Karl Hassel, born January 25, 1896 in Sharon, PA, displayed a passion for the hottest new technology at the turn of the century - radio. It was this passion that would lead him to co-found the company that would later become Zenith.
Hassel was granted his amateur radio license in 1912, and went on to attend Westminster College from 1914 to 1915 before he transferred to the University of Pittsburgh. At Pittsburgh, Hassel made use of his knowledge of his hobby to operate the campus radio transmitter, 8XI, one of the most powerful in the country at that time. He got the job because he was the only one on campus able to operate the equipment. After the U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917, the government shut down all amateur stations. Hassel was one of three operators to pass the government test, and ran the station until it was shut down a year later.
With the end of amateur radio broadcasting, Hassel decided to join the U.S. Navy. He became a radio code instructor at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station near Chicago where he befriended Ralph H.G. Mathews. Thanks to their radio expertise, the two were then transferred to Naval Intelligence, which operated out of the Commonwealth Edison Building in Chicago.
After leaving the Navy, the two friends decided to go into business together. They founded the Chicago Radio Laboratory (CRL) in late 1918, and began to manufacture amateur radio gear based on Mathews' earlier creations. The company's first products, made with help from friends M.B. Lowe and Larry Dutton, were built on the kitchen table of the Mathews' family home in Chicago.
CRL soon grew, and the pair moved their operations into a two-car garage located a few blocks away. Half of the garage was devoted to manufacturing, while the other half to Mathews' amateur radio station, "9ZN". The station was soon able to be heard worldwide.
The company was further expanded by an investment by Eugene F. McDonald, Jr., and began producing up to 15 "Z-Nith" brand two component (the Amplifigon detector and amplifier and the Paragon tuner) regenerative receivers per day. By 1921, CRL moved into a 3,000-square foot factory at 6433 Ravenswood Ave in Chicago. Zenith Radio Corporation was officially incorporated on June 30, 1923, with capital of $500,000, with an exclusive sales and marketing agreement with CRL. Mathews and Hassel signed 10-year contracts with CRL. Two years later, Zenith acquired CRL's assets, creating one unified company. In late 1924, the company moved again to a large factory on the 3600 block of South Iron Street in Chicago.
Under McDonald's leadership, the company began its run as a pioneering radio manufacturer, beginning in 1924 with the Companion, considered the first modern portable radio, and in 1926, Model 27, its first radio powered by AC instead of batteries.
Zenith annual sales grew from about $5 million in 1928 to $11 million in 1930, when it employed around 450 workers. During World War II, the company expanded thanks to military contracts for bomb fuses and other devices. In the late 1940s, Zenith went into TV manufacturing and became the number one maker of black-and-white sets throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Annual sales reached $100 million in 1950 and approached $500 million by the mid-1960s, when the company had more than 15,000 employees.
Mathews and Hassel shared more than an enthusiasm for radio - they both were married to the same woman. Mathews married Mildred Josephine Finn, but the two divorced in the mid-1920s. Hassel married her in January 1926, a union that lasted until his death in 1975. Hassel's five decades of association with Zenith included 40 years as a member of the company's board of directors.