National Radio Institute
![Magazine advert](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Amazing_Stories_v01_n01_front_cover_National_Radio_Institute.jpg/220px-Amazing_Stories_v01_n01_front_cover_National_Radio_Institute.jpg)
The National Radio Institute-McGraw Hill Continuing Education Center was a private, postsecondary,
Early history (1914–68),[1][2]
National Radio School: primarily classroom instruction
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/JESmith.jpg/220px-JESmith.jpg)
The National Radio School was established in 1914 in Washington, D.C., by James Ernest Smith (1881–1973) and Emanuel R. Haas (1891–1947).1 Smith was a teacher at McKinley Manual Training School (which was moved in 1926 to its final location now known as McKinley Technology High School). He held a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (BSEE, 1906) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and began his career at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, but took an extended leave of absence to teach the remainder of an applied electricity course on behalf of an ailing colleague at McKinley. Smith later accepted a permanent position at the school. Eventually, students began consulting him for private formal instruction—which is precisely how the National Radio School began. With enthusiastic support from Mr. Haas, who was then Assistant Publicity Director for Keith's Theater in Washington, D.C., a small classroom was set up for four students inside the U.S. Savings Bank Building at 14th and U Street NW, now the site of the Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center. Haas became the school's vice president and business director, and the school grew in popularity.
In 1915, John Albert Dowie (1886–1958) was hired as the National Radio School's Radio Theory Instructor (later becoming Chief Instructor) and stayed with the school for 36 years. The first home study courses were developed and implemented by the National Radio School as early as 1916, enabling students to continue their training without being physically present at the school. During World War I, facilities were expanded to address the burgeoning demand for radio operators. By 1917, enrollment had swelled to 150 students.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/NRI_old.jpg/220px-NRI_old.jpg)
National Radio Institute: exclusively home study courses
In 1918, the U.S. government appointed Smith director of the Radio Department at
Publications, technical advisory board, and alumni association
In addition to more than 250 textbooks, NRI began, in 1928, to publish for its students and alumni a trade magazine originally called National Radio News, which was renamed multiple times to: National Radio - TV News(1950), NRI News(1958), and finally to NRI Journal(1963).
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/NRI_Schools.jpg/220px-NRI_Schools.jpg)
Retirement of the founder and final move
In 1947, Haas died unexpectedly and his responsibilities were passed on to James E. Smith's son, James Morrison Smith (1916–2010)2, another graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (BSIE, 1937) and former engineer at
Advertisement
The National Radio School and Institute ran advertisements for its courses for decades in magazines such as
Conar Instruments (1962)
NRI's home study courses included kits from which students would assemble circuits or entire radio/stereo receivers, television receivers, as well as test instruments of various kinds (analog
Acquisition and operation, as NRI Schools, by McGraw-Hill Education (1968–99)
By the second half of the 1960s, NRI recognized that its limited resources would preclude company from maintaining a dominant market position in the coming decade, spurring James Morrison Smith to seek a partner/buyer. In 1968,
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/J_Morrison_Smith.jpg/220px-J_Morrison_Smith.jpg)
Founder James E. Smith remained NRI Schools chairman until his death in 1973 while his son, James Morrison Smith, continued to serve as president, a post he held since 1956. After James E. Smith's death in September 1973 and his son's semi-retirement2 at the end of that same year (fully retiring in 1976), John F. ("Jack") Thompson (1931–2015), who joined NRI in 1955, became president and CEO of NRI Schools and a senior vice-president of the McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center until his retirement in 1984.[10]4 Thompson was succeeded by Edward B. "Ted" Beach (1934–1999), who was appointed director of the education department at McGraw Hill's Continuing Education Center. Beach retired in 1989 after 28 years of service with NRI. The last director/general manager of the school was Nick Maruhnich (born 1951), who served as senior vice president of special projects at the McGraw-Hill Companies and general manager of the McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center - NRI Schools.
By the mid-1980s, NRI's average annual student enrollment had peaked to approximately 60,000 students, a substantial increase over the 38,000 a few years earlier. NRI Schools claimed to be the first organization to educate students on a digital computer with training software and to use multimedia computers and the internet to familiarize students with cutting-edge technology. Under McGraw-Hill's management, the school branched out into many other training fields, including computer repair. However, by the 1990s, economic and technological forces adversely affected the business.
