Editing RCA (section)

==Later years==
[[File:Edgar H. Griffiths, RCA Annual Meeting, NYC.jpg|thumb|upright|Edgar H. Griffiths, RCA president from 1976 to 1981, at the 1979 Annual Meeting, NYC]]

On January 1, 1965, Robert Sarnoff succeeded his father as RCA's president, although the elder Sarnoff remained in control as chairman of the board. The younger Sarnoff sought to modernize RCA's image with the introduction in late 1968 of what was then a futuristic-looking new logo (the letters 'RCA' in block, modernized form), replacing the original lightning bolt logo, and the virtual retirement of both the Victor and Nipper/"His Master's Voice" trademarks. The RCA Victor Division was renamed [[RCA Records]]; the 'Victor' and 'Victrola' trademarks were no longer used on RCA consumer electronics. 'Victor' was now restricted to the labels and album covers of RCA's regular popular record releases, while the Nipper/"His Master's Voice" trademark was seen only on the album covers of [[RCA Red Seal|Red Seal]] records.

In 1969, the company name was officially changed from Radio Corporation of America to the '''RCA Corporation''', to reflect its broader range of corporate activities and expansion into other countries. At the end of that same year,  David Sarnoff, after being incapacitated by a long-term illness, was removed as the company's chairman of the board. He died in December 1971.

RCA's exit from the mainframe computer market in 1971 marked a milestone in its transition from electronics and technology toward Robert Sarnoff's goal to diversify RCA as a multinational business [[conglomerate (company)|conglomerate]]. During the late 1960s and 1970s, the company made a wide-ranging series of acquisitions, including [[The Hertz Corporation|Hertz]] (rental cars), [[Banquet Foods|Banquet]] (frozen foods and [[TV dinner]]s), [[Beaulieu International Group|Coronet]] (carpeting), [[Random House]] (publishing) and [[American Greetings|Gibson]] (greeting cards). However, the company was slipping into financial disarray, with wags calling it "Rugs Chickens & Automobiles" (RCA), to poke fun at its new direction.<ref name=Chickens>{{cite book|last1=Clausing|first1=Don |title=Effective Innovation|year=2004|publisher=ASME Press|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnFRAAAAMAAJ&q=Rugs+Chickens+%26+Automobiles|first2=Victor |last2=Fey |access-date=February 25, 2012|page=7|isbn=9780791802038 }}</ref>

During this period, RCA continued to maintain its high standards of engineering excellence in broadcast and satellite communications equipment, but profits generated by the NBC television and radio networks began to decline.

Robert Sarnoff's tenure as RCA president was unsuccessful, marked by falling profits. While out of the country in October 1975,  Sarnoff was ousted in a "[[boardroom coup]]" led by Anthony Conrad, who became RCA's new president. Conrad resigned less than a year later after he admitted failing to file income tax returns for six years. His successor, Edgar H. Griffiths, proved to be unpopular and retired in early 1981. Griffiths was succeeded by Thornton Bradshaw, who turned out to be the last RCA president.

After the departure of Robert Sarnoff, Griffiths, who considered the demoted "His Master's Voice" trademark a "valuable company asset", restored Nipper as RCA's corporate mascot. On October 31 1976, RCA formally announced the return of the Nipper trademark to RCA products and advertising. RCA Records reinstated Nipper to most record labels in countries and territories where RCA held the rights to the trademark. Once again, Nipper was widely used in RCA newspaper, magazine, and TV advertisements. The trademark also returned to company stationery, sales literature,  shipping cartons, store displays, delivery and service vehicles and reappeared on RCA television sets and in 1981, the new [[CED Videodisc]] system. Several newspaper articles and TV news reports about Nipper's revival appeared at the time. A multitude of new Nipper promotional items and collectibles also appeared, including T-shirts, caps, neckties, beach towels, cigarette lighters, coin banks, keychains, watches, clocks, coffee mugs, drinking glasses and stuffed toys.

Projects attempting to establish new [[consumer electronics]] products during this era failed and lost RCA much money and prestige. An [[RCA Studio II]] home video game console, introduced in 1977, was canceled just under two years later due to poor sales. Development of RCA's [[Capacitance Electronic Disc|capacitance electronic (CED) videodisc]] system began in 1964, and after several years of delays was launched in March 1981. Marketed under the [[SelectaVision]] name, the RCA CED videodisc system represented the largest investment RCA made in a single product, even greater than color TV. However, the system was practically obsolete by the time it finally appeared, and never reached the manufacturing volumes needed to bring its price down to the level needed to compete against the newer, recordable and increasingly cheaper videotape technology. In April 1984, after three years of slow sales, RCA abandoned manufacture of the CED players, and ended videodisc production in 1986, after a loss of around $650 million.

Around 1980, RCA corporate strategy reported on moving manufacture of its television receivers to Mexico. In 1981, [[Columbia Pictures]] sold its share in the home video division to RCA and outside of North America this division was renamed "RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video (now [[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]])". The following year, within North America, it was renamed to "RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video". In 1983, the German media conglomerate [[Bertelsmann]] sold 50% of [[Arista Records]] to RCA Records; in 1985, RCA and Bertelsmann formed a joint venture, RCA/Ariola International, which took over management of RCA Records. Bertelsmann would fully acquire RCA Records from General Electric after GE absorbed RCA in 1986.<ref name="bertelsmann.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.bertelsmann.com/bertelsmann_corp/wms41/customers/bmcorp/pdf/RCA_-_Now_Elvis_rocked_for_Bertelsmann__too.pdf |title=RCA: Now Elvis rocked for Bertelsmann, too |publisher=Bertelsmann Worldwide Media |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130215083847/http://www.bertelsmann.com/bertelsmann_corp/wms41/customers/bmcorp/pdf/RCA_-_Now_Elvis_rocked_for_Bertelsmann__too.pdf |archive-date=February 15, 2013 }}</ref>

RCA was still profitable in 1983, when it switched manufacturing of its VHS VCRs from [[Panasonic]] to [[Hitachi]]. In 1984, RCA Broadcast Systems Division moved from the RCA Victor plant in [[Camden, New Jersey]], to the site of the RCA antenna engineering facility in [[Gibbsboro, New Jersey]]. On October 3, 1985, RCA announced it was closing the Broadcast Systems Division.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JMTnTBmt7F0C&q=rca+%2B+%22broadcast+systems%22+%2B+1985&pg=PA212|title=The History of Television, 1942 to 2000|isbn=978-07864-1220-4|last1=Abramson|first1=Albert|year=2003|publisher=McFarland }}</ref> In the years that followed, the broadcast product lines developed in Camden were terminated or sold off, and most of the old RCA Victor buildings and factories in Camden were demolished, except for a few of the original Victor buildings that had been declared national historic buildings.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/TV/RCA-TV.htm|title=RCA TV Equipment Archive|publisher=oldradio.com}}</ref> For several years, RCA spinoff [[L-3 Communications]] Systems East was headquartered in the famous [[Nipper Building]], but has since moved to an adjacent building built by the city for them. The renovated Nipper Building now houses shops and luxury loft apartments.<ref>[http://www.thevictorloft3s.com The Victor Lofts website], Camden, New Jersey. victorlofts.com</ref>