This Hi-Fi Tape Recorder Changed Radio Forever

Long after the company was gone, the Ampex sign remained for years on the West side of 101 somewhere around Redwood City, was finally taken down ten or 20 years ago.

I have been told (perhaps incorrectly) that the Phillips cassette tape dimension is based on being able to source the full track tape stock and split it.

The same story is told about Eastman Kodak and 35/70mm film stock, as well as 16mm and 8mm with and without sound track.

Sent to Germany at the war’s end, Mullin eventually came across that technology at a radio station...

Fun trivia: that radio station was in Bad Nauheim, Germany, which is where Elvis Presley was stationed during his stint in the US Army.

The magnetic tape was produced by IG Farben, a lovely company if you like slave labor and holocausts.