Utica's History told by Ed Chubin
The man holding the radio is Edward Chubin, the founder of Utica Communications Corp.
Yesterday, (July 31, 2003) I had the rare opportunity to speak to the founder and president of the Utica Communications Corporation, Edward Cubin. He is now 76 years old and living in the Chicagoland area. This was for me a great pleasure and honour to speak with him. He was friendly, surprised that anyone remembered his radios, but still proud of them. He stated that he is no longer active in the communications business but stays active with his son Denny, purchasing older homes and remodeling them. He is is good health and has two grandchildren that he loves. He was kind enough to share a little history of the company and how it came about.
It stated in 1958, a man with a few bucks to invest. He was a business owner running a laundry. He and his wife were dry cleanning shirts and living comfortably. He had a friend that knew that the FCC was about to release some new freqencies to the pulblic, which would later be know as "Citizen Band Radio". They were able to get a hold of some government surplus electronics that was left over "junk" and then added a young man that knew a little about putting those electronics together, and the birth a of radio company. The company was first called, "Magnolia Electronics Inc", and was located in Utica Illinois. You probably have guessed where the name "Utica Communications Corp" came from. Your right, Utica Illinois. They produced their first radio , the first "Town & Country" pictured below. After a short while they decided to move to the Chicago area , renting some office space off of Lasallle Street. The name was changed to Utica Communications Corporation, The company got off to a slow start with many obsticles to overcome.
Edward Chubin knew his first radio had not done very well. In fact his first years total sales were $49,000. A poor showing on the radio market. Cubin's idea was to mass produce radios. He knew there was and would be a market out there for radios. Big business would need them, small business would also use them for delivery trucks, subsidiary plants, sales outlets, salesmen and company officials all could keep in touch with the radio. It could only grow with unlimited potential. Chubin got a few people to gether and started to work out the details. In the meantime, his second radio also did poorly on the market. Motorola had at that time controlled the market.
Chubin went to the phone book and found a young man from a local electronics company and hired him. He worked with Cubin and changed the design to come up with a compast, combination transmitter and receiver, the MC-27 Town & Country for use in the car, boat, truck, home or office. The radio had been changed also on the outside. Instead of the brown "Heathkit TYPE" radio pictured above, it has a new chrome steel case that at it's time look like the future, with space age technology. (see below) This radio was it. It had looks, it was durable, economical, (sold for $120.00) and the public loved it. The company was now mass producing the American made radio.
.Sales started to soar. The MC-27 sales doubled each year from 1959, 1960, and 1961. The company reported sales of $360.000 for 1961. The company had to move may time to acomadate the rapid growth of their new found prosperity. From a small office to over 13,000 square feet of production space. All this and they had not introduced their second radio, the TCII.
