This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

RCA is perhaps one of the most famous abbreviations ever. Even though most people have probably heard of it, I'd be willing to say that quite a few would be stumped at what the letters stood for. Do you know? (No Googling allowed!) That's okay, because I'll tell you. RCA was the Radio Corporation of America.

According to a history at a site dedicated to RCA's current licensing initiatives, General Electric (NYSE: GE) established RCA in 1919 to fulfill a request made by the U.S. government during World War I. The government recognized the importance of radio patents during wartime and did not want GE to go through with a transaction that would see broadcasting materials sold to the British Marconi business. So, instead of interacting with British Marconi, the American Marconi business was absorbed into RCA.

As the years went by, RCA sold radios made by GE and Westinghouse and became involved in broadcasting. The radio medium saw its popularity rise in the early part of the 20th century, leading RCA to buy, along with GE and Westinghouse in 1926, a station in New York with the call sign WEAF. This was the genesis for the National Broadcasting Company, which you know better as NBC (and to think that a lot of pundits find GE's ownership of NBC Universal quizzical). Eventually, RCA bought out the Victor Talking Machine company in 1929. Yep, thus was born RCA Victor. Now, you might associate RCA Victor with that famous dog logo (I know I do). I didn't realize this, but that dog is called Nipper, he's said to be a Fox Terrier, and according to some legends I've read, he was thus named because he liked to bite people. Who knows, but I sure wouldn't want to bother him while he's listening to that phonograph of his!