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Interviews and Stories

Preserving the stories of significant individuals in sound recording generally and magnetic recording specifically is a major project of MOMSR. The Museum’s goal is to document the stories of those persons who contributed significant inventions, manufactured equipment and who engineered and produced audio recordings, especially in the areas of music, broadcast, film/video and science. These interviews will be available on MOMSR’s web site and in the permanent facility when it is created. These interviews have also been made available to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammy’s).

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Ampro This is information about a later (1970's) company with the Ampro name

The Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording greatly appreciates Mx. Remy Ann David/Crow Mobile providing us with the following information on Ampro.

Under the Ampro Tape Recorder section, at the bottom is a small indicator of another company with some fragmented misinformation. Personally, I knew nothing of the Ampro recorders in your listing.

Ampro Corp. was founded by Raphael Alexander Meyer, I believe around 1971. The company name basically stands for Alex Meyers Products or, Ampro. Quality control rubberstamps when made under Ampro ownership had RAM indicated on the rubberstamp because they were his initials. He went into business manufacturing the AM-10 radio station broadcast console (AM were simply his initials as he usually went by " Alex "). It was lower in cost than similar units from Gates, Collins, CCA, RCA making it much more affordable and popular in smaller and medium market stations of both radio and TV. The 10 designation indicated 10 rotary potentiometers for 10 inputs. Later they introduced a more compact broadcast mixer that could also be utilized on location, in a portable format. And I believe that console is designated as the RM 10 and also had linear slide faders instead of rotary pots. It also featured, as I recall, FET internal switching, without the customary sound of relays switching and latching.

Around the same time, he also forayed into the manufacturing of continuous loop, NAB, continuous loop broadcast cartridge recorders. Most of these recorders were manufactured for government weather stations. While these were full grade broadcasts to NAB cartridge machines, the secondary audio cue tone track, that would automatically stop the tape, at the beginning of a song or a commercial, could be defeated. This allowed the messages for the weather service to be constantly repeated until the next update notification recording needed to be made. ITC and Pacific Recorders had the bulk of the NAB cartridge broadcast market. So Ampro NAB cartridge recorders were little known. They were actually made quite well and were quite rugged.

I think it was about eight months prior to hiring me that Alex Meyers I keep forgetting whether was Meyer or Meyers right now as at 57, senility is beginning to rear its ugly head. I'm thinking it's plural. That Ampro got Scully from Dictaphone. Upon manufacturing and shipping of their first run of the machines, all quickly had catastrophic failures. So I am a wealth of completely useless trivial historic information about the history of magnetic recording.

Mx. Remy Ann David/Crow Mobile

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Got to more about recording history by Remy Ann David - CrowMobile

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