Everything You Hear Is True: The Telarc Legacy

The Cleveland-based recording label Telarc was operated by founders Robert Woods and Jack Renner from 1977 to 2005. From their first recording under the Telarc name, Woods, Renner, and the Telarc team had an impact on the recording industry and the music world that was far greater than the company’s small size might otherwise have suggested. This project describes that impact through discussion of recordings, recording sessions, artists, and the business of running a recording label. Telarc was able to have this impact through the classic combination of the right people in the right place at the right time.

Everything You Hear Is True is researched and written by Scott R. Burgess. It is the thesis project for a Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Colorado Denver, granted in 2024. Scott is currently building on this project and writing a book. If you’ve got your own Telarc story to share, please visit our Conversations page!

(Entries that do not contain a link are currently being revised.)

• The ARC of Telarc – How Telarc came to be, and two groundbreaking early projects
  • Introduction – Telarc’s place in recording history.
  • The Advent of Telarc – How Jack Renner and Bob Woods got started in the recording business.
  • Direct from Cleveland – The landmark direct-to-disc recording with the Cleveland Orchestra.
  • The Bass Drum Heard Round the World – Telarc and Frederick Fennell make a recording that shook speakers worldwide. (audio episode)
• On the Record (1977-2005)
  • The First Twenty Records – Right out of the gate, Telarc went big.
  • Label of the Legends: Artists and Repertoire – What to record? And with whom, and where?
    • Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra – Starting with a (literal) bang and making a hundred records.
    • Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony –
    • The Cleveland Orchestra –
    • Other Classical Artists –
  • All That Jazz: How Telarc Succeeded Across Genres – Few small labels have crossed the categories so well.
  • Adventures Into The Unknown – Projects that didn’t fit in the bins.
  • Things That Go Boom In The Night – Telarc’s sound effects (audio episode).
  • The Classical Recording Session – What are you folks doing in the control room?
  • High Fidelity and Audiophilia – The quest for ever-better sound quality.
  • Telarc and the Development of Audio Technology – Pushing the boundaries of sound.
  • What is Digital Audio? – Bits and Hertz and why they matter to this story.
  • Telarc Timeline – Significant events in Telarc’s history.
  • Telarc’s Award Winners – Industry recognition
  • After the Session: The Business Side of Telarc – The recording is just the beginning!
  • The Office: Telarc Edition – Working at Telarc
  • The Right Place – Cleveland – “Why don’t you move to New York?”
  • The TEL of Telarc – Telarc moves on.
  • Acknowledgments

Last updated on March 4th, 2025 at 01:29 pm