Why did record companies use wide holes on 45s?

Because the spindle on 45 RPM players was that wide. Later players that played 78s, 45s and 33⅓s needed the narrowing insert.

@dpworkin Gotcha. I didn’t realize that early players had different sized holes.

It was the only way to fit them on one’s ears ;)

Juke Boxes

45 rpm records were designed for a speed all their own. the original thinking behind the large hole in the middle of 45s was for playing many 45 rpm records, one after another. the 45s could be stacked on a record player of the 50s and would automatically drop another 45 down to be played, once the other 45 record finished. the hole width of 45s was needed to accomodate the mechanism inside the record player, in order to perform the “dropping” down of one record after another. it was really a unique idea. i had one of these record players myself and approx. eight 45s could be stacked on top of each other to be played, one after the other. it was kind of like a mini juke box.

The large hole means that it was played in a juke box. When they were made, the records came with a small hole in the middle and a cardboard punch out to allow it to be played in a juke box with its larger spindle. The handling mechanism of the juke box required a larger hole. Other types of record players came with a plastic spindle adaptor to allow records with the larger hole to be played. The record players had a switch that set the rotation speed at 33⅓, 45 or 78 rpm. If the 45 rpm record has the cardboard punch-out intact, it was never played in a juke box. Some record players had a spindle adaptor that allowed records to be stacked and drop down sequentially, on others the drop-stack feature only worked with the conventional (small) spindle.