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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works, and I heart radio and I love

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Speaker 1: all things tech. And today I'm going to finally wrap

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Speaker 1: up the discussion of our ci A, the four episode

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Speaker 1: arc about our c A, and it'll all finish up

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Speaker 1: in this episode. But that's going to mean I'll be

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Speaker 1: packing a whole lot into one episode. I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: go long. I'm just gonna have a light touch because

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Speaker 1: we have to cover about fifty years of history in

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Speaker 1: this episode, so I won't be going into so much

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Speaker 1: technical detail for a lot of the stuff I'm talking about,

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Speaker 1: besides which I've covered a lot of it already. However,

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Speaker 1: I do need to start off with a description of

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Speaker 1: how electron microscopes work, because I think I've mentioned it

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Speaker 1: in at least two of the previous episodes and I

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Speaker 1: haven't actually talked about it yet. So rather than put

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Speaker 1: it off again, let's talk about electron microscopes. Why do

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Speaker 1: you need them? What do they do well? When you

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Speaker 1: start getting small and we start working with small stuff,

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Speaker 1: and I mean really really small stuff. You get to

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Speaker 1: a point where you can no longer rely upon optical

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Speaker 1: microscopes anymore, and that's because of a couple of big problems.

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Speaker 1: One of them is that a microscope's ability to magnify

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Speaker 1: is limited by two major factors. One of those would

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Speaker 1: be the quality of the lenses. Eventually you reach a

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Speaker 1: point where you just can't make lenses of a high

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Speaker 1: enough quality to get better magnification. But you also run

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Speaker 1: into the physical limitation of light itself, visible light, because

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Speaker 1: it's dependent upon the wavelength of that visible light. The

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Speaker 1: theoretical limit of resolution for a light based microscope, not

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Speaker 1: the practical, but the theoretical limit is somewhere around two

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Speaker 1: D two hundred fifty nanometers, because beyond that you it

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Speaker 1: beyond the wavelength of natural light, and it literally cannot

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Speaker 1: image things smaller than that. The wavelengths are bigger than

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Speaker 1: the thing it's trying to you're trying to look at. However,

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Speaker 1: two that's that's really small, I mean that is the

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Speaker 1: nano scale. That is tiny. But if you do need

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Speaker 1: to look at stuff that's smaller than that, because there

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Speaker 1: are things even smaller than that level, you've got to

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Speaker 1: figure out some other way of doing it, because light

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Speaker 1: waves can't do it, they're too big, so you've got

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Speaker 1: to figure some other method out. Now, electrons have very

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Speaker 1: very short wavelengths, shorter than light. So if you had

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Speaker 1: a way to beam electrons at a sample, you know,

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Speaker 1: whatever is you're trying to look at, and then you

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Speaker 1: had some means of detecting all of the different signals

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Speaker 1: that would be produced as the electrons from the beam

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Speaker 1: would interact with the sample, you could use the information

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Speaker 1: to construct images of the sample at that scale. So

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Speaker 1: electrons you would use would be high energy beam electrons,

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Speaker 1: and when they collide with a sample, the interactions would

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Speaker 1: produce all sorts of stuff like secondary electrons, back scattered electrons,

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Speaker 1: X rays, that kind of thing. You would have specific

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Speaker 1: detectors to pick up these different signals and register them

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Speaker 1: for processing to create the final image. And these microscopes

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Speaker 1: have a much greater resolution than optical microscopes. But even

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Speaker 1: these have their limitations. A scanning electron microscope has a

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Speaker 1: limit of around one nanometer or so you're not gonna

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Speaker 1: get much smaller than a single nanometer. Now that is

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Speaker 1: still incredibly small, but it's still too big to look

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Speaker 1: at individual atoms. The atomic scale is smaller than the nanoscale,

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Speaker 1: so if you wanted to get a look at atoms,

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Speaker 1: you would have to use something else, like a scanning

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Speaker 1: tunneling microscope. But those wouldn't come around until the nineteen eighties,

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Speaker 1: all right, So that's how electron microscopes work. Uh, are

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Speaker 1: scanning electron mic scopes work? And our Cia had been

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Speaker 1: in that business of making those, along with the consumer

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Speaker 1: electronics they were making any other industries they were involved in. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's get back to our CIA's history. In the last episode,

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Speaker 1: we left off right around the early to mid fifties,

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Speaker 1: and so we've got to cover all the time from

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Speaker 1: that point to present day in this episode. Fortunately, they

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Speaker 1: are a large spans of time that we can kind

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Speaker 1: of leap over. Now. One thing the company was gearing

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Speaker 1: up to do was to introduce solid state electronics into

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Speaker 1: its line of products. Bell Labs had developed the transistor

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties. Although it was pretty primitive, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't ready to be incorporated into consumer electronics yet. They

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Speaker 1: would take several years for that, so our c A

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Speaker 1: got a relative late start in the field of transistors

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Speaker 1: and solid state electronics and semiconductors because they had focused

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Speaker 1: more on using vacuum tubes. In fact, in nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: our CIA was the largest manufacturer of vacuum tubes in

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Speaker 1: the world at that point. R c A even built

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Speaker 1: an experimental television with transistors as early as nineteen fifty two,

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Speaker 1: but this was again an experiment, not meant as a

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Speaker 1: consumer product. In nineteen fifty three, an engineer named Cohen

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Speaker 1: built a wrist radio that quickly got the nickname the

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Speaker 1: Dick Tracy wrist Radio, after the comic strip character Dick Tracy,

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Speaker 1: who has an iconic wrist radio device that allows him

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Speaker 1: to speak with his supervisor. Now, our c A did

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Speaker 1: not build this device, Cohen wasn't working for our CIA. However,

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Speaker 1: Cohen did use some of our Cier's transistors to help

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Speaker 1: power and operate this device, So our CIA actually got

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Speaker 1: a nice boost in publicity because everyone was really excited

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Speaker 1: about this wrist radio. It seemed like the thing of

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Speaker 1: the future, the gadget of the future. In the late

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, r CIA began to design and manufacture components

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Speaker 1: for satellites, so at this point it's all state is

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Speaker 1: ready to go and they're now looking at creating satellite technology. Specifically,

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Speaker 1: they were looking at radio communications technology in satellites. R

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Speaker 1: c A started doing some preliminary research and development in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven, and they created a dedicated division for

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Speaker 1: that purpose, and eventually they called it the r c

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Speaker 1: A Astro Electronics Division. They actually got the official name

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Speaker 1: in March nineteen fifty eight. Now, in turn, this particular

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Speaker 1: division was under a larger department called the r c

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Speaker 1: A Defense Electronic Products, because our c A was still

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Speaker 1: very much in the business of designing components for defense

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Speaker 1: systems for the military. They had been doing that since

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Speaker 1: World War Two. The company's first satellite to launch successfully

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Speaker 1: was called the Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment or

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Speaker 1: SCORE as the acronym for that, and that entered into

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Speaker 1: service on December eighteenth, nineteen fifty eight. Our c A

