[citation needed] John McBride, who had dreamed of owning his own recording studio but was turned down for an SBA loan and instead approved for a live sound system company, which he operated in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas.

[4] Over the next year, McBride enlisted the help of audio engineer Vance Powell and invested $3 million to expand the 1970s-era George Augspurger-designed studio, partially motivated with providing his wife Martina with an improved recording space.

[7] In 2004, McBride bought the land behind the initial building and built Studios C and D.[5] Designed by George Massenburg and Mike Cronin, together with RPG Diffusor Systems founder Peter D'Antonio, Ph.D., Studio C features a primitive root sequence diffusor made up of 138,646 individual pieces of wood.

[8] Also in 2004, Blackbird Audio Rentals, headed by Rolff Zwiep, was launched to rent vintage and new equipment owned by the studio.

[12] Producers and engineers working at Blackbird have included George Massenburg, Dann Huff, Tony Brown, Ethan Johns, Richard Dodd, Niko Bolas, Rob Cavallo, Peter Asher, Phil Ramone and many others.