[NJARC] RCA in Indiana from [Electrola] Digest Number 907

[Aaron Hunter]

> Thought this message in the Electrola Digest would be of interest to 
> some members.
>
> Electrola at yahoogroups.com wrote:
>> Collectible electronic phonographs. 
>> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Electrola;_ylc=X3oDMTJkMmdjaG51BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzE4MTk3OTUEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYyMjgyBHNlYwNoZHIEc2xrA2hwaARzdGltZQMxMjc1OTA4NTE1> 
>>
>>
>>
>>   Messages In This Digest (7 Messages)
>>
>> 3a.
>>     Re: Some RCA and record making history <#3a> From: Greg Bogantz 
>> 3b.
>>     Re: Some RCA and record making history <#3b> From: phonofix at aol.com 
>>
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>>#
>>
>>
>> # 3a. Re: Some RCA and record making history 
>> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Electrola/message/2445;_ylc=X3oDMTJxczZpaXExBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzE4MTk3OTUEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYyMjgyBG1zZ0lkAzI0NDUEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTI3NTkwODUxNg-->
>>#
>>
>>
>>       Posted by: "Greg Bogantz" gbogantz1 at charter.net
>>       <mailto:gbogantz1 at charter.net?Subject=%20Re%3A%20Some%20RCA%20and%20record%20making%20history>
>>         gregbogantz <http://profiles.yahoo.com/gregbogantz>
>>
>>
>>         Sun Jun 6, 2010 2:26 pm (PDT)
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi Dennis,
>>
>> Well, having said that you shouldn't be worried about playing your
>> records on properly maintained acoustic players, I would still be a 
>> little
>> antsy about doing so with REALLY scarce and valuable records. You do 
>> get a little record wear with steel needles, and using the best 
>> modern technology will produce less wear. Nothing to worry about when 
>> playing common 78s.  But I would be inclined to use only the best 
>> modern hifi pickups tracking at 4 grams or less when playing any 
>> really valuable records. I don't have any of those, so I don't much 
>> worry about it.
>>
>
>>#
>> Ahhh, 'tis a small world indeed - another Indy inhabitant discussing the
>> world of records and RCA. Herewith are some of my RCA recollections, 
>> so be
>> warned of perhaps excess windage: I lived in Indy for about 20 years and
>> worked at RCA Records during most of that time, but I have since 
>> moved to
>> the mountains of Western North Carolina (WNC). I get back to Indy about
>> once a year to visit friends, but I have been chagrined to see that 
>> there is
>> very little recollection among the younger generation there of what 
>> once was
>> an "RCA Town". Mention RCA today to an Indy teenager and you get a blank
>> stare because they don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing
>> left of RCA in Indy. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Except in the
>> advertising of some Chinese or Korean company that now owns the name.
>> Camden, NJ is often thought of as THE RCA town, but it largely turned 
>> over
>> that honor to Indy from about the late 1950s onward when all of the 
>> consumer
>> electronics and record manufacturing left Camden. RCA had several large
>> manufacturing and engineering operations in Indy over the years, 
>> starting in
>> the 1930s. I'm a little foggy on just how all this started (and it isn't
>> well documented, unfortunately), but I believe it began with the 
>> purchase of
>> a former Westinghouse lamp facility there. RCA turned that into a major
>> producer of vacuum tubes. I think that plant was located at 500 N. 
>> LaSalle
>> in the eastern downtown area. Several of our employees at Records would
>> often talk of their days at "the tube plant". RCA Records began 
>> operations
>> in Indy at that LaSalle address (I'm not sure when), where the 
>> operations
>> continued until around 1970 when a suite of buildings was occupied on E.
>> 30th Street. RCA Magnetics had a recording tape coating plant at 6800 
>> and
>> the Record Division had several buildings: Tape duplication was done at
>> 6400, Records Engineering was done at 6500, and offices and 
>> warehousing was
>> at 6550. After about 1976, the record pressing operations were 
>> transferred
>> from LaSalle to the 6550 location and the old LaSalle building was 
>> taken out
>> of service. With that transfer, all new record presses were installed 
>> with
>> Toolex-Alpha presses used for 12 inch vinyl production and converted EMI
>> injection presses used for 7 inch manufacture in styrene. I stayed 
>> with RCA
>> until the last record was pressed at the end of 1987 (it was a Reader's
>> Digest selection). After that, the press floor was stripped of its 
>> presses
>> and was converted into a junk mail factory, printing all those 
>> annoying spam
>> mail ads you used to get every week trying to get you to join one of the
>> various record or book clubs owned by BMG which is a German company who
>> bought RCA Records. The Alpha presses were all moved to a BMG pressing
>> plant in Sao Paolo, Brasil. So there hasn't been any record pressing in
>> Indy since that date. BMG still owns the 6500 plant location at which 
>> they
>> still have offices. I don't know what else is done there, but they are
>> probably still churning out junk mail. BMG never manufactured CDs in 
>> Indy.
