Stereo-4 , also known as EV (from Electro-Voice ) or EV-4 , was a matrix 4-channel quadraphonic sound system developed in 1970 by Leonard Feldman and Jon Fixler.
48-743: The system was heavily promoted by RadioShack stores in the United States, and some record companies released LP albums encoded in this format. It was the first commercial quadraphonic sound system for LP records. The original EV system was compatible with the Dynaquad DY system, and is related to Sansui's QS Regular Matrix system. The EV and QS records are very close to each other—it would take an expert to tell them apart by ear. EV decoders were sometimes used to produce pseudo 4-channel effects from 2-channel stereo recordings. In 1973 Electro-Voice signed an agreement with Columbia / CBS Records to build
96-484: A holding company owned by Alex Mehr and self-help influencer Tai Lopez, in November 2020. RadioShack operated primarily as an e-commerce website with a network of independently owned and franchised RadioShack stores, as well as a supplier of parts for HobbyTown USA . On March 2, 2023, Retail Ecommerce Ventures announced that it was mulling a possible bankruptcy filing. In May 2023, Unicomer Group acquired control of
144-543: A lack of economies of scale led Radio Shack to exit the computer-manufacturing market in the 1990s after losing much of the desktop PC market to newer, price-competitive rivals like Dell . Tandy acquired the Computer City chain in 1991, and sold the stores to CompUSA in 1998. In 1994, RadioShack began selling IBM 's Aptiva line of home computers. This partnership would last until 1998, when RadioShack partnered with Compaq and created 'The Creative Learning Center' as
192-441: A minority. In mid-December 2008, RadioShack opened three concept stores under the name "PointMobl" to sell wireless phones and service, netbooks , iPod and GPS navigation devices . The three Texas stores ( Dallas , Highland Village and Allen ) were furnished with white fixtures like those in the remodelled wireless departments of individual RadioShack stores, but there was no communicated relationship to RadioShack itself. Had
240-595: A new universal decoder that could decode both SQ and EV records with good results. It could even decode QS records—again, with good results. EV later suggested the same coefficients for an encoder, but no records were ever produced with the so-called EV Version 2 System . EV more or less disappeared after the SQ Stereo Quadraphonic system was introduced by Columbia/CBS Records in the United States. EV used different sets of coefficients for encoding and decoding. Most other systems have decode coefficients that mirror
288-647: A period of long decline for the chain, which was slow to respond to key trends— such as e-commerce , the entry of competitors like Best Buy and Amazon.com , and the growth of the maker movement . By 2011, smartphone sales, rather than general electronics, accounted for half of the chain's revenue. The traditional RadioShack clientele of do-it-yourself tinkerers were increasingly sidelined. Electronic parts formerly stocked in stores were now mostly only available through on-line special order. Store employees concentrated efforts selling profitable mobile contracts, while other customers seeking assistance were neglected and left
336-652: A profit. Its six profitable stores were sold to Fry's Electronics in 1996; the others were closed. Other rebranding attempts included the launch or acquisition of chains including McDuff, Video Concepts and the Edge in Electronics; these were larger stores which carried TVs, appliances and other lines. Tandy closed the McDuff stores and abandoned Incredible Universe in 1996, but continued to add new RadioShack stores. By 1996, industrial parts suppliers were deploying e-commerce to sell
384-401: A slow and gradual shift away from electronic parts and customer service and toward promotion of wireless sales and add-ons; the pressure to sell gradually increased, while the focus on training and product knowledge decreased. Morale was abysmal; longtime employees who were paid bonus and retirement in stock options saw the value of these instruments fade away. In 1998, RadioShack called itself
432-470: A store-within-a-store to promote desktop PCs. Similar promotions were tried with 'The Sprint Store at RadioShack' (mobile telephones), ' RCA Digital Entertainment Center' (home audio and video products), and 'PowerZone' (RadioShack's line of battery products, power supplies, and surge protectors). In the mid-1990s, the company attempted to move out of small components and into more mainstream consumer markets, focusing on marketing wireless phones. This placed
480-413: A subsidiary of Standard General , for US$ 26.2 million. In March 2017, General Wireless and subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy, claiming that a store-within-a-store partnership with Sprint was not as profitable as expected. As a result, RadioShack shuttered several company-owned stores and announced plans to shift its business primarily online. RadioShack was acquired by Retail Ecommerce Ventures,
528-581: A wide range of components online; it would be another decade before RadioShack would sell parts from its website, with a selection so limited that it was no rival to established industrial vendors with million-item specialised, centralised inventories. In 1994, the company introduced a service known as "The Repair Shop at Radio Shack", through which it provided inexpensive out-of-warranty repairs for more than 45 different brands of electronic equipment. The company already had over one million parts in its extensive parts warehouses and 128 service centers throughout