NRI's closing (1999–2002)
The school's closing was primarily a case of
Market Force Determining Factors
Price erosion and the end of American dominance in TV/radio manufacturing
During the last two decades of the twentieth century, increasing offshoring activities of American companies with the rise of globalization resulted in lower production costs. But the fierce global competition in the electronics industry caused a gradual price erosion of American products. Market share and revenues of American television and radio manufacturers began to fall in the wake of the cost-effective strategies of foreign competitors. By the 1980s, imported radio and television receivers (particularly those from Japan) dominated the American market, as foreign electronics tended to be of higher quality at lower prices (making the items more likely to be replaced rather than repaired after breakage or malfunction). Consequently, several American electronics manufacturers ceased domestic production or closed down entirely, namely Quasar (brand)/Motorola (1974), Magnavox (1974), Admiral (electrical appliances) (1979), GTE (1981), (which owned Sylvania Electric Products and Philco), General Electric (1985), RCA (1986), and Curtis Mathes Corporation (1988). The last U.S. manufacturer to produce television receivers domestically was Zenith Electronics, which sold a controlling interest of its shares to the Korean company LG Electronics in 1995, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of LG in 1999.
Effect of advanced technologies on the electronics service sector in general[11]
Technological advances accounted for much of the eventual demise of TV/radio service jobs. At least three contributory factors can be singled out:
1) Weak cost justification for repairs: It was becoming hard for consumers to justify the repair of malfunctioning electronic items when the purchasing of newer models was so affordable due to advances in semiconductor and electronic materials technology. With the exception of display technologies, the newer television and radio receivers generally had fewer internal components that were smaller in size, and thus cheaper to produce. Weak cost justification for repairs often remains the case with consumer electronics.[12]
2) Relative ease of repairs: By the early 1980s, most TV and radio manufacturers were producing solid-state sets with a modular chassis design, which meant that technicians needed less formal training to make repairs because component-level troubleshooting was not as often required—as was the case of older tube sets, in which repairs frequently involved the simple replacement of a vacuum tube. By the end of the decade, some solid-state TV manufacturers were producing sets in which the receivers' entire electronic circuit was contained on a single, replaceable printed circuit board. (Ironically, the opposite is true today, as flat screen television receivers are actually more difficult to repair than the old CRT TV's, and replacement parts are harder to obtain from the manufacturer, due to longer lead times).
3) Equipment obsolescence: By the end of the 1990s, the demise of discrete
The progression of America towards a throw-away society drastically reduced employment prospects in the electronics service sector. According to the Professional Service Association, the number of TV repair shops fell from 20,000 in 1992 to 9,000 in 2002, to around 7,000 by 2007. From 2011 to 2016, the average annual growth rate of electronics and computer repair services industry was -1.0%.[13] The concomitant effect for NRI Schools was a sharp decline in enrollment. However, several NRI competitors in the home-study business (see below) survived these turbulent times by offering a wider variety of subjects, including nontechnical training courses relevant to the current demand.
The school's closure and legacy
Ultimately, after radio-television-electronics servicing lost its appeal as a trade, McGraw-Hill announced that NRI would be phased out, citing "changes in the marketplace".[14] The school stopped accepting new enrollment applications on April 1, 1999, and discontinued operations on March 31, 2002, after a respectable 88 years in the distance education business.
