John G. McKnight
John Gould "Jay" McKnight (February 11, 1931 – November 5, 2022) was an American engineer and businessman who co-founded the Magnetic Reference Laboratory (MRL). He served as MRL’s engineering vice-president from 1972 to 1975 and became president in 1975, leading product development and engineering.
He was born in Seattle, Washington, and earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1952. After graduation, McKnight worked at Ampex from 1952 to 1972. He also served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1956 with the American Forces Network in New York City and worked at Gotham Recording Studio during that time. At Ampex, he contributed to magnetic recording research, the stereo tape division, and the professional audio division. He helped design the CinemaScope reproducer and worked on several products, including the Models 350, PR-10, and MR-70, as well as improvements in high-speed duplication and operations. He developed the Ampex Master Equalization (AME) and published more than 70 technical papers on magnetic recording and audio engineering, earning the Audio Engineering Society’s Publication Award in 1982.
From 1972 to 1974, McKnight also served as a consultant to Scully/Metrotech and to MCI on audio systems and magnetic recording. He played a role in Les Paul’s eight-track project, hiring Rein Narma to help design and install a custom console for the new multitrack system.
McKnight was later a member of Judge John Sirica’s Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1973–1974). The panel examined the tapes and the erasures, determining which machines had been used and that the erasures were deliberate rather than accidental.
He and his wife Brigitte had four sons. John G. McKnight died on November 5, 2022, in Cupertino, California, at the age of 91.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 04:42 (CET).