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2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records — Music
2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

Get the detailed story of the World’s Greatest Record Store Chain, told by the people who worked and shopped in them.

Copyright: © 2022 bizzy buzzy media llc

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 101 Remembering Charles R. Cross (Author, Editor, Customer) Aug 16, 2024

On Friday, August 9th, Charles R. Cross passed away from natural causes. For those who knew Charley in the Pacific Northwest music community, the Springsteen community and in real life, it was a shock. Charley was only 67 years old and was in the middle of working on his 10th book.
Back in October 2023 Charley sat down with us and discussed Tower, Seattle, Music and a ton of other subjects.
I first met Charley in 1984, the old fashioned way...by writing him a letter. I had seen his fanzine "Backstreets Magazine" and was stunned at the quality of the publication. I was going into my Senior year of college and I sent along articles I had written. He encouraged me to contribute whatever I wanted. Surprisingly he began printing my articles and photographs.
When I moved to Seattle in 1990 I knew two people; my boss Rob Bruce and Charley. Both showed me the lay of the land in Seattle. While I knew Charley as the Publisher and Editor of "Backstreets" what I quickly found out was the influence of his "day job" publisher and editor of "The Rocket" an incredible chronicle of the Northwest Music scene long before I got there and after I left. As Springsteen's popularity ebbed and Seattle's was on the rise, Charley had a front row seat and shared it with his readers.
We're rerunning our Episode with Charles R. Cross today. Give it a listen.

Ep. 100 Greg Wallis (Tacoma, Hawaii, Boston, Chicago) Aug 13, 2024

When Greg Wallis was hired at Tower Tacoma by Dave Coker, Greg had never heard of Tower Records. It was simply the big, new record store to move into his town. When Coker left to open and run the Seattle U District store, Rob Bruce came up from Anaheim CA to be General Manager. By this time, Greg was the buyer for all sections of music except for Classical Music. Soon after, Assistant Manger Bob Akin went to Sacramento to join the Advertising Department and Greg was promoted to Assistant Manager.

Stints in Hawaii, the opening of the Boston store, working countless A-Teams until Clark Street Chicago opened and his promotion to Midwest/Southeast Regional Manager were all a part of Greg’s Tower experiences.

Greg touches on the excitement of the Blues scene in Chicago as well as the challenges of running a record store off the mainland where timely deliveries are essential to success.

But something about his time in Boston made for some memorable stories. On this episode, Greg recounts the tales of Morris Levy, whom he and his crew dealt with around the opening and first year of operations in Boston. Also, if you’ve never heard the story of Greg’s instore with Robyn Hitchcock and Hitchcock’s ridiculous behavior beforehand, Greg recounts it from his perspective. The fact that Hitchcock continues to write about it on his Facebook page, decades later, proves Greg acted appropriately at such childish shenanigans.

And….this is our 100th episode. Following our conversation with Greg Wallis, we take a moment to celebrate this occasion!

Ep. 99 Melissa Greene-Anderson (Gotham Dist., Collectables Records, Oldies.com) Aug 06, 2024

Melissa Greene-Anderson grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Since high school she was a part of her family’s music business; Gotham Distribution, Collectables Records, and the direct-to-consumer website Oldies.com. Melissa’s father started in a record store in Times Square NYC. At a very young age, Jerry Greene bought the rights to The Capri’s “There’s A Moon Out Tonight” which was released in 1959 and didn’t chart. He re-released it in 1961 and it went to #3 on the Billboard Charts.

With that money, Jerry Greene moved to Philadelphia and opened up a chain of record stores called The Record Museum. As straight as they come, he knew the business and made a killing on selling paraphernalia in the Philadelphia area, which often led to visits from Grace Slick and Jerry Garcia. After spending thousands of dollars on one visit, Jerry Garcia got busted crossing a bridge from Philadelphia to New Jersey with his haul.

Melissa was the Executive Vice President of Gotham Distribution and started selling to Tower Records. At one point, she even hired the singles buyer from the brand new Washington DC store to help run their singles business. Licensing songs from labels and making albums and eventually CDs in conjunction with Oldies radio stations helped launch the Collectables album and CD part of the business.

Eventually, Melissa got the go-ahead to rack the Tower stores with vinyl singles as cassingles and CD singles were taking over. Remember those bright gold 45 sleeves that got shipped back to send new product? Melissa worked with each store on an individual basis to make sure the program worked. She talks about a humiliating experience with a Tower Manager who refused to deal with her on their rollout.

But most of her memories are good ones. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation about music, family, Philadelphia restaurants, and Tower Records.

Ep.98 Freddi Szilagi (Village, New Orleans, Washington DC) Jul 16, 2024

“Son, never trust us lawyers because we’re going to fuck you every time.”

In 1991, how did Freddi Szilagi find himself face to face, hand-delivering a $10,000 check to Edwin Edwards at the Hotel Monteleone? In short, because of Russ Solomon and Tower Records. For a more detailed explanation, you can hear our guest this week break it all down for you.

Before he was enmeshed in the world of state politics, Freddi Szilagi grew up poor on the Upper East Side of New York City. His mother was an aspiring Opera singer who moved from one bedroom apartment to another with four kids, two dogs, and a grand piano. Having a father who was a piano prodigy, who blew off his scholarship to Julliard, you could safely say that Freddi grew up with music in the house.

When a friend set up an interview for Freddi to work at the new Tower Records at 4th and Broadway, it set in motion a 17-year career taking him from NYC to working an A-Team project at the new store that had opened in New Orleans. Meeting the woman who would become his wife while opening the store, Freddi moved down to New Orleans working under Dan Shepard. Eventually, Dan left New Orleans, Freddi became the General Manager and he immediately set about highlighting the tremendous music that was coming out of the city of New Orleans. A large part of that was becoming a part of the fabric of the New Orleans Jazzfest.

Freddi finished his Tower career at the Washington DC store, leaving after receiving an offer from a member of his kid’s school PTA, who worked for Time-Life music.

Make sure to check out this week’s episode with Freddi recalling buying kid’s music from the Mafia, profanity-filled conversations with Dr. John, and a whole lot more.

4th of July Week Mini-Episode Jul 02, 2024

Just a quick check in with everybody on this hot & beautiful 4th of July week. Find out about some upcoming events and episodes, including an "Ask Me Anything" episode where you can ask any question about the Tower Records Podcast by sending an email to <towerpodcast@icloud.com>.
We'd love to hear from you
Cheers!

Ep. 97 Kat Gavin (Philadelphia: South Street, Avenue of the Arts) Jun 25, 2024

When Kat Gavin was born, her mother was only 18 years old. And as a result, Kat’s crib was right next to the stereo. So to say Kat grew up “with music” would be an understatement.

After a stint working record retail in the malls of Northeast Philadelphia, Kat made her way into Center City Philadelphia and got a job at Tower Records South Street. It was there she met, worked, and bonded with so many of “her people”. It was there she met her former husband, Geoff Gavin, and raised a family with him.

At South Street Kat did it all; sales clerk, cashier, buyer, Supervisor, Key Holder, Administrative Assistant…

And then there were the In Stores; The Cramps, G Love & Special Sauce, The Roots, Morrissey, and a host of others. Kat especially remembers the South Street store’s 10th Anniversary Party when she had to help the Phillie Phanatic get dressed and Hall & Oates took over the staff break room for hours, not letting anybody in.

When the Tower Avenue of the Arts store opened up in 1999, Kat moved to the new digs and proved to be an invaluable part of the team. A completely new group of people and yet it was still Tower Records.

But being in Center City, there were always odd goings on. The morning Kat opened the door at 7:30am to be met near the front of the store by a homeless man who had been locked in overnight, begging her not to call the Police. Kat also recollects the John Mayer in-store when, after an acoustic performance, Mayer stopped signing autographs and walked out of the store to the consternation of hundreds of girls and their mothers.

Kat wraps things up by telling us about visiting the Ave of the Arts store a couple of years ago, the weird feelings she felt, and the need to get the hell out of there.

Join us for this jawn. You’ll be glad you did.

Ep. 96 Paul Herzman (4th & Broadway, Lincoln Center, Nanuet, Yonkers) Jun 18, 2024

“A month before my 12th birthday, I turned on the TV on a Sunday night and there were these guys calling themselves The Beatles…And after that, everything was different for people of my age. After that, music was our art form.”

Like many of that time and after, Paul asked his mother to buy him a guitar. He started with an acoustic. And then he got a cheap Japanese electric guitar. But it was a friend in his building playing records by Classical guitarists that really caught Paul’s attention. Paul went back to college as a music major and studied music theory at Brooklyn College.

Riding on the subway one day, a customer across from Paul was reading the New York Times. The side Paul could see had a full-page ad that said “World’s Largest Record Store”. Intrigued Paul ended up visiting 4th & Broadway and checked out the brand-new Tower Records. A couple of months later, looking for a job, Paul applied at Tower, got interviewed and got the job.

Starting as a clerk in #125’s Classical Department to being promoted to Supervisor and then Classical cassette buyer, Paul was on his way to a Tower career. He recounts his unforgettable “new employee” meeting with Store Manager Matthew Koenig and Matthew’s parting advice to the assembled group.

Lincoln Center, Nanuet and Yonkers came next and then Paul called it a day for his Tower career. He ended up doing all of the Classical buying for the 3 Virgin Megastores in New York City before leaving music retail altogether and working on the label side at New World Records.

Before wrapping up with us, Paul recounts three of his favorite Tower Record stories of all time.

Join us for a lively, fun conversation with Paul Herzman.

Ep. 95 Richard Leibowitz (Nanuet, Carle Place, Paramus) Jun 11, 2024

Richard Leibowitz grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York to a father who listened to pre-1960s jazz and a mother who was more into folk music. Neither held much sway for young Richard, so he set out on his own and like a million other kids his age, KISS was the starting point for his music obsessions.

Before working at Tower Records, Richard started working for Musicland while in college. Talking to a former bandmate who had signed on with Tower, Richard applied for and got the position of Store Artist in the Nanuet Store. Richard eventually moved up to the position of Record Sales Manager, a position he held both in Nanuet and in Carle Place.

But Richard’s time at Tower was something of a mixed bag. He got to attend one of the Tower Annual Conferences but what he remembers most is getting busted by Stan Goman for not attending a mandatory Human Resources meeting because he was hungover. He held the position of Record Sales Manager, but when he applied for that position in other, larger stores he didn’t land those gigs. He eventually left the company, sick of 3-hour commutes and all that came with it.

But thinking back on it, Richard met some. pretty cool people. He met Neil Young in a zombie-like state from smoking David Crosby’s weed. He had lunch with the classic YES lineup complete with Rick Wakeman bowing down to him and other Tower employees. And do you want to know the connection a white guy from the suburbs has to Biggie and Tupac? You’ll have to listen to this week’s episode to find out.

Ep. 94 Serge Bielanko (Musician, Writer, Customer) Jun 04, 2024

Serge Bielanko was one of the leading forces behind the Philadelphia-based rock & roll band Marah. Part Replacements, part Van Morrison, part Phil Spector, part Rod Stewart & The Faces, part Philly & Motown soul, for years they were poised for success as the “next big rock & roll band”. Marah was a critic’s darling and counted some famous folks (Jason Isbell, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, and several authors)as part of their fan base. Another fan, many listeners of this podcast know, is the late Kevin Cassidy who caught on to them late, but made up for lost time with a real passion for the band.

Nick Hornby, author of “High Fidelity” in the NY Times March 2004“ '20,000 Streets Under the Sky'' is [Marah’s] fourth album, and they're by no means famous yet, as the passing of the hat in the Fiddler's Elbow indicates. But what I love about them is that I can hear everything I ever loved about rock music in their recordings and in their live shows. Indeed, in the shows you can often hear their love for the rock canon uninflected -- they play covers of the Replacements' ''Can't Hardly Wait,'' or the Jam's ''In the City,'' and they usually end with a riffed-up version of the O'Jays' ''Love Train.'' They play an original called ''The Catfisherman'' with a great big Bo Diddley beat, and they quote the Beatles' ''Tomorrow Never Knows'' and the Who's ''Magic Bus.'' And they do this not because they're a bar band and people expect cover versions, but because they are unafraid of showing where their music comes from, and unafraid of the comparisons that will ensue -- just as Bruce Springsteen (who really did play ''Little Latin Lupe Lu'' for an encore, sometimes) was unafraid.”

