By Jane Ross
-MCI has grown to where maybe a third of the nation's hit tunes are recorded on its consoles.

Grover C. "Jeep" Harned, founder-president of MCI Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of professional recording equipment, is sitting behind his unimposing desk and fussing, fuming and fiddling with three tiny springs, each a different shape and tension. Harned is mad.

"This one should have five turns," he says to an abashed employee, pressing down on one spring with his thumb. "There's not enough tension."

For the young man, one of more than 375 individuals who wear MCI security-photo I.D.'s clipped to their clothing, there's plenty of tension because Harned, 48, the cultivator of roses, fan of rock and roller Rod Stewart and a gutsy, imaginative businessman is a perfectionist.

It's his attention to detail and technical know-how which has enabled MCI to capture 36% of the market in an industry previously dominated by well-muscled, monied firms such as 3-M, Ampex and Studer of Switzerland.

"One third if the records on the Billboard 100, or 60% to 70% of the albums currently being manufactured were recorded on MCI consoles," Harned states with palpable satisfaction, and with 1979 sales projected at around $24 million, MCI will be ahead of any two of its competitors.

But Harned hasn't penciled in more time for his roses, three children or gold metal-flake Jaguar, a singular indulgence he almost blushes when describing. He soon will close on his recent purchase of the former headquarters of STP, a 156,000-square-foot structure sitting on 23.5 acres in north Broward, which Harned purchased for $4.5 million. He plans to double the number of employees and its production capacity within one year.

"I'm one of the children of the depression; accustomed to not having much," says a soft-spoken, bearded Harned. "I don't like things that are wasteful...but it's no-holds-barred for the business.

"We can afford this tremendous growth because we don't owe any money except mortgage money. I'm not one to make snap decisions," he adds, "but it only took me about 10 minutes to decide about this building...it was obvious. I have $7.5 million in back orders. People were told they would have to wait 90 days for our newest console (the JH-600, the industry's first automated production console) ...and they're waiting."

What they're waiting for is a product of Jeep Harned's imagination...and his 'ears.'

"I was a hi-fi nut in the 50s before anyone knew what hi-fi was," he says. A civil engineer with a degree from Mississippi State College, Harned learned electronics in the service and "enjoyed demonstrating that technology could come in a tight, neat package."

He also demonstrated in that decade (1955-65) as he and his wife for 24 years, Joyce, 'starved' in their retail record and stereo outlet in Fort Lauderdale, that he had an unusual capacity to fix malfunctioning audio equipment.

"I had the ears," he said. "People would fly in from all over and I could make their equipment sound better than when it was new."

During those lean times, Harned installed the sound systems in the Parker Playhouse, Pirate's World and the Fort Lauderdale International Airport. He also met and became fast friends with Mack Emerman, founder of Miami's Criteria Studios, recording home of the hot-as-they-come Bee Gees and other pop giants.

"I spend endless hours repairing, rebuilding and replacing the equipment in Mack's studio. Heaven knows where we would both be today if we hadn't found each other then," Harned says.

When Harned was through with the equipment at Criteria, the industry's leading producers, Engineers and talent started pouring in. As the hits poured out, Criteria and Harned began to be spoken of reverently by the artists.

"I can relate to this artist," Harned says, "the guy paying the bills." His combination of 'ears' and technical knowledge enable him to be one of the industry's only 'interpreters.' He could translate the esoteric needs of musicians and act as "mediator and catalyst" so MCI engineers and designers could create what the musician and producers needed.

"A machine that would work flawlessly, silently. I believe that we can perfect the capacities of this highly sophisticated equipment so it can do what it was meant to do in the creative process...fade into the background."

While his equipment was fading into the background, MCI was surging to the music business forefront.

"In 1970 we brought out a tape machine that would do a professional job for $16,000 - half of what my competitors were charging." That meant that someone could get into the recording business for $50,000 - and they could do well. "At that time, we supplied 30-50 major multitrack studios," Harned adds.

By 1977, MCI had outfitted more than 500 studios. All but one of the 17, 16-track studios in Jamaica were MCI-equipped, and that country's record industry spawned a whole political and cultural statement - reggae.

But Harned didn't slow down. "I was very confident of my dream. I knew the shortcomings of my competitors' product."

With 11-year associate, friend and MCI marketing Vice President Lutz Meyer, Harned was able to engineer a marketing ploy that was both classic and wildly successful.

"We designed and manufactured an 'auto-locator' that saved time and tension during the overdubbing process," Meyer said.

"Our competitors took it apart (literally) and couldn't see how we priced it. It had 50 I.C. (integrated circuit) chips, it was like a small computer. They couldn't make the same equipment without selling it for twice what we were getting," he adds.

"It took Ampex and 3M years to realize it was our loss-leader. Every time we shipped an auto-locator out, $700 or $800 was going out the door but recording engineers wanted it." And it worked, for they soon began to want MCI for other things.

"We do other subtle pricing things that scare off potential big competitors," adds Meyer, "The giants with their rigid cost-accounting systems can't be as creative in the marketing process as we are."

But good business sense isn't something you learn in school, claims Harned. "It's a thing you learn in the school of hard knocks."

Another MCI marketing approach was the creation of a two-step (manufacturing-wholesaler-user) discount structure which made sizeable profits to MCI dealers.

"We found trustworthy men," Harned explains, "and we delivered to them, protected their territory (currently nine) and carried them as dealers. We gave $100,000 lines of credit to men who didn't have a quarter of their own," he adds with some pride.

"We have made businessmen out of at least 25 individuals who 'didn't have a pit to hiss in,' Well, now the know how to hiss!"

And so can Harned. It's a success story he relates softly, with some shyness.

"In the early days I strove for acceptance. By 1975 our tape machines had been polished in price and standards and were selling like hot cakes. I knew we had arrived when I looked around: Scully had withdrawn from the market, 3M was backing off (MCI's biggest competitor) and Ampex was viable only because of its video systems.

"The only one left with an important following was Willie Struder who machines things beautifully with intricate mechanical devices; although the performance is not necessarily better than ours."

With his technical expertise, Harned made his competitors back off. From his retail experience (which he calls "absolutely necessary - and most in our industry don't get it") he got what he calls the "survival portion."

I was the guy with the small following fighting companies with hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal. But I made sure my equipment was easy to use - and I made sure it could fit through a standard 2.6-foot-wide door!"

Today MCI equipment is wheeled through doors throughout Latin America, Europe and the Eastern Block countries; foreign sales accounting for 45% of the business. Those numbers make it an important industry for the state according to Harned.

"Those dollars are more valuable to Florida for having come from outside the state and country," he said. "And what's more, the industry is clean and nonpolluting."

The only problem on the horizon is a relative statewide shortage of technicians and a fierce competitiveness for individuals with electronic and electrical engineering backgrounds.

The people MCI needs are also needed by Motorola, Bendix (radar for boats and airplanes) and Harris (semi-conductors). MCI is scouring Broward and Palm Beach counties and is considering "going to Boston and Texas for the right people" according to Harned who simply isn't through with growing.

"By fall we'll be out with a 32-track (three-inch tape) console because the producers are asking for it," Harned says "and the 24-track/two-inch tape market shows no sign of drying up. Fortunately the record business is recession-proof. If you can't afford to go to a disco...you can buy a record and stay at home."

Home with the ultimate equipment.

"The human ears are still ahead of technology," Harned concedes; a technology that in the state-of-its-art can still be almost excruciatingly simple.

When Ray Charles, the blind blues singer and musician, was asked recently why he choose MCI equipment, he replied, "Because it's the only machine I can take apart and put back together again myself."