Over its lifetime, NRI administered 1.5 million correspondence courses and adapted its coursework to major technical transformations in the radio-television-electronics industry from vacuum tubes to
Notable alumni
- Philo Farnsworth, American inventor and television pioneer (completed NRI radio servicing course during his first year of college at Brigham Young University)
- Ralph H. Baer, German-American inventor and engineer, often called the "father of video games" (a 1940 alumnus of the NRI radio service course)
- John Fetzer, a radio and television executive (served as the first president of the NRI alumni association)
- Polk Perdue, son of Hub Perdue a professional baseball player and manager
- Richard Hoyt Moore (1897–1987), an Indiana State Senator
- Charles H. Caldwell (1915–1989), a prominent Kentucky businessman, urban development and civic leader
- Henry W. Gould (b. 1928), Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at West Virginia University
- Hugh Robert Carlon, American chemical engineer, author and inventor; worked for the U. S. Army Chemical Research and Development Laboratories at the Edgewood Arsenal within the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
Similar American schools contemporary with NRI
Throughout the 20th century, several technical American schools existed, offering correspondence courses similar to those of NRI, including:
- International Correspondence Schools (ICS), now Penn Foster Career School(founded 1890, in Scranton, PA) (still open)
- Massey Technical Institute (founded 1894 in Jacksonville, FL) (defunct in the mid-1970s)
- Coyne Electrical School, now Coyne College (founded 1899) (defunct 2022)
- National Technical Schools (founded 1905 in Los Angeles, CA) (now defunct)
- Capitol Radio Engineering Institute(founded 1927 in Washington, D.C.) (still open)
- DeVry Technical Institute(founded 1931 in Chicago IL as Deforest's Training Inc.) (still open)
- Cleveland Institute of Electronics (founded 1934 in Cleveland, OH, as Smith Practical Radio Institute) (defunct 2022)
- Sprayberry Academy of Radio (founded 1943, in Washington D.C. but also operated out of Pueblo, CO, and Chicago, IL) (now defunct)
- American Basic Science Club (founded 1957 in San Antonio, TX) (now defunct)
Some of these trade schools have survived by diversifying their academic offerings. For example, including residential (face-to-face) courses as well as virtual classes in business administration, medical technology, medical billing & coding, among other programs, with some schools offering associate's, bachelor's, and graduate-level degrees.
Notes
1 Smith's birth year is erroneously reported as 1889 in some sources. However, in the article "The Story of the National Radio Institute," which appeared in a 1944 National Radio News journal, Smith's birth date and place is given as February 3, 1881 in Rochester, New Hampshire.
2 A WPI benefactor publication from September, 2010, lists both J. Morrison Smith (from the class of 1937) and his father (class of 1906) as deceased. J. Morrison Smith died in February 2010 in South Carolina at the age of 93 after having initially retired to North Carolina.
3 However, by the late 1970s through the 1980s, and as late as 1996 advertisements appeared in Popular Mechanics for NRI courses in audio/video servicing, computer repair, home inspecting, automotive servicing, master locksmithing, small engine repair, air conditioning/heating/refrigeration, and electrical installation/repair.
4 Thompson's obituary claims Thompson served as NRI Schools president and CEO from 1973 until he resigned in 1984 to start his own consulting firm. A January 1974 NRI Journal article confirms Thompson succeeded J. Morrison Smith as president in 1973.
References
- ^ "National Radio News, Commemorative Issue Celebrating 25th Anniversary of NRI" (PDF).
- ^ "National Radio-TV News, Commemorative Issue Celebrating 40th Anniversary of NRI" (PDF).
- ^ "NRI trade journal names".
- ^ "Electronics Illustrated Ad" (PDF).
- ^ "NRI Ad with Tom McCahill". Hearst Magazines. January 1969.
- ^ "Conar Instruments Catalog" (PDF).
- ^ "Conar Instruments".
- ^ "James E. Smith and NRI" (PDF).
- ISBN 9781841500522.
- ^ "John Thompson obituary". Legacy.com.
- ^ "Smithsonian.com article, "The Fight for the 'Right to Repair'"".
- ^ "SeattlePI.com article, "Under The Needle: TV repair shop pulling the plug""..
- ^ "USA Today article on electronics repair shops decline".
- ^ "NRI Schools Closing".
Sources
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/National_Radio_Institute_Practical_Radio_1930.htm
- https://books.google.com/books?id=HNgDAAAAMBAJ&dq=NRI+NATIONAL+RADIO+INSTITUTE+appliance+repair&pg=PA27
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Electronics-Illustrated/Electronics-Illustrated-1964-03.pdf
- http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=natradionews
- http://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2009/01/be-radio-technician.html
- http://www.itsallaboutfamily.com/j3/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=456&Itemid=207&lang=en
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Allied-Catalogs/Conar%2066.pdf
- http://www.qsl.net/k4tfj/Conar/conar.html
- https://books.google.com/books?id=EE5WoNJ1g-IC&dq=national+radio+institute+mcgraw+hill+cont+ed+ctr&pg=PT196
- https://books.google.com/books?id=Q2YEAAAAMBAJ&dq=NRI+popular+mechanics+1996+locksmith&pg=PA18
- http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/capitalgazette/obituary.aspx?n=john-thompson&pid=174337672
- http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-01-14-electronic-repairs_x.htm
- https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED047248.pdf