Stephen King, author of a million great horror novels, Entertainment Weekly 2006

“If You Didn’t Laugh, You’d Cry-Marah. An apt enough title, when you consider that this is probably the best rock band in America that nobody knows. Am I being an elitist here, trying to one-up my audience? Nope. Marah is great in the scat, bop, and jive way Springsteen was great on The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. One listen to songs like ”The Closer” and ”Fat Boy” on this amazing record and I think you’ll agree. These guys are either the American U2 or close enough for government work.”

In March 2000, shortly after the opening of Tower Records on the Ave of the Arts in Philadelphia, they dropped their magnum opus “Kids In Philly”. Opening with a blaring foghorn, sounding an alarm, “Kids in Philly” quickly sets about a musical tour de force of their city, Philadelphia, complete with the sounds of present and past. Tower Records Avenue of the Arts hosted Marah for their “Kids in Philly” day-of-release in-store. As the years passed Tower Philadelphia and Lincoln Center hosted Marah for 4 in-stores in 5 years.

With their follow-up album, Marah took a sharp left turn with an album produced by Owen Morris, best known for his work with Oasis, The Verve, and Kaiser Chiefs. The album landed with a thud, leaving Marah’s base of supporters befuddled and not picking up any new fans. From there the band went back to a more familiar style and continued to work their way back. Despite releasing a total of 9 albums, drama never seemed too far from the band. Throughout the years various musicians rotated in and out of Marah until Serge ultimately quit the band to pursue other interests including writing a weekly column called “Thunder Pie” https://sergebielanko.substack.com.

Join us for an epic conversation about the ups, downs, ins & outs of rock and roll in the 20th & 21st century with Serge Bielanko.

Ep. 93 Denise McDonald (Sunrise Books, Tower Advertising, Tower Product Team) May 28, 2024

Growing up in a small town 50 miles outside of Los Angeles, Denise McDonald has a very clear memory of getting her first library card at the age of five. For most of her life, Denise has been a dedicated bibliophile.

In this week’s episode, Denise tells us all about working book product at Tower.

From friends at Sacramento State helping her to secure the job at the Sunrise bookstore, the various positions she held there, the move to Tower Advertising and chasing publishers for co-op advertising funds, the big personalities in the Advertising department she encountered, and her eventual move to the Tower Product Team the last three years of the company.

Almost 22 years with Tower, Denise had some pretty cool face time with some of the country’s most celebrated authors as well as some of her personal favorites. And thanks to the Linda Hoffman Make-A-Wish Foundation, Denise was able to meet Paul McCartney whom she had seen in concert 8 times.

Join us for an interesting look at another side of the company with Denise McDonald.

Ep. 92 Jennifer Birner Hegji (VP Tower Video Ops & VP Tower Training & Education) May 21, 2024

“I remember standing on the sidewalk, talking to Rick [Briare] and telling him I was interested in going [to the new San Diego store] and he basically said ‘Well we don’t hire girls’. “

Thus began Jennifer Birner’s journey, leaving the Watt Avenue Bookstore to help open a new Tower Records location in San Diego where, for a time, she would be the only female employee. Helping open the store, laying tile, and screwing together racks, Jennifer got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital for 5 days. She was released on the day the store opened. Jennifer marched down to the store and then worked a shift until midnight.

Jennifer spent 5 years in San Diego, surviving a Steve Miller Band instore fiasco (wait until you hear that one) and then running stores in Anaheim and West Covina before taking the position of Regional Manager.

Wanting to get back to Sacramento, Jennifer took the position of GM of Tower Broadway. From there she moved to the Corporate Office first as Vice President of Video Operations and ultimately to Vice President of Training and Education.

Join us for an episode that encompasses 30 years of a career to be celebrated with Jennifer Birner Hegji.

Ep. 91 Pete Pataro (Washington DC, Annapolis MD, Cherry Hill NJ) May 14, 2024

“ ‘There’s a place called Tower Records’ and the way that he described it, it was a supermarket of music! It’s got two stories. I was like, wow…I’ve gotta go there!” Not only did Pete Pataro *go* there, he had a 15-year career - starting in that Washington DC store, assistant managing in the brand new Annapolis store, and eventually running Cherry Hill, NJ for 10 years.

Along the way, Pete was a sponge, learning about genres, bands, sidemen, and all facets of music, the music business, and retail in general. While in Washington DC, a store that had a lot of turnover due to being directly across the street from George Washington University, Pete was tasked with assisting in the interviewing and hiring of staff. He hired several people who would go on to be General Managers in the company. Pete also lays claim to having hired one Dave Grohl. By our esitmation, that’s the fourth Store #130 employee laying claim to Grohl’s illustrious 6-week career.

It was in Cherry Hill New Jersey that Pete found his groove. Located right next to one of the busiest (at that time) malls in America Cherry Hill was the perfect “suburban” Tower Records location. Strong in metal, alternative and hits, it would explode each Christmas, outperforming other stores of a similar size and weekly gross. Pete had a strong supporting cast and talked about some who worked alongside him.

No Tower Records/Pete Pataro conversation would be complete without Pete telling us about the time actor Joe Pesci (“Goodfellas”, “Casino”, “My Cousin Vinny”) called Russ Solomon, without Pete’s knowledge, to intervene because of Pete’s suspension by his Regional Manager.

Ep. 90 Kevin Winnick (Tower Sidelines) May 07, 2024

Kevin Winnick was working in Washington DC for a small chain of pop culture/entertainment-themed stores called Another Universe when he got a call from a headhunter saying a large company was looking to hire someone who could identify trends and had experience as a buyer. Though content where he was, Kevin took the interview and before long found himself dressed in a nice shirt and tie while George Scarlett sat at his desk, bare feet plopped on his desk.

From the moment Kevin joined Tower he felt like an outsider. From the get-go he was ordering and shipping products to the stores he thought were on board, but was often met with resistance.

Initially, Kevin was brought in as a “trend spotter”, but as the years passed it appeared Kevin was in charge of it, if it wasn’t audio, video, or a book. The Sidelines department eventually grew to include blank tape, accessories, electronics, candy, and soda…you name it, he ordered it for the store. And yes, those “Planet of the Apes” cookie jars.

In this week’s episode, we discuss Kevin’s somewhat tumultuous journey at Tower and hear in detail about what he was proud of and what could have gone better.

Ep. 89 Megan Jasper (CEO Sub Pop Records) Apr 30, 2024

Megan Jasper grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts an industrial town, just an hour outside of Boston. Megan remembers it as a tough place to grow up. As a young girl, her family would travel to Boston and she and her sister would hit Newbury Comics when there was only one store. As a teen, she traveled to Boston for punk rock shows.

Attending UMass, she was friends with J Mascis, a fellow student. When Dinosaur Jr toured Massachusetts in the early days Megan served as a roadie for the band. During a 1989 tour, they stopped in Seattle and that’s when she decided she wanted to make it her home.

After landing in Seattle, she made her way to the Sub Pop offices. Megan started as a receptionist there, when the label was a tiny operation, constantly teetering on the brink of financial disaster. She took a job with Caroline Distribution and called all the Tower Records stores in the Pacific Northwest.

When Nirvana led the music explosion of the early 90’s, the New York Times came calling to do a feature on the music culture of Seattle. Interviewing Jonathan Poneman, he referred the Times to Megan, now working for Caroline Records. The Times was looking for slang expressions Seattle kids used around the city. Megan made up a series of “grunge terms” she didn’t think the Times would believe were real. They did, they didn’t fact check and they ran it as a “Lexicon of Grunge”.

After a time working for ADA Distribution, Megan went back to Sub Pop in a variety of roles (Marketing & Distribution) and worked her way up to the role of CEO where she resides today.

Bright, quick, smart, and funny, you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sub Pop’s Megan Jasper.

Ep. 88 Renee Tyler (Sales Audit & Record Division) Apr 23, 2024

“He [George Scarlett] said that someone had suggested me for the position [Administrative Assistant] because I looked so intense when I worked. I don’t know what that really means. I guess it’s a good thing”

And thus, another Tower career was born. Renee Tyler spent 12 years working as George Scarlett’s Administrative Assistant in Record Division.

When she came to work at Tower’s corporate office Renee didn’t know what Tower Records was about. Like many before her Renee started in Sales Audit. She eventually moved to billing in the Advertising Department. It was working in the Record Division with George and all the women (Sunita, Karen, Wendy) that the Tower world opened up for Renee.

In this week’s episode, Renee tells us about working for a mover and shaker like George Scarlett, her musical evolution, fun times at Tower’s Annual Conference, large cardboard cutouts of Canadian men, leaving her position working for George, and a whole lot more.

Ep. 87 Steve Nikkel (Tower Advertising) Apr 09, 2024

While Chris Hopson was putting together Tower Records’ in-house advertising agency, in a parallel universe, or at least somewhere else in California, Steve Nikkel was doing the same for a small independent chain of record stores called Eucalyptus Records, based out of Fairfield, California.

When an opening became available, due to Mike Farrace starting up PULSE! Magazine and Terri Ball heading to New York City, Jim Swindel set up an interview between Nikkel and Hopson and Steve became a Tower-lifer.

Join us this week as we walk through Steve Nikkel’s Tower career, his appearance in the Tower Documentary “All Things Must Pass”, his attending some truly historic concerts, and the task of managing the Tower Advertising Department.

Ep. 86 Joy Slusarek Proft (VP Sales Universal, Mid Day Host WEQX Radio) Apr 02, 2024

Joy Slusarek Proft spent 15 years working for Universal Music Distribution. Like many before her, she started as an FMR (Field Marketing Rep), and like few, she ended up as the Vice President of Sales located in Los Angeles.

While calling on stores in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska, Joy found herself with a new band called Weezer in her car, taking them to visit mid-west indie accounts. In true 90’s fashion, Joy ended the day by taking Weezer to see “Pulp Fiction” shortly after it opened.

From 1996-2001, Joy was a Sales Rep in Philadelphia calling on Tower Records, The Wall, HMV and National Record Mart in Pittsburgh. After finishing her career with Universal calling on Circuit City in Richmond VA and as Vice President of Sales in Los Angeles, Joy headed for a quiet part of the country in the great state of Vermont. There she found herself back at WEQX radio, where she had spent some time previously.

Joy currently has the mid-day slot at WEQX and enjoys turning her audience on to new music, as well as hosting the Retro Lunch, spinning “alternative oldies” each weekday between 12noon - 12:30pm.

Spend an hour with a woman who lives and breathes music.

Ep. 85 Matt LaVelle (Tower Nanuet, Jazz Guru at Tower Lincoln Center) Mar 26, 2024

Matt Lavelle used to listen to music with his grandfather. No talking. No commentary. At a very young age, Matt simply observed how the music moved his grandfather and it had quite an impression on him.

As he got older, after making regular visits to the Jazz Department at Tower 4th & Broadway, Matt took a job in Nanuet under Store Manager Bill Duffy. Years later Matt moved into the city and worked at Tower Lincoln Center eventually working up to the position of Head of Receiving, but his heart was always in the Jazz Department.

Eventually, Matt was both the Jazz Buyer and Floor Manager of the largest Tower Records location in the US. Working with a cast of characters to rival modern-day comedy, Matt had his work cut out for him. Throw in a declining CD customer, filing for bankruptcy and the changing music retail landscape and Matt had to be resourceful. He put together a weekly live Jazz series in his jazz room, drawing customers into the store.

These days Matt lives in the 6th borough (Philadelphia) and is an active musician with his project The 12 Houses.

Join us for a conversation about Matt LaVelle’s time at Tower Records.

Ep. 84 Fuzzy Swing (RCA Records, CEMA/EMD Distribution Regional Manager) Mar 19, 2024

Fuzzy Swing never worked for Tower Records, but he worked at Tower Records in San Francisco as an inventory rep and sales associate on behalf of RCA. In addition to Tower, he had several mom & pop independent stores in the Bay Area. In later years Fuzzy was promoted to sales covering the Sacramento area stores Tower Broadway, Tower Citrus Heights, Tower K Street, Tower Stockton, Tower Chico, and Tower Fresno as well as calling on Tower International and working with the team at Corporate.

