Glancing Back: Serving the Industry for 75 Years
Any 75-year-old person who has lived in the United States his/her whole life has seen a lot of changes occur in that time. The News also has witnessed the changing of the hvacr industry between 1926 and the present. Along with the industry, The News has evolved as well.
The 1920s were a time of innovation for household appliances, including refrigeration. The icebox was widely used, but the number of mechanical refrigerators that were sold grew. To serve this still young market sector, The News (n¿The Electric Refrigeration News) was introduced. The use of the word “electric” in the title shows that the use of ice for cooling was still important enough that the differentiation between ice refrigerating and mechanical refrigerating needed to be made.
After Amendment XVIII (Prohibition) was repealed in 1933, the brewing industry in the United States, which had long used refrigeration, was back in business and was covered in The News, as well as other sectors using refrigeration.
The growth of the domestic air conditioning market, as well as commercial/industrial air conditioning, really took off in the 1930s. During the mid-1930s, The News changed its name to The Air Conditioning and Refrigeration News. As one will notice, the word “electric” was dropped at this time, illustrating the waning of ice refrigeration. The use of the phrase “air conditioning” also shows that this portion of the sector, both at the commercial/industrial and the residential level, was sufficiently strong enough to not only report on it, but to include it at the beginning of our title.
Of course, discussing air conditioning and refrigeration, especially technical aspects of these two, is only natural, as they have so much in common. But eventually, The News added heating to its coverage. By the late 1950s, The News once again changed its name to what it is still known as today: The Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News.
The motto, printed near the publication’s title, has also changed a few times since The News’ inception. At the beginning, it was “The business newspaper of the electric refrigeration industry.” This motto illustrates that The News’ initial focus was to serve all whom were working in the electric refrigeration segment of the industry.
For example, at the beginning, The News covered, among other items, topics of interest to household appliance dealers and branch managers. It has undergone several changes since then, of course. The motto that The News used for much of its existence thus far first appeared in 1933 — “The newspaper of the industry.”
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Hvacr contractors soon replaced appliance dealers as the publication’s main audience. Finally, on Feb. 7, 2000, The News introduced its current motto: “The hvacr contractors’ weekly newsmagazine.” This motto shows The News’ commitment to reporting on news of interest to hvacr contractors.
The heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration industry has grown tremendously over the last 75 years, and The News has been there through the good times and the difficult times to serve its readers.
Publication date: 09/10/2001
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