Word: cb
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...CB makers feel the squeeze...
Once limited to truckers and their Smokey Bear antagonists on highway patrols, Citizens Band radio has grown to the point where about 20 million American "good buddies" have CB rigs in their cars or homes. Yet despite the boom in the industry, a lot of firms that tried to capitalize on the craze are going bust. A case in point: Hy-Gain Electronics Corp. of Lincoln, Neb., one of the largest U.S. makers of ham radio and CB gear. Burdened by $31 million in debts and a $24 million earnings loss in fiscal '77, Hy-Gain has filed...
What did the company in was the CB craze, and a bit of incredibly bad timing. Hy-Gain began making the compact communications units about four years ago, and raced to sales of $96.8 million in 1976. Responding to public interest in CB, the Federal Communications Commission in July of that year authorized new 40-channel sets that could be sold after Jan. 1, 1977. Hy-Gain and other makers slashed prices on the old 23-channel sets, but the public preferred to wait for the new models. Result: Hy-Gain had to buy back from dealers $12 million...
Andros blames the demise of his company primarily on a swamp of cheap CB sets imported from - where else? - Japan...
...even went to Japan to plead with CB makers there to trim production, but to no avail. Reports Andros: "They thought I was misjudging the marketplace and decided to increase production instead of cutting back...