Radio Recorders

Radio Recorders, Inc. located at 7000 Santa Monica Boulevard, was a recording studio based in Los Angeles, California.

Many notable musicians are reported to have been recorded in the studio include Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Sam Cooke, Jimmie Rodgers, Louis Armstrong, Mario Lanza, Patti Page, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, ((Frankie Yankovic)), Frank Zappa, Paul Frees and The Carpenters among others. In its prime, the studio was considered the best recording facility in Los Angeles.[1]

During the Forties and Fifties, Radio Recorders was responsible for recording countless radio shows, both network and local, for delayed broadcast in the Western states. Telephone lines ran to all the important stations and the networks. Studio C was the nerve center with at least six recording lathes and turntables and an "on-the-air" playback turntable protected by a railing so that it would not be bumped while it was playing a program onto the air. The recording lathes were shock-mounted in sand to prevent rumble from the streetcars on Santa Monica Boulevard. For much of that era, before tape recording was introduced, the recordings were made on and played back from lacquer-coated aluminum discs. The room could handle several programs at once, 24 hours a day, and often with a single engineer on duty.

Most of the major labels used Radio Recorders well into the 1960s. RCA Victor, Columbia, Capitol, and Decca ultimately had their own facilities, but Radio Recorders was still the choice of many independent labels and both popular and classical artists, from Stravinsky to Elvis. In addition, most of the jingles were recorded there.

In 1946, the company remodeled a warehouse at 1032 North Sycamore Avenue and built a large studio, capable of handling approximately fifty musicians. This studio was known as Radio Recorders Annex, or, within the industry, just "The Annex." The warehouse originally belonged to RCA Victor and "the Annex" was a legendary studio that Victor had built in their warehouse back in the 1930s.

In 1962 H.B. Barnum and Bill Aken chose the annex to record their big band version of "Goody, Goody" for Governor Goodwin J. (Goodie) Knight's re-election campaign. Additionally in 1962 Bill Aken would record the classic "Theme For Shock Theater," with engineer Phil Yeend. The main location at 7000 Santa Monica had two large studios and some smaller ones, as well as disc mastering facilities.

In 1965, Radio Recorders' engineer, Thorne Nogar, purchased The Annex and started his own independent Annex Studios, which attracted a distinguished clientele as a full-service studio, including mastering. For many years, Lawrence Welk pre-recorded the music for his popular television show, becoming the most important client; in addition, in the 1960s and 1970s Annex mastered for such labels as Uni Records, Dot Records, and Ranwood Records, as well as cutting early pressings of Barbra Streisand's hit single "The Way We Were." The Annex's location now houses The Record Plant Studios.

In the late 1980s the studio was reopened as Studio 56 by Paul Shwartz. At that time, artists such as Guns & Roses, Sugar Ray, Toni Braxton, Brandy, No Doubt and others recorded there. The documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown was also partially filmed there. Kenneth Crouch, Keith Crouch and Leon Sylvers were all house producers there at that time.

In 2002, the studio gained two new partners, Pride Hutchison and Michael Dumas who brought the studio back to life under its original name Radio Recorders.

In 2004, the property was declared a historic site by the city of Los Angeles.

From 2002 to 2008 the studio welcomed many great projects and clients including Natalie Cole, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Lil' Jon, Xzibit, Annie Lennox and many more.

The facility closed in 2008.

Today the sign declaring Radio Recorders a Historic Site still remains on the corner of Santa Monica and Orange.