ONE OF JOHNSON'S LAST 23 CHANNEL HURRAH'S
Most of us have heard the crazy stories surrounding 23 channel CB radios and their last days of life towards the end of 1977. It was a bloodbath, and not every manufacturer came out of it alive. I was personally caught up in this two different ways: I'd recently bought a Viking 352 sideband mobile, and I was involved with the sale of CB radios.
TWO BUSY HANDS
The most surprising aspect to me was the box the Feds put the manufacturer's into. On one hand they had to sell as much of their existing 23 channel radio lineup as possible before the cut off date, while the other hand was busy designing and manufacturing the new 40 channel models.
Can you imagine a company like Johnson dealing with the fact that 40 channels were right around the corner? With their warehouses full they had to continue to slug away on the existing 23 channel line, inclusive of following thru with new models that most likely had been designed, and been in pre-production since 1975.
It's as if someone was just told they were to be laid off in a year or two, and in the same breath, told to "keep plugging away" with the backlog of crap on your desk - as if your job was secure (err..maybe that wasn't the best analogy).
"By the summer of 1976, orders for new Citizens Band radio fell dramatically..."
That brings us to the June 1976 issue of CB magazine and on the cover: EF Johnson's NEW Messenger 323 "A".
By the summer of 1976, orders for new Citizens Band radio fell dramatically which prompted Wall Street to lower ratings on CB related companies. Gladding (Pearce-Simpson) saw its sales sag, and didn’t expect the industry to maintain itself with the lower priced 40 channel radios that were to hit the market soon**.
The FCC compounded issues by setting a date in 1977 (December 31st) when it would be illegal to sell the 23 channel radios any longer. In the midst of all this turmoil Johnson released the redesigned 323, a huge heavy, yet well designed AM-only mobile Citizens Band radio - one of the last CB radios Johnson would stamp with "Made in the U.S.A."
1977 saw CB magazines shrink in volume, probably due to much lower advertising budgets across the boards while consumers were still at odds on what to buy. Manufacturers tried to hang in there by coming out with their new 40 channel radios but the momentum had changed. U.S. Citizens Band companies were in dire need of help in 1977, so President Carter ended the duty-free status of Citizens Band radios imported from Taiwan.(1977) By June, the Tandy Corporation saw an overall decline in same store sales which they attributed to the lack of sales in CB radio and related accessories.
[ Shortly later, E.F. Johnson went to the ITC (International Trade Commission) to try and have quotas or increased tariffs on imports from Japan and other countries imposed. But by November, 1977 E.F.Johnson had announced that they were closing one of their two Citizen Band radio manufacturing plants due to the steep decline].**
Previous articles about EF Johnson:
APRIL 16 2006
APRIL 12 2006
OCTOBER 03 2005
CLASSIC AD CORNER
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73
Woody
** Source: "You Weren't Someone Or Anyone If You Didn't Own a CB"
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