| Logo | |
| Company type | Audio/Video/Lighting Rental and Production |
|---|---|
| Industry | Professional Audio |
| Founded | 1932 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA , United States |
Key people | Harry McCune, Founder |
Number of employees | 300+ |
| Website | www.mccune.com |
McCune Audio Video Lighting previously known as McCune Sound Service is an American company based in South San Francisco, California, with offices in Monterey and Anaheim that is one of the oldest and largest rental and sound service in that country. Founded in 1932 by Harry McCune Sr. McCune AVL provides Audio, Lighting and High-definition video services to events as varied as outdoor festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, and Bohemian Grove, and to arena conferences such as TED.[1]
History
editHarry McCune Sr. founded the business in 1932, building a sound system while working as an auto mechanic. He built several before he made one big enough to handle a dance band. He would rent out the system and himself for $1 on a Saturday night and give it away for free on a Friday night. Harry McCune Sr. began renting sound systems to big bands in the '30s and '40s, and with his son Harry McCune Jr. would broadcast the concerts live over the radio from ballrooms in San Francisco.
McCune has been credited with inventing many of the concepts of the modern day live performance, and was one of the very first companies to provide touring sound systems, beginning in 1965 with Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass and progressing to such diversity as Andy Williams, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival and others. [2] The first time that a stage monitor was used was provided by McCune and was for Judy Garland, at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. The rehearsal was not going well, and Harry McCune Jr came up with the idea of pointing a speaker at her. He jumped in the truck and dashed back to the office, grabbed a speaker, brought it back, put it on the corner of the stage, took a feed off the main system, turned up the amp and, like magic, the artist was happy. [3] In the late 1960's music was flourishing in San Francisco and so was sound design itself, it was McCune Sound Services that provided sound reinforcement for the 1967 seminal Monterey Pop Festival and, even before that, The Beatles' last-ever live performance, held at San Francisco's Candlestick Park.[4]
McCune thrived in the concert market during early 70s, and even branched out into theatre, supplying equipment for East Coast companies like ProMix and Masque Sound, while at the same time creating the famed "wall of sound" for the Grateful Dead, and creating touring systems for Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival and others.
It was during this period employees that John Meyer Ken Deloria,and Bob Cavin, would create a speaker together in the warehouse that would become known as the JM 3. This was a three-way, tri-amped system that enclosed the power amplifiers and all of the electronics associated with the loudspeakers in an equipment rack with no controls beyond an on/off switch, the settings having all been calibrated at the shop. Bob Cavin was a pioneer in designing and building consoles, and systems designed and fabricated at McCune were being used on Broadway, with touring acts and at Las Vegas show rooms. Taking these systems out to Broadway was Abe Jacobs, who was “the first of the modern sound designers. Abe got his start at McCune touring with Peter, Paul and Mary and several other acts. Abe moved to New York and worked on Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Beatlemania and many other shows using McCune equipment. [5]
Harry McCune Jr. saw no need to continue his manufacturing process beyond the needs of his immediate clientele, which he believed the mass production of his speakers to sell would detract from his core rental business. The employees however saw the writing on the wall for the future and John Meyer left to form Meyer Sound Laboratories, while Ken took Bob to form Apogee Sound.
Notable Former Employees
edit- John Meyer, founder Meyer Sound Laboratories
- Bob Cavin
- Ken DeLoria, President and founder of the Petaluma based Apogee Sound
- Abe Jacobs