[Arran]

Autocratic layman, seems to be who runs most corporations nowdays. One thing I do have to say I like about Brand Z is that they did seem to do better in the postwar years, considering how all radio designs went downhill once TV got going. Even that hit issues as everyone switched to circuit boards in the mid 50's and we have all heard the horror stories of those. Zenith stuck with a hand-wired, metal chassis in thier sets and at least the black and white sets seem fairly rugged and there is now worry of pulling the tube sockets out with the tubes! (A friend of mine just had this happen to a little set with the phelonic boards in it. Went to replace a tube and the board basically crumbled.)

It's actually worse then that, most corporations seems to be run by comittees of MBA and accountant types, at least the old autocrats like Eugene MacDonald had a long term vision for the companies they ran and had an interest in keeping them successful, not simply an exit stratagy for themselves. I agree about the post war brand Zs, I don't know if it was the failures of the early 40s sets, the post war television boom, or the success of the Transoceanic sets but they seemed to have pulled their socks up during that time. They did do some stupid things with their early TVs though, like series string filaments with the plate voltages supplied by an autotransformer, or overdriving the flyback circuits by using two horizontal output tubes. Some of their radio and combo units also used an autotransformer, again more stupid corner cutting. I think they finally straightened things out after the "Commander" retired because the late 50s to early 80s brand Z TVs are some of the best TVs ever made.
Regards
Arran