Blog, Speaker History

How Did JBL Get Its Name?

Posted on by Cathy

James Bullough Lansing, an obsessed and depressed genius, invented everything he could including his  name.  In Illinois he was born as James Martini in 1902.  At some point he added the middle name Bullough and for some unknown reason, later changed his last name to Lansing. He moved to Salt Lake City, worked as an engineer, and then began to build radio loudspeakers as the Lansing Manufacturing Company.  He moved to California when sound was being added to movies and became known as the best man to improve movie sound. The company floundered until 1941 when it partnered with Altec Service Corporation- which did movie sound maintenance and repair. Parts became a problem  so in 1946, Lansing left Altec and founded Lansing Sound, Incorporated. Altec Lansing complained that using Lansing impinged on Altec Lansing’s rights so a new identity was created: JBL -James B. Lansing Sound, Incorporated.

http://www.jbl.com/EN-US/AboutUs/History/Pages/History.aspx

May 2012: Take a look at this new video JBL made detailing their history.

Cathy

Cathy grew up in NY, moved to Florida in 1975 and graduated from the University of South Florida, with a degree in broadcasting. She and her husband Glenn started The Speaker Exchange in 1977. (Glenn later moved into Audio/Video sales and installations). In 1979, Cathy went to California for JBL speaker repair training and later received advanced training from Frank Spain, the then head of the Electro-Voice service department. She has continued to advance her audio education through many CES, NAMM, and CEDIA trade show classes.

1 thoughts on “How Did JBL Get Its Name?”

  1. MORATA says:

    JBL has been the inventor of this little cabinet called “monitor”, constant directivity, bass reflex, and it’s very important to tell than today in 2010, JBL built all it’s components, 1st loudspeakers with the greatest knowledge in the world while nearly all the “orthers” just assemble components from many origins, china often.
    JBL it’s more than 60 years of great experience, and excellence.
    JBL products grown old rather well and are very easy to sell in 2nd hand.
    ericmorata@wanadoo.fr
    user of JBL / JBO pro since 1977.

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