EDCOR is an acronym for Electronic Development Corporation. EDCOR was originally a public Utah corporation in the early 1960’s that originally developed wireless microphones and had the first US patent. The original microphones operated on the FM broadcast band and were tunable, so one could select an open frequency in the area of usage. During the 1960's and 70's there was a large market in the high entertainment areas, like Las Vegas. EDCOR had many celebrity promoting and using our wireless equipment. We also had some not so famous like Oscar, a sea lion at Sea World in San Diego, California.
EDCOR company was sold to a private Nebraska corporation, Product Assurance Corporation (PAC), in 1971 and continued under the name of EDCOR. The main focus continued to be the wireless microphones, with the frequencies being shifted to the 30 to 50 MHz bands.
By 1974 EDCOR had moved to southern California and located in Costa Mesa. At that time EDCOR acquired Video General Corporation, a medium sized company, that distributed the Teletype and video products. At the time the video and Teletype machine sales and installation market was booming. The sales began to outpaced the ability to finance the growth. EDCOR had to contain growth and new product development for a few years. The Teletype was one of the precursors to the FAX machine.
In 1976 the decision was made to enter the commercial sound market and to leave the video and Teletype market behind, which turned out to be good move as the onset of FAX machine was nearby. The product development for the commercial sound market ventured into solid state amplifiers, mixers and the like. And, the wireless microphone market was expanding.
EDCOR moved to a larger facility in Irvine, California, about 3 miles from Costa Mesa. In about 1978 the commercial sound amplifier sales were outpacing wireless microphones and the addition of an economical automatic mixer continued to open the gap. But the gap closed after EDCOR announced wireless translation, hard of hearing systems, and the new 150-210 MHz microphone systems. Difficulties arose as several large organizations wanted to acquire EDCOR at that time. Several substantial legal problems were encountered. The company's shareholders lost interest during this time and the company meandered for several years. However, after a number of years and dollars, EDCOR survived, weakened but not out of the game.
During these interesting periods, EDCOR did develop one of the first digital amplifiers (DA Series) and the multiplex snake system. EDCOR also was one of the first to develop the wireless electrical guitar system for musicians. Unfortunately the digital amplifier, multiplex snake and wireless guitar system were 10 years ahead of their time, and sales were difficult to achieve. EDCOR stopped production those product lines. Then the demand for the product did come up, EDCOR figured, been there done that, and had more interesting product on there mind.
In the late 1970's and early 1980's, EDCOR had a problem of getting quality power and audio transformers for their product lines. When, in 1982 several engineers from the old Peerless Transformer Company started a company called Delta Magnetics and started building high quality power audio transformers, EDCOR was a likely ally. After a few years EDCOR acquired Delta Magnetics and manufacturing facilities and started producing their own transformers. EDCOR expanded the transformer product line to include speaker distribution transformers for installers. They supplied the distribution transformers for refit of the Rose Bowl in the mid and late 1980's.
In 1984 EDCOR was moved to Santa Ana, California, about 2 miles from Irvine to an another facility. Commercial sound products continued to be developed. At this time EDCOR came out with the first True Blue Audio Transformer. Sad, but the wireless microphone market was impacted with competition from cheap foreign imports. The wireless market for EDCOR began to decline. Although, the transformer and commercial sound sales, offset the wireless decline.
By 1989 EDCOR had to make the tough decision to sell the wireless microphone division and assets. The wireless microphone was there from the beginning, but it just was not feasible for EDCOR to continue the product line. After the sale, came out even stronger and focused more the their commercial sound and the growing transformers sales.
In 1989 EDCOR received a letter from the Carlsbad, New Mexico Department of Development. The Mayor of Carlsbad requested a meeting with management to discuss the possibility of EDCOR moving to Carlsbad. EDCOR at the time was already looking to move out of California, due to the government dislike and increase in regulation directed at manufacturing companies. EDCOR and a few others was chosen from a list of California's tech companies for relocation incentives. After several months of discussion with the Carlsbad officials, EDCOR committed to the move in late 1990. Several member of the management team invested money in EDCOR at that time and buying out all shareholder's stock in the company. They also financed the move, purchased land and a facility and provided working capital and a new commitment.
