Talk:Howard Ladd

Relationship between Concord and National branded tape recorders.
I'm a little bothered by the section in this article on Concord Electronics. It mentions how Concord produced various models of portable reel-to-reel tape recorders, and it suggests that several of these models were innovative, and implies that they were designed by Concord, who can take credit for these innovations. I strongly feel this needs to be augmented, although I don't personally have the detailed knowledge to do it myself, nor know of acceptable references to support it.

The truth about this may not be as simple as the article section currently suggests, because I notice from numerous web pages depicting Concord tape recorders that a number of their models are identical to National brand tape recorders produced by the Japanese company Matsushita Electric (now known as Panasonic) at the same time - that is, identical other than having a different brand name and logo on them. (Cassette recorders were mentioned in this article too, but I only know about the reel-to-reel tape recorders, so my comments will focus on those. I don't know whether what I'm saying applies to cassette recorders too.)

The model names are the same for both brands, too - RQ-401S and RQ-158S being two that I have noticed, and probably many others too. The Concord RQ-401S is identical to the National RQ-401S (other than the different branding), and similarly with the RQ-158s. So referring to some of these tape recorders as "Ladd's tape recorder" seems at the least questionable to me - I bet the Panasonic Corporation (as National / Matsushita are now known) would take issue with this, if they still care about it by now. (The National brand was never used in the U.S., where Matsushita sold their products under the Panasonic brand-name, and some of the tape recorders discussed here, coming from Matsushita, could have appeared as Panasonic in the U.S., although I'm not totally sure of that.)

The RQ-401S (ca. 1968) had a feature called "Reverse-a-Track" where the tape could run in either direction so that both sides could be played without turning the reels over and swapping positions; the RQ-158S (probably around the same time or maybe a little later) took this a step further with "Automatic Reverse", where this reversing could be caused automatically by attaching a silver strip to the ends of the tape. A special logo was used by National for these features, featuring these words and with spiral arrows both left and right as a stylized depiction of a tape on two reels that can move in either direction - a sticker with this on it was attached to the rear left corner of the lid. The Concord models also had a logo for these features, with the same names, but the logo was different - more like straight, opposite-pointing arrows above and below the words "Automatic Reverse" or "Reverse-a-Track", as can be seen in the image of the D-300 shown in this article (it is very similar in appearance to the RQ-401S).

Now I don't know what all this means, but there must definitely be a story behind this. Which company produced these models first, or did they do it simultaneously? And why? Did the two companies have some kind of agreement or partnership? I think it needs to be looked into by someone who might know where to find the information, because I feel the section is incomplete without explaining these parallels between National and Concord.

In fact, in Australia, where I live, the National brand was much better-known than the Concord one (I don't even know if Concords were sold in Australia at all), and so I knew of some of these models in their National version decades ago. Much more recently, I happened upon references to and pictures of Concord models, and was struck by the identical appearance and model numbers between these and the National equivalents, other than the logos and brand-names being different. Investigating this as far as I could on line is what led me to this page about Howard Ladd. (I had never heard of Concord until a few weeks ago, but I knew about National over 50 years ago.)

I have not been able to find out whether the National versions of these tape recorders came first or the Concord versions, or maybe they were produced at the same time by agreement between the two companies. I would be curious to know the story behind this, but cannot seem to find it.

But if any Wikipedia editors know about this, or know where to find out, it would be good if this could be incorporated in the section on Concord, for a more complete picture of the situation. Even with my only partial knowledge of this situation, I strongly feel that the section on Concord Electric is unacceptably incomplete, if not misleading. (I'm not finding fault with previous editors - they may have been unaware of this aspect.)

Thank you. M.J.E. (talk) 15:08, 5 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Hello - thank you for your comments regarding Concord and National. I created the Howard Ladd page and have updated it as I ind other info about him. I have been digging to find the answer to your questions and have made some headway. I've found evidence that Ladd contracted with Matsushita to OEM tape recorders under various Concord brands starting in 1963. Matsushita apparently produced the Concord line of CCTV cameras and monitors. I've also found evidence that many early Concord tube (valve) tape recorders were built by Concertone and TEAC. I've also discovered another Concord brand "Hosho" which apparently started in 1959 - my feeling is that brand was a way for Ladd tp start selling transistorized, portable tape recorders and not sell the Concord name until the new units were found to be reliable.
 * I'll post these new facts as soon as I can - I need to sort them and create references. Ladd was an extraordinary person - thanks for pointing me in this new direction! WmArbaugh (talk) WmArbaugh (talk) 19:55, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Howard Ladd was my grandfather and I find it fascinating that I find out more on this page about him than I ever knew in my life. I think I saw you referenced his obituary before but including it again https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/howard-ladd-obituary?id=16750967
 * He was inducted into consumer electronics hall of fame november 2006 but I cant find the bio they wrote about him - https://www.twice.com/news/cea-names-12-2006-hall-fame-class-29304. I believe it was for his work bringing Sony walkmans to the US which is hard to find information about online but what I was told he was instrumental in.
 * he also was sony man of the year once (in the 80s?) curious if you can find anything about him and the sony walkman. my understanding is that the tech came from japan but he was able to bring it to US markets. Lumala16 (talk) 19:33, 3 March 2023 (UTC)