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Speaker 1: was kind of exploring the possibility of establishing a network

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Speaker 1: of satellites for the purposes of global communications, and that

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Speaker 1: would really begin in earnest in nineteen sixty two with

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Speaker 1: another communication satellite called Relay. Relay would relay communication signals

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Speaker 1: between North America and Europe and between North America and

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Speaker 1: South America so quickly. It was theorized that with an

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Speaker 1: appropriate number of satellites in orbit, you could have global

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Speaker 1: communications and just use the satellites to relay signals until

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Speaker 1: they got to wherever you needed them to go. The

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Speaker 1: Relay Communication satellite also worked in conjunction with another satellite

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Speaker 1: called the Sincom three, and the two satellites together were

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Speaker 1: able to provide live television coverage of the nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: four Olympics, which were going on in Japan over to

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Speaker 1: North America. So that was an amazing development being able

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Speaker 1: to watch stuff live with only a slight delay really

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Speaker 1: as they were going on on the other side of

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Speaker 1: the world. Our c A would partner with NASA to

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Speaker 1: develop weather satellites and a ground based observation station, so

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Speaker 1: they were really becoming an instrumental company in the space

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Speaker 1: race as well. Around the same time, our ci A

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Speaker 1: contributed some of the equipment that would make up the

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Speaker 1: United States Ballistic Missile Early Warning System or b MUSE

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Speaker 1: b m e w S. It was a system of

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Speaker 1: radar facilities and communications channels meant to detect and alert

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Speaker 1: the United States to any sort of missile launch originating,

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Speaker 1: particularly in the Soviet Union because this was taking place

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Speaker 1: during the Cold War between the USSR and United States,

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Speaker 1: and it became particularly important in the wake of the

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Speaker 1: Soviet Union's launch a Spootnik, which wasn't just a satellite,

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Speaker 1: but also a demonstration that the Soviet Union was capable

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Speaker 1: of launching a missile that had a long enough range

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Speaker 1: to potentially strike the United States eights. So if the

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Speaker 1: Soviet Union were to say, attached a payload of a

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Speaker 1: nuclear warhead to such a missile, they could, in theory

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Speaker 1: have a nuclear strike against the US. So the United

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Speaker 1: States wanted to have a system in place in order

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Speaker 1: to detect any potential missile launches from the U s SR.

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Speaker 1: R c A would produce a radar set and a

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Speaker 1: communications data processor for this system. It also relied the

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Speaker 1: system that is relied on equipment from many other companies,

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Speaker 1: not just our CI A. Companies like General Electric, Western Electric,

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Speaker 1: and Sylvania also contributed components to this So while our

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Speaker 1: CIA was prominent in the minds of consumers looking for

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Speaker 1: television sets at home, the company was also working closely

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Speaker 1: with government and military organizations in the United States. In

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, r c A dominated in the television

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Speaker 1: camera industry, the consumer television industry going out and buying

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Speaker 1: a television set that was really competitive, but our CIA

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Speaker 1: was pretty much the name in television cameras. For actual

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Speaker 1: TV studios, the t K forty four had become the

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Speaker 1: industry standard, and on the consumer front, color television sales

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Speaker 1: were starting to pick up in the early to mid sixties.

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Speaker 1: By nineteen sixty six, the overall color television market was

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Speaker 1: around three billion dollars a year. Now that's for all

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Speaker 1: color TVs, not just the ones that are c A

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Speaker 1: was making, So we're talking worldwide sales reaching three billion dollars. Hefty,

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Speaker 1: but not anything close to what the television consumer market

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Speaker 1: is today. Obviously now At the same time, the company

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Speaker 1: was participating in larger efforts to develop new technologies, and

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Speaker 1: one of those was the stereo eight format, also known

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Speaker 1: as the eight track tape. This was a form of

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Speaker 1: magnetic tape storage specifically for audio and music. It was

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Speaker 1: largely designed for in car audio systems, and honestly, it

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Speaker 1: probably merits its own episode of tech Stuff. I should

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Speaker 1: probably do a full episode of tech stuff about the

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Speaker 1: development of the eight track format, particularly since some of

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Speaker 1: the people involved are real characters. One of those would

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Speaker 1: have been the legendary Earl Madman Months, who was an

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Speaker 1: important and eccentric figure in consumer electronics in the forties

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Speaker 1: and fifties and and sixties as well. Anyway, prior to

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Speaker 1: the eight track, gold Mark that was the brilliant engineer

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Speaker 1: who had been a pain in the butt to our

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Speaker 1: CISA David Sarnoff back when they were trying to race

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Speaker 1: against CBS in developing color television and the thirty three

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Speaker 1: and a third RPM long playing record. Gold Mark was

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Speaker 1: the guy at CBS who developed both of those well.

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Speaker 1: He also developed a Hi Fi car system, a system

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Speaker 1: that would allow you to play recorded music in your vehicle,

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Speaker 1: not just rely upon the radio, something that is pretty

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Speaker 1: standard in vehicles today, but it was brand new back then. Now. However,

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Speaker 1: gold marks approach relied upon vinyl records. Yep, you would

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Speaker 1: have a turntable in your car instead of a cassette

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Speaker 1: player or CD player or digital radio these days. So

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Speaker 1: as you can imagine, this was not ideal because if

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Speaker 1: you went down a bumpy road, it would start sending

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Speaker 1: this needle skipping all over the record and so you

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Speaker 1: would get terrible, uh experience that way. You know, the

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Speaker 1: song would skip around, or you'd have this horrible scratching noise.

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Speaker 1: There were other ways of getting around it. You could

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Speaker 1: weigh the needle down a little bit. That would discourage skipping. However,

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Speaker 1: it would also cause more wear on the actual records,

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Speaker 1: so you wouldn't be able to play them as many times.

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Speaker 1: You would decrease the useful lifespan of the records. Months

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Speaker 1: decided that to fix this he would change the method

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Speaker 1: of storing music. He wanted to use magnetic storage on tape,

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Speaker 1: and he created a four track magnetic tape system, which

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Speaker 1: was later refined by a different crazy person in consumer technology,

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Speaker 1: William Bill Lear sometimes referred to as King Lear, which

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Speaker 1: I think is a cute nod to Shakespeare, and he

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Speaker 1: created the eight track system. Lear worked with numerous other

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Speaker 1: companies to finalize the standard, which really helped its adoption,

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Speaker 1: and one of those companies was our c A. One

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Speaker 1: of the interesting things about eight track tapes is that

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Speaker 1: some of the mechanics for playback are actually in the

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Speaker 1: cartridges themselves, not in the playback devices. So some of

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Speaker 1: the moving parts for an eight track player are not

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Speaker 1: even in the player, they're inside the cartridge. Each cartridge

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Speaker 1: has those parts. The eight track had about a decade

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Speaker 1: long run as an in car sound system component, but

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Speaker 1: it was eventually displaced by cartridges. They were actually cartridges

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Speaker 1: had come out a little bit before eight tracks, but

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Speaker 1: it took some time before they reached a quality level

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Speaker 1: where they were reliable and provided good enough sound quality

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Speaker 1: for them to compete against eight tracks. Eight tracks had

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Speaker 1: their own limitations. You couldn't fast forward and rewind an

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Speaker 1: eight track tape. You pretty much had to listen through

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Speaker 1: it and then turn it over and listen through it again. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And also because those were moving parts were inside the cartridges.