The California facility was closed in late November of 1990 and the New Mexico facility was open for business the first week of January 1991. EDCOR Electronics was then reincorporated in New Mexico.
Since mid 1980s, EDCOR's transformer sales has been growing dramatically. It has been a major part of the company. By the mid 1990's over half of EDCOR's manufacturing facility was dedicated for transformer production. In 1993 EDCOR started using this new precursors technology to the downfall of the FAX machine, the internet, more specifically, e-mail. By 1995, EDCOR launched its website and sent the True Blue Audio Transformer around the world and funny enough into space on the Inter Nation Space Station. The response was overwhelming. EDCOR started picking up new customers in other sound markets and industries. After about a year EDCOR dropped the power transformer line and concentrated on the audio transformer market. With the advent of the internet and word of mouth, EDCOR started shifting more advertising budget to the website and dropped all of the very expansive show\conventions\expos.
Over the several years EDCOR picked up a large number of other electronic manufacturing (OEM) customers to produce custom transformer for their products. At this time, the transformer sales well out past the commercial sound products. In 2001 EDCOR made another hard decision and dropped their power and mixer amplifiers line and to begin phasing out of the industrial mixer lines. The decision was very hard and took a number of years to come to to. The audio transformers overshadowed the sales of the amplifiers and mixers. The people that had been with EDCOR since the 70's felt sad, but it also inspired them to push and focus on new products and develop new and better transformer manufacturing techniques. By the drop of the amplifier and mixer lines in turned open the door for old competitors to purchase EDCOR's audio transformers for their products. This again was a wise move and in a few years EDCOR's sales of audio transformers was bigger then ever.
Ever since EDCOR has moved to New Mexico their transformer sales have been growing. In the early 2000's EDCOR was approached by a number of customers to produce a high quality line of transformers for the tube and classic audio industry. It seem that hobbyist, professionals, and other manufactures were looking for a source of good quality and inexpensive transformers for the industry. So, EDCOR dug deep and pulled out some of their old time records and with the new techniques that EDCOR has developed over the decades, EDCOR started to develop a new line of classic transformers. The also brought back the power transformers to their line.
In 2006 EDCOR lunched the Class X series of classic audio and power transformers. They had a large following at once, do to the greatest add campaign; "word of mouth". EDCOR wishes to thank all that have support use in this adventure and for passing on the good word.
EDCOR's sales had been mainly contractors and distributors. Since the launch of its website, EDCOR's customer base has broaden and grown to manufacturers, educational institutes, R&D groups, government agencies (including DHS, DOD, and others), medical, scientific, hobbyist and communication industries. Some of our customers have said that they would not buy anything other than a True Blue. We at EDCOR are proud of our past and look to the future with new ideas and products in the development and are going to keep you wanting our products and service.
In 2015 EDCOR decided to keep prices down that they would stop the Blue Bobbin. By doing this EDCOR was able to lower the cost of their products and pass the saving on to their customers.
As 2020 rolled around and the closing of the world began, EDCOR was deemed an accentual business. EDCOR, with some help from the shareholder, was able to stay open and manufacture transformers with out having to layoff any of their employees.
At the end of 2020 and middle of 2021, EDCOR had to stop selling direct to customers in the UK and EU. This was due to new VAT regulation and demands. EDCOR had a long time customer. Don' Audio, out of Germany, that had been importing our products. As they had the import VAT licenses, EDCOR start directing all UK and EU customer to purchase product from them.
2021, with the hit of the pandemic still effecting the world's production of parts and material and the force shut down of some mining plants, EDCOR still is strong. Having issues with accruing material for production, EDCOR only builds to order and have had to extend the lead times. People at EDCOR are hard works and try to produce the quality product that the customer deserve. It just take a little longer.
A look at past.