Fuzzy eventually moved over to CEMA, later EMD holding the position of Regional Director where he came into contact with many more Tower stores nationally. Not bad for a guy who started his retail career in North Carolina in 1970, working for several indie record stores, focusing as a singles buyer, and managing the rock and roll band Frog Level.

On this week’s episode, Fuzzy walks us through all of this and more. We talk about his visits to Tower Annual Conferences, the annual Halloween parties CEMA threw at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, Fuzzy’s interactions with Russ Solomon and his famous nephew Adam Lambert of American Idol and Queen fame. And as we mentioned at the top, though Fuzzy never worked at Tower, he ended up marrying Tower...he'll explain it all to you in this episode.

Ep. 83 Remembering Kevin Cassidy Feb 19, 2024

On Friday February 16th, Kevin Cassidy passed away.
We are rerunning our episode from September of 2022 featuring Kevin, along with a short introduction.
Once we receive information about a Memorial Service for Kevin, we will post it on the "2500 DelMonte Street" Instagram and Facebook pages.

Ep. 82 Ann Powers (Insurgent Clerk at Columbus & Bay, NPR Music, Los Angeles Times, Author "Traveling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell) Feb 06, 2024

Long before she became the face and voice of NPR Music, Ann Powers was just a Catholic school girl and new wave music fan who in 1979 was guided on a musical journey by Chris, an influential Tower Mercer Street clerk. Chris regularly assisted and turned Ann on to some great groups and albums at Tower Seattle's landmark location.
On today’s episode Ann tells us about her roots in writing about music and culture, the amazing local Seattle scene of the late 70’s and early 80’s, Catholic folk masses featuring little known Elton John songs, the joy of being a Beatles fan in the early 1970’s, why straight up indie stores like the iconic Celophane Square initially scared Ann, perusing the Tower racks for British music magazines, getting a job at the Columbus and Bay Tower Records store in San Francisco while attending college in the mid 1980’s and how her writing career took off while in San Francisco.

In addition to working for NPR Music, Ann writes about music and culture for the Los Angeles Times. Previously Ann wrote for Seattle’s The Rocket, The New York Times, Blender Magazine and The Village Voice. Ann has authored five books. Her last one was “Good Booty: Love & Sex, Black & White, Body & Soul in American Music”. On June 11th her new book “Travelling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell” will be released.

Join us for a fun, informative conversation with Ann Powers.

Ep. 81 Carl Johnson (Loss Prevention Sacramento, Hawaii, Pacific Northwest) Jan 30, 2024

“I remember thinking, if the light turns red, I’m turning in the parking lot and I’m going to do a bagcheck. If it’s green I’m going to sail on through and I’m going home. And sure as heck, it was red and I turned in [to the lot] and I’m going to do the bag check”

It’s in moments like these that you make your mark. Only five days earlier, Carl was sitting in Bud Martin’s office listening to him go on about the financial bleeding of the Tower Outlet store and the need to find out what was going on internally. As a result of that bag check and the recovery that took place, Carl made an immediate impression upon Bud and the members of the Sac Loss Prevention team.

Carl went on to be Loss Prevention Manager in Hawaii. But paradise isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Island fever took hold and Carl made his way back to Sacramento as Loss Prevention Manager. He ultimately became Regional Loss Prevention Manager and Territorial Loss Prevention Manager.

Carl tells us abou this time at Tower, his first encounter with Regional Manager Randy Mendonsa, working with Matthew Koenig & Wayne Ennes, meetings with Bud Martin asking for more resources and then trying to hold onto the resources he already had, helping to plan and coordinate Tower Marathons and Metallica In Stores and a whole lot more.

Ep. 80 Michael Solomon Jan 23, 2024

MTS

Not the company, the man.

Michael T Solomon sits down with “2500 DelMonte Street” to discuss it all; his time with Russ & Doris, Tower Records, Bud Martin, Sunday school with Stan Goman, chauffeuring The Rolling Stones around town before their show in Sacramento, starting out at the Tower Drug Store, working at Watt Ave, Columbus & Bay and Berkeley, working as Tower legal counsel, presentations at the Tower Annual Conference, taking on the CEO position, scouting locations in Russia, South America, Canada, the end at Tower and the legacy as portrayed in “2500 DelMonte Street” documentary.

It’s all here, this week on “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records”

Ep. 79 Darrin Roberts (Editor "All Things Must Pass" Tower Documentary & "Thriller 40") Jan 16, 2024

Darrin Roberts grew up in Southern California with a “Kevin Arnold-Wonder Years” type upbringing. After a neighbor suggested his mother take her 3 year old to a recently released “war movie”, he became obsessed with all things cinema.

After getting his degree at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts he began working on a series of music film projects as both a camera operator and a film editor.

In May of 2014 an Oscar winning producer suggested he meet with Colin Hanks and Sean Stuart regarding a documentary about the rise and fall of Tower Records, a film the two had spent several years making. As a customer of the El Toro Tower Records, it was a dream job.

On today’s episode Darrin walks us through much of his process working on “All Things Must Pass” and gives us some insights as to what made the film, what didn’t make it and why, the relationship between a film editor and a director, how much film and audio he waded through to cut the “Tower Doc” down to a tight, cohesive 95 minute film, the aftermath and the opportunities presented to him since completing that project.

We also spend a nice chunk of time talking about Darrin’s latest project “Thriller 40”, a documentary he edited with famed music critic Nelson George directing. “Thriller 40” sheds all of Michael Jackson’s personal baggage (hard to do) and focuses on the early to mid-80’s when Michael and Quincy Jones were at the top of their creative powers. An interesting through line to the film is the Grammy Awards virtual snub of “Off The Wall” and how it drove Michael Jackson to create “Thriller”. Like “All Things Must Pass”, “Thriller 40” is a tight 90 minute story that tells a fascinating behind the scenes story of a cultural zeitgeist, the likes of which we may never see again.

Ep. 78 Marty Bender Sobolewski (Tower Sunset, Cashbox Magazine, KROQ, WWWM, WFBQ, Radio Consultant) Jan 09, 2024

“I knew quite a bit about [Tower]. I knew Sunset was the mecca. So I just popped in one day and that’s how it all started” says this week’s guest Marty Bender Sobolweski. From his earliest memory of his grandmother pulling out a record player to his mother coming home from her temp job at Capitol Records in Cleveland with a box of free records, Marty has been a life long music fanatic.

An early record store job at Ohio’s Audio Buff Records (which sold a lot more than its narrow exterior suggested) to becoming the Midwest Promotions and Marketing Director for Peaches Records, prepared Marty for the bright lights of Hollywood. But nothing could prepare him for a constantly crowded store featuring the likes of Andy Kaufman, John Belushi, Robin Williams and a very inebriated Tom Waits wanting to shop after closing time.

Covering charts reporting for a vacationing employee led to Marty being hired by Cashbox Magazine, Billboard Magazine’s prime compeition. Marty takes us through the process of putting together a chart with detailed chart information (see our Instagram account), how albums gained or lost a bullet and what led to so many pages of ad buys in a music magazine.

From there Marty set out to the world of radio, working simultaneously at KROQ and KNAC before moving back to the Midwest as on-air talent, Music Director and Program Director for a number of stations. It was in Cleveland that Marty tells us he conceived of the “Classic Rock” format of radio and all that followed.

Join us for a wide ranging conversation about music, record stores, music mags and radio with our guest Mary Bender Sololweski.

Ep. 77 Cathi Ronnenburg (Cherry Hill NJ, Burlington MA, Nanuet, Carle Place, Paramus NJ) Jan 02, 2024

Our guest this week, Cathi Ronnenburg, remembers being on the phone with the Manager of a neighboring location when men in black suits swarmed her store. No, it wasn’t a Tower Records she was running at the time, but being busted by the FBI for the bootleg albums she and her company were selling is a pretty exciting start to record retail and Cathi’s professional story in general.

Cathi followed that up working for Strawberries, owned by the infamous Morris Levy and run for a short time by the now departed Jose Menendez. Cathi said Tower felt like home when she got there and after the shenanigans of her previous workplaces, Tower must have felt like a walk in the park. Ronnenburg started at Tower Records Cherry Hill NJ after moving to the area for a personal relationship. When the opportunity arose she became Head of Receiving for Ted Putman, who often took her to label lunches so Cathi could both eat and pay her rent each month.

Besides her career with Tower, Cathi tells us some incredible stories about following bands on the road using AAA’s trip ticks (remember those) and what happens when you end up having breakfast with one of your musical heroes on the road.

Join us for a wide ranging interview that you’ll be sure to enjoy!

Ep. 76 Jason Sumney (4th & Broadway, Regional Office, Lincoln Center) Dec 05, 2023

Not many people are “One Degree of Separation” from Kevin Bacon, but this week’s guest, Jason Sumney is. Growing up in Pittsburgh, PA, the son of a rabid record collector, Jason started his retail music career while in HIgh School at National Record Mart, a locally based, national chain that at its peak had 175 stores in 30 states. Knowing all of the latest releases and the camaraderie he felt with his fellow employees made working in a record store the perfect job for Jason.

It was after meeting someone who loved Prince’s “Lovesexy” album as much as he did, that Jason made the move to Manhattan. Hired by Tim Devin, Jason got a job at the Tower Records at 4th and Broadway, which set off a ten year stint with Tower, all in Manhattan. Throughout our conversation Jason talks about many of the well known New York Tower folks; Steve Harman, Hedi Kim, Ryan Bland, Suzanne Barnett, Mark Yarabino, Arnie Lewis and many, many others.

After working in the store for a spell, Jason moved into the unique position of 4th & Broadway’s Payroll and Human Resources clerk, making sure hundreds got paid correctly every other week and assisting the managment team with the myriad of Human Resource issues that would arise. A stint in Steve Harman’s Regional Office, followed by time working at Tower Lincoln Center took place before settling back in the Regional Office again with Tim Devin.

Jason tells us about his happy, jovial Robert Smith encounter, an invite only Madonna performance, Joan Osbourne in “writing mode”, helping Shock G of Digital Underground (Humpty Hump) find records, staring at Paul Simon going down an escalator and mailing director John Waters his lost credit card to an address in Baltimore, Maryland.

Join us for a wonderful episode about Tower life in the 90’s and beyond.

Ep. 75 Rob Chapman (Navarre, MCA, Sanctuary, Author) Nov 28, 2023

Rob Chapman likes The Rolling Stones. Wait…check that. Rob Chapman loooooves The Rolling Stones. Not only that, but he regularly corresponds with a couple of the guys in the band. Several years ago Rob wrote a book about a very interesting period in the band’s history, Ron Wood and Keith Richards’ side project The New Barbarians. Rob went deep on this project and the result is the book “New Barbarians: Outlaws, Gunslingers and Guitars”.

So what does this have to do with Tower Records, you’re asking?

It just so happens that Rob Chapman called on many of the Sacramento and South Bay area stores as a rep for Navarre and then MCA Records from 1993-1997. Rob quickly learned to pop into Sacramento’s main office to get to know the players there and to make himself known to the people who can help rally support behind a project.

This week’s episode covers alot of the daily goings on of working the Sacramento market, the feeling of coming into Sacramento as an outsider, being taken in by Watt Avenue’s Mike Jerrick only to experience his passing away as Rob was leaving the area and the many trials and tribulations of being a Sales Rep calling on the Tower accounts.

Rob also takes behind us behind the scenes and into the world of Ron Wood and Keith Richards while he worked on his New Barbarians book. We discuss actual riots in the midwest when suggested “friends” like Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger didn’t show up to play with Ron & Keith. The book comes with a live CD of New Barbarians performances from the 70’s. Rob explains why some songs made the cut and others didn’t.

We loved talking to Rob and think that you’ll enjoy this episode immensely.

Ep. 74 Bob Zimmerman (DC, Seattle, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, NYC) Nov 21, 2023

Bob worked for Tower Records 18.5 years. Washington DC, Seattle, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia and Lincoln Center NYC. He loved working for Tower so much, he made a podcast about it. After multiple requests, he’s being interviewed for his story today.

