A new electrode was developed for recording the electrocochleogram (ECochG) from the ear canal. The electrode has a self‐retaining assembly, is placed without the aid of an otoscope, requires no anesthesia, and can be used under an earphone. The electrode,per se, is of the surface type and is placed on the floor of the ear canal about12‐cmfrom the eardrum. The focus of this report is on observations carried out in normal hearing subjects in which the ear canal recording was referenced to an electrode located on the forehead at hairline (which for purposes of recording the brainstem responses is not much different from the vertex). The interest in this configuration was in examining the potential for, in effect, combining the ECochG and the BSER (brainstem evoked response) in a single recording. This technique has been found to provide fairly reliable brainstem responses, however, with an appreciable facilitation of the eighth nerve response (N1or wave I). Unfortunately, the latter has proven to be quite variable, independent of the overall sensitivity of the recording. Possible sources of this problem and the relative limitations versus merits of this recording technique are discussed.