Sampo was one of those really off the radar brands that were good but just were not popular. Lack of advertising and cheap price didn't help I'm sure. My grandma had a Sampo 19" color TV and she watched it all day every day and it was fine. It was no Sony but it was fine for her and that set was LOUD she always had it at high volume.
Sampo had a lot of advertising for small TV sets, I have a feeling they did contract manufacturing for other companies.
Actually they were a major OEM for Radio Shack, GE and others. Just about every Realistic and GE and other brands such as Sharp were made by Sampo. In fact, if the unit was made in Taiwan it was made by Sampo mostly. The quality control though wasn't the greatest with the cassette deck as the weak link in those. The Realistic SCR-8 boombox with the LED meters? The tape deck ALWAYS jams and then becomes useless. There are too many moving parts that jam when the lube grease dries up and the belts turn to goo. Also, parts no longer exist really. I don't think they were meant to last more than 10 years honestly.
Good to know, I try to post any newsprint with associated companies knowing there's usually a connection. I didn't know who made who but over time I'm finding the contract manufacturers, mostly the guys in Singapore since they newpaper is in English and free online. There's a story over on Tapeheads from 10 or so years ago, it was entered by a from a retired Superscope/Marantz Guy and he talks about how they went to Japan in the late 60's and could get anything they wanted built. I love the background of how all of this was put together and for a decade or so was the "hot" market.
