Radio Corporation of America (RCA) Promotion
February 1942 Radio News

February 1942 Radio News
February 1942 Radio News Cover - RF Cafe[Table of Contents]

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

David Sarnoff was the president of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) during the war years (WWII), and in fact was commissioned in 1924 into the U.S. Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel. During WWII, he served in the office of the Chief Signal Officer in Washington, D.C., and in 1944 he was reinstated and promoted to brigadier general, going overseas to serve as Special Consultant on Communications to General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower at SHAEF in Europe. He directed strategic and logistical communications across all theaters of operation (Europe, Pacific, and Northern Africa). It is no surprise, then, that RCA played a huge role in the war effort providing both components and systems. This 1942 full-page promotion in Radio News magazine touting RCA's contributions and encouraging all citizens to do all he/she could is typical of those seen in the era.

RCA Advertisement - Radio ... all out for Victory

RCA Advertisement, February 1942 Radio News - RF CafeResearch and invention have placed radio in the first line of battle

Communication - rapid communication - is a vital necessity, on land, at sea and in the air. RCA research and engineering developments in both radio and electronics are strengthening - and will further fortify - the bulwarks of our communications system. At Princeton, New Jersey, the new RCA Laboratories - the foremost center of radio research in the world - are under construction.

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International circuits, operating on short and long waves, have made the United States the communication center of the world. Today, R.C.A. Communications, Inc., conducts direct radiotelegraph service with 49 countries.

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Production of radio equipment is essential for news and timely information, for military and naval communications, for dissemination of news among foreign countries: The "arsenal of democracy" has a radio voice unsurpassed in range and efficiency. In the RCA Manufacturing Company's plants, workers have pledged themselves to "beat the promise," in production and delivery dates of radio equipment needed for war and civilian defense.

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American life and property at sea are being safeguarded by ship-and-shore stations.

The Radiomarine Corporation of America has equipped more than 1500 American vessels with radio apparatus and is completely engaged in an all-out war effort.

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Radio broadcasting is keeping the American people informed accurately and up-to-the-minute. It is a life-line of communication reaching 55,000,000 radio sets in homes and automobiles. It stands as the very symbol of democracy and is one of the essential freedoms for which America fights. The National Broadcasting Company - a service of RCA - and its associated stations, are fully organized for the coordination of war-time broadcasting.

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New radio operators and technicians must be trained for wartime posts. RCA Institutes, the pioneer radio school of its kind in the United States, has more than 1,200 students enrolled and studying in its New York and Chicago classrooms.

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When war came and America took its place on the widespread fighting front, radio was At the Ready ... with radio men and radio facilities prepared to answer the call to duty "in the most tremendous undertaking of our national history."

David Sarnoff
President
Radio Corporation of America
Radio City, New York

The Services of RCA: RCA Manufacturing Co., Inc. • RCA Laboratories • R.C.A. Communications, Inc.

National Broadcasting Company, Inc. • Radiomarine Corporation of America • RCA Institutes, Inc.

 

 

Posted February 11, 2022