My best early tour of the CBS Records plant was conducted by my friend Brad Pirch. He took me into every department and described what the engineering issues were in each place, how the process used to work and what was currently being done to improve.  He conveyed the same attitude as the Engineers from HQ: the plant is a wonderland of problems waiting to be solved. They shaved off minutes and pennies, which led to the high productivity and lower labor required in each successive plant. Brad had both scope and detail in his explanations. I begged Brad for memories about his 40 years as an engineer with CBS Records and he responded brilliantly. Enjoy!

“My time started in the late 60’s in Terre Haute.  I will just describe the days of the glory of LP’s when (I think) about 5 companies were going strong:  Columbia, Warner Bros, RCA, Capitol, and MCA.  And I am just talking manufacturing of records, not the recording studio, acoustics, mastering, and marketing stuff.

Don’t confuse these “Big 5” with “record labels”, of which there must have been hundreds and hundreds. Only the Big 5 had the manufacturing to go along with their recording studios and artists.  The other labels (Motown for example) had to join up with (contract with) one of the Big 5 in order to get press time and production.  Of course, money did the talking in those days (i.e. Payola), so the competition was fierce.  I used to know the difference between each of the Big 5’s records, just by the feel and the design.  All the groove configuration was about the same, because they all had to play well on any given turntable.  But each one had its own contours, profiles, and label designs.Columbia Records invented the LP back after WW2 and I was lucky enough to learn from a few of the geniuses that were involved with that project after I began my career about 20 years later.  Those guys probably forgot more about LPs than I ever learned.