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Speaker 1: Whenever a company would make cheaper eight tracks in an

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Speaker 1: effort to try and build out a larger customer base,

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Speaker 1: because they were kind of expensive when they first came out,

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Speaker 1: they would skimp on materials. But that meant that some

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Speaker 1: of the moving parts that were you know, necessary for

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Speaker 1: this to work were made of cheaper materials and they

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Speaker 1: would break more readily, so the format eventually fizzled out. Also,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, R c A engineers would come

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Speaker 1: up with an idea for a video playback device that

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Speaker 1: would work kind of like a record player, except for video,

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Speaker 1: not for sound. And instead of transmitting vibrations through a

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Speaker 1: stylus right, instead of having a groove with tiny vibrations

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Speaker 1: that create a through the vibrations of the stylus create

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Speaker 1: an electrical impulse that ends up being turned into uh

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Speaker 1: into sound through an amplifier. This was a stylist that

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Speaker 1: would measure differences and capacitance. Capacitance by the way, that

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Speaker 1: refers to a ratio. It's the ratio of the change

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Speaker 1: in an electric charge in the system compared to the

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Speaker 1: change in its electric potential. And to go into further

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Speaker 1: detail would require a lot of talking. It would make

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Speaker 1: this episode go way too long. But I will get

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Speaker 1: back to this particular device later in the show, because

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Speaker 1: the work began in the sixties, but it would take

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Speaker 1: almost twenty years before our c A could actually do

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Speaker 1: anything commercial with this technology, and as we'll see, by

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Speaker 1: that time it was a little too late. Now January one,

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Speaker 1: Robert Sarnoff, David Sarnov's son becomes the president of the company,

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Speaker 1: so his father steps back from being president although he

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Speaker 1: was still chairman of the board of directors, and his son,

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Speaker 1: Robert becomes president. He was already a seasoned executive. He

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Speaker 1: had been the president of NBC since nineteen fifty six,

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Speaker 1: and during that time he had overseen some pretty big

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Speaker 1: changes in television programming, one of those being that NBC

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Speaker 1: began to include black entertainers on shows, and at the

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Speaker 1: time integration was pretty progressive. Robert Sarnof would end up

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Speaker 1: taking over our c A and trying to grow it.

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Speaker 1: Five years after he became the president of the r

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Speaker 1: c A UH he would become the chairman of the board,

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Speaker 1: but his role as leader of the company, as we

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Speaker 1: will see, would not be permanent. In nineteen sixty five,

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Speaker 1: r c A began producing a special machine called the

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Speaker 1: Spectra seventy. This was a main frame style computer. So

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Speaker 1: this was our c trying to get into the mainframe

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Speaker 1: computer business, and this particular computer was semi compatible with

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Speaker 1: another mainframe computer, the IBM three sixty main frame. So

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Speaker 1: our c A was trying to go into competition against

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Speaker 1: IBM at the height of IBM s powers, which was

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Speaker 1: probably not the best idea. Now. I called it semi

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Speaker 1: compatible because the Spectra seventy could run some, but not all,

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Speaker 1: of the code that was written for the IBM three sixty.

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Speaker 1: The hardware of the Spectra seventy was compatible with the

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Speaker 1: IBM three sixty, but the operating systems, the firmware, and

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Speaker 1: the OS were a little different between the two, so

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Speaker 1: not every program was directly portable from IBM three sixty

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Speaker 1: to the Spectra seventy. So it pursued the strategy of

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Speaker 1: being in the main frame computer business for a few years.

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Speaker 1: But as we will see in just a moment, that

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Speaker 1: was not to last either. Now I've got a lot

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Speaker 1: more to say about what r c A has been

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Speaker 1: up to over the last sixty years or so, but

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Speaker 1: before I get into that, let's take a quick break

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Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. Now we're about to enter an

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Speaker 1: odd era in our CIA's history, and it's one marked

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Speaker 1: with tons of acquisitions and mergers. Instead of being innovative

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Speaker 1: in the technology space, although our c A was continuing

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Speaker 1: to try and do that, it was growing by buying

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Speaker 1: up other companies. So in nineteen sixty five, r c

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Speaker 1: A purchases a book publisher, in fact, a very famous

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Speaker 1: book publisher, Random House. This was an early attempt for

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Speaker 1: our c A to try and diversify and and go

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Speaker 1: beyond electronics and technology. R c A would hold onto

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Speaker 1: Random House until nineteen eighty, at which point it would

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Speaker 1: sell Random House to another company called Advanced Publications for

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Speaker 1: seventy million dollars. In nineteen sixty seven, just two years

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Speaker 1: after buying Random House, the company would acquire another big company,

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Speaker 1: Hurts Rental Car. So you can already see that things

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Speaker 1: are a little strange here. Our c A buys a

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Speaker 1: book publisher than a rental car company, neither of which

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Speaker 1: seems to be remotely connected to its core businesses. Our

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Speaker 1: C A would allow Hurts to operate as essentially an

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Speaker 1: independent subsidiary. Hurts still had its own executive leadership and

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Speaker 1: had its own board of directors, and ultimately our c

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Speaker 1: would hold onto Hurts until five and then they sold

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Speaker 1: the company for five eighty seven point five million dollars,

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Speaker 1: a princely sum. However, this was not as much as

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Speaker 1: what r C A was hoping to get for Hurts.

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Speaker 1: In fact, r c had already tried to sell Hurts

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Speaker 1: two years earlier, in Night three, but they were soliciting

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Speaker 1: bids for the company, and they were hoping to get

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Speaker 1: a bid of around seven hundred million dollars. But no

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Speaker 1: one was by eating at that that price, so they

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Speaker 1: held onto the company for a couple more years. In

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Speaker 1: eighty five they finally sold it. The company that bought

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Speaker 1: Hurts was U A l which was a holding company

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Speaker 1: for United Airlines. Probably have to do a full episode

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Speaker 1: about that company. At some point. In ninety our c

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Speaker 1: A would introduce another really cool technology, one that we

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Speaker 1: depend heavily upon UH these days in various formats, and

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Speaker 1: that would be the liquid crystal display. R c A

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Speaker 1: displayed it publicly in nineteen sixty eight. They had a

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Speaker 1: big press event. Engineers led by a guy named Richard Williams,

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Speaker 1: had been working on this l c D technology for

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Speaker 1: years now. Essentially, a liquid crystal display consists of a

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Speaker 1: couple of sheets of polarizing material and between those sheets,

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Speaker 1: sandwiched if you like, is a liquid crystal solution. So

