Colophon

This project was begun in March of 2001 in response to my students’ requests for information on microphones that is not available in our course text, and by my ninety-four-year-old mother’s remark that she thought all microphones are alike. Since that time a wealth of information has been gleaned, and is now presented here for your enlightenment and enjoyment.

Significant amounts of technical data were obtained from the microphone manufacturers themselves. This is especially true with regard to the older RCA ribbon types, and I thank the preservationists who have made available the historical notes for the rest of us to appreciate.

Those I would like to acknowledge include Sheldon Hochheiser, Ph.D. who is Corporate Historian at AT&T Labs, Mr. Ethan Wetzell who is a Technical Applications and Service representative of the Pro Audio Group at Telex Communications, Inc., Mr. John R. Misenhimer of the Pasadena High School Industrial Arts Department, Mr. Wes Dooley of Audio Engineering Associates, Mr. Ron Streicher of Pacific Audio-Visual Enterprises, Prof. Gary Mraz of Citrus College, Mr. James U. Steele of WKBX Radio, Mr. Jerry Silvia of Silvia Classics Microphone Restoration, Mr. Ekkehart Willms of Vintage-Phone Antiques, Mr. Michael Henry of the Broadcast Pioneers Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland, Mr. Douglas N. Johnson of KPCC Radio, Mr. Jeff Rudisill of the Performing and Communication Arts Division at Pasadena City College, and Prof. Robert L. Shrader, former Chairman of Electronics at Laney College.

Others who have provided help along the way include Prof. Stanley R. Alten of Syracuse University, Prof. Harvey D. D. Hetland of the Engineering and Technology Division at Pasadena City College, Prof. A. Kenneth Johnson of the Communication Division at Pasadena City College, Mr. Michael D. Callaghan of KIIS Radio, Mr. Maurice Mischook of KBIG/KOST Radio, Mr. Stephen Sank of the Champlain Valley Speaker Company, Mr. Michael Dorrough and Mrs. Kay Dorrough of Dorrough Electronics, Mr. Gary Sanders, Mr. Dennis Schrank, Mr. Sean Brady, and Mr. Jim Webb, the man with the fabulous microphone collection.

HyperText Markup Language coding was done with BBEdit, a professional HTML and text editor for the Macintosh, published by Bare Bones Software. Many of the microphone photos were featured in eBay auctions. Celebrity photos are accredited on the pages where they appear. Those photos that remain uncredited were obtained during Web searches in which no attribution was provided. The photo of Dr. Martin Luther King, the photo of the woman at Radio RCB, the photo of President Franklin Roosevelt, and the photo of Mr. Nikita Khrushchev standing with President Richard Nixon were purchased from the Corbis Corporation. The Beach Boys Pet Sounds session photos were provided by Capitol Records and EMI-Capitol Entertainment Properties, and are used here with their kind and thoughtful permission.

Omission of acknowledgement is unintentional, and should be brought to my attention. I hope that this Web site will prove useful, especially to my former students now working in the industry.

—Prof. S. O. Coutant, retired
Performing and Communication Arts Division
Pasadena City College

A production of Continuous Creativity
in conjunction with Coutant & Coutant
Copyright © 2007