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Old 24th May 2018, 10:46 am   #21
AJSmith625
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

I have just been looking at what has happened to Ferguson and it now appears it belongs to UK flat panel TV manufacturer Cello. See below-https://celloelectronics.com/ferguso...acturer-cello/

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Old 24th May 2018, 1:13 pm   #22
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Last I saw of Murphy was on a cheap personal stereo I had in the mid 1980s.
Did Murphy in India last beyond this?
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Old 24th May 2018, 1:30 pm   #23
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Thermionic Products Ltd - makers of the 'Soundmirror' tape recorder (itself licensed by Brush in America), plus a few other consumer products - was absorbed into Racal mid-1960's. For a time - according to a caption in 'Everyday Electronics' of a multi-channel data tape recorder, they were called Racal-Thermionic.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
RACAL became pat of the French Thales group a few years back.
Yes - I think at least a bit of it (next to the main line railway at Harrow - might be Racal Acoustics) came back out of Thales and is called Racal again. At least they were when I did some work for them a few years back.
And Lissen was purchased by Ever Ready, who continued to use the Lissen name for a while. As Ever Ready are still in existence, I guess they have the right to use the Lissen name.

Burndept was bought as an ailing facility by T N Cole who wanted to start his own company. He called it Vidor. They were best known for batteries and radios but also made record players and TV's. Vidor was bought by Crompton Parkinson in the 1960's which eventually went to Ray-o-Vac - so presumably Ray-O-Vac can use the Burndept name if they wanted to?
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Old 24th May 2018, 1:53 pm   #24
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"Baird" was the in-house brand for Radio Rentals TVs; the brand (along with Radio Rentals) ended up in the hands of the Thorn-EMI-Ferguson organisation by the 1970s.

Part of Thorn-EMI became "Caversham Finance" (by way of "Crazy George's") which is now the _Bright House_ rent-to-buy high-street operation, where you can still buy Baird-badged TVs - https://www.brighthouse.co.uk/brands/baird
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Old 24th May 2018, 2:02 pm   #25
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

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Burndept was bought as an ailing facility by T N Cole who wanted to start his own company. He called it Vidor. They were best known for batteries and radios but also made record players and TV's. Vidor was bought by Crompton Parkinson in the 1960's...
It's stuck in my mind all these years (not that I remember it very often...) that somewhere around 1970 there was mention in Practical Wireless of the launch of new Vidor radio models made in India. Can't say I've ever seen one, or heard of any subsequent Vidor radios: the brand must have been in use on batteries for a few more years at least.

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Old 24th May 2018, 2:06 pm   #26
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Last I saw of Murphy was on a cheap personal stereo I had in the mid 1980s.
I had a Murphy CB radio in the same timeframe. Not seen the brand since.
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Old 24th May 2018, 2:19 pm   #27
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Vidor-Burndept found its way to Crompton Parkinson in the 1960s via the "Royston Group" - https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Royston_Industries - who are a company whose technical side and products seem rather poorly documented.

Crompton-Parkinson (who I remember as makers of car batteries) became part of Hawker-Siddeley.
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Old 24th May 2018, 2:55 pm   #28
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

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Burndept was bought as an ailing facility by T N Cole who wanted to start his own company. He called it Vidor. They were best known for batteries and radios but also made record players and TV's. Vidor was bought by Crompton Parkinson in the 1960's which eventually went to Ray-o-Vac - so presumably Ray-O-Vac can use the Burndept name if they wanted to?
Yes from Graces Guide https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Vidor

Vidor's name came from the initials of Thomas's two daughters, Valerie and Denise, and his wife Rebecca. As a concession to Ever Ready and his agreement with the company, he did not run Burndept and Vidor himself but employed Mr. R.P. Richardson as Managing Director.

The Machinations of the Radio industry

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Old 24th May 2018, 3:01 pm   #29
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Last I saw of Murphy was on a cheap personal stereo I had in the mid 1980s.
The name is now owned by Littlewoods: https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tm.../UK00000614472
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Old 24th May 2018, 3:17 pm   #30
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

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Quote:
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Last I saw of Murphy was on a cheap personal stereo I had in the mid 1980s.
I had a Murphy CB radio in the same timeframe. Not seen the brand since.
I also have a Murphy cb radio in my collection, I think it dates from 1983
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Old 24th May 2018, 3:45 pm   #31
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Crompton-Parkinson (who I remember as makers of car batteries) became part of Hawker-Siddeley.
I know them as a maker of fractional horsepower induction motors and switchgear, at least as part of Brook Crompton Parkinson. If they went into Hawker-Siddeley I guess they might reside now in BAe somewhere.
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Old 24th May 2018, 6:48 pm   #32
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

C-P made some of the traction motors for early classes of diesel electric locomotives for British Rail.

Hawker-Siddeley also had interests in the rail industry, along with their better known aircraft manufacturing.
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Old 24th May 2018, 8:04 pm   #33
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Compton Parkinson Ltd.

The company was formed by the merger, in 1927, of The Crompton Electrical Co (founded in 1878 by Colonel R E Crompton) and F Parkinson & Co. Frank Parkinson (born in 1887, in Guiseley, Yorks) established his company in 1908.

It was initially a supplier of electric motors, but later made its own. In 1932, C-P merged with The British Electric Transformer Co. Crompton was based in Chelmsford. Parkinson Ltd, Electra House, Victoria Embankment, London, SW1 (in 1946) – London offices (or HQ?).

Maker of Crompton electric lamps, kWh meters, panel meters, batteries, electric motors (made in Doncaster), etc.

It was acquired by Hawker Siddeley (in 1967). The company made electric cables since 1929.

H-S was taken over by BTR plc, circa 1990. Subsequent to this, several C-P businesses were sold off.

Crompton Parkinson began making lamps in 1930, at their Guiseley, Leeds factory. Lamps were sold under the Crompton brand.

Crompton Lighting was subsequently owned by Cooper Industries (USA) and now EATON corporation (USA).

Currently, there is a company called Crompton Lamps (http://www.cromptonlamps.com), which was spun out of Crompton Lighting, but I wonder if they actually make anything themselves. In October 2011 Crompton Lamps was acquired by GCH Capital Limited.
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Old 24th May 2018, 8:08 pm   #34
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Bush and Murphy.

In 1982, Rank Radio International pulled out of the consumer TV and Radio business and sold its interest in Rank Toshiba to Toshiba, who closed the Plymouth factory for a while, then reopened it with a single Trades Union and rather better working practices.

The RRI (TV and Radio) parts operation was sold to Currys and relocated to High Wycombe.
When Dixons took over Currys, the Rank TV spares activity was sold to HRS of Birmingham.

Rank sold the Bush brand (alledgedly for £1 million), to a small company called Interstate Electronics Ltd, which renamed itself Bush Radio Ltd.

Rank sold the Murphy brand to a subsidiary of Great Universal Stores Ltd (J J Silber?). There have probably been changes in the Murphy brand ownership since then (currently Littlewoods)!
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Old 24th May 2018, 8:10 pm   #35
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A lot of dry batteries used by the military, and also BT were Crompton Parkinson branded.
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Old 24th May 2018, 8:11 pm   #36
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

I think vidor and burndept parted company some time in the 1970's and the latter were ironically taken over by Ever Ready Great Britain / Berec, a seperate entity to 'Eveready' of America after 1914.

Ever Ready / Berec were eventually, and in another twist of irony, bought by US petfood giant 'Purina' (now Nestles) who, as it happened, had also taken over US company 'energiser'; then the owner of the american Eveready brand. The two brands Ever Ready and Eveready were therefore reunited.

But I'm at a loss to find out who owns the right to label its products as 'Burndept' should it ever happen.

(sources: graces guide and wikipedia)
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Old 24th May 2018, 8:25 pm   #37
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

[QUOTE=kalee20;1046132]Thermionic Products Ltd - makers of the 'Soundmirror' tape recorder (itself licensed by Brush in America), plus a few other consumer products - was absorbed into Racal mid-1960's. For a time - according to a caption in 'Everyday Electronics' of a multi-channel data tape recorder, they were called Racal-Thermionic.

[QUOTE=mark_in_manc;1046016]
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RACAL became pat of the French Thales group a few years back.
Racal plc was taken over by Thomson CSF (of France) in 2000 and the merged company was renamed Thales.
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Old 24th May 2018, 8:26 pm   #38
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I'm sure I read somewhere recently that KW Electronics [founded by Rowley Shears G8KW, later becoming part of Decca, but ceasing to trade in the 1980s] was starting up again?

I also note from the IPO website that an Italian holding-company has recently re-registered Regentone:

https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tm.../4/EU015857378

From what I remember, Regentone ceased to exist as an independent sometime in the mid-1960s and the name was (along with RGD) bought up by one of the bigger companies.

AT&E (Bridgnorth) were at one time associated with RGD: Decca also made TVs at a site in Bridgnorth before selling-out to Tatung (who moved production to Telford).

Last edited by G6Tanuki; 24th May 2018 at 8:33 pm.
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Old 24th May 2018, 8:32 pm   #39
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

Quote:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ben View Post
Last I saw of Murphy was on a cheap personal stereo I had in the mid 1980s.
Did Murphy in India last beyond this?
http://www.murphyindia.com (but I think only the name and font are connected to the original Indian subsidiary of Murphy Radio Ltd)
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Old 24th May 2018, 8:56 pm   #40
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Default Re: Who owns the rights to all the old radio names?

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
I also note from the IPO website that an Italian holding-company has recently re-registered Regentone:

https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tm.../4/EU015857378

From what I remember, Regentone ceased to exist as an independent sometime in the mid-1960s and the name was (along with RGD) bought up by one of the bigger companies.

AT&E (Bridgnorth) were at one time associated with RGD: Decca also made TVs at a site in Bridgnorth before selling-out to Tatung (who moved production to Telford).
RGD started in Birmingham (1929) and subsequently moved to Bridgnorth. RGD were later owned by BICC and was sold too AT&E in the early 1950s. AT&E then sold on the RGD consumer products division to the Regentone group. The Regentone group became part of Lloyds Packing Warehouses, who sold it to STC around 1962, who merged it into their K-B subsidiary to form the Consumer Products Division of STC Ltd. The Regentone brand was soon dropped, but the RGD brand continued into the 1970s (at least).

AT&E (Bridgnorth) took over the Bridgnorth factory (Pale Meadow Works - now a housing estate). AT&E was taken over by Plessey (along with Ericsson Telephones UK) in 1961.

Decca Radio & Television acquired the Bridgnorth factory (possibly around 1970?) and made their famous "Bradford" hybrid colour TV chassis there. With the death of Sir Edward Lewis, who ran Decca from 1929, it was bought by Racal in 1980. The Radio & TV division was sold to Tatung (of Taiwan), who soon relocated to aa new factory in Telford.
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