Who'd have thought Bing Crosby was so instrumental in the development of multi track recording?

The programme was full of glaring errors and omissions, and appeared to have been researched purely by spending a few minutes reading the inaccurate articles held on Wikipedia.

Here's a few:

Morley (spit!) seems to be of the impression that the US indie labels sprung up due to rock n roll, when however they started a long time before that. The rights to manufacture records in the US was held to ransom by Victor and Columbia holding various patents which prevented anyone else from manufacturing standard records and record players. Some companies did manage to get around these patents by producing records to other standards, such as using hill-and-dale grooves, but this meant that they couldn't be played on the same players as Victor and Columbia discs. Then, in 1919, the patents expired, and many other labels sprang up. Various factors curtailed these 'indies' over the next 30 years, such as the depression, World War II, and musician's union recording bans, but record companies were still constantly being formed.

In Europe the patents expired earlier, and there was a huge boom in record labels in the period leading up to World War I. A good number of these records were sold as part of a tie-in deal with a free or cheap record player; customers had to commit to purchasing a set number of records a year. Many of these small labels were pressed in Germany by the likes of Beka, so they disappeared as soon as hostilities started.

Tape did appear after the war, and was used for recording radio shows for later transmission; however transcription discs - large diameter acetates running at slower speeds than 78s - had been used for the very same purpose for many years before than.

The three-minute pop song is not due to the playing time of a 45 - which actually can hold up to 10 minutes or so per side - it stems from the maximum playing time of a standard 10" 78 rpm disc. Longer playing times were achievable by using 12" 78s, but there was a limit of around 5 minutes per side.

The first LPs issued were only 10" in diameter, 12" ones appeared slightly later. The initial launch of the LP was to allow longer performances, mainly classical works, to be issued uncut. Jazz acts also soon noticed the benefit of the LP.

The arrival of tape eliminated the need to cut direct to acetate, and also allowed for longer performances to be recorded.