Bing Crosby opened the flood gates for magnetic tape recording in the broadcast industry. Despite the network prohibition of recordings, during the war years some radio stations had started using Brush and Armour wire recorders for broadcasting news events and for west coast delayed time. The new ABC network allowed Bing Crosby to record his "Philco Radio Time" show in the fall of 1946 on transcription discs but these were difficult to edit. Crosby's technical producer Murdo McKenzie learned about Mullin's Magnetophone, now called the Magnetrack for a motion picture film recording business he started with W. A. Palmer in Hollywood. In August 1947 McKenzie arranged three different recordings of Crosby's first Philco show of the 1947-48 season: by Mullin, Ranger, and transcription disc. Mullin's tape recording was superior and won the contract to record and edit Crosby's radio shows. Ampex was finishing its prototype of the Model 200 tape recorder and Mullin used the frist two models as soon as they were built. Crosby invested $50,000 in the Ampex company to expand production, and Bing Crosby Enterprises became its West coast distributor. The recorders were adopted by the radio networks and the leading recording studios. Ampex later boasted that the tape recorder and the LP "gave birth to the high fidelity era."