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#1732876460790576-476: The Memorex consumer recording trademarks to a Hong Kong firm, and divested most of its manufacturing divisions. House-brand products, which Radio Shack had long marked up heavily, were replaced with third-party brands already readily available from competitors. This reduced profit margins. In 1992, Tandy attempted to launch big-box electronics retailer Incredible Universe ; most of the seventeen stores never turned
624-613: The Tandy Computer Whiz Kids (1982–1991), a comic-book duo of teen calculator enthusiasts who teamed up with the likes of Archie and Superman. Radio Shack's computer stores offered lessons to pre-teens as "Radio Shack Computer Camp" in the early 1980s. By September 1982, the company had more than 4,300 stores, and more than 2,000 independent franchises in towns not large enough for a company-owned store. The latter also sold third-party hardware and software for Tandy computers, but company-owned stores did not sell or even acknowledge
672-754: The breakup of the Bell System encouraged subscribers to own their own telephones instead of renting them from local phone companies; Radio Shack offered twenty models of home phones. Much of the Radio Shack line was manufactured in the company's own factories. By 1990/1991, Tandy was the world's biggest manufacturer of personal computers; its OEM manufacturing capacity was building hardware for Digital Equipment Corporation, GRiD, Olivetti, AST Computer, Panasonic, and others. The company manufactured everything from store fixtures to computer software to wire and cable, TV antennas, audio and videotape. At one point, Radio Shack
720-613: The "Verizon Wireless Store" within a store. 2005 under the leadership of Jim Hamilton, marked a banner year for wireless. RadioShack sold more mobile phones than Walmart, Circuit City and Best Buy combined. RadioShack had not made products under the Realistic name since the early 1990s. Support for many of Radio Shack's traditional product lines, including amateur radio, had ended by 2006. A handful of small-town franchise dealers used their ability to carry non-RadioShack merchandise to bring in parts from outside sources, but these represented
768-521: The Flavoradio the longest production run in radio history. It was originally released in five colors in the 1972 catalog: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, avocado, and plum. For 1973, vanilla and chocolate were dropped (and thus are rare today ) and replaced by lemon and orange. At some point two-tone models with white backs were offered but never appeared in catalogs; these are extremely rare today. The original design had five transistors (model 166). A sixth
816-503: The Flavoradio was dropped from the catalog in 2001, it was the last AM-only radio on the market. The chain profited from the mass popularity of citizens band radio in the mid-1970s which, at its peak, represented nearly 30% of the chain's revenue. In 1977, two years after the MITS Altair 8800 , Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 , one of the first mass-produced personal computers . This
864-478: The US and Canada; it hoped to leverage these to build customer relationships and increase store traffic. Len Roberts, president of the Radio Shack division since 1993, estimated that the new repair business could generate $ 500 million per year by 1999. "America's technology store" was abandoned for the "you've got questions, we've got answers" slogan in 1994. In early summer 1995, the company changed its logo; "Radio Shack"
912-658: The United Kingdom, and Australia. The 21st century proved to be a period of long decline. In February 2015, after years of management crises, poor worker relations, diminished revenue, and 11 consecutive quarterly losses, RadioShack was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy . In May 2015, the company's assets, including the RadioShack brand name and related intellectual property , were purchased by General Wireless,
960-455: The brand name to Realistic after being sued by Stereo Realist . During the period the chain was based in Boston, it was commonly referred to disparagingly by its customers as "Nagasaki Hardware", as much of the merchandise was sourced from Japan, then perceived as a source of low-quality, inexpensive parts. In 1959, the store moved its headquarters to 730 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston (across
1008-533: The chain, long accustomed to charging wide margins on specialized products not readily available from other local retailers, into direct competition against vendors such as Best Buy and Walmart . In May 2000, the company dropped the Tandy name altogether, becoming RadioShack Corporation. The leather operating assets were sold to The Leather Factory on November 30, 2000; that business remains profitable. House brands Realistic and Optimus were discontinued. In 1999,
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#17328764607901056-579: The company agreed to carry RCA products in a five-year agreement for a "RCA Digital Entertainment Center" store-within-a-store. When the RCA contract ended, RadioShack introduced its own Presidian and Accurian brands, reviving the Optimus brand in 2005 for some low-end products. Enercell , a house brand for dry cell batteries, remained in use until approximately 2014. Most of the RadioShack house brands had been dropped when Tandy divested its manufacturing facilities in
1104-503: The company in 1962 for US$ 300,000. At the time of the Tandy Radio Shack & Leather 1962 acquisition, the Radio Shack chain was nearly bankrupt. Tandy's strategy was to appeal to hobbyists. It created small stores that were staffed by people who knew electronics, and sold mainly private brands. Tandy closed Radio Shack's unprofitable mail-order business, ended credit purchases and eliminated many top management positions, keeping