Our guest host/interviewer needs no introduction; that’s why we’re not going to tell you who it is unless you listen.

In keeping with previous, lengthy Thanksgiving week episodes, today’s podcast is as long as the Taylor Swift movie, with just as many costume changes and half the entertainment value.

We still hope you listen.

Ep. 73 Betsy Altomare (Night Manager Tower Records Sunset) Nov 14, 2023

“The goal was to work at a record store and then everybody eventually wanted to work for a label. I envied the label guys and then I went and married one.” If the name Betsy Altomare sounds a bit familiar, there’s a reason for that. Back on episode number 33 we interviewed her husband Keith Altomare, who told us how he and Betsy met while she was the Night Manager at Tower Records Sunset in Los Angeles. Today we get to hear Betsy’s side of this story.

Before signing on at Tower, Betsy previously worked at three LA record stores and a courier service that dealt primarily within the music industry. So when she applied and was hired under Bob Delanoy, Betsy came to the job armed with a lot of knowledge. Working at Store #131 she worked with veterans Joel Abrahmson, Howard Krumholtz, Store Managers Debbie Pollay and later Dennis Lefler. Oh yeah, she also worked with one guy named Axl and one guy named Slash. More on that in the podcast.

Betsy tells us about some of her memorable customers including Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Bruce Springsteen and Rick James. Now the owner of a movie theatre in Orgeon, Betsy tells us about some of the similarities and differences between both businesses.

Ep. 72 Mike Pompei (Tower Records, Posters & Advertising) Nov 07, 2023

Mike Pompei grew up in a big Italian family just outside of Buffalo NY. His family was very musical and it seemed to rub off on Mike, who currently plays wineries and breweries throughout Sacramento. At the age of 12, just as his generation of pop music was becoming a priority, the Pompei family moved to the sunny enviorns of Sacramento, California. Following in his older brother’s footsteps, Mike eventually went on to work at Tower Records Watt Avenue where Ken Sockolov was the Store Manager.

Alternating between working at Tower Records locations and Tower Posters, Mike found his niche. Running the Tower Posters store on the 3rd floor of the Westwood (L.A.) location, Mike received a call one day from Dick Harris, the Division Manager for Posters. Told to “shut it all down” and ship the posters product back to Sacramento, Mike wasn’t told what his future was. It was then that Westwood Store Manager Chris Hopson told Mike to stay and work with him. When Chris Hopson left Westwood to start up Tower Advertising in Sacramento he took Pompei with him, where Mike worked for 18 years.

On this episode Mike Pompei tells us the various roles he assumed in Tower Advertising, the stress of meeting deadlines, dealing with newspapers and radio stations, his travels visiting stores and media markets, meeting face to face with record label brass at NARM and a hilarous enccounter with a member of Aerosmith at one of the Tower Annual Conferences.

Ep. 71 Christina Sharpe (NYC: East Harlem, Village, Lincoln Center) Oct 31, 2023

Christina Sharpe grew up in New York City, mostly on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Growing up in a household where music was always being played and appreciated, Christina took her love of jazz and soul music and added twists of Duran Duran, Level 42 and early 80’s East Coast Hip Hop to her repertoire.

Christina started her Tower career at the 85th & 3rd Avenue location with General Manager Mike Tannen. From there she worked at 4th & Broadway and ultimately finished her time with Tower at the Lincoln Center store in 2006.

During her time at Lincoln Center every day was an adventure. There was the night she oversaw the filming of the Hugh Grant/ Drew Barrymore film “Music & Lyrics”, being recruited by Tower’s then-CEO E. Allen Rodriguez to represent Tower Records on the ABC Eventing News, encountering her musical hero Roberta Flack who was shopping for an as yet unreleased track by The Beatles and one of the largest instores of the time, Kanye West’s day of release instore for “Late Registration” in 2005.

But most important to Christina’s daily experiences were her relationships to the Tower staff. Throughout our conversation she regularly talks about the people who made Tower run; those who are still with us and those who have passed on.

Join us for a refreshing conversation this week with Christina Sharpe.

Ep. 70 Joe Medwick (SF, LA, NYC, TVID & More) Oct 24, 2023

When The Beatles hit America, it came at about the perfect time for Joe Medwick. Just months earlier, when he was 7 years old, his father had passed away, a crushing moment in young Joe’s life. But it wasn’t as though The Beatles were his introduction to music. Joe had older brothers and sisters with album collections he borrowed and pored over. Joe says he felt like music being a central part of his life was preordained.

Playing in bands at a very young age and listening to a diverse Top 40 radio (both US and Canadian based stations) helped build Joe’s music knowledge and tastes as he set out into the world. Attending San Francisco State University, Joe did a short stint at Rainbow Records before getting hired at the Columbus & Bay Tower Records in 1980. Like many before him, Joe remembers the key players and personalities of that store at a particularly memorable time.

Joe started making moves in his Tower career on the Video side, first transferring to the Sherman Oaks store as an Assistant Manager and then to Concord as the Video Store Manager. In the mid 80’s taking on the position of Video Store Manager for NYC’s Lincoln Center store and then as Regional Manager for Tower’s East Coast stores filled up Joe’s professional time, while catching shows at legendary music haunts like The Lone Star Cafe took up his evenings and early mornings. All the while, Joe was also writing for PULSE! magazine when the assignment hit him.

A move to West Sacramento to as head of the Video Division and running TVID started out well, but ultimately it didn’t fulfill Joe. Listening to offers from LA-based headhunters, Joe took positions at a varitey of southern California entertainment companies and publications. The people Joe worked with or ran into during the time were quite different than the familial Tower vibe he was used to.

These days Joe Medwick concetrates on his music career. His two most recent releases are available to listen at joemedwick.com. You can also find upcoming tour dates there, too.

Join us for an entertaining, exhaustive look into the career of Joe Medwick.

Ep. 69 Rob Tolleson (New Orleans, Dallas) Oct 17, 2023

In the middle of a very long shift, working to get the brand new Dallas, TX store open, Rob Tolleson had no idea why Kevin Cassidy wanted to go out for coffee with him. “I thought I was in trouble” was his first thought. When Cassidy asked if Rob had ever considered working in management, Tolleson told him that he had not for the simple fact that he hadn’t been on the sales floor in years. Cassidy responded that he had seen that Rob could work with everybody in the store, which was the most important component of management, and that the company could get him up to speed on how to handle the nuts and bolts of being a Manager. Thus began the Rob Tolleson’s management career with Tower Records.

Born and raised in New Orleans, at the age of 10 Rob was adopted by the guitarist of a local/national band who had married his mother. From an early age music was a part of Rob’s life. Nonetheless, he had no idea what Tower Records was until one of his mother’s friends brought by a promo of Van Halen’s OU812. The same friend got him an interview with Record Sales Manager, Freddi Szilagi.

In this week’s episode, Rob Tolleson tells us about growing up a fan of Classic Rock, starting out alphabetizing Jazz cassettes, moving to Supervisor, and then receiving. From there Rob became a bit of a fixture on the A team circuit, helping to open brand new stores for Tower Records. He also takes an outsider into some of the inner workings of how Tower navigated the city’s Jazzfest, where Mondays were often $100,000 days, beating the store’s Christmas business.

Rob also remembers, after it all closed down, the TV show “Treme” taking a shot at Tower Records during one of its first season episodes.

Ep. 68 Charles R. Cross (Author, Publisher, Customer) Oct 10, 2023

Charles R. Cross isn’t our typical guest on 2500 DelMonte Street. He never ran a Tower store…never worked in a Tower store. But he had a lot of business and personal relationships with Tower Records, as well as being a steady customer. In the parking lot of the Tower Records at 5th & Mercer in Seattle, weeks before the release date, Charley first heard Nirvana’s “Nevermind” given to him on a Maxell XL II 90 by the store’s GM. Ten years later Charley would write and release what many consider to be the definitive biography of Kurt Cobain, “Heavier Than Heaven: A Kurt Cobain Biography”.

Growing up in several cities before landing in Seattle to go to college, Charley was a passionate music fan at an early age. Some people pick up a guitar, Charley pecked on a typewriter to express his feelings about music. Some takes landed and some missed. But through it all Charley looked for a way to connect with readers who, like him, understood the joy that the best music could bring into a person’s life.

In this week’s episode, we talk about the music and performances that Charley still remembers from his years of listening. Unbelievably there was a time when Springsteen fans couldn’t find enough to read about their musical hero and in October 1980 that changed as Charley launched Backstreets Magazine, which he owned and operated until 1998 and which continued to publish, mostly electronically until early in 2023. Charley’s years at The Rocket, Seattle’s premier music and arts newspaper gave him a front-row seat and a strong part in the formation of the Seattle music scene of the 80’s & 90’s. There’s a reason Courtney Love said on a recent podcast “Charley is an honorary Cobain”.

Do we talk about Tower Records in this episode? Yes, we do. Not as much as on others. But if you want a glimpse into early 1990s Seattle, this episode is a great place to start.

Ep. 67 Jim Barber (DC, NE Philly, King of Prussia) Oct 03, 2023

Jim Barber had a 19-year career with Tower Records. Starting in 1987, Jim worked in the Classical Department in Washington DC with Rob Bruce as the store’s General Manager. After only a year on the job, Tower decided to open a location in Tyson’s Corner VA and Jim was one of three employees to transfer to help get the new suburban location and its first-time General Manager, George Scarlett, up and running. Jim remembers his interview for Tyson’s Corner taking place outside the store, in the hallways of The Shops at 2000 Pennsylvania.

After leaving the company briefly, Jim found his way back to Tower in Northeast Philadelphia, not far from where he grew up. Twelve years in Store #176 with its unusual layout, Jim ultimately became General Manager of the King of Prussia store from 2002-2004. His career with Tower concluded back where he spent most of his professional life, in North East Philadelphia until it closed in 2006. Jim had the distinction of being the only employee to be in the Northeast Philadelphia store the day it opened as well as its last day of business.

Through it all, Jim remembers his co-workers, Regional Managers, his living situation starting out at a “Tower house” in Washington DC, navigating a post-Tower Records world and lots of other details that made Tower a great place to work.

Ep. 66 Miguel Ortuno (North Central Region Events Coordinator) Sep 19, 2023

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago and a fan of female pop vocalists, Miguel Ortuno made his way to the then-new Tower Records store in Bloomingdale, IL to purchase his very first CD, “The Bodyguard” soundtrack featuring his favorite female singer, Whitney Houston. It wasn’t long after that Miguel applied for a job, was hired, and worked at the Bloomingdale location.

Running the register, helping customers, and putting away product was a regular part of the job. But Miguel saw other opportunities at Tower. He became a Supervisor and helped out on some “A-Team” projects opening stores around the country. When the position of North Central Events Coordinator opened up, he applied and got the job where he worked for Robert Stapleton, Phil Myers, and Bill Duffy.

And despite his heavy Tower Records workload, Miguel also found the time to run a very popular area nightclub on weekends.

Join us for a fun, quick conversation with Miguel Ortuno

Ep. 65 Geoff Mayfield (Billboard Magazine) Sep 12, 2023

Geoff Mayfield has had a long and illustrious career in the music business. Starting as an Editor for a Columbus, OH music magazine called “Focus”, it wasn’t long before Geoff found himself behind the microphone at WBBY jazz radio.

Geoff’s background in both music journalism and radio stood out to an executive at Camelot Music, the mall-based music retailer based out of Canton, OH, and soon he found himself working at Camelot’s corporate offices. It was at Camelot that Geoff first became aware of Tower Records as executives talked about Tower Records going into Manhattan. Also, reading a profile of Russ Solomon in Rolling Stone magazine sparked Geoff’s interest in the West Coast-based company.

A speech about Tipper Gore’s PMRC record labeling, written for Camelot’s CEO led to both an “Atta Boy” from Russ Solomon and indirectly led to Geoff’s being hired by Billboard Magazine as their Music & Video Retail Editor. During Geoff’s time with Billboard, both as Retail Editor and then as Director of Charts, he was able to build relationships with many at Tower. Even after Tower’s demise, Geoff kept in close contact with many and played a significant role in both their life and in some cases, the celebration of lives well lived.

Geoff still stays active as he’s been teaching at the Los Angeles College of Music for the last 7 years as well as still contributing to both Variety and Billboard.

