Bill Porter (June 15, 1931 – July 7, 2010) was an American audio engineer who helped shape the Nashville sound and recorded stars such as Chet Atkins, Louis Armstrong, the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, Gladys Knight, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Skeeter Davis, Ike & Tina Turner, Sammy Davis Jr., and Roy Orbison from the late 1950s through the 1980s. In one week of 1960, his recordings accounted for 15 of Billboard magazine's Top 100, a feat none have matched. Porter's engineering career included over 7,000 recording sessions, 300 chart records, 49 Top 10, 11 Number Ones, and 37 gold records. Porter mixed concert sound for Elvis Presley from 1970 until the singer's death in 1977. As a University of Miami music professor, Porter helped create the first college program in audio engineering, and went on to teach similar courses at the University of Colorado Denver, and Webster University in St. Louis. Porter was inducted into the TEC Awards Hall of Fame in 1992. Early life Porter was born Billy Rhodes Porter in St. Louis, Missouri on June 15, 1931. His father, a professional baseball player, moved the family to Tennessee when he was 10. He grew up loving jazz music and baseball, and for a time considered an athletic career starting with the minor leagues. He graduated from East Nashville High School in 1949, then served in the United States Army Reserves while studying electronics at a University of Tennessee extension program in Nashville. Recording career RCA Records Porter began his engineering career in 1954 at WLAC-TV in Nashville, Tennessee. He mixed up to four microphones for television broadcast for $92 per week, equivalent to $ today. At nearby RCA Records in 1959, the chief engineer was transferred after angering Chet Atkins, and Porter applied for the position. He was told by an RCA executive in New York City that the job would ruin his marriage, but Porter said "I can handle that." He was hired at $148 per week and given two weeks to learn all the equipment and how to mix up to 12 microphones for music recordings. Shortly after starting with RCA on March 31, 1959, Porter mixed the single "Lonesome Old House" for Don Gibson; it was a crossover success in both the country music and the pop music charts, and Porter began to be requested by name. In June 1959, he mixed "The Three Bells"