By the end of the seventies, Jim Fosgate had developed interests in other businesses and was pretty much letting the company run and manage itself. Financial troubles gave way to quality problems and Mr. Fosgate began looking for a buyer for his innovative car audio company. Rockford Corporation was formed as an investment group. Their organization at the time was called Camelback Investment Group. They adopted the name of the street where Fosgate audio had existed for years in Tempe, Arizona. Their goal was to take a floundering company, turn it around, and make it an industry leader. The biggest initial change made at the newly formed Rockford Fosgate was the strict reins put on quality control.

Key people were put into positions and responsibilities that assured total quality control procedures. Many of the key individuals in these positions are still top executives at Rockford Corporation today. One of these key people was an engineer named John France. John had actually been working with Jim Fosgate since the mid seventies. It wasn't until Rockford's involvement that John France's position became so important. It was John's interpretation of Jim Fosgate's designs that made Rockford Fosgate's early products so successful. Innovative ideas such as bridging mono while running stereo and the use of MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) for better stability at low impedance loads are proof of John's vision. John also developed the protection circuit that was first used in the infamous POWER 1000. Its effectiveness was demonstrated to R.T.T.I. (Rockford Technical Training Institute) students by burning pencils and welding with foil without damage to the amplifier.

As Rockford Fosgate products became more in demand, a peculiar problem developed. Dealers would call the factory and say, "We love your amps, but they're blowing up every speaker we have." So the next hurdle to overcome was to develop a high performance speaker line. After evaluating many samples from outside speaker manufacturers, it became evident that nobody could deliver what Rockford Fosgate wanted. At that point Rockford Fosgate determined that the only way to make a speaker worthy of the name was to build it internally. Rockford found a quality OEM speaker manufacturer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which had been in the audio business since the early 1940s.

Carbonneau Speaker Manufacturing had focused its business on the OEM of mobile speakers. Carbonneau was excited about being involved with Rockford Corporation in the production of high-performance car audio. In 1985, Rockford acquired Carbonneau (now called RAD) and made a quick transition from OEM to aftermarket, building its new line of car audio woofers, mid ranges, and tweeters.