Join us for a wide-ranging conversation about how music used to be purchased and beyond.

Ep. 64 Mike Redmond (Marina Del Ray, DC, Rockville MD) Sep 05, 2023

With a father who was primarily a jazz drummer, but would play all kinds of local pickup gigs (and still plays today at 87 years young) music came naturally to a blooming Mike Redmond. So it’s no surprise an early career in music retail came naturally to young Mike. Starting in Sherman Oaks under the tutelage of Dave Montes, Redmond found himself early on working for Craig Martin in Marina Del Rey. Working in a Supervisor role, then Video Sales Manager, and ultimately Record Sales Manager Mike was promoted to the position of General Manager at the Dublin, CA Tower Records.

As expansion continued into the late 90’s Mike found himself heading up the store in Stamford CT, best known as a suburban hub for all the CEOs of record labels and media companies, similar to Paramus NJ. It was in Stamford that young Redmond would pepper the GM of the new store on Ave of the Arts Philadelphia regarding sales and other metrics.

Duty called and Redmond took over the Washington DC store for close to four years. He finished his time with Tower in Rockville, MD where he worked until the company was sold at auction to the Great American Liquidators. On his way out the door, he threw the (former) GM of that Philadelphia store a lifeline.

Join us for a conversation about the joys of working for the world’s greatest record store chain.

Ep. 63 Scott Edward Phelps (Nashville & Annapolis) Aug 29, 2023

“My interactions with the ‘higher ups’ after I moved to Annapolis largely consisted of [them saying] ‘When are you going to stop doing this?’ and me saying ‘You hired me to do the job, either fire me or shut the hell up ’ ”

Scott Edward Phelps had an interesting journey at Tower Records. Moving to Nashville with his bandmates to strike out for a career in music, Scott concentrated on songwriting when half the band left Nashville when fame and fortune didn’t materialize. Though Scott had songs recorded and released, he always had a day gig somewhere.

Scott was hired at the Nashville store by Tom Rule to work nights initially. Several years older than the average Tower Records employee, Scott worked his way up as a Supervisor and then became the Record Sales Manager. In Nashville, every day seemed like an adventure based on who was going to stop in the store. Later, Scott applied for and got the position of General Manager of Tower Records Annapolis.

On this episode of “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records” join us as we speak with songwriter, podcaster, radio personality, and former Tower employee Scott Edward Phelps.

Ep. 62 John Correa (TVID & Store Services) Aug 22, 2023

If you worked in a Tower Records store or at the corporate offices in Sacramento and had issues with a computer, chances are you probably talked to our guest this week, John Correa. Leaving his life as a member of a local Break Dance crew, John started working for Tower at the TVID warehouse in 1988. John’s first professional endeavor working a tech job was when he started doing data entry at TVID in 1990.

From there, John’s landlord told him about a new department starting up to help stores with Registers and main office personnel with computer issues. This was the beginning of Support Services and John Correa was among the inaugural 5-6 employees of the department.

John wasn’t just answering phones and asking if everything was plugged in correctly. In the early 1990s, as Tower rolled out its ISP program and new registers, John was traveling, installing, and teaching how to use the programs and registers, often to a roomful of people who had no interest in upgrading to a tech-based inventory system.

Join us as John recalls his time in Store Services, some of his favorite work trips across the county, and ending his career at Tower’s 24/7 on-site presence at the fabled inception of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Ep. 61 Jen Gies (Clark Street Chicago, Nashville, Corporate Marketing) Aug 15, 2023

This week’s episode takes us away from the coasts and back into the heartland. Jen Gies is originally from Chicago and it was at Tower Records on Clark Street where she began her career with the company, hired in as a Holiday temp employee. As luck would have it, her first day working at Tower happened to be the same her favorite band was doing an in-store launch for their second album. Starting in the classical department, she moved into the Jazz Department when a spot opened.

It was in the Jazz department that Jen discovered Bela Fleck & The Flecktones which became a musical obsession for her. This led to Jen’s education into bluegrass music and when the Country, Folk & Bluegrass buyer position opened up, it went to Jen. One of the more fascinating stories involved Jen’s search for a little-known album that turned out to be miscoded in the New Age section. Jen began to buy box lots, feature it on listening stations, and talk it up to her customers. Jen sent sales reports of this little-known recording to the President of the record label and what followed next tells you everything you need to know about the music business in the 90’s.

Deciding to move to Nashville, it took a year before a position at the West End Tower store opened up. It was there that Jen got to experience the Nashville scene and all its glory. Jen talks about the many drop-ins from the Nashville recording elite, many before they became famous, and some country royalty that came in to shop with her assistance.

Join us for an exciting look into the Tower career of Jen Gies and the goings-on at two of Tower’s best-known stores.

Ep. 60 Don Erwin (Tower Posters, California Posters) Aug 08, 2023

Don Erwin started with Tower in 1972 and was a Manager for Tower Posters from 1973-1978. He worked for Dick Harris whose MTS Inc’s employee number was 1. Dick, Don and MTS eventually got smart and spun off Tower Posters' success by becoming California Posters, later CP Rock, one of the country’s premier distributors of counterculture posters. At one point California Posters sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of poster merchandise to most of Tower’s competition.

And the paraphernalia business was like printing cash. Being flown to NYC and attending parties by High Times magazine sounds like a scene out of a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. But nothing can be that easy, can it? The rise of paraphernalia laws in California led to Sacramento law enforcement targeting Tower Poster stores. Don Erwin tells us about the comically tragic trial that Tower won, only to be told by law enforcement that they wouldn’t back off from coming after Tower Poster stores.

Don Erwin’s job titles at California Posters were Grand Pubah and Grand Wazoo which translated to National Sales Manager. When Don was told in 1985 that Tower was shutting down California Posters/CP Rock and he was being let go, Don took the generous severance package. He ventured into the poster business. Shortly thereafter Don was sued by MTS Inc.

But this story had a happy ending; many years later Don Erwin ran into Russ Solomon at a trade show and thanked Russ for launching his licensed merchandise career.

Join us for an informative look behind the operations of the company very few people know about; Tower Posters.

Ep. 59 Travis Michael Anderson (Austin, TX and Seattle) Aug 01, 2023

Travis Michael Anderson grew up in Yakima, WA more than 2 hours from Seattle. A classical brass player, Travis moved to the Bellevue WA area and applied to Tower Records Bellevue. He was turned down because he didn’t have enough retail experience. For the same reason he was turned down at Barnes & Noble and ended up working for Wherehouse Records. After dealing with Wherehouse's bankruptcy horrors and now having experience under his belt, he was hired at Barnes & Noble in Bellevue to work in their music department.

A move to Austin TX with his partner who was going to graduate school led to Travis applying to Tower Records. He washired almost immediately. Travis was a Night Supervisor and eventually the Classical Buyer among several other sections. Moving back to Seattle, a transfer was worked out and Travis spent the next several years at both Tower locations in Queen Anne.

During our conversation Travis touches on the work cultures of Tower, Wherehouse and Barnes & Noble, the differences between the Austin and Seattle stores and music scenes, building the first Tower Records pop up store at Seattle’s fabled Bumbershoot Festival and working with a group of Tower All Stars at the inaugural Bonnaroo Music festival.

Ep. 58 Tim Wessman (Art Department SF & NYC) Jul 25, 2023

When Tim Wessman started working at Tower, it was never previously on his radar. Tim was immediately impressed by the level of devotion his co-workers had for music. He felt an immediate fit when he started working for Tower. With no portfolio he interviewed for the Artist position at the Berkley Video store and he was hired by Sue Peterson on the strength of his interview.

At the end of 1990, Tim took a weekend trip to NYC and loved it so much that two months later he transferred to the NYC Village store #125. Working with a slew of artists at the Tower Art Loft at 4th & Lafayette, Tim was pulled aside by the Art Director and told to slow down as he was making the other artists look bad.

Tim tells us about eventually taking over the role of Art Director and the highs and lows of working art and displays at the number one store in the US. Dealing with foam core full of bullet holes, artists who showed up to work to nap, the infamous Green Day in store where the Village store was torn to shreds, in stores with Lenny Kravitz, The Ramones, The Go Go’s and Kate Bush’s rare in store signing and being let down by the Prince in store and a whole lot more.

The day after a Eurythmics Madison Square Garden reunion show, Tim flew back to the West Coast and started working at the Tower store in the Castro District, which was a completely different experience than what he had become used to. Tim finished his career with Tower as the Singles buyer.

Ep. 57 Greg Harrington (Burlington, Boston, Cambridge MA) Jul 18, 2023

“College Boy” Greg Harrington started working at Tower Records Burlington MA and did so well on his first day of register, they threw him back in receiving to do pricing. Not the usual path to working in the receiving department, but our guest this week didn’t have a conventional career at Tower Records.

Burlington MA, the big store on Boston’s Newbury Street and the Cambridge store were all part of Greg Harrington’s Tower journey. But in between all of that were stints at The Boston Phoenix, the Virgin Megastore and when Tower shut down, a considerable stint at FYE.

Through it all Greg Harrington handled his Tower gigs with a positive outlook, a keen sense of humor and a pair of Oakley sunglasses wrapped around his head.

On this week’s episode of “2500 DelMonte Street” Greg Harrington, a Star Wars nerd, recalls ringing up Natalie Portman in Cambridge, an incident of a never solved, inside job robbery at the Newbury St. store, visits from New York Yankee coach Willie Randolph, regular visits to all three locations from Boston legend Peter Wolf, once with Van Morrison in tow and a whole lot more.

Join us for a hilarious conversation with Greg Harrington on this week’s episode of “2500 DelMonte Street: the Oral History of Tower Records”.

Ep. 56 Pam Hopson (Payroll/Personnel) Jun 27, 2023

Pam Hopson first began working for Tower Records/MTS Inc. in 1976. But unlike many, Pam had to pay to get the job. One of the employment agencies Russ Solomon used back in the early days charged the employee and not just a little bit. Pam paid $400 in 1976 ($2,137 in 2023 dollars) to get a job doing what she did best at the time; running business machines, particularly a 10-key. Starting in the office with just 24 other employees Pam started in Sales Audit and then transferred to the Payroll Department.

As Payroll Manager, Pam oversaw 3,000 employees paid weekly (a $14 million dollar annual payroll). Pam lobbied to have payroll moved to a bi-weekly system but Russ and Bud were concerned that the company's employees would struggle with the adjustment and that idea was shot down.

At the time, the Payroll Department was taking on an increasing amount of insurance claims as well as calls from store employees who had grievances about things occurring in their stores, as well as the need to get that payroll out each week. Pam Hopson and Shauna Pompei lobbied for a separate Personnel Department formed. Bud Martin finally agreed and Personnel, later Human Resources was born at Tower Records.

Pam also talks about meeting her future husband Chris Hopson. She also talks about his subsequent need to personally deliver the Advertising Department’s payroll to Pam personally.

This is part one of a conversation with Pam Hopson regarding her Tower Records experience. Later in the summer Pam and her family will pay tribute to the late Chris Hopson. They will tell us more about her husband and their father and his place in the Tower Records story.

Ep. 55 John Fonvielle (Washington DC, Cherry Hill NJ, Paramus NJ) Jun 20, 2023

Ep. 54 Charlie Clendenin (BMG Distribution) Jun 13, 2023

Ep. 53 Russ Eisenman (Tower.com, Chief Marketing Officer Tower Records) Jun 06, 2023

As a 13 year old from Southern California Russ Eisenman listened to KROQ, stole quarters from his step-father’s nightstand and went to Tower Records in Campbell to buy cassettes recommended to him by one of the store’s clerks. This opened up Russ’ depth and knowledge of popular music.

Many years later Russ Eisenman started with Tower Records working at Tower.com . By 2002 Russ was Tower's Chief Marketing Officer. And that clerk from the Campbell store? He rose to Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Universal Music Group, as Russ learned from a chance meeting years later.

But back to Russ Eisenman…how does a guy who started off studying psychology, finished with a Masters Degree in Sports Management end up as Chief Marketing Officer for Tower Records? “Stalking Russ and Michael Solomon” is one answer. A background in one of the pioneering internet businesses of the 1990’s (“before Google, before Expedia”) certainly helped. A drive and resolve after being diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma as a college student (he got through his treatments listening to The Smashing Pumpkins' “Siamese Dream” repeatedly) might have been a factor.

