International Radio Corporation

The International Radio Corporation (IRC) was an American radio receiver manufacturing company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was established in 1931 by Charles Albert Verschoor with financial backing from Ann Arbor mayor William E. Brown, Jr., and a group of local business leaders. IRC manufactured numerous different radios, many bearing the Kadette name, including the first mass-produced AC/DC radio, the first pocket radio, and the first clock radio. Due to the seasonal nature of radio sales, the company attempted to diversify its offerings with a product that would sell well during the summer, eventually settling on a camera that would become the Argus. In 1939, IRC sold its radio-manufacturing business to its former General Sales Manager, W. Keene Jackson, although his new Kadette Radio Corporation only survived for a year before it went defunct. After World War II, International Industries and its International Research division became wholly owned subsidiaries of Argus, Inc., after which point the International name ceased to exist.

The International Radio Corporation was founded in 1931 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the creation of Charles Albert Verschoor, who had begun making radios in the 1920s. Described as a "colorful old-time promoter" in a January 1945 Fortune magazine article and as a "go-getting inventor" by Mary Hunt, Verschoor had previous experience in automobile manufacturing as well. The company was initially financed with $10,000 raised by Ann Arbor mayor William E. Brown, Jr., and a group of local business leaders who desired to create a new local company with substantial potential for growth and job creation during the Great Depression. It was based out of a former furniture factory located at 405 Fourth Street on Ann Arbor's west side.

IRC debuted its first radio, the International Duo, on August 7, 1931; it was named for its ability to receive both local longwave and European shortwave radio signals. It measured 14 in (36 cm) by 16 in (41 cm) by 9 in (23 cm), at a time when most table radios measured 20 in (51 cm) in length without their separate speaker.