1152-470: The company sold off the few remaining Allied retail stores and resumed using the Radio Shack name. Allied Electronics , the firm's industrial component operation, continued as a Tandy division until it was sold to Spartan Manufacturing in 1981. The longest-running product for Radio Shack was the AM-only Realistic Flavoradio, sold from 1972 to 2000, 28 years in three designs. This also made
1200-701: The early 1990s; the original list included: Realistic (stereo, hi-fi and radio), Archer (antenna rotors and boosters), Micronta (test equipment), Tandy (computers), TRS-80 (proprietary computer), ScienceFair (kits), DuoFone (landline telephony), Concertmate (music synthesizer), Enercell (cells and batteries), Road Patrol (radar detectors, bicycle radios), Patrolman (Realistic radio scanner ), Deskmate (software), KitchenMate , Stereo Shack , Supertape (recording tape), Mach One , Optimus (speakers and turntables), Flavoradio (pocket AM radios in various colours), Weatheradio , Portavision (small televisions) and Minimus (speakers). In 2000, RadioShack
1248-519: The encode coefficients. Therefore the EV Stereo-4 matrix was something in between a 2-2-4 derived system and a 4-2-4 matrix system. Partial list of LP records released with EV encoding. The Ovation Records label initially used the EV or Stereo-4 matrix, but later changed to QS Regular Matrix . RadioShack RadioShack (formerly written as Radio Shack ) is an American electronics retailer , which
1296-405: The existence of non-Tandy products. In the mid-1980s, Radio Shack began a transition from its proprietary 8-bit computers to its proprietary IBM PC compatible Tandy computers , removing the "Radio Shack" name from the product in an attempt to shake off the long-running nicknames "Radio Scrap" and "Trash 80" to make the product appeal to business users. Poor compatibility, shrinking margins and
1344-453: The expense of its core components business. RadioShack aggressively promoted Dish Network subscriptions. In November 2012, RadioShack introduced Amazon Locker parcel pick-up services at its stores, only to dump the program in September 2013. In 2013, the chain made token attempts to regain the do it yourself market, including a new "Do It Together" slogan. Long-time staff observed
1392-425: The former RadioShack mail-order business determined where Tandy would locate new stores. As an incentive for them to work long hours and remain profitable, store managers were required to take an ownership stake in their stores. In markets too small to support a company-owned Radio Shack store, the chain relied on independent dealers who carried the products as a sideline. Charles D. Tandy said "We’re not looking for
1440-402: The free vacuum tube testing offered in-store in the early 1970s, this small loss leader drew foot traffic . The cards also served as generic business cards for the salespeople. In 1970, Tandy Corporation bought Allied Radio Corporation (both retail and industrial divisions), merging the brands into Allied Radio Shack and closing duplicate locations. After a 1973 federal government review,
1488-443: The guy who wants to spend his entire paycheck on a sound system", instead seeking customers "looking to save money by buying cheaper goods and improving them through modifications and accessorizing", making it common among "nerds" and "kids aiming to excel at their science fairs". Charles D. Tandy , who had guided the firm through a period of growth in the 1960s and 1970s, died of a heart attack at age 60 in November 1978. In 1982,
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1536-406: The name and address of purchasers so they could be added to mailing lists. Name and mailing address were requested for special orders (RadioShack Unlimited parts and accessories, Direc2U items not stocked locally), returns, check payments, RadioShack Answers Plus credit card applications, service plan purchases and carrier activations of cellular telephones. On December 20, 2005, RadioShack announced
1584-475: The name came from an employee, Bill Halligan, who went on to form the Hallicrafters company. The term was already in use — and is to this day — by hams when referring to the location of their stations. The company issued its first catalog in 1939 as it entered the high-fidelity music market. In 1954, Radio Shack began selling its own private-label products under the brand name Realist, changing
1632-484: The new field of amateur radio (also known as ham radio ). The brothers opened a one-store retail and mail-order operation in the heart of downtown Boston at 46 Brattle Street . They chose the name " Radio Shack ", which was the term for a small, wooden structure that housed a ship's radio equipment. The Deutschmanns thought the name was appropriate for a store that would supply the needs of radio officers aboard ships, as well as hams (amateur radio operators). The idea for
1680-652: The sale of its newly built riverfront Fort Worth, Texas headquarters building to German-based KanAm Grund; the property was leased back to RadioShack for 20 years. In 2008, RadioShack assigned this lease to the Tarrant County College District (TCC), remaining in 400,000 square feet (37,000 m ) of the space as its headquarters. In 2005, RadioShack parted with Verizon for a 10-year agreement with Cingular (later AT&T) and renegotiated its 11-year agreement with Sprint. In July 2011, RadioShack ended its wireless partnership with T-Mobile , replacing it with
