Sound Advancements

John P. “Jack” Jenkins (1932–2009) grew up on a Chenoa farm and farmed after graduating from Chenoa High School. It is unknown where he learned electrical engineering skills, but in 1953 Jack got a job as a radio engineer at Bloomington’s WJBC radio station. There he set up, operated, and maintained the equipment used by the radio station for its daily broadcasts.

Knowing that Jack and his coworker Fred “Ted” Bailey liked to tinker, their station manager Vernon Nolte suggested they come up with a way to make audio tape cartridges that would automatically rewind.

Jack and Ted started working on the project in July of 1958. By October they had a completed cartridge and player designed, and had applied for patents. 

In January of the following year, they tested a couple of units at the radio station with success. Three months later they contracted with Bloomington’s Moulic Specialties to manufacture their product. Demand from the Iowa-based Collins Radio Company, which marketed, sold, and distributed their product, grew rapidly.

Jack quit his job at WJBC, and he and his former manager, Vernon, incorporated the Automatic Tape Company (ATC). They eliminated Moulic Specialties in favor of manufacturing the cartridges and players themselves, and set up the office and plant in an upper floor of the Castle Theater building in Bloomington. By 1961 Jack had developed and was manufacturing a completely automated system for radio broadcasting.

By 1963 distribution of ATC products was international.

Three years later Jack and the other owners sold the business to Gates Radio Company. Local manufacturing continued with Jack as manager, until 1969 when Gates moved the company to Quincy, Illinois.

Jack had made a good living at ATC, but was not finished in the industry. He stayed in McLean County and partnered with Elmo Franklin, Andrew Rector, and W. Merrill Wilson to create International Tapetronics Corporation (ITC). Like ATC, they developed, manufactured, and repaired equipment for the broadcast industry.

Jack became president of the company in 1978. He continued to manage ITC, even after it was sold to 3M of Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1982. He retired in 1983, after suffering a heart attack.

In 1996, ninety percent of U.S. radio stations owned some of ITC's equipment.