio & Television's liquidation in 1949, Majestic-brand radios were made by a division of the Wilcox-Gay Corporation at their Michigan factory in the 1950s.
WMAF, known as "The Voice From Way Down East", was a radio broadcasting station licensed to "Colonel" Ned Green's Round Hills Radio Corporation in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts from September 1922 until 1931. In the summer of 1923 it began rebroadcasting programs originating from station WEAF in New York City, which is generally considered to be first sustained radio network connection in the United States.