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Speaker 1: what's a liquid crystal Well, it's a substance. It's kind

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Speaker 1: of in between being a solid and liquid. Molecules in

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Speaker 1: a solid material all all maintain the same orientation and

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Speaker 1: the same position with respect to one another. So in

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Speaker 1: other words, all all the molecules are stuck where they

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Speaker 1: are with respect to each other in a solid, but

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Speaker 1: in a liquid it's different molecules and a liquid are

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Speaker 1: free to change their orientation and position with respect to

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Speaker 1: each other. They float all over the place, and they

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Speaker 1: twist and turn freely. Liquid crystals tend to maintain their orientation,

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Speaker 1: so they all tend to continue pointing in whatever direction

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Speaker 1: they're pointing in when it starts. But the molecules are

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Speaker 1: able to change their positions with respect to each other,

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Speaker 1: so they all point in the same direction as they

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Speaker 1: had started, but they can move around each other. They

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Speaker 1: can be in one of several distinct phases, but the

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Speaker 1: important phase for liquid crystal displays is a phase called

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Speaker 1: the neeumatic phase. One type of liquid crystal is called

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Speaker 1: a twisted pneumatic liquid crystal, and twisted tematics are very

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Speaker 1: important for l c d s. They are, as the

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Speaker 1: name suggests, twisted. But if you apply an electric current

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Speaker 1: to a twisted pneumatic liquid crystal, it untwists. If you

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Speaker 1: vary the voltage of this electric current, you change the

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Speaker 1: degree to which it untwists, so you can make it

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Speaker 1: untwist more or less by varying the voltage. This behavior

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Speaker 1: is replicable, it's predictable. It's always going to happen exactly

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Speaker 1: the same way, assuming you vary the voltage in exactly

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Speaker 1: the same way. So you can use these crystals to

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Speaker 1: do very specific stuff. For example, you can use them

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Speaker 1: to block light from passing through a surface, and then

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Speaker 1: you could use it to allow light to pass through

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Speaker 1: other parts of this surface. And this is how we

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Speaker 1: use liquid crystals and an electronic display. The crystals block

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Speaker 1: light that's trying to come through or allow light to

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Speaker 1: come through, and uh, l c D t v s

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Speaker 1: work this way. It's why you would often hear people

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Speaker 1: talk about how l c D television's had a problem

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Speaker 1: whenever there was a very dark scene on screen because

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Speaker 1: there's always a backlight in an l c D display

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Speaker 1: and the liquid crystals are blocking the light, but some

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Speaker 1: of that light kind of bleeds through, So you couldn't

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Speaker 1: get these very dark black colors in l c D

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Speaker 1: displays because there was always this light behind that screen

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Speaker 1: of liquid crystals. You would have to get something like

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Speaker 1: a plasma display, which actually wouldn't backlight the screen, so

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Speaker 1: you could get those more deep, dark black colors on

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Speaker 1: that kind of television. Anyway, I'll have to do a

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Speaker 1: full episode about l c D s to describe their

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Speaker 1: history and how they work in a future episode. Richard

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00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,639
Speaker 1: Williams was instrumental in finding the practical application for liquid

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Speaker 1: crystals in electronics and our He held this big public

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Speaker 1: demonstration in nineteen sixty eight. It was also one of

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Speaker 1: the last big company events that David Sarnoff would attend.

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Speaker 1: His health was deteriorating at this point, and remember he

394
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Speaker 1: had been in charge of our CIA since nineteen nineteen

395
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Speaker 1: and had only stepped back in nineteen sixty five for

396
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Speaker 1: his son takeover as president, and he had remained as

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Speaker 1: chairman of the board. Nineteen sixty eight, r c A

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Speaker 1: finally updates its logo. Our c A. Victor would become

399
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 1: our c A Records, and Victor is now just a

400
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 1: brand name that shows up on stuff like album covers.

401
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 1: And it seems a little haphazard the way Victor shows

402
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 1: up on albums. I'm not entirely certain that there's a

403
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 1: particular rhyme or reason to it. But our CIA's logo

404
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:49,720
Speaker 1: would be turned into what was considered at the time

405
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: to be a futuristic logo. These days we would look

406
00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: at and think, oh, that's a quaint retro like nineteen

407
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 1: eighties style logo, almost And that was in nineteen sixty eight.

408
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Speaker 1: Also in sixty eight, a miniature r c A television

409
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Speaker 1: camera was used on Apollo seven to provide the first

410
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Speaker 1: live television pictures captured from outer space and beamed back

411
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Speaker 1: to Earth. R c A also built the radio backpack

412
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:16,919
Speaker 1: that Neil Armstrong war when he set foot on the

413
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Speaker 1: Moon and delivered the famous one small step for a

414
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Speaker 1: man line in nineteen sixty nine. The company was also

415
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,520
Speaker 1: responsible for designing components for multiple space probes like the

416
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 1: Viking Mars probes and much later. They were also responsible

417
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Speaker 1: for some of the subsystems on the space shuttles. In

418
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, r c A would change its name

419
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Speaker 1: officially from the Radio Corporation of America that was the

420
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Speaker 1: official name of the company, to our CI A Corporation.

421
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Speaker 1: Also in sixty nine, r c A and CBS would

422
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Speaker 1: ignite a new feud. If you listen to the previous episodes,

423
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Speaker 1: you know that our c A and CBS fought several

424
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Speaker 1: times in the forties they were battling to define the

425
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Speaker 1: standard for color television. Now in sixty nine, just at

426
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Speaker 1: the dawn of the nineteen seventies, they were competing to

427
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Speaker 1: try and create a new technology for home video playback.

428
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Speaker 1: This would be a device capable of playing back video

429
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Speaker 1: media on demand at home, sort of a precursor to

430
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Speaker 1: the VCR and then later still to technology like DVD

431
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Speaker 1: players and Blu Ray players. The CBS version debuted first

432
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Speaker 1: actually debuted in sixty seven, I think, and it was

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Speaker 1: called the Electronic Video Recording Device or e v R

434
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 1: for short. Our CIA's approach was originally called the s

435
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,679
Speaker 1: V Hollow Tape. Later the company would dub it the

436
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: select a Vision, which gets really confusing because our cier

437
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,640
Speaker 1: has used selective vision for a few different products over

438
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: its history. But CBSS version was further along than our

439
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 1: CIA's when our Cia debut. There's um In fact, when

440
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 1: our Cia showed off this technology, it was not yet

441
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,639
Speaker 1: able to play sound. It was showing video, but it

442
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: was all silent. There was no soundtrack to go along

443
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:07,360
Speaker 1: with it. The process of mastering a tape for this

444
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: system was actually really cool for for our Ci, as

445
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:14,160
Speaker 1: it actually involved lasers and holograms, but our Cia would

446
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:17,919
Speaker 1: experience some financial difficulties as it was trying to develop

447
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 1: this technology further. Those those financial difficulties were largely due

448
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: to our Cia trying to extricate itself from the computer

