PAST

Mercury Records built Coast Recorders in 1969. At the time, San Francisco was the epicenter of an exploding music scene, and CBS Records wanted to have a studio in San Francisco also. Coast Recorders, the Bill Putnam company in San Francisco, had a new large studio complex on Folsom Street, and shortly after it opened, CBS Records leased most of it from Putnam. Coast still needed studios, so in 1971 they took over Mercury Recording on Mission Street and ran it (plus the one studio they had retained in the Folsom Street complex) as Coast Recorders. At that time, Bill Putnam redesigned the rooms on Mission Street.

The Folsom Street property became the Automatt, which was the home of many seminal Punk recordings in the late seventies and R&B hits in the eighties. Coast Recorders on Mission went through several owners and was bought by a couple of young engineers and renamed Toast during the 1990s. Toast hosted many great rock acts, including No Doubt, REM, Third Eye Blind, Tom Waits, Smashmouth, Black Lab, Korn and American Music Club.

Paul Stubblebine took over the property in 2002 and reclaimed the Coast Recorders name. He converted two rooms into mastering suites and renovated the gem: the Bill Putnam-designed Studio A. He also completely refurbished both the AC wiring and audio harnessing, plus updated the gear.

By Marsha Vdovin

©Universal Audio, inc., used with permission

PRESENT
On June 1st, 2007 producer, engineer Matt Boudreau took over the space to start a new history under the name Broken Radio. Broken Radio has been operating in Emeryville in a much smaller space since 2000.
The recording space in studio A has remained the same as it did after Putnam redesigned it, however the control room has been gutted and redesigned with all new equipment, audio lines and electrical as well as re-voiced by renowned acoustician Bob Hodas.

TIMELINE

1969
Mercury records builds Mercury Studios at 1340 Mission in San Francisco

1971
Bill Putnam takes over
Mercury Recording, redesigns the rooms and renames it Coast Recorders

1988
Dan Alexander buys Coast Recorders from Bill Putnam.

1995
Dan Alexander moves Coast into the Golden State building on Harrison street eventually closing in 1999

1996
Craig Silvey and Phillip Steir take over 1340 Mission renaming it Toast and eventually closing in 2001 (or was it 02?)

2002-2007
Paul Stubblebine takes over 1340 Mission and reclaims the Coast Recorders name.

07/07-present
Matt Boudreau moves Broken Radio to San Francisco, takes over 1340 Mission and renames it Broken Radio.