Meagher Electronics was a

Monterey, California Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

, company which was founded in 1947 by Jim Meagher. It included a recording studio which recorded early demos for

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

, her sister,

Mimi Farina Mimi or MIMI may refer to: People * Mimi (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Constantin Mimi (1868–1935), Bessarabian politician and winemaker * Mimi (footballer, born 1996), Bissau Guinean footballer * Mohanad Ali (born ...

and her sister's husband,

Richard Farina Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

. The company also repaired all sorts of home entertainment equipment, focusing on professional and semi professional sound equipment and high end home systems. It had a huge, high warehouse space in which literally hundreds of old wooden console radios and phonographs dating back to the 1920s were stacked to the rafters. Meagher used to explain that these had been left by customers who chose not to pick them up instead of paying the repair estimate charges. The firm was also a commercial sound installation company and one of the first

Altec Lansing Altec Lansing, Inc. is a U.S. audio electronics company founded in 1927. Their primary products are loudspeakers and associated audio electronics for professional, home, automotive and multimedia applications. Engineers at Western Electric, w ...

dealers in the country, with catalogues and equipment going back to 1947. It provided the sound system for most of the concerts and live events in the Monterey area in the 1950s through the 1970s, from folk to jazz to Roger Williams It also recorded the first gold jazz album,

Erroll Garner Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1921 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad " Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first rec ...

's ''

Concert by the Sea ''Concert by the Sea'' is a live album by pianist Erroll Garner that was released by Columbia in 1955. It sold over a million dollars' worth of retail copies by 1958, qualifying for gold record status by the definition of that time but has never ...

'' in the mid-1950s on a portable mono

Ampex 601 The Ampex 601 was a portable, analog, reel-to-reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply r ...

tape recorder which remained a prize possession for many years. The

Monterey Jazz Festival The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz ...

contracted Meagher to provide their

sound reinforcement system A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers in enclosures all controlled by a mixing console that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also distribute those soun ...

from the beginning of its existence in 1958 and the firm was extremely conscientious about providing the best quality sound possible, often using recording quality condenser microphones and custom designed loudspeaker arrays. The company supplied sound reinforcement systems for the

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big S ...

Folk Festival A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods. Handicra ...

s and assisted Harry McCune Sound from San Francisco and their sound designer

Abe Jacob Abe John Jacob (born October 7, 1944) is an American sound designer and audio engineer. Called the "Godfather of Sound", Jacob greatly influenced the design of sound reinforcement in modern musical theatre, and was one of the first persons cre ...

, who was contracted to provide the sound system for the

Monterey Pop Festival The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix ...

in 1967.https://books.google.com/books?id=bnSFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA142 Music on Stage Volume III, Volume 3, page 142, edited by Fiona Jane Schopf

References

{{Reflist Audio engineering Companies based in Monterey County, California Electronics companies established in 1947 1947 establishments in California