449
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:29,200
Speaker 1: mainframe business had gotten into in the sixties. And meanwhile,

450
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: while our CIA was trying to weather that storm, another

451
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: video technology, the VCR, came out and pretty much made

452
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: both the e VR from CBS and r C as

453
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 1: select a vision moot. They just couldn't compete against the VCR,

454
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 1: and it would ultimately mean that our CI a would

455
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 1: abandon its attempts to market the hollow tape as a

456
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,680
Speaker 1: consumer product, so it never really launched as an actual

457
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: thing you could go out and buy. In nineteen seventy,

458
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:02,399
Speaker 1: David Starna would retire as chairman of the board, although

459
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: to be more accurate, he was really in the late

460
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:07,879
Speaker 1: stages of a long term illness and so he was

461
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:13,160
Speaker 1: effectively removed as chairman. I don't get the sense that

462
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:15,919
Speaker 1: he chose to step down so much as he was

463
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 1: forced to. Also, in nineteen seventy, r C announced another

464
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:24,239
Speaker 1: plan for another acquisition. Uh, and you remember they had

465
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: already talked about They already bought the Hurts, rent a

466
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,399
Speaker 1: Car and and Random House Publishing. So what was it

467
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 1: this time? Well, it hits close to home for me. Actually,

468
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:39,400
Speaker 1: they bought Coronet Industries. What was Coronet Industries or what

469
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 1: is it. It's a carpeting company, a flooring company. So again,

470
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,640
Speaker 1: this was another effort for our c A to diversify

471
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 1: its holdings, and this acquisition would officially complete in nineteen

472
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 1: seventy one. Now I said it hits close to home.

473
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: What I mean by that, Well, the headquarters for Coronet

474
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: Industries was or is in Dalton, Georgia. Dalton, Georgia is

475
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: in the northwest part of Georgia. If you ever drive

476
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 1: through that part of Georgia, you will see numerous billboards

477
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:16,440
Speaker 1: for rug and carpeting wholesalers. And uh yeah, so I

478
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 1: actually was surprised to hear that our c A at

479
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 1: one point owned that company. Our c A would eventually

480
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 1: sell this off in nineteen eight six to see I

481
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 1: Holdings Incorporated. But we'll get into that because when I

482
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: say our ci A sold it off, I don't really

483
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 1: mean our CIA. That's a that's a hint for things

484
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: to come. In nineteen seventy as well, our c would

485
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: also buy another company that made people scratch their heads.

486
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:45,760
Speaker 1: This would be Banquet Foods, the company that the time

487
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 1: was most known for its TV dinners and frozen foods.

488
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 1: Our ci A would hold onto this for a decade,

489
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: but sell it in nineteen eighty and due to the

490
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: efforts to diversify and the fact that there didn't seem

491
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 1: to be any rhyme or reason for the types of

492
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:04,479
Speaker 1: companies that our CIA was going after, some people inside

493
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: the company felt like our CIA was losing focus. I mean,

494
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: what did our CIA even do anymore? It's core businesses

495
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 1: used to be electronics, both for consumers and for business

496
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 1: to business, as well as for government and military uses.

497
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 1: But now now it had a rental car company, and

498
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: had a carpeting company and a frozen food company. Some

499
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 1: people began to joke that our ci A really stood

500
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 1: for rugs, chickens and automobiles. In nineteen seventy one, David

501
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:36,320
Speaker 1: Sarnoff passes away, So this was the man who had

502
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 1: largely been associated with our CIA. In fact, a lot

503
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 1: of our CIA's history tends to get tied directly to

504
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:46,240
Speaker 1: David Sarnoff and his personality. He was a force to

505
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: be reckoned with, and his passing was probably one of

506
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 1: the more remarkable things to happen to our c A

507
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 1: during its full history. It seems to me like this

508
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,680
Speaker 1: was a case of another leader of a company having

509
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 1: an extreme influence on how that company did business. You

510
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 1: know some leaders, you would think they would have an

511
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 1: extreme influence, but they may just help keep the company

512
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:22,240
Speaker 1: going while other people handle stuff. They might be more decentralized.

513
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: Sarnov did not come across to me as that kind

514
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: of person. Also, in nineteen seventy one, our c A

515
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 1: would get out of the mainframe computer business. They sell

516
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 1: it off to another company called Universal Automatic Computer better

517
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 1: known as UNIVAC, and ultimately this computer business was unprofitable

518
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:41,959
Speaker 1: for our c A. The sale represented a huge loss

519
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:45,720
Speaker 1: for the company. According to some sources I read, mostly

520
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: the New York Times, it amounted to essentially a two

521
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:53,160
Speaker 1: hundred fifty million dollar rite off, which wasn't great news.

522
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 1: And in nineteen seventy five, the board of directors decided

523
00:31:57,080 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: to oust Roberts Sarnoff as chairman and CEO. They felt

524
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 1: that the attempts to diversify our CIER had weakened the company.

525
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: This uh this decide, This exit from mainframe computer business

526
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:15,120
Speaker 1: also hurt the company. So this was essentially what some

527
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:17,719
Speaker 1: people referred to as a palace coup. It came from

528
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: within the company itself and our c A president and

529
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 1: chief operating officer, Anthony Conrad, led this coup attempt. Anthony

530
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:30,880
Speaker 1: Conrad had first joined our c A way back in

531
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:34,520
Speaker 1: ninety six after being discharged from the army after World

532
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: War Two, and had worked there ever since. He had

533
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 1: made his way up the corporate ladder, and in the

534
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:43,320
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties he was the executive in charge of overseeing

535
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 1: our Cier's missile and space tracking operations, and now he

536
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 1: was the head of the company. He became the new CEO,

537
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: and in June nineteen seventy six he was elected chairman.

538
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 1: Our CIA's performance was starting to turn around. The company

539
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: was beginning to make money. Things seemed to be on

540
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 1: the mend. However, Conrad turned out to have some skeletons

541
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: in his closet. In September nineteen seventy six, just ten

542
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 1: months after he had taken control of the company, Conrad

543
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:15,760
Speaker 1: announced he was resigning his position, and it turned out

544
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: he had kind of sort of failed to file any

545
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 1: income taxes for five years and the I r S

546
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to talk to him about it because

547
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: the agency had held a routine inquiry and saw some regularities.