Starting with Tower.com in 1999 under Mark Bressler, Russ worked alongside Jon Fiedner and Mike Farrace. Behind the scenes trying to get Retail Ops to embrace the Tower.com brand in the stores was an uphill battle.

In this episode Russ Eisenman takes us behind the scenes of those heady and eventually turbulent days of Tower Records. He describes what he and his team contributed and what he witnessed during that time.

Ep. 52 Bill Duffy (Philly, Nanuet, Midwest Regional, VP North American Operations) May 30, 2023

Bill Duffy was from a particular generation of Tower Store Managers; started in the mid 80’s to early 90’s, spent 15-20 years with the company and was still looked upon as a “newbie”.

But Bill broke that mold big time to both the joy and concern of the seasoned and hardened Tower Managers and Regionals. Bill was a General Manager for only 6 years before being promoted into a Regional Manager capacity; light speed in Tower’s culture. And two years later to be promoted to Vice President of North American Operations? What did this guy have, to move at warp speed through the Tower Records ecosystem?

Bill will tell us how he remembers it all. From his time working for a South New Jersey indie record chain to Assistant Manager under Eric Wood at Cherry Hill NJ. After a couple years running his first store in Nanuet NY, Bill came back to the Philadelphia area running the iconic store on South Street in Philadelphia.

From there Bill was based out of Texas, a move he initially resisted. His final four years with the company, as VP of North American Ops were the final four years of the company. Through it all, despite circumstances seemingly limiting the opportunity for innovation, Bill brought a sense of possible renewal to the way Tower Records ran its stores until the clock finally ran out.

Join us on the first episode of our 2nd year as we discuss the impact Tower had on the management style and continuing evolution of Bill Duffy.

Ep. 51 One Year Anniversary with Stan Goman (COO of Tower Records) May 23, 2023

It’s our one year Anniversary and we’ve got former Tower Records COO Stan Goman back to answer listener submitted questions!
It's a lively episode and Stan tells us his favorite episode of “2500 DelMonte Street”, Stan’s Desert Island Discs, Tower’s funniest in store, Stan’s going away party from the Sunset store, his time as a Country Music Association Board member and what he said that pissed off Clint Black, Frannie Marsalis’ almost forgotten role in the company, battles between Russ & Bud, Stan’s reaction to the “Art Gods” film, the Tower locations that got away and a series of Artificial Intelligence questions submitted by Chat GPT.
Plus there's a whole lot more that we cover. Join us as Stan answers your questions!

Ep. 50 Billy DePasquale (4th & Broadway, Lincoln Center, WEA Distribution) May 16, 2023

Imagine working in the largest, most prestigious record store in Manhattan in the 1980’s. Now imagine doing that twice. Today’s guest, Billy DePasquale started his record retail career at the largest record store in Manhattan, Sam Goody in Rockefeller Center, in September of 1980. Tower Records wouldn’t land in Manhattan for another 3 years. One event that stands out during his time at Sam Goody is the day after John Lennon was murdered and the lines to get into the store to buy John Lennon and Beatles records.

Billy worked at a small local chain called The Record Factory on 8th Street in the Village. A co-worker told him about an upcoming store about to open. When the co-worker got a job at the brand new Tower Records at 4th & Broadway, she spoke for him. Billy interviewed and got the job. From there he spent years at both the Village store and later at Lincoln Center.

Eventually Billy was hired by WEA Distribution in New York where he started working as an inventory person and then worked up to Sales Director for the Northeast Region. After Tower closed in 2006, Billy left WEA in May of 2007.

Throughout our interview Billy talks about the camaraderie among the staff of #125 including very late nights at The Cactus Cafe with Keith Richards and Patti Hansen tucked into a table aside from the partying Tower revelers, the working relationships he forged in those early years, the differences between Tower Records and other music accounts and a whole lot more.

Ep. 49 Arthur Moorhead (Columbus & Bay, ECM, Rhino & Nonesuch Records) May 09, 2023

Was Arthur Moorhead the greatest jazz buyer that ever worked at Tower Records? Stan Goman believes that is the case. Growing up in Arizona, Arthur became a proficient trombone player and obsessed with jazz, movie soundtracks and orchestral music. By his own admission he was almost completely ignorant of pop music, except The Beatles. As a young teenager, his weekends consisted of hopping on a bus with a friend and making the rounds of Arizona record storeslooking for records. Eventually he worked for a local record store called Recordland in Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona.

In 1975 Arthur moved to San Francisco to pursue a career as a professional trombone player, as opportunities in Phoenix were few & far between. Needing a day job, he entered Tower Records Columbus & Bay. As luck would have it the current jazz buyer was planning to leave for a job with a catering company. Arthur’s interview consisted of Stan Goman and the current jazz buyer interviewing him with very basic jazz questions Arthur aced and he was hired on the spot. For the next five years, Arthur worked at Tower by day and evenings as a trombonist.

Through his tenure at Columbus & Bay, Arthur got to know the heads of the record labels and was approached by the US Managing Director of ECM Records which at the time was distributed by Warner Bros. Records, to be the National Sales Manager for ECM based out of New York City. For the next 40 years, Arthur worked in the WEA family of labels spending time with Elektra, Atlantic, Rhino and Nonesuch. At Nonesuch Arthur worked with John Adams, Steve Reich, Johnny Greenwood, Pat Metheny, David Byrne, Wilco, Fleet Foxes, Bill Frisell, Randy Newman and a host of other amazing artists. Arthur was also a producer, executive producer and reissue supervisor on many projects.

Ep. 48 Jay Gilbert (Tower Portland & "Your Morning Coffee" Newsletter & Podcast May 02, 2023

Jay Gilbert started his Tower career working at Tower Portland with legends like Rick Briare and Tim Cressinger. Prior to Tower, Jay worked at Rising Sun Records in Salem Oregon. That record store experience laid the foundation for a career in the music business that anyone could be jealous of.

After working for Tower Records, Jay worked with both MCA and Sony calling on Tower Records as his National account. Jay tells us about calling on the folks at corporate and who he still considers a good friend to this day. Leaving the field, Jay moved into Universal’s Director of Catalog development and had a hand in many of Universal’s biggest reissues including Nirvana’s box set.

In recent years Jay has been an artist Manager (Rick Springfield, John Waite), a music photographer, a music industry consultant and the author and force behind the Your Morning Coffee weekly newsletter that comes out every Friday and the Your Morning Coffee podcast that gets released every Monday (https://yourmorning.coffee). The unique story about how Your Morning Coffee developed is a simple, but fascinating look into harnessing the power of networking.

Jay Gilbert will take you on a fascinating journey into the music industry in 2023 and how it works and changes every day.

Ep. 47 Howard Cespedes (Mountain View & NYC 4th & Broadway) Apr 25, 2023

Howard Cespedes worked at seven Tower Records locations during his 19-year career. He's best known for his three stints at the Mountain View CA store and his five year tenure at the 4th & Broadway location in Manhattan.

Born on Guam and growing up in Northern California, Howard was a life-long jazz fan, starting with his father’s Duke Ellington recordings he discovered. His first time shopping at Tower Watt Avenue, he was taken by the jazz section size and got lost in it.

Starting as temporary inventory help, Howard was called back for an interview to work in the Classical Department atMountain View. This was when Mike Lowther was General Manager. His first weeks at Tower involved an exclusive in-store promotion for consumers to win a car and he shares his memories of those first days with us.

Working with A Teams was a big part of Howard’s Tower career. Helping to open Washington DC, London Piccadilly, Torrance, Boston, Carle Place, Nashville, Atlanta and a whole host of other stores was critical to his development. Howard walks us through his time working at Picadilly Circus as an A Team member and then as Receiving Department Manager. This was so much more labor intensive than the US position. London is also the only store where Howard was late to a Tower Meeting because of Princess Diana.

Following London, in NYC Howard was the Assistant Manager of #125 at 4th & Broadway. One special in-storeperformance in 1991 was with a new Seattle band called Nirvana. Another legendary night was with Keith Richards in-store just steps from Keith’s condo. Howard discusses the perks and headaches of running the busiest US store in the chain at the time.

In 1993 Howard moved back to the Bay Area and didn’t enjoy his last years with the company due to Tower’s diversification into non-music products. In addition, he wanted to return to live musical performances.
Join us for an informative look on Howard Cespedes' journey at Tower Records.

Ep. 46 Dan Navarro (Westwood) Apr 11, 2023

Dan Navarro has had a long & fruitful career in the recording industry. He released 13 albums as part of the duo Lowen & Navarro and was frequently featured on Adult Alternative radio. He recently released his solo album “Horizon Line” featuring a who’s who of LA studio talent. As a bilingual singer and voice actor he’s sang in Oscar winners “Encanto”, “Coco” and “Happy Feet”. He co-wrote Pat Benatar’s hit song “We Belong”, in an era when people actually bought albums and 45 rpm singles. And he’s currently out on tour about to make a major East Coast trek from April 14th to May 6th (https://dannavarro.com/shows)

And while that’s all well and good, we wanted to know about Dan’s work at Tower Records Westwood in the 1970’s. Dan takes us back to a time when it really was all about music. He was the 2nd employee hired and started working in the Classical Department at Westwood under General Manager Chris Hopson. He eventually handled Country, Folk and Blues. Dan talks about Westwood's opening with the “Sacramento Mafia”, or the A Team.

Dan likewise confirms Dave Coker’s story about being offered a job with BMG Distribution and Coker’s method of persuading Dan out of taking the job. He also talks about another epic night they spent together at The Roxy. Dan further talks about Lowen & Navarro playing at the Tower Annual Conference (TAC) in the 1990’s.

Dan reminisces about the people he met during his short Tower career, both customers and fellow staff members. He also tells us about his wide and varied music and film career. This includes extensive voice work in TVs & Movies, Videogame character voices, TV & Radio commercial work.

Most recently, Dan started up “Songs From The Corona Zone" a daily web-based series he produced during the Covidlockdown and his Nomad Dan tour. He traveled the US in an 18-foot camper van.

Join us for an in depth conversation with recording artist and former Tower employee, Dan Navarro.

Ep. 45 Kevin Ertell (Las Vegas, Panorama City, Sherman Oaks, IT, Tysons Corner, SVP of Tower.com) Apr 04, 2023

The last time Kevin Ertell saw Russ Solomon, at the premiere of “All Things Must Pass”, Russ walked up to him and the first thing out of his mouth was, “Kevin! Can you believe what those fuckers have done to our website!?” During his time as SVP of Tower.com, Kevin spent many an afternoon in Russ Solomon’s office while Russ peppered him with questions about online retailing from a recent article he had read. It was time that Kevin cherished.

Kevin had a wide and varied career at Tower Records. Starting out in the original Las Vegas store in the video store, then to "apprentice" as the Classical Buyer for that store and out to Panorama City California as a Video Assistant Manager and eventual Store Manager. He landed as Sherman Oaks Video Store Manager under Regional Manager Gayle Boswell. While Kevin was in California he auditioned as the bass player for the band of a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member, but didn’t get the gig.

Working in the stores wasn’t enough for Kevin. Having an interest in tech, he joined the Store Service team. With an all star roster of employees many will remember, he was a part of the nationwide and then world wide rollout of the Tower ISP program.

Wanting to put that ISP knowledge to practical use and get closer to his long distance relationship, Kevin took the position of General Manager of the Tyson’s Corner Virginia store. In a thriving, busy store he worked the Tower ISP program to its fullest, oversaw a one of a kind Cirque Du Soleil in-store and dealt with the wrath of a woman who worked for a US Senator who wanted Tower Records to remove their Playboy videos, lest they tempt her son.

It was back to Sacramento to work on the challenge of Tower.com. Kevin tells us about the time it took to make Tower.com the #2 store in the US back when buying music on the web was not normal, how a consortium of retailers including Virgin, Best Buy, Borders Books and Tower Records got rejected by the record labels to sell major label music files before Apple Music and how after 20 years, in 2005 it all ended as Kevin was recruited by Borders Books to rebuild their Borders.com and help start up their Borders Rewards program.

