The Ampex Electric and Manufacturing Company was founded on November 1st 1944 in San Carlos, California, by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The Ampex name itself is derived from his initials with an EX added on the end which officially means excellence. However, there is the possibility that originally the EX actually stood for experimental.
Through the interception of radio transmissions during the Second World War the Allies knew that the German Army had developed an ability to record high quality audio onto tape in previously unheard of segment lengths of anywhere up to 15 minutes. The army used the recordings to trasmit propaganda material throughout the war 24 hours per day. At the time, Jack Mullin was serving in the Army Signal Corps and when it fell to the Allies in 1945, his unit was assigned to investigate the German radio and recording technology.
Completely by chance he was able to acquire two AEG ‘Magnetophon’ devices, each of which was around the size of a suitcase. He took these home and spent the next two years modifying them with the hope that he would be able to convince hollywood to use magnetic tape for their movie sound recordings.
Mullin gave a couple of demonstrations of his audio recording device in 1947, one of which was at the MGM studios in Hollywood. In the audience was Bing Crosby who realised that the technology could address his discomfort with live radio performance. Crosby much preferred the relaxed atmosphere of the recording studio, and so he made Mullins his chief engineer and invested $50,000 into Ampex in order for them to develop a commercial version of the recorder.
Although he had previously failed to get the recording studios to broadcast his show using recordings, Crosby tried again and by April 1948 ABC had put Ampex Model 200 tape recorders into service across the country. That same year the Bing Crosby show was broadcast from a recording rather than as a live show for the first time ever.