548
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:32,680
Speaker 1: So Conrad would end up settling up with the I

549
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:36,040
Speaker 1: R S. He was essentially a fugitive in New York

550
00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 1: State for two years until he was able to reach

551
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: a LEA deal in which he paid a one tho

552
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 1: dollar fine but also an undisclosed but presumably sizeable amount

553
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 1: of money in back taxes, interests, and penalties. So after

554
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,680
Speaker 1: he resigned, a guy named Edgar H. Griffith's took control

555
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 1: of our c A. Griffith's was concerned with getting our

556
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,320
Speaker 1: c A back on track from a numbers perspective, so

557
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:02,240
Speaker 1: he wasn't so much of leader as far as strategy

558
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:05,240
Speaker 1: and long term plans goes. He was trying to get

559
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 1: the numbers to line up, so he began to divest

560
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,480
Speaker 1: the company of many of the subsidiaries that had been

561
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:16,280
Speaker 1: accumulating throughout its history since Robert Sarnoff had taken control

562
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 1: the stuff like Banquet foods and Hurts rental cars, so

563
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,320
Speaker 1: he was kind of trying to undo what Robert Sarnoff

564
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:26,360
Speaker 1: had done. In Griffith's directed our ci A to purchase

565
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,360
Speaker 1: another company. So he sells off a lot of companies,

566
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 1: but then he directs r c A to acquire a

567
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 1: different company. This would be commercial Investment Trust or c

568
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,479
Speaker 1: I T, and the deal was for one point three

569
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 1: billion dollars or thereabouts, a huge sum. C I T

570
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:47,719
Speaker 1: is an investment company and as the name suggests, it

571
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 1: provides financing to other companies. After acquiring c I T,

572
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: r c A would sell off several subsidiary companies that

573
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:58,680
Speaker 1: had belonged to c I T, including an office furniture

574
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:02,720
Speaker 1: manufacturing company and a greeting card company, which just tells

575
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:07,920
Speaker 1: me corporate politics are weird and complicated and I don't

576
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 1: understand diversification very well. Anyway, this acquisition caused our CIA's

577
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,120
Speaker 1: credit rating to drop, and that made the board of

578
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: directors very upset, so they demanded that Griffith's resign and

579
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 1: he did, and in ninety one a new leader was

580
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: brought on or pushed to the to the front of

581
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,360
Speaker 1: the company. This would be Thornton F. Bradshaw. He was

582
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 1: a member of the board of our CIA when they

583
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:37,080
Speaker 1: made this decision to get rid of Griffith's and he

584
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 1: was also the president of the Atlantic Richfield Company, which

585
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,160
Speaker 1: was an oil company. So he became the new leader

586
00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:47,240
Speaker 1: of our ci A and then he made Robert R. Frederick,

587
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 1: who had previously worked at General Electric the new president

588
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 1: of our CIA. Eventually Bradshaw becomes the chairman of the

589
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 1: board and Frederick would become the CEO. But they continued

590
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: to sell off the diversified subsidiary, and by all of

591
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 1: those companies that had been acquired, including c I T,

592
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:09,280
Speaker 1: had been sold off except for the carpeting company Coronet Industries.

593
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:14,719
Speaker 1: That one would stick around till jumping back to r

594
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:18,160
Speaker 1: c A finally released that video disc technology I talked

595
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:20,840
Speaker 1: about earlier in this episode. It was called a c

596
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 1: e D or capacitance electronic disc player. The tech for

597
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,279
Speaker 1: the video playback device only allowed you to play video.

598
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:32,360
Speaker 1: You could not record to it, but you could grab

599
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,560
Speaker 1: a plastic caddy kind of looked almost like a vinyl

600
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 1: record album cover, and you would insert it into a

601
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 1: player and you could watch a video. Each side of

602
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:45,040
Speaker 1: the disc could hold about sixty minutes of in t

603
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 1: SC video. That's the television standard in the United States,

604
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 1: or it was the television stenter in the United States,

605
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 1: So movies would typically require you to take the disc

606
00:36:54,719 --> 00:36:57,759
Speaker 1: out halfway through the film, flip it over, and then

607
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:00,600
Speaker 1: put it back in to continue watching the move The

608
00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:04,920
Speaker 1: discs themselves were inside these protective plastic caddies, so you

609
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 1: wouldn't handle the disks. You would handle the plastic sleeves essentially,

610
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 1: and you they were hard plastic or semi hard plastic sleeves.

611
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,319
Speaker 1: At least they weren't like super floppy or anything. So

612
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:17,640
Speaker 1: you'd slide these suckers in and watch a movie. And

613
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:20,000
Speaker 1: I actually had one of these. My family had one

614
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 1: of these when I was growing up. In fact, I

615
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:24,520
Speaker 1: now own it. My parents gave it to me, so

616
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 1: it's at my house and I even have a few

617
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 1: movies for it, like Raiders, Lost Arc and Singing in

618
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: the Rain. The technology worked just fine. You got picture,

619
00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:37,000
Speaker 1: you got audio, but by the time of debuted in

620
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 1: nine one, it was already obsolete because you already had

621
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: other video standards. You had the the VHS, you had

622
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,400
Speaker 1: Beta Max, you had Laser disc, and even though laser

623
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:49,319
Speaker 1: disc didn't last super long, it was definitely superior to

624
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 1: ce ED quality and you didn't have to UH. You

625
00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:55,920
Speaker 1: could have extra stuff on laser discs, stuff that would

626
00:37:56,040 --> 00:38:01,760
Speaker 1: carry over into UH the DVD era. So our CIA's

627
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,400
Speaker 1: technology was interesting, but it never took off, and by

628
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 1: Night four, just three years after they debuted, the tech.

629
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: They discontinued manufacturing the playback machines, so I guess I've

630
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:18,759
Speaker 1: got a collectors addition thing kind of. Anyway, this is

631
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 1: a big important year because it's the year when General

632
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: Electric announced its intent to acquire our c A a

633
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:30,600
Speaker 1: huge deal, and it did so in nineteen eighty six

634
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:36,000
Speaker 1: for six point four billion dollars. Alright, we're coming up

635
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:41,320
Speaker 1: to the most important year in recent history for our CIA.

636
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 1: In fact, some would argue that we're talking about the

637
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 1: final year of our ci A. I'll explain more in

638
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 1: just a minute, but first let's take a quick break

639
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:58,480
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. All Right, we're up to night.

640
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:03,040
Speaker 1: This is a monumental year because it was the year

641
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 1: when g E would make the decision to acquire our

642
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,320
Speaker 1: c A, although that acquisition wouldn't be complete until nineteen

643
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:15,719
Speaker 1: and the deal was for six point four billion dollars.

644
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 1: Now this this meant that this was the largest ever

645
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:23,600
Speaker 1: acquisition or merger business deal that didn't involve an oil

646
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,840
Speaker 1: company in the history of business. At this point. It

647
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:30,759
Speaker 1: has since been eclipsed, obviously, but in nine a six

648
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:33,600
Speaker 1: point four billion dollar merger between two companies that were

649
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 1: not oil companies That was a record breaking moment, and

650
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:39,360
Speaker 1: it came in a time when our c A Chairman

651
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: Thornton Bradshaw and our c A CEO Robert R. Frederick

652
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,359
Speaker 1: had managed to get our c A on a profitable track.

653
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 1: They had managed to sell off these businesses, most of

654
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 1: them anyway that didn't make any sense to our CI

655
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 1: as core business. They were able to refocus our ci A.

656
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:59,279
Speaker 1: They were able to make it profitable. NBC was doing

657
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:04,520
Speaker 1: incredibly well toward UH five. It had started to win

658
00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:08,520
Speaker 1: awards for its programming and starting to to get more viewership.

