Hallicrafters

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The Hallicrafters Company was a business that manufactured, marketed, and sold radio equipment. The company was based in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

[edit] History

William J Halligan founded his own radio manufactory in Chicago in late 1932. Prior to this, he had been involved in radio parts sales for some years but decided that the time was right for a handcrafted amateur radio receiver - the company name being a portmanteau of Halli(gan) and (hand)crafters.

The fledgling company was located at 417 State Street and immediately ran in to patent difficulties when RCA decided to sue them for building radio sets without an RCA patent license. An opportunity came to purchase the concern of Silver-Marshall Inc. in 1933 and, with it, an RCA patent license as the most valuable asset.

In order to meet their financial obligations, Hallicrafters produced radios for other manufacturers until they were financially secure to begin production of their own line of communications receivers, starting with the SX-9 'Super Skyrider', in late 1935.

By 1938, Hallicrafters were doing business in eighty-nine countries and were considered to manufacture the most popular sets in the USA. That year, the move was made in to the production of radio transmitters and the company was ideally placed to provide many excellent and reliable products for the US armed services in World War II.

During this time they produced much superbly designed equipment, including the famous S-38 receiver, designed by Raymond Loewy. Much of this equipment is still in common use and widely available on the used market.

Hallicrafters S-38C receiver, early 1950s

The boom years for Hallicrafters were from 1945 to 1963. However, in 1966 'Bill' Halligan sold the company to the Northrop Corporation and the Halligan family involvement ended. Northrop ran the company until the early 1970's but fierce Japanese competition was putting pressure on the US domestic electronics market and Northrop sold the company in 1975, effectively bringing it to an end.

The name and assets of Hallicrafters were traded over the following years, even though there were no products bearing the name. Since around 1988, the remaining assets and rights to the 'Hallicrafters' name & logos have been held by court-appointed trustees.