Carl Burkhardt

BURKHARDT, CARL JOSEPH (1908-1998) Carl Burkhardt was the owner of Rite Record Productions, Inc. in Cincinnati, the parent company for Kentucky Records, Gateway Records (3), Big 4 Hits, Big 6 Records, ARC Records (8), Deresco Records, Worthmore, and others. The operation started in 1940 as a radio repair shop and record store at 3930 Spring Grove Avenue in the Knowlton’s Corner area of Cincinnati. They began pressing records there but eventually moved to the Evendale area, where their building was located at 9745 Lockland Road, across Interstate 75 from the GE Plant, where it could be seen from the highway. In this location, they added a studio, pressing plant, and printing presses, so they could do everything in-house. In 1955, a custom pressing division was opened to manufacture records for anyone who wanted to record and had the money to pay for it. This continued until 1985, and in that span of time, Rite did custom pressing on approximately 21,000 different singles, most of which were country, bluegrass, or gospel. During its existence, Rite produced 78 rpms, 45 rpms, and some LPs.