659
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:12,880
Speaker 1: Things were really looking great. And on November six, nineteen

660
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 1: eighty five, after having a meeting with the Board of directors,

661
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:18,600
Speaker 1: Bradshaw would go off and meet with a guy named

662
00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:22,360
Speaker 1: John F. Welch Jr. Who was the chairman and CEO

663
00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: of g E at that time. Now, if you've been

664
00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:27,800
Speaker 1: listening to all of these episodes, you might remember g

665
00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: E was one of the founding partners for our c A.

666
00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:34,560
Speaker 1: In fact, it was the principal partner way back in

667
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:38,920
Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen. G E owned most of our CIA for

668
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:41,799
Speaker 1: many of the early years, until it was forced to

669
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:44,440
Speaker 1: divest itself because the US government said, you can't do

670
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 1: that anymore. However, now we're in the eighties. This is

671
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 1: the Reagan era, when the US government was less concerned

672
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:55,480
Speaker 1: about things like monopolies and there was a very lasse

673
00:40:55,719 --> 00:41:00,920
Speaker 1: fair approach to corporate politics and corporate quisitions. This was

674
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:06,640
Speaker 1: the era of hostile takeovers. But you might wonder, if

675
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:11,440
Speaker 1: r C was doing so well, why was Bradshaw willing

676
00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:15,239
Speaker 1: to entertain this deal. If our CIA is actually on

677
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:18,239
Speaker 1: the right track, why go with an acquisition deal in

678
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:21,360
Speaker 1: the first place. Well, part of the problem that Bradshaw

679
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,959
Speaker 1: saw was the culture at the time, because, like I said,

680
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,840
Speaker 1: this was the era of hostile takeovers, so there was

681
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 1: always a fear that someone would end up creating an

682
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:37,960
Speaker 1: environment where they would approach shareholders with a deal that

683
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:41,400
Speaker 1: was too good to refuse and then take over the company.

684
00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:43,760
Speaker 1: Not only that, but our ci A had two billion

685
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,560
Speaker 1: dollars in cash because it had divested itself of all

686
00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:50,359
Speaker 1: these other companies and also found that it had been

687
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 1: over paying the pension fund, so there was actually extra

688
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:56,680
Speaker 1: cash left over because the pension fund had more money

689
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:59,719
Speaker 1: in it than it needed. It also meant that if

690
00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:03,359
Speaker 1: ay came in or some investors came in and they

691
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,120
Speaker 1: spent a huge amount of money to acquire our c A.

692
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:09,240
Speaker 1: They could then leverage that two billion dollars in cash

693
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:13,960
Speaker 1: to pay off any debts. And more problematic than that,

694
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 1: parts of our CIA were really, really valuable. In fact,

695
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 1: it was thought that if you were to divide up

696
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 1: our c A into different pieces, you can make more

697
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:28,719
Speaker 1: money selling those individual pieces off to different companies than

698
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: you would if you just operated our CIA as a

699
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 1: full company in itself. In fact, Bradshaw had even looked

700
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:37,719
Speaker 1: at offloading some more of our c A. At one point,

701
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:41,840
Speaker 1: he had looked at the possibility of selling NBC to Disney,

702
00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 1: but eventually Bradshaw realized that our c A really needed NBC.

703
00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,440
Speaker 1: The revenue NBC was bringing in was too important to

704
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 1: our CIA's business, so he couldn't really afford to divest itself.

705
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:57,640
Speaker 1: So the two companies g E and our ci A

706
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:01,680
Speaker 1: happened to have some divisions and departments that clearly complemented

707
00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:04,719
Speaker 1: one another. Our CIA had done a lot of work

708
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:07,360
Speaker 1: for the Navy and g had done a lot of

709
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:10,240
Speaker 1: work for the army, so bringing the two comedies together

710
00:43:10,760 --> 00:43:15,160
Speaker 1: would create a more unified approach for military contracts that

711
00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:19,360
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So after some debate, our CIA's board

712
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:24,839
Speaker 1: met and agreed to GES terms. And at that point,

713
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:27,480
Speaker 1: once g E takes over, you could argue thats the

714
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 1: end of our c A. R c A is no

715
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:32,960
Speaker 1: longer an independent company, is now part of GE. And

716
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 1: more than that, GE starts to make some pretty big

717
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:39,279
Speaker 1: changes over the next few years. They began to merge departments.

718
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:42,080
Speaker 1: So they began to take our ci A departments and

719
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:46,880
Speaker 1: merge them into existing GE divisions, or they liquefy parts

720
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 1: of our CIA and sell it off U. And one

721
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:53,560
Speaker 1: of those divisions that did this with was Astro elect

722
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:57,319
Speaker 1: Electronics department. That was the the company or the part

723
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:02,000
Speaker 1: of our ci A that was specifically focused on space technology.

724
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:05,320
Speaker 1: G E would merge that department with its own Space

725
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:10,400
Speaker 1: Systems division and thus created the GE Astro Space Division.

726
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,480
Speaker 1: But this was not meant to stay on as a

727
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 1: GE property forever. In ninete, GE would sell off this

728
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:22,120
Speaker 1: entire division to Martin Marietta, which turned around and merged

729
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:25,400
Speaker 1: with Lockheed and that's where we get Lockheed Martin in

730
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:30,400
Speaker 1: n Lockeed. Martin announced it would close the Astro Electronics

731
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:34,279
Speaker 1: division facility and that finally happened in so that part

732
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:39,440
Speaker 1: of our c A is no more. Uh. It ended years,

733
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 1: forty years of research and development in space and communications

734
00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:48,279
Speaker 1: tech out of that facility, So that was just part

735
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:50,680
Speaker 1: of it. You would get to a lot of other

736
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,160
Speaker 1: spinoffs here. GE would sell off a lot of what

737
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:57,719
Speaker 1: made our CIER the company that it was, and it

738
00:44:57,719 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 1: would also spin off other divisions, like nb C became

739
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:04,000
Speaker 1: its own sort of autonomous unit instead of being connected

740
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:07,919
Speaker 1: to what our CIA used to be. In night six,

741
00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:12,000
Speaker 1: GE would sell off r c A Records to Bertlesman,

742
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:15,960
Speaker 1: so that company would become the steward of our CIA Records,

743
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: which was formerly our CI A Victor, and remember Victor

744
00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:22,560
Speaker 1: was a company that even was older than our c A.

745
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:28,719
Speaker 1: In seven, g E would sell NBC Radio to Westwood One,

746
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:32,080
Speaker 1: and it would hold on to the NBC television networks,

747
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:33,879
Speaker 1: so the radio network would be sold by the TV

748
00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:37,239
Speaker 1: networks stayed behind. Selling off the radio networks was one

749
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:40,000
Speaker 1: of the conditions that GE was forced to meet in

750
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:42,640
Speaker 1: order to get approval from the United States government for

751
00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:46,680
Speaker 1: the acquisition. Then g would also sell the r c

752
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 1: A name, the consumer electronics brand, essentially to a French

753
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:54,960
Speaker 1: company called Thompson Brandt. We'll get back to that in

754
00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:59,400
Speaker 1: just a second. In night, Sarnoff Labs that was the

755
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:03,200
Speaker 1: R and D arm of our c A was funded

756
00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:07,279
Speaker 1: for GE for several years, but then GE would transfer

757
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:13,000
Speaker 1: Sarnoff Labs to the nonprofit organization s r I International.

