PRC Recording Company, Richmond, IN

PRC Recording Company, a.k.a. "PRC Richmond". A vinyl plating and pressing, tape duplication and label printing plant in Richmond, Indiana. Operating under this name from December 1972 to 1990. A 2nd California plant was opened in July 1976: PRC Recording Company, Compton, CA (a.k.a. "PRC West"). Identifying records pressed at PRC Recording Company in Richmond, IN: • For LPs: 1972-1977 labels had a single 2.75" (70 mm) pressing ring. Between 1975 and 1977, there was an overlap; two rings also began to appear on labels (35/70mm or 35/73mm; the sloped outer ring is sometimes referred to as a "muffin top"). This two ring configuration was used until the end of PRC in 1990. • The PolyGram pressing plant code "72" will usually appear on the center labels of releases from Mercury, Atlanta Artists and any of the other sublabels or partner labels that PolyGram manufactured for. • Releases on K-Tel were identified by a "12" pressing plant code on the center labels. • The Atlantic pressing plant code "RI" will usually appear at the end of of the matrix number printed on the center labels of Atlantic and any of the sublabels or partner labels that Atlantic manufactured for. • A "PRC" or "PRC-R" etching will most often be found in the runout etching 'deadwax' of the vinyl, but sometimes the etching will be just "PR" on earlier releases. Note that any and all releases with "PRC-C" and "PRC-W" etchings do not belong here, but instead belong to the sister plant PRC Recording Company, Compton, CA Additionally, a PH label suffix (e.g. XZAL 15736 PH = PRC (formerly Philips) Recording Corp., Richmond, IN - pressing plant operating from 1972-1990 Identifying cassettes duplicated at PRC Tape Company in Richmond, IN: • The PolyGram plant code "72" will usually appear on the cassette shells of releases from Mercury, Polydor and any of the other sublabels or partner labels that PolyGram manufactured for. Please credit Cinram, Richmond, IN for cassette releases from 1991 and onwards. History: The roots of this plant reach way back to 1916, with the manufacturing of phonographs and records by the Starr Piano Company and labels run by the Gennett family. The plant then saw several owner changes but was acquired by Brunswick for Decca around 1947. Decca operated the plant (incl. a 2-year closure between 1948 and 1950) until December 1957. In May 1958 the plant was bought by Mercury and operated by National Record Pressings, Inc. until September 1961. Between October 1961 and 1966, the plant operated under the name of Richmond Record Pressings, Inc. From 1966 until 1970 the plant operated as Mercury Record Manufacturing Company. After the full takeover of Mercury by Philips in June 1970, the plant was subsequently renamed to Philips Recording Company, Inc. and manufactured under this name until November 1972. From December 1972 until 1990 the plant operated under the name PRC Recording Company (the name was legally registered as a d.b.a. - doing business as - registered to Richmond Recording Corporation. Filed as a for-profit foreign corporation in December 1972 in Indiana via Delaware under the name of the parent company). In 1990, all PRC assets and the plant were sold to Cinram, and name was changed to Cinram, Richmond, IN.