There have always been rivalries between
existing and emerging technologies. Such was the position in the
mid to late 20s when the American chairman of His Master's Voice,
Alfred Clark, perceived radio as a threat to his phonograph business.
Not surprisingly did radio upset Mr.Clark as he'd been in the
phonograph business for nearly forty years. He was also wary about
the parallel development of electric amplifiers in audio reproduction,
the application of which, he and his staff thought would degrade
the quality of the sound from their gramophones. However he was
beginning to see reason; on the grounds that for some applications
the sound output from purely mechanical means was too low, he
saw advantages in adding a valve amplifier. Not only that, but
having got the amplifier, he could possibly add a radio as well!
So, in 1927, HMV introduced the prototype of their first electric
gramophone and by late 1928, HMV had become reconciled, not just
to the way forward being the alien electric path and not via their
acoustic soundboxes, they were taking steps to enter the field
of Radio.
In those days the Marconi Company held the necessary patents required
for manufacturing and selling radio equipment so it was to them
that an initial approach was made. As fate would have it, Marconi,
at that precise time were looking for a buyer for their Marconiphone
radio business and Alfred Clark found himself being drawn, not
into a mere agreement to pay royalties, but together with many
other big names in the Industry, into negotiations which would
result in a much larger enterprise. By chance, HMV's parent "Victor
Company" in New Jersey had just been taken over by RCA whose
head, David Sarnoff, co-incidentally now wanted to strengthen
his UK outpost's grip in the expanding radio industry. He must
have seen the opportunity to purchase Marconiphone as "manner
from heaven" and quickly joined the negotiations. He didn't
stop to think why all the other potential buyers were dropping
out, and did a deal. So in 1929, the names RCA, Victor, HMV, Marconiphone,
and a good share of the Marconi-Osram Valve company became linked
in the radio business, to the exclusion of Marconi themselves
who had agreed to wait some 20 years before rejoining the fray.
In 1930 there was a missed opportunity when HMV were offered Bakelite
as a new cabinet material and had kicked it into touch (where
it was picked up by Ekco who went on to score a try with it!).
HMV said this new fangled Bakelite wasn't compatible with their
image of the polished wooden cabinet and didn't want anything
to do with it.
By 1931 HMV were beginning to realise that the Marconiphone deal
wasn't all they'd thought it to be, and amongst other things,
were in the process of resolving patent difficulties. Presumably,
because they hadn't received as much as they'd initially wanted
for their ailing radio business, Marconi was trying to limit the
range of patents for which HMV had acquired the use. Maybe after
doing their sums they discovered they had sold HMV the patents
for less than book price so they now wanted to exclude any patents
which they themselves had purchased from other companies. Under
pressure however they eventually conceded and agreed that HMV
could have the lot. In the meantime, when they had taken stock
of their new radio business HMV realised that Marconiphone had
sold up because they had been in the doldrums, clearly the reason
for selling up and probably the reason the other bidders who had
experience in radio had dropped out! Was the problem poor management
or failure to get adequate funding for improving the business
or was it something about the Marconiphone product range? The
management angle was taken up by HMV and a search made for a new
MD. An approach was made, among others, to Stanley Mullard who
was fed up with Dutch involvement in his valve business but to
no avail...nobody was interested. Then it was discovered the Marconiphone
problem may be technical. The in-house M-O valves were not as
good as other makes, and it was around their own ranges that most
Marconiphone radios had been designed. As HMV tried to resolve
the situation they were dogged by in-fighting between the Radio
people and the Valve people but nevertheless decided to equip
their newer sets with valves from outside their own company. It
turned out that part of M-O V's problem was circumventing patents
on valves. Their own designs were difficult to manufacture and
often proved less than reliable. At each step in the development
of the valve, manufacturers had to keep up with the opposition.
After the triode had come the screen grid tetrode which had revolutionised
receiver performance. The later addition of a third grid, making
the pentode, resulted in another major improvement but as this
had been patented by others, M-O V had to look for an alternative
if they were to remain independent.
An advertisement of 1952
In trying to circumvent the
Pentode patent they came up with, what would prove to be an excellent
device, the beam tetrode but were unable, as had been the case
with a lot of their other ideas, to design a mass producible valve.
Maybe at a senior management level, when they heard of the latest
M-O V valve patent, the parent company, RCA had their own engineers
look at the design and they soon produced a good workable valve,
which was developed into the famous "6L6". Not long
after, M-O V engineers having been shown that their beam tetrode
patent was worthwhile, carried on development and finally came
up with the more famous "KT66", a valve still in demand,
with its big brother the "KT88", nearly 70 years later!
In 1931, two years after HMV had started merger talks with Columbia,
their main gramophone competitor, the two companies finally got
together under the name Electric and Musical Industries (EMI)
but even then, by the start of that year, HMV's proportion of
electric to acoustic equipment was a mere 3.5%.
Under EMI's management the expertise of radio design staff was
strengthened and they branched out into the up-and-coming field
of Television. Twenty years later, in the early 50s, after a period
of relative stability, HMV were revisiting their old problem of
reliability and fighting to maintain their good name. Slowly but
surely they succeeded, but not without, again, ditching in-house
components and buying from outside. Unfortunately, a few years
later, EMI was having cash flow problems and probably after much
heartseaching, in 1957 they ceased making domestic products, sold
the brand names HMV and Marconiphone, and Ferguson started to
make products branded with these names, to be sold by a new Thorn
subsidiary, the "British Radio Corporation". BRC was
later renamed in the early 70s as "Thorn Consumer Electronics"
because the word "British" was, by then, not deemed
good for marketing; "Radio" didn't have the right image
for a company making mainly TV sets; and "Corporation"
was not a correct description for a limited company. By 1979 the
HMV name had been sold on to Fidelity Radio and the Marconiphone
name had been dropped….