What Happened to Zenith? | The Last TV Made in America

What Happened to Zenith? | The Last TV Made in America There was a sound your living room made that no living room will ever make again. Ka-chunk. A little aluminum box in your father's hand, no batteries in it — there were never batteries in it — and across the room, the channel changed. The box said Space Command. The television said Zenith. And the last television ever mass-produced by an American company carried that name. This is the story of Zenith: the walnut console that was furniture, the white dot that shrank like a dying star when you turned the set off, and the clicker that ran for twenty-five years on nothing but four tiny hammers striking aluminum rods — which is why your grandmother called it the clicker, and why half of America still does. Two Zenith engineers invented the thing your hand reaches for every night of your life, and in 1997 the television academy gave the two old men an Emmy for it. The company fought the fall all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States — and lost. But its final invention is hiding in plain sight: there is Zenith engineering inside the TV you are watching this on, right now. The quality goes in before the name goes on. Your father believed that. For one company, for about fifty years, it was actually true. Subscribe for more stories of the places and things we all remember, and ring the bell so you don't miss the next one. Then tell me down in the comments: does your family still say "clicker"? And did the dog ever change the channel with his collar? I read every single comment. #Zenith #VintageTV #Nostalgia #MadeInAmerica #ForgottenAmerica RESOURCES Zenith founded 1918 by Karl Hassel and Ralph Mathews; 9ZN call sign origin — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenith_... Eugene F. McDonald, co-founder, first president of the National Association of Broadcasters — Zenith corporate histories Flash-Matic 1955 (Eugene Polley) and Space Command 1956 (Robert Adler), ultrasonic batteryless remote — IEEE / obituaries of Adler (2007) and Polley (2012) 1997 Emmy award to Adler and Polley for the remote control — Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Phonevision 1951, first pay television test — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonevi... Zenith v. Matsushita dumping litigation, Supreme Court 1986 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsush.... Zenith role in the ATSC digital HDTV transmission standard (8-VSB), adopted 1996; LG acquired control 1995, full ownership 1999 — ATSC / LG histories