About the Company
Westinghouse Electric did not manufacture reel-to-reel tape recorders in-house at scale; instead, it sold branded consumer machines, mostly compact and portable models, designed or built in Japan to Westinghouse specifications from the mid‑1950s into the late 1960s.
Origins and positioning
Westinghouse was a major U.S. appliance and electronics company that added small tape recorders as an accessory item alongside radios and phonographs, rather than building a full tape-machine division like Ampex or Magnecord.
By the late 1950s, this strategy led to OEM production in Japan, allowing Westinghouse to market affordable “modern” tape recorders without investing in full tape‑transport and head manufacturing.
1950s: early transistorized mini recorders
A representative example is the Westinghouse H28R1 “Transistorized Battery Powered Miniature Tape Recorder,” dated broadly 1955–1975 in museum records but stylistically part of the late‑1950s/early‑1960s pocket/mini category.
This unit used small reels, battery operation, and a transistor amplifier, and was built in Japan “to Westinghouse specification,” confirming the OEM nature of production.
1960s: 3‑inch and suitcase Portatape models
During the mid‑1960s, Westinghouse offered small 3‑inch‑reel portable machines like the H32R1, using a Japanese (often Aiwa) transport, 3‑inch reels, two speeds, and a 6‑transistor amplifier with DC bias—typical of inexpensive dictation and note‑taking recorders of the era.
Larger “Portatape” mono reel-to-reel units, sold in U.S. department stores, handled up to 7‑inch reels, ran at 7½ and 3¾ ips, and used a simple 6‑transistor amp in a suitcase‑style cabinet, aimed at basic home recording rather than hi‑fi enthusiasts.
Technology and market scope
Across these models, Westinghouse focused on: battery or simple AC operation, modest transistor electronics, and limited features (often lacking pause, index counter, or tone controls), keeping costs low and operation simple for casual users.
There is no evidence of Westinghouse-branded professional studio decks or serious hi‑fi multi‑motor transports; their line stayed firmly in the consumer convenience and dictation space, relying on Japanese OEMs for mechanisms and often complete chassis.
End of production and legacy
As compact cassette recorders spread rapidly after the mid‑1960s, small U.S.-badge open‑reel portables like those from Westinghouse quickly lost relevance and disappeared from catalogs by the early 1970s, leaving no direct successor line.
Today, Westinghouse reel-to-reel machines are mainly of interest as examples of rebadged Japanese transports in U.S. department‑store branding, illustrating the shift from domestically engineered decks to global OEM sourcing in the consumer tape era.