>> The tape duplication operation was moved from 6400 down to the WNC 
>> location
>> about 1986. I had been working at other businesses in Indy until I was
>> recruited to come "back into the fold" when the tape plant was being
>> expanded into CD manufacturing in late 1992 at the WNC plant 
>> location. That
>> operation was known as Sonopress at the time, which was the name of 
>> the BMG
>> music replication facilities.
>>
>> BMG (RCA-Victor) and Sony (Columbia) merged their music operations some
>> years ago - can you imagine that Victor and Columbia would one day be 
>> under
>> the same roof? The Sonopress operations were then renamed Arvato and the
>> WNC location continues to make CDs and DVDs. Cassette tape 
>> duplication was
>> discontinued several years ago. Sony also continues CD and DVD 
>> replication
>> at their Terre Haute, Indiana location where Columbia had a vast record
>> pressing plant for years. Also, back in the heyday of records, Decca
>> records were pressed in Richmond, Indiana. Again, I'm not sure of the
>> chronology here, but the Decca plant apparently originated with the old
>> Gennett record pressing facility there. Philips later bought the 
>> plant and
>> renamed it Philips Recording Company (PRC). So you see another little
>> tidbit of record pressing history - Indiana became the record pressing
>> capital of the USA with three LARGE pressing facilities. The joke 
>> among the
>> old timers at RCA was that this happened because Indiana was the 
>> limestone
>> center of the country, and pulverized limestone was used as the 
>> abrasive and
>> filler ingredient in 78rpm shellac record formulations. But I don't know
>> how much that actually had to do with hoosiers becoming master record
>> mashers.
>>
>> RCA Consumer Electronics (CE) had their headquarters at the 600 N.
>> Sherman Drive address after they moved out of Camden. Offices, 
>> engineering,
>> and component manufacturing went on at a large building complex 
>> there. Some
>> years after that move the business grew so big that additional 
>> manufacturing
>> space was opened in Bloomington, Indiana where most of the large 
>> television
>> consoles were made with wood cabinets being made in Monticello, Indiana.
>> RCA picture tubes were made in Marion, Indiana with glass made in 
>> Tiffin,
>> Ohio (if I remember correctly). All in RCA manufacturing facilities. RCA
>> developed the CED (capacitance electronic disc) videodisc system as a 
>> joint
>> venture between CE and Records in the late 1970s. When RCA decided to
>> market the system, they built a large plant for manufacturing and disc
>> recording on Rockville Road on the far west side of Indy. The analog
>> videodisc business (neither CED, Laserdisc or any of the other systems)
>> never made much of a hit in the marketplace, and RCA shut down that
>> operation in the 1980s. In addition to these major plant locations, 
>> RCA had
>> numerous other facilities scattered around Indy as warehouses and other
>> support businesses.
>>
>> Yep, Indy was an RCA Town in its heyday. What really bothers me is that
>> the younger Indy locals have so little recollection of these halcyon 
>> days
>> when RCA provided LOTS of jobs for hoosiers. I really wish that some 
>> former
>> employees would get together and write their recollections of their 
>> RCA days
>> while they still remember things and before they all go to that big
>> electronics warehouse in the sky. So much Indy history is tied to its 
>> RCA
>> days and nobody seems to be trying to document it.
>>
>> Greg Bogantz
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Little Denny" <gbc1905 at netzero.net <mailto:gbc1905%40netzero.net>>
>> To: <Electrola at yahoogroups.com <mailto:Electrola%40yahoogroups.com>>
>> Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2010 10:11 AM
>> Subject: [Electrola] Re: Tracking force and record wear
>>
>> > In Electrola at yahoogroups.com <mailto:Electrola%40yahoogroups.com>, 
>> "Greg Bogantz" <gbogantz1 at ...> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hi Dennis,
>> > Yes, Tom Rhodes and I have commented previously on the obvious bias
>> >> toward Edison and vertical recording technology in general in the
>> >> "Tinfoil
>> >> to Stereo" book by Welch...I am a disc recording engineer and have 
>> done
>> >> extensive
>> >> disc recording while at the RCA Records Labs when it existed in
>> >> Indianapolis. I have engineered and cut test records while there for
>> >> many clients.
>> >
>> >
>>
>