Zenith Invented the TV Remote and Died Owning Nothing

Somebody had to invent the thing on your coffee table. In 1955 a Zenith engineer built a remote control that was a plastic pistol, and it stopped working whenever the sun came through the window. The fix, a year later, is why Americans spent thirty years calling it "the clicker." Zenith was one of the two biggest television manufacturers in America. It invented the portable radio, push-button tuning, the wireless remote - twice - and a large part of the digital television standard that every set in the United States runs on today. By the time that last invention started paying, Zenith did not own it. This is the story of a company that was right about the imports, right about digital television, and right about how a television should be built, and ran out of time being right. Sources and further reading are in the pinned comment. Two new documentaries every week Subscribe:    / @deadstockarchive   #Zenith #BusinessDocumentary #TechHistory