758
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:17,240
Speaker 1: It's another organization I should probably cover in a future

759
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 1: tech stuff is s r I International. It's a scientific

760
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:25,000
Speaker 1: research institute. It's based in Menlo Park, California. Originally it

761
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:29,040
Speaker 1: was founded by trustees from Stanford University in the nineteen forties.

762
00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 1: In fact, s r I stood for Stanford Research Institute,

763
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:37,279
Speaker 1: but the organization formally parted ways with the university back

764
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:40,800
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy. Anyway, by two thousand eleven, Sarnoff Labs

765
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:43,840
Speaker 1: had become fully integrated as part of s r I International,

766
00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 1: so it does not exist as its own independent thing anymore. Uh.

767
00:46:47,680 --> 00:46:50,920
Speaker 1: In two thousand four, GE would merge NBC with Vivendi

768
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:55,319
Speaker 1: Universal Entertainment, and that created NBC Entertainment, but GE would

769
00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:58,759
Speaker 1: remain the majority owner at that point. Also in two

770
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 1: thousand four, Sony M Music and the Berlman Music Group

771
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 1: or BMG would merge together, and that brought our CIA

772
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:11,520
Speaker 1: Records under the umbrella of Sony. Interesting side note, Sony

773
00:47:11,719 --> 00:47:15,239
Speaker 1: is also the parent company of Columbia Records. And if

774
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:18,920
Speaker 1: you remember from my earlier episode, Columbia Records and our

775
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 1: CI A were fierce competitors in the early days of records.

776
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:28,400
Speaker 1: Uh now they're both part of the same overall company.

777
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:32,360
Speaker 1: As for g VC, as the Japanese Victor Company that

778
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:34,520
Speaker 1: was part of our CIA for a while, that actually

779
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:37,759
Speaker 1: had split off decades earlier. It split off from our

780
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:40,480
Speaker 1: CIA during World War Two for obvious reasons, it was

781
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:43,280
Speaker 1: operating in Japan and we were at war with Japan.

782
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:47,560
Speaker 1: J VC has a record company called Victor Entertainment. This

783
00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:51,279
Speaker 1: one still uses the logo of the dog looking at

784
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:55,600
Speaker 1: the gramophone, the one that's titled his Master's Voice. In

785
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:59,719
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, Comcast would buy controlling interest in n

786
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:03,120
Speaker 1: B see, so it's no longer part of GE. Comcast

787
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 1: has it as an enormous conglomerate. So a big question

788
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:09,920
Speaker 1: you might have is, you know, I started this all

789
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,640
Speaker 1: off by saying our CIA is celebrating its one hundredth year,

790
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:15,520
Speaker 1: So what is it? What what is actually left? What

791
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:19,040
Speaker 1: is what is celebrating its one hundred year. The company,

792
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,320
Speaker 1: which had ballooned into an enormous and troubled conglomerate in

793
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:25,480
Speaker 1: the sixties and seventies, has been through so many different

794
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:28,839
Speaker 1: sales and spinoffs and mergers that there's no longer an

795
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:31,720
Speaker 1: r ci A company. There's no longer an independent company

796
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,680
Speaker 1: called our ci A. The name our Cia still exists,

797
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 1: the brand still exists. It is a trademarked brand today.

798
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:41,800
Speaker 1: The owner of that trademark is the French company Technic

799
00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:43,440
Speaker 1: Color Essay that was the one that used to be

800
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:47,880
Speaker 1: known as Thompson. The company licensed the name r c

801
00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:50,080
Speaker 1: A to other companies that wish to use it on

802
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:53,759
Speaker 1: various products. So that includes our Cia records, which I

803
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:56,640
Speaker 1: mentioned as part of Sony Music, our ci A telephones,

804
00:48:56,680 --> 00:49:00,759
Speaker 1: and our Cia projectors. A company called Telefield uses those.

805
00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:03,800
Speaker 1: R c A Audio and video and r CEO r

806
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:07,480
Speaker 1: c A accessories are both licensed by Vox International, that's

807
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:11,080
Speaker 1: v o x X. Our c A Television is licensed

808
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:17,080
Speaker 1: by ON Corporation. UM you have our c A computers,

809
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:20,759
Speaker 1: which is licensed to American Future Technology Corporation. You get

810
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:24,480
Speaker 1: the idea like there's there's the brand. The name still exists,

811
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:27,320
Speaker 1: but the company doesn't. So to say that our c

812
00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:30,840
Speaker 1: A is celebrating it's one year is I think a

813
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 1: little misleading, maybe more than a little misleading, because the

814
00:49:35,600 --> 00:49:41,240
Speaker 1: company itself hasn't really existed since n uh. It's interesting

815
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:44,360
Speaker 1: to see how a company that was so instrumental in

816
00:49:45,400 --> 00:49:49,240
Speaker 1: very important moments in consumer electronic history, like the development

817
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:54,520
Speaker 1: of color television, could ultimately whittle get whittled or way

818
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:59,239
Speaker 1: down to nothing. Really, but I thought I would cover

819
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:02,720
Speaker 1: this as it was a fascinating story and it has

820
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:06,920
Speaker 1: had such an important impact on various parts of technology.

821
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:11,759
Speaker 1: Our next episode will not be so deep and and

822
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:16,800
Speaker 1: grave a subject as the one year history of a company.

823
00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:20,359
Speaker 1: We're instead going to look at a popular video game

824
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:23,359
Speaker 1: and how it got so popular and its story. I'm

825
00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:26,040
Speaker 1: talking about Fortnite. That will be the next episode. I

826
00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:28,839
Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoyed this one. If you have suggestions

827
00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:31,279
Speaker 1: for future episodes of tech Stuff, get in touch with me.

828
00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:33,960
Speaker 1: The email address for the show is tech Stuff at

829
00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:36,560
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. You can pop on over

830
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:39,759
Speaker 1: to tech Stuff podcast dot com and you can get

831
00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 1: in touch with me through social media there. You can

832
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:44,120
Speaker 1: also look at the archive of all the shows over there.

833
00:50:44,719 --> 00:50:46,960
Speaker 1: Don't forget to pop on over to our merchandise store

834
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:49,880
Speaker 1: that's over at t public dot com slash tech stuff.

835
00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 1: Every purchase you make goes to help the show, and

836
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 1: we greatly appreciate it, and I will talk to you

837
00:50:55,880 --> 00:51:04,800
Speaker 1: again really soon for more on this and thousands of

838
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 1: other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com