Anyone have history of Whistler Corporation?

[karl56]

Anyone know history of Whistler Corporation? What was year of the original companies demise? What was reason? How many owners since then?

Back in 1986, I was doing extensive business travel in MA and stopped by their factory in Westford (?) MA. Got a chance to talk briefly with a product engineer. (I'm an EE). During this time, all their products were made in MA.

Original company name was Controlonics (?) Corp. First radar detector I owned was bought new in 1978 was theXR55 (?) and was about $150. I sold it in 1979 and did not buy/use another detector until I bought a Whistler Spectrum in 1984. Great unit for its time. Also owned the Spectrum 2 and Spec 1 at later dates.

Maybe there is a former Whistler employee on this forum who can add to this.

My guess for their demise is cheaper detectors from Uniden and others (Cobra) impacted on their business.

thanks,

[stray444]

I don't know much about their history, But their is a whistler employee by the name of Micheal B that lurks the whistler section, well I'm not sure if he still does, but he'll be able to shed some light on it.

[Michael B]

The issue was not with the sales of radar detectors.

The issue was the acquisition of 3 companies in the late 90's that failed to provide profit and drained the overall finances of Whistler.

[Duramax]

PLease wxcuse my ignorance but what company owns Whistler now? I have a few Whistler RD's, Pro-78, XTR-105, XTR-140 and a older Whistler 1290. I wonder if my 1290 was made by the original Whistler company???

[Michael B]

Whistler was most recently purchased in September of 1999.

I have been with Whistler since 1983 and ownership has changed hands several times over the past 25 years.

Your 1290 was manufactured in 1993.