Last US manufacturer of professional audio tape closes shop.

From the Opelika-Auburn News (Alabama) bq. Opelika plant closes When they clocked out for the Christmas holidays, Quantegy employees planned on returning to work, as scheduled, Monday. But, there's no job to go back to - for some 250 employees. bq. "No Trespassing" signs were erected Friday afternoon and security passwords were changed at the Opelika plant, 2230 Marvyn Parkway. bq. "Quantegy, Inc. has ceased operations pending restructuring. This is due to financial issues that have plagued the industry and Quantegy for some time. All employees are on lay off pending further notice," according to a brief press release issued by the company Friday. The Opelika plant, once employed some 1,800 workers, has recently filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Some back story: bq. Almost 60 years ago, the story was different. "In 1945, after capturing several German 'Magnetophon' tape recorders from Radio Luxembourg, the American Signal Corps recorded a speech by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to be played to the people of occupied Germany... And more (talking about the American development of magnetic tape): bq. Maj. Orr located a German scientist, Dr. Karl Pfleumer, who gave him a basic formula for magnetic tape. Within two weeks, Maj. Orr had managed to manufacture his first reels of usable audio tape. After returning to his home in Opelika, Alabama, Orr set up a magnetic tape manufacturing facility and soon afterwards began marketing his own tape under the "IRISH" brand name. Orr continued his manufacturing operation and in 1959, Orradio Industries became part of the Ampex Corporation. bq. Founded by Alexander M. Poniatoff, The Ampex Corporation had been developing audio tape recorders since the end of WWII starting with its model 200. The company's first sales of the Model 200 were to Bing Crosby Enterprises and the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In 1956, Ampex announced a historic breakthrough - the first practical video tape recorder. bq. Shortly after this introduction Poniatoff and Orr entered into negotiations and in 1959, Orradio Industries became the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division of Ampex Corporation. In November of 1995, the Ampex Recording Media Corporation was put up for sale, and the recording media pioneer became Quantegy Inc., according to www.quantegy.com Fast forward 2005... bq. "It's like Happy New Year - you don't have a job," said one former Quantegy employee. "Most of these employees have worked there 28 to 30 years - they don't know anything else; they are a different breed of people, dedicated to the company. The average age is 50 plus, and no matter what they say - it's not easy to start over." Ouch! Cassette tapes will be around forever and the Mini-DV and VHS video tapes too but the lifespan of pro grade Audio recording tape is nearing an end for most people... I started out with several tape recorders that used 1/4" wide tape and recorded on two tracks (stereo - left and right). You would record and then flip the tape over to get another 30 minutes (there were four tracks on the tape and you could record and play back two at a time). The top "pro-sumer" machines at that time were Revox, Crown and Magnecord. I owned a Magnecord 1024 (and wish I still did!). I then graduated to an Ampex 1/4" four-track (able to record the four tracks simultaneously but you lost the option of flipping the tape over for more capacity). My last machine was a Tascam TSR-8 1/2" eight track machine. I was in Hog Heaven. Cost me about $2,500 back in 1985 -- put several hundred hours on it and sold it at a garage sale for $500. Still an excellent machine! I now record direct from the mixing board to hard disk with much better fidelity but I really miss working with the tape. There is something nice and tangible about working with a metal splicing block, a razor blade and some tape that gets left out in a point-and-click environment... I recently upgraded my Cakewalk software to their new Sonar package and although it has a lot of neat features and I do not plan to go back, I still miss the cleanness and the sound of tape.