Download a 7pp article from AUDIO ENGINEERING magazine March 1949 on the subject of WMGM NYC. Author is one M. E. Gunn.
DOWNLOAD: Audio_Engineering-4903-WMGM_(later_Fine_Sound)-2018_scan
Thanks to Tom Fine for the scan, and for this context:
Here’s a look at WMGM, at 711 Fifth Avenue NYC (now the Coca-Cola building). My father’s first company was called Fine Sound, located in Tomkins Cove NY (Rockland County). He and George Piros started the company after they both left Reeves Studios, around 1951. It was there that the recording truck was conceived and built (*see here for our extensive prior coverage of that endeavor*), and also where my father invented a process we’d today call pseudo-stereo sound for film, PerspectaSound (more at widescreenmuseum.com).
Fine Sound INC circa 1954Loews/MGM bought 51% of PerspectaSound and moved my father’s studio business to most of the WMGM space described in this article. Studios A and B, which were 2-story floating rooms within the building, were the original NBC Network studios, before Rockefeller Center. After NBC moved out, World Broadcasting occupied the space during WWII. Loews/MGM bought the building in 1948 and set up their main radio station there. By the time Loews/MGM bought 51% of Fine Sound, WMGM wasn’t doing large-audience live radio very much, so Studios A and B weren’t needed for day to day radio work. So it was a good business move to convert most of the space into a recording and mastering facility. Columbia Pictures bought the building in 1956 and wanted to take over Studio A as a large screening room. My father’s business wasn’t viable without both big studios, so he got into a lawsuit against Loews/MGM to block the sale. He lost and ended up without a business. He ended up back on his feet a couple years later with Fine Recording (*see here for our extensive coverage of Fine Recording*)
The ground-breaking Miles Davis/Gil Evans/Gerry Mulligan “Birth of the Cool” sessions were done at WMGM. As Fine Sound, the studios were host to numerous jazz sessions for Norman Granz (Norgran/Verve) and Mercury/Emarcy, by the likes of Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hodges, Gerry Mulligan, Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Roy Eldridge, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Patti Page, etc.
Fine Sound studio B during Raymond Scott “Your Hit Parade Session.” Photo by Bob Eberenz, courtesy T. FineThe studios were also used by Raymond Scott to pre-record music for “Your Hit Parade,” and also to pre-record music for Patti Page’s TV program. There were also early stereo recordings made for Grand Award (Enoch Light’s company which ABC-Paramount bought and it then became Command Records).
Raymond Scott (R) and assistant during”Your Hit Parade Session.” Photo by Bob Eberenz, courtesy T. FineThe studio was also used to produce PerspectaSound soundtrack masters for MGM movies and cartoons. Fine Sound also had a unique mono LP cutting system, using the Miller cutterhead. This system had zero electrical feedback, instead the cutterhead was mechanically damped with rubber blocks. The cutterhead could be driven with more power and was capable of greater dynamic range than Westrex mono system. Fine Sound was the largest independent (ie not Columbia, RCA or American Decca) LP-cutting facility in the USA in the mid-50s.
As Prior
As PriorDuring its time at Fine Sound, one of the 12-channel RCA consoles was converted to three-channel (in reality, it ended up being three 4×3 mixers). That console later ended up in Studio B of Fine Recording from 1958 to 1967. In the film-mixing studio (Studio C), MGM installed a custom Western Electric console designed and built specifically for MGM (and described in a SMPE [pre-SMPTE] Journal article). This console also ended up at Fine Recording, in Studio C, and was then at Walter Sear’s studio in NYC, and later it was briefly used at the now-defunct Museum of Sound Recording. It’s now privately owned and under restoration.
2 replies on “Studio Report (c. 1949) : WMGM NYC (later FINE SOUND INC) (UPDATED 1)”
Great new pictures! I’d love to know of any of those custom RCA consoles that survive, so far I’ve not encountered one outside of a radio master control desk with a similar look, all guided by industrial designer John Vassos who was on retainer with RCA for nearly 4 decades. The well known RCA knob is his work.
Today I have just come across the album “Indiscretion”-Patti Page (1959 Mercury Records), the high fidelity, black label mono pressing, with an absolutely stunning cover color photo, a close-up on Patti, the most intimate photo I have ever seen of her. As I reached inside the jacket to check the condition of the vinyl, I immediately felt it was more heavy and thick than regular Mercury album pressings. Imagine my surprise when I pulled out a Fine Sound Inc. 12″ acetate of “Indiscretion” b/w “Autumn In Rome” by Patti Page; no date or any other information provided on this typed label. Checking the track listing on the back of album jacket, the “Autumn in Rome” track is not listed, only “Autumn Leaves” and “‘Tis Autumn.” Can’t wait to get home and play it on my Dearest Mother Adele’s audiophile system. Mother introduced me to Patti’s music with her beloved copy of “The Waltz Queen” (Wing/Mercury)—All The Patti Page Best, Mark Matlock/Andromeda International Records and Films