1728-597: The salespeople, merchandisers and advertisers. The number of items carried was cut from 40,000 to 2,500, as Tandy sought to "identify the 20% that represents 80% of the sales" and replace Radio Shack's handful of large stores with many "little holes in the wall", large numbers of rented locations which were easier to close and re-open elsewhere if one location didn't work out. Private-label brands from lower-cost manufacturers displaced name brands to raise Radio Shack profit margins; non-electronic lines from go-carts to musical instruments were abandoned entirely. Customer data from
1776-559: The single largest seller of consumer telecommunications products in the world; its stock reached its peak a year later. InterTAN , a former Tandy subsidiary, sold the Tandy UK stores in 1999 and the Australian stores in 2001. InterTAN was sold (with its Canadian stores) to rival Circuit City in 2004. The RadioShack brand remained in use in the United States , but the 21st century proved
1824-582: The stores in frustration. Demand for consumer electronics was also increasingly being weakened by consumers buying the items online . In early 2004, RadioShack introduced Fix 1500 , a sweeping program to "correct" inventory and profitability issues company-wide. The program put the 1,500 lowest-graded store managers, of over 5,000, on notice of the need to improve. Managers were graded not on tangible store and personnel data but on one-on-one interviews with district management. Brattle Street (Boston) Brattle Street , which existed from 1694 to 1962,
1872-450: The street from Boston University's Marsh Chapel ), with ambitious plans for further expansion. After expanding to nine stores plus an extensive mail-order business, the company fell on hard times in the early 1960s. Tandy Corporation, a leather goods corporation, was looking for other hobbyist-related businesses into which it could expand. Charles D. Tandy saw the potential of Radio Shack and retail consumer electronics, purchasing
1920-528: The test proved successful, RadioShack could have moved to convert existing RadioShack locations into PointMobl stores in certain markets. While some PointMobl products, such as car power adapters and phone cases, were carried as store-brand products in RadioShack stores, the stand-alone PointMobl stores were closed and the concept abandoned in March 2011. In August 2009, RadioShack rebranded itself as "The Shack". The campaign increased sales of mobile products, but at
1968-673: The worldwide RadioShack franchise. Unicomer is based in El Salvador and is one of the largest franchisors of RadioShack, with stores in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. It had purchased its first RadioShack franchise (in El Salvador) in January 1998. The company was started as Radio Shack in 1921 by two brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann, who wanted to provide equipment for
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2016-495: Was a complete pre-assembled system at a time when many microcomputers were built from kits, backed by a nationwide retail chain when computer stores were in their infancy. Sales of the initial, primitive US$ 600 (equal to $ 3,017 today) TRS-80 exceeded all expectations despite its limited capabilities and high price. This was followed by the TRS-80 Color Computer in 1980, designed to attach to a television. Tandy also inspired
2064-524: Was a street in Boston , Massachusetts , located on the current site of City Hall Plaza , at Government Center . Around 1853, former Virginia slave Anthony Burns worked for "Coffin Pitts, clothing dealer, no.36 Brattle Street." Nearby, abolitionist John P. Coburn managed a clothing store at 20 Brattle Street. In 1850, Joshua Bowen Smith, a black abolitionist and member of Boston's Vigilance Committee, operated
2112-515: Was added in 1980 (model 166a). The case was redesigned for 1987, making it taller and thinner, and it came in red, blue, and black. The final model, 201a, came in 1996 and was designed around an integrated circuit. They were first made in Korea then Hong Kong and finally the Philippines. The Flavoradio carried the Realistic name until about 1996, when it switched to "Radio Shack", then finally "Optimus". When
2160-477: Was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. Its original parent company, Radio Shack Corporation, was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, shifting its focus from radio equipment to hobbyist electronic components. At its peak in 1999, Tandy operated over 8,000 RadioShack stores in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and under the Tandy name in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France,
2208-462: Was one of multiple backers of the CueCat barcode reader, which soon turned out to be a marketing failure. The company had invested US$ 35 million in the concept, including printing the barcodes throughout its catalogs, and distributing CueCat devices to customers at no charge. The last annual RadioShack printed catalogs were distributed to the public in 2003. Until 2004, RadioShack routinely asked for
2256-572: Was spelled in camel case as "RadioShack". In 1996, RadioShack successfully petitioned the US Federal Communications Commission to allocate frequencies for the Family Radio Service , a short-range walkie-talkie system that proved popular. From the 1960s until the early 1990s, Radio Shack promoted a "battery of the month" club; a free wallet -sized cardboard card offered one free Enercell per month in-store. Like
2304-427: Was the world's largest electronics chain. In June 1991, Tandy closed or restructured its 200 Radio Shack Computer Centers, acquired Computer City , and attempted to shift its emphasis away from components and cables, toward mainstream consumer electronics. Tandy sold its computer manufacturing to AST Research in 1993, including the laptop computer Grid Systems Corporation which it had purchased in 1988. It sold
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