Kevin points out early in the episode that none of this would have happened had he not got a job at Tower Records in April of 1985 following an extremely dark chapter in his young life. Kevin said “I found my people. Tower saved me.”

044 Jackson Griffith (Stockton, Las Vegas, PULSE! Magazine) Mar 28, 2023

“That was the first time that music really hit me on an emotional level” says this week’s guest, Jackson Griffith, when discussing the first time he heard The Beach Boys. Jackson came from a broken home and a friend of his mother gave him a transistor radio where he first discovered & loved early Motown and the 60’s girl groups. It was at his first concert in 1969 that he heard a band, Santana, two months before their debut album was released.

Jackson tried for a long time to get a job at Tower Stockton but was stiffed by the managers. When Phil Minas took over as manager in 1977 he hired him. Jackson did store artwork and slowly grew into a jazz fanatic As things got crazy in the store (have a gun pulled on you for not returning two LPs?) Jackson moved out to the brand new 24 hour Tower store in Las Vegas.

Jackson bounced around Tower locations until a legal matter caused him to leave the company and he moved back to Stockton to deal with it. He returned to Tower in 1983 at the new Stockton location with Tom Pompei at the helm, but hisgoal was to get out of working in the store and work in the Corporate Office. Seeing a notice for an editorial assistant at PULSE! Magazine, Jackson submitted a number of record reviews to Mike Farrace and was hired.

At PULSE! Jackson found his voice and jumped into magazine production and writing. Not every assignment wentaccording to plan. Artist Shelby Lynne simply did not want to be interviewed the day he showed up to talk to her. And how do you spend a week in Minneapolis profiling The Replacements? Drunk enough to have tapes full of gibberish, calling the band on the phone to get quotes to flesh out your story.

Jackson talks about all of this and more in a wide-ranging episode you won’t want to miss.

Ep. 43 Carl Michelakos (16th & Bway, MCA Distribution, Bayside Distribution) Mar 21, 2023

“This is the worst handwriting I’ve ever seen” is a pretty common refrain this week’s guest has heard throughout his career in the music business. His standard reply was “Are you hiring me for my handwriting or are you hiring me for my music knowledge?” After you listen to this episode, you’ll agree that Carl Michelakos was continually hired for his dizzyingly precise music expertise. His recall of songs, artists, dates and chart positions is downright academic.

Carl started with Tower Records in 1968, but was shopping in the record department of Tower Drug Store in 1957. Though he always bought 45 rpm singles at other stores around town (“If I could afford it, I bought it"), on his first visit to Tower he bought Elvis Presley’s debut album, his first purchase of an LP. He got the job at Tower after spending a year meeting weekly with KXOA DJ Tony King. King was recording Carl's extensive 45 collection to have a better playlist than the other radio stations in town. Tony King told him he had an interview with Rick Briare at 16th & Broadway in Sacramento because “You belong in the music business”.

Seven years with Tower, Carl considered himself a “lifer”. Until an opportunity he had been promised was pulled at the last minute. Shortly thereafter MCA Records came calling. Carl spent 25 years with MCA first servicing all the Tower stores in Northern California where they let him write his own orders. Gigs and promotions in Denver and Atlanta followed.

After MCA and Polygram merged, Carl got a call from Stan Goman and Mark Viducich, telling him “We want you to come back home”. Soon after Carl returned to Bayside, the Tower-owned distribution company. Carl headed up Bayside Special Products and later worked on cultivating outside accounts to grow Bayside’s business until the end in 2006.

Carl also talks to us about the genius of Russ Solomon, having Stan Goman work for him on assignment for a short while, using his position & influence as Singles Buyer to manipulate the charts, the “Dutch Boy” who kept asking him for a job and why Ral Donner (who?) was his favorite rock & roll act of all time. Throughout you will be amazed at Carl’s recall of names, dates, chart positions, song titles and the many people he hired and fired.

Ep. 42 Shauna Pompei (Sr. VP of Human Resources) Mar 14, 2023

Born in Roseville, CA Shauna Pompei grew up in a house with a mother who dreamt of becoming an opera singer. The house was always full of music, mostly easy listening and movie soundtracks played on the family’s living room console. Shauna’s mother could be heard singing in their house regularly. When The Beach Boys and The Beatles hit, Shauna found herself and her music.

Like a number of women that went on to head up departments at MTS, Inc, Shauna was sent to Tower’s small corporate offices by a temp agency and was interviewed by Tony Valerio. Shauna remembers it well or at least what Tony was wearing; green shades, a white silk shirt with red polka dots, red plaid pants, white shoes and a white belt. Her first job was in the accounting department balancing statements for the indie labels Tower did business with.

Shauna eventually moved over to the Payroll department after an interview with Bud Martin. At the time the department was only five people and they handled Payroll, Benefits and fielding calls from the Employee Complaint line. It was after a particularly ridiculous action by a manager to an employee and the rapid growth of the company. Shauna strongly suggested to Bud Martin and Stan Goman about breaking off into a separate Human Resources department to handle the volume of issues in the stores. Ginny Danielson was the first Manager of the Human Resources Department and Shauna took over when she left.

In this episode Shauna talks about the various ways her department went about trying to keep the stores compliant, innovative ways to train managers that ended up in the New York Times, successes her department and Tower in general had in the area of HR, having to manage the art at the Main office as harassment free workplaces became integral to the 1990’s, her first concert in 1969 and the status of the 2500 DelMonte Street offices currently.

Join us for a fascinating insight into the inner workings of Tower Records Human Resources and the person who headed up the department the longest, Shauna Pompei.

Ep. 41 Phil Myers (Sac, NYC, Chicago & Regional Director) Mar 07, 2023

When Phil Myers started working at the TRIP warehouse during the 1986 holidays, he was taken by the sight of Earl Martis driving a forklift around the facility. Earl had a Miller Light in one hand and a Tiparillo in his mouth. Making sure to work hard, unlike some of his colleagues, Phil had every expectation to stay on when the holidays were over. Nonetheless, he was laid off from his temporary assignment by Earl Martis.

A couple of years later Phil found himself in NYC and his brother Max recommended him to Matthew Koenig and Howard Cespedes. The day he went to talk to Howard, one of his favorite bands was doing an in store signing behind a large table and with an ice chest full of Budweiser Beer, leading Phil to think to himself “Oh, I’ve got to work here!” Phil got the job, worked his way to an amazing schedule through hard work and took in all that Manhattan had to offer. One Friday night while working his Country, Folk, Bluegrass section the local Capitol Records rep stopped by the store, unannounced, with an artist about to release his first album; Garth Brooks.

After being Assistant Manager to Howard Cespedes, Phil got burned out on NYC, left for a short stint in Dublin, CA with Kevin Cassidy and then headed to the first Chicago store working as Operations Manager with Greg Wallis. The store was a failure out of the gate and it took a long time before things caught on. Phil was promoted to the position of General Manager and worked with a strong team who ultimately made Chicago a Top 10 store in the chain.

From there Phil moved on to be a Video Regional Manager and then finished the last six years of his Tower Career as Midwest Regional Director, with a truly wonderful musical market of stores to oversee, until he left the company in 2005.

Phil tells us about the amazing roster of Managers he oversaw, his TAC memories of Peter Glenn and Jack Gallagher, working with Bill Duffy, John Thrasher, Stan Goman and Russ Solomon, the end of his career consisting of closing stores and dealing with store resentment, having Tower dreams and a whole lot more.

Join us for a wonderful, upbeat conversation with a true Tower jewel.

Ep. 40 Ray Edwards (National Classical Merchandise Manager) Feb 28, 2023

Ray Edwards Classical music journey started in the 3rd grade through a friend’s mother who was a Classical violinist. Ray enjoyed the music education he received in school and went to college interested in Music Education, but suddenly stopped that program and took a job at Penn Records at 18th & Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Ray would later work at H. Royer Smith Records, the oldest record store in Philadelphia (opened in 1908). In the early 1970’s when a friend headed west to San Francisco, word came back that Ray had to move out there and check out a record store called Tower Records.

In San Francisco Ray was hired and eventually worked with Stan Goman who came in to clean up the store. For a while Ray was Stan’s Assistant Manager until…he wasn’t. In order to avoid a pay cut, Stan and John Schaier, the General Manager of Tower’s Record Division, made the position of company wide Classical Music Manager. Writing all of the radio scripts for Classical radio station ads and buying Classical cut outs for the stores were a part of his new responsibilities.

Ray would regularly visit stores throughout the chain and make sure buying and merchandising was up to Tower standards. Prior to the opening of the 4th & Broadway store, Tower’s first in NYC, Ray moved from San Francisco to New York City. From 1983 on, Ray was writing opening Classical orders and doing the rack layout for new stores. Ray also joined almost all of the A Teams to help open the Classical Departments throughout the country and the world.

On today’s episode, Ray recounts many of these openings and the hijinks surrounding some of the better known stores.

As Tower wound down, Ray knew that his days and his position were numbered. It still didn’t make it easy when he was summoned to the Regional Manager’s office to take a phone call letting him know his position had been eliminated.

Join us for an enlightening conversation about the all important, but little known Classical music departments that helped to make Tower Records the best record store chain in the world.

Ep. 39 Ryan Bland (Loss Prevention Lincoln Center NYC) Feb 21, 2023

“Hey, you don’t remember me but you caught me stealing CDs at Tower Records once” is the kind of remark a singer remembers after stepping off stage following an energetic, raucous performance; and that’s exactly what happened to Ryan Bland.

Growing up in Beaumont, Texas Ryan Bland dreamt of life in the big city. As an African American kid into New Wave music and Prince, he didn’t fit into the all black high school he attended where he acquired a unique music related nickname.

Reading books and magazine articles about people like Lou Reed, it was his ambition to move to the Big Apple. He started by moving to Long Island, where his mother had moved. Working for Tower Records Carle Place opened up a door to Ryan’s eventual move to Manhattan.

For more than 6 years Ryan Bland was a witness to the internal and external activity of Tower Records #1 grossing US store, Lincoln Center NYC. While Ryan spends some time talking about busting customers and staff alike, it was working along side musicians he admired that got Ryan excited.

As a performing artist himself (Ryan is the lead singer of the Brooklyn based hardcore/metal band ACHE) he enjoyed working with and conversing with artists that his fellow Loss Prevention employees knew nothing about. His conversation with Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction is one for the ages.

Join us for a great conversation this week with Ryan Bland.

Ep. 38 Randi Morton Swindel (Bay Area, NYC, NE Regional Mgr) Feb 14, 2023

“When Russ found out I was on the union side? He literally came up to me and went for my throat”

Randi Morton Swindel was working at Columbus & Bay when that store took a union vote in the mid 1970’s and the union lost. And despite being opposite Russ Solomon, Randi Morton Swindel proved to be one of Russ’ all time favorite employees.

This week on “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records” we talk with Randi, who was born in San Francisco and grew up in Oakland in a house filled with Classical Music. The Top 40 radio of KYA and KFRC got a hold of her and if that wasn’t enough Beatlemania invaded her school and clique of friends causing Randi to cry (she wasn’t a screamer) at the sight of The Beatles. In one five week period bridging 1965-1966 Randi caught The Rolling Stones at The San Jose Civic Auditorium and then Bob Dylan and The Hawks going electric at the San Francisco Masonic.

James Brown, Otis Redding and a host of other concerts led to her eventually finding a job at Tower Records at Columbus & Bay. Randi was the second woman hired to work the cash register and the sales floor. From 1972-1984 Randi worked her way up between stints at Columbus & Bay, Mountain View, Fresno and then back to Mountain View.

Along the way she met her husband Jim Swindel who held a music marketing job in Northern California. When Jim scored a Sales Management position in NYC, Randi went to be the Manager of the original Lincoln Center location and then to the Village Store while also holding the position of Northeast Regional Manager overseeing the opening of South Street Philadelphia, Washington DC and the Boston store on Newbury Street.

Randi tells us about amazing in stores with REM, Violent Femmes, Tina Turner and a nightmare visit with a prickly Lou Reed, phone calls from Bud Martin about $75 plumbing paid outs, navigating NYC in the 80’s, overseeing the opening of iconic Tower stores on the East Coast, the decision to step away from her career at Tower, her son Joey’s Godfather Russ Solomon and a whole host of other subjects.

Ep. 37 John Thrasher (Bay Area, VP of Tower Video) Feb 07, 2023

Born in Bakersfield, CA and attending college in Berkley, John Thrasher got the bug to work in College Radio with a regular show on KPFA. Older than the average Tower employee when he started, John’s first day on the job was the week John Lennon was killed.

He remembers that his first weeks on the job the store was getting rid of 8 Track tapes and wouldn’t buy records from MCA as there was a dispute between MCA and Tower at the time. Hired by Randi Morton (later and currently Randi Swindel) and trained by Barbara Williamson, John Thrasher was up and running as a Tower employee.

It was a long journey, one that John tells us about in today’s episode, from an entry level clerk to the Vice President of Video. John tells us about his management interview with Stan Goman where Stan asked a series of provocative questions, working at Mountain View and Columbus & Bay, why a blowout on the sales floor with his GM led to him considering leaving the company, the infamous Ticketmaster scandal at Mountainview and Tom Rule’s quote heard throughout the Bay Area, a unique Sly Stone concert with audience members recruited to be the band, dealing with a difficult, upset Herbie Hancock, a description of just about every format that ever came out on video, a history of the legal side of the video rental business which resulted in the formation of VSDA (Video Software Dealers of America), John’s mentors in learning the Tower Video business and a whole lot more.

Our interview with John Thrasher is jam packed with information you may have known, but forgotten about. Rest assured, John has forgotten nothing. Join us this week for an insight into a key part of Tower’s overall success.

Ep. 36 Craig Martin (Sac, London, Marina Del Ray) Jan 31, 2023

“You can’t fire me!”

Was it an inside joke this week’s guest shared with friends and confidants or was it a statement of fact, out there in the open? Craig Martin, son of Tower Records CFO Walter “Bud” Martin started working at the 16th & Broadway store in the summer of 1975 at age 15 with Carl Michelakos as the store’s General Manager. As a young man he got turned on to a variety of jazz guitar players and went down that road learning all that he could

After Michelakos left, Craig stayed with Tower in the summers, but instead worked at the Sacramento warehouses before a couple years later moving to San Diego to work with Wayne Ennes. Craig went to great lengths to quiet his relationship to his father so that he would be accepted amongst the crew. Once Wayne left, his replacement was said to have told the whole store about Bud & Craig, father & son.

Working on some of the A Teams, Craig helped open the original store in Seattle, Lincoln Center’s original NYC location, Washington DC and London Picadilly Circus. It was in London Craig ran into legal issues and was deported for not having proper work papers. He made his way back, continued to work at Piccadilly and was the General Manger of the London store for four years. After more than five years in London (he was originally supposed to be there for six months) he talked to Stan Goman about coming back to the US.

Craig ended his career running the Marina Del Rey store from 1992-2005. Craig recalls his lifelong relationship with Tower Records founder Russ Solomon, whose office he used to pilfer promos as a child.

Ep. 35 Bob Kaufman (Gen Mgr Asian Development & SVP Business Development and International Franchising) Jan 24, 2023

Growing up in Encinco CA and regularly shopping the Sherman Oaks Tower Records, Bob Kaufman had a fake i.d. as an underage teenager. It wasn’t to buy beer, but to sneak into the local clubs to see his favorite touring bands play.

Booking concerts at University of California Santa Barbara as well as doing air shifts on the college radio station, Bob knew he had to one day work in the work in the music business. So where did he start out? Where thousands of music and movie legends start; in the mailroom, in his case at Sony Music in Century City.

It was at a music industry networking event that Bob met Stan Goman. Telling him he worked in the music business and spoke Chinese (he was a Chinese language major in school), Goman reportedly barked “Talked to Cahoon!” It was after dinner with Keith Cahoon and an evening of concerts that he was hired to work operations for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Only problem is that when Bob landed in Sacramento, before leaving for Japan, Keith Cahoon forgot to tell anyone at 2500 DelMonte Street. Some blew him off and some greeted him warmly. Nonetheless, Bob Kaufman was a Tower employee.

In this week’s episode, Bob tells us about landing in Japan and immediately being tasked with writing Operations Manuals for the newly franchised Korean operation by observing Jason Munyon and what he did each day. Bob also tells us the story of Jazz clerk Ching from the Singapore store and Russ Solomon bonding…in Sacramento. Bob also recalls a wild encounter with Michael Jackson, his manager and bodyguard that almost led to a brawl, but ultimately led to Bob meeting his wife.

We wind down our talk with Bob, who was in the Conference room when a representative of Deutsche Bank had him removed for vehemently objecting to the terms of the sale of Tower Records Japan to raise capital to pay down the US debt obligations.

He may have started with the company differently than most and worked in parts of the company none of us knew about, but after listening to this episode you’ll see that Bob Kaufman also bled red & yellow.

Ep. 34 Despina Panagoulias (Tyson's Corner, Alexandria, Rockville, Mid-Atlantic PD & TD) Jan 17, 2023

Born in New York City to Greek parents, Despina “Debbie” Panagoulias eventually moved to Greece because her father, Alkis Panagoulias was a national Celebrity as the Manager of the Greek National Soccer team (think Bill Belichick). Growing up, it was her Mother’s love of American culture and that introduced Despina into popular music.

At age 15 Despina and her family moved to the Washington DC area as her father took a job as he head coach of the United States men’s national soccer team and was later the Head Coach of the US Men’s National Soccer team and then Head Coach of the US Olympic Soccer team in 1984. While dad was taking on coaching jobs, Despina was taking on music retail jobs; first at Waxie Maxies a Washington DC/Baltimore area record chain and then at Tower Records Tysons Corner in 1988.

On this episode, we learn about why Despina’s mother insisted on calling her Debbie; Greek record stores that didn’t sell records; the culture shock of moving from cosmopolitan Greece to the sleepy suburbs of Washington DC; the early days of Tower Records Tysons Corner, Alexandria and Rockville, MD; Debbie’s many hats as Video Regional, Book Regional, Video & Book Regional, Product Director, Regional Director and whatever else they threw at her; how the people she started with at Tower Tyson’s Corner became her lifelong friends; what she enjoyed most about her work with Tower; the mentors she had who helped guide her Tower career; the last hurrah of the Tower Records Bonnaroo store 5 months before Tower closed down for good and what the Federal Government could learn that Tower Records learned long ago.

Join us for a well rounded discussion about all things Tower Records.

Ep. 33 Keith Altomare (IRS Records, Rhino Records) Jan 10, 2023

Imagine growing up in a little town in New Jersey, sharing Beatles albums with your older sister while your Mom is listening to Frank Sinatra and Herb Albert all the time. You find your place in the world being “the music guy” at school.

Fold that into time working at the College radio station and then an entry level job at an upstart indie label called IRS Records where your first day on the job the Go Go’s debut album hits #1 on the Album Chart. Later that week the Go Go’s play Madison Square Garden. If this sounds at all familiar, then you’re most likely this week’s guest, Keith Altomare.

Keith spent a good amount of time at IRS Records (owned by uber Manager Miles Copeland) in New York City working as the label’s College Rep. His efforts helped propel REM’s “Murmur” to being Number One on the College Radio charts.

When IRS opened an office in Chicago, Keith opened up that territory before moving on to Los Angeles working as IRS National Sales Director. It was in the aisles of the Sunset Store where he met his wife Betsy who was then the Night Manager at Tower Records Sunset.

In 1989 Keith Altomare moved over to Rhino Records where he started as National Sales Director and then eventually became the VP of Sales working with Tower Records as one of the primary accounts because “They were awesome people who were there because of the music.” Keith also tells us about working with Rhino Records legend Gary Stewart who passed away in 2019.

Join us for an informative conversation with a long time friend of Tower Records, Keith Altomare.

Ep. 32 Julie Bianucci (Travel & Meetings Department Manager) Jan 03, 2023

This week’s guest, Julie Bianucci, was only 18 years old, far away from her hometown of Lake Tahoe, NV and fresh out of secretarial school when she went to interview for a job at a company she’d never heard of, MTS, Inc. For over 10 years Julie was Tony Valerie’s Executive Secretary. In addition to telling us about Tony Valerio as a boss and a person, she walks us through the Accounts Payable process for those who want to know.

Following Stan Goman’s initiative to get the Managers together every year, Julie took on the role of Travel and Meetings Department Manager where, with her team, she coordinated the yearly Tower Annual Conferences (TAC) as well as all corporate travel and planning.

At it’s height, a TAC involved making arrangements for over 800 attendees and over 20-25 bands and musical artists each year. Julie tells us about one memorable TAC where one beloved artist who was performing, asked specifically to meet another legendary artist who was famous for staying in their tour bus. Julie also tells us about an artist who threatened to walk because they didn’t like the way their equipment was being handled.

While overseeing TAC, Julie was met each morning by the Hotel’s security team who briefed her on the previous night’s shenanigans, often not giving Security the response they were anticipating or hoping for. Julie also reminds us that these events were held in the 90’s by revealing one of the largest expenses Tower had to pay out of pocket at each Conference.

“He spent his whole life working on staying young” is how she describes Tower Records founder Russ Solomon and fondly recalls her friendship and working relationship with the head of the company she’d never heard of.

Learn all about the behind the scenes logistics of working 19 hour days to make yearly TACs a time to remember.

Ep. 31 Jon Kerlikowske (Arizona, Nashville) Dec 27, 2022

Joining Tower Records in 1978 Jon Kerlikowske spent 14 years working and running stores like Tempe, Christown and Mesa (plus one year working for Handleman) before leaving for the bright lights of Nashville, TN.

Jon talks about the charm of running a store in Nashville where the country singers were real people you would see around town, bumping into them in the Grocery store or the local movie theatre.

In Nashville the yearly focus appeared to be on the week long Fan Fair (now known as CMA Fest) where the 1,000 square foot booth would do more business in 6 hours than the main Nashville store for the day. On top of that, the Nashville store would host multiple in store performances with established and up & coming country musicians making for a very busy week.

Jon winds down our conversation talking about being a clerk in the jazz section and the first time he met Russ Solomon in the Tempe, AZ store. This scenario ended up with Jon spending an hour with him at a local restaurant, discussing his thoughts and impressions on his store.

Ep. 30 Rudy Danzinger (Tower Books, Tower Outlet) Dec 20, 2022

Growing up in the 1930’s in Cincinnati OH, Rudy Danzinger’s parents weren’t music listeners. Lionel Hampton was Rudy’s first major exposure to music and because of that single live performance he became a fan of big band music.

Moving to California, Rudy took a job as manager of a local record store, Marin Music, in Mill Valley CA. Rudy innovated early on; soliciting record orders from the area businesses as well as hooking up a speaker near the store’s front door causing customers to come in off the street asking what he was playing. Pretty heady stuff for the early 1950’s.

Rudy met Russ Solomon in 1958 working for Record Supply, a music distributor. It proved to be a fateful meeting that would pay off down the road when Rudy came to work at Tower.

Working in Book Division, Rudy found his calling. Partnering with publishers to get Tower Books some co-op advertising, Rudy soon became the conduit for Book signings that made sense for Tower. Musicians, athletes, and yes straight up authors were often greeted at a Tower book signing by Rudy Danzinger.

Rudy reminisces about some of the better signings that came Tower’s way. He also tells the story of a book signing Tower passed on, but brought the author to the Main Office to meet Russ Solomon, only to leave the Corporate office with 500 Tower employees lined up high-fiving and roaring their approval as he left.

Rudy Danzinger claims he’s the oldest living ex-Tower employee around. Whatever his status, you’ll enjoy our conversation with a man who truly loved his job and brought joy to many he worked with.

Ep. 29 Mike Farrace (PULSE! Magazine) Dec 13, 2022

Before he started working for Tower Records Watt Avenue in 1975, today’s guest Mike Farrace had already run a Sacramento music magazine called “Rock & Roll News”. Following three years working at Tower Records Watt Avenue under Store Manager Mike Koontz, Farrace started working for Tower Advertising.

Mike tells us all about his time as Northwest Advertising Ad Manager, chasing down labels and blank tape companies for advertising dollars. Yet the whole time he was in Advertising, Farrace was thinking about starting up a Music Magazