Camden-born performer, musician and entrepreneur, Graham Alexander, announced his companies’ brand portfolio merger into the revived Radio Corporation of America, the former electronics conglomerate that was pieced off to buyers by G.E. through the late 1980s and held as a name holding corporation until the late 2000s.
The new and unlikely president quietly detailed the slow re-acquisition process of former brands owned by the company during its Camden-based heyday including Victor Talking Machine Co, His Master’s Voice, Camden, and Little Nipper at an impromptu meeting of the board of advisors.
The reformation comes as welcomed news to a depressed region often increasingly devoid of knowledge of its own historic roots in the home entertainment industry. The company plans to divide its brands and products across several areas of home and live entertainment. For example, Victor Talking Machine Co. will once again issue albums including its launch release “REPEAT DECEIVER” by Graham Alexander and his band. The album in its soft release has already garnered rave reviews for the fledgling Victor label. The “His Master’s Voice” imprint concentrates on preservation of historic music master recordings owned by the company. While the company doesn’t own the RCA Records label (which was acquired from the Radio Corporation of America portfolio in 1986 by BMG and, later, Sony), the company’s concentration will be on the original historic recording company that Radio Corporation of America acquired in 1929, which established the modern recording industry in 1901.
Presently, the company has divided off sales of Victor Talking Machine Co. label group records between digital platforms and physical availability at an online retailer called Victrola and notes that it has plans for expanding physical formats into brick & mortar stores that are less traditional than the typical big box retail stores still carrying physical music forms.
Products in development for the company include Victor musical instruments, a line of pro audio equipment, home entertainment devices (which one can only assume will be a new Victrola-branded device), and a secret music platform expected to preview in 2016.
More information will be released following the first board of advisors meeting this March. All are encouraged to attend the inaugural concert presented by Victor Talking Machine Co. on May 8, 2015 at
Highline Ballroom in New York City. Tickets start at $15 and are available at www.highlineballroom.com.
About RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA
Radio Corporation of America is the name of a corporation founded in the early part of the 20th century, which came to prominence developing breakthrough radio communication across the world. Originally owned by G.E., the company was spun-off into its own by a trust busting initiative by the U.S. Government. After acquiring the Victor Company of Camden, N.J. (then the world’s largest record company), the corporation delved further into the home entertainment market through the 1930s and 1940s creating Victor, RCA Victor, Bluebird, Camden, Radio Corporation of America, and Little Nipper branded products through the middle of the century. Increasingly tapped for military contracts from World War II and on, Radio Corporation of America slowly concentrated its efforts from home entertainment into military communications. By the 1970s, they’d diversified to include a publishing company, a frozen food company, and Hertz rental car. Eventually, the company felt the burn of mismanagement through the 1980s and was sold to G.E. in 1986 who then proceeded to dismantle the company’ vast brand portfolio. Thompson Electronics (Technicolor France) purchased the RCA brands related to consumer electronics, while BMG & Sony partnered to purchase the RCA record label. The military contracts were sold through several companies and many remain in the Camden area today. Meanwhile, G.E. sold off brands from the Radio Corporation of America (RCA Corp) profile but continued to hold the company as a name holding corporation until the late 2000s when Graham Alexander and LAIR (Licensed American Independent Recording Co.) petitioned to reestablish the name having already acquired many of its former legacy brands.
About GRAHAM ALEXANDER
Born in Camden, N.J., Graham Alexander is a 25-year-old artist, composer, producer, engineer, entrepreneur and former Broadway performer. His interest in the home entertainment industry was sparked from his earliest memories of seeing the “His Master’s Voice” image shining from the top of the former RCA/Victor building (and current Victor lofts) at the waterfront in his birth city. Using the earnings from performing in his own band, Broadway shows, and as a producer/engineer at recording studios, he self-funded his first album. Having seen and experienced the current state of the music industry, Graham formed his own company to maintain more creative quality control over his, and his clients’ products in lieu of signing with one of the remaining major labels. He established his first recording studios in 2008 and continues to tour in promotion of his music with his long-time group, Graham Alexander & Co., a group he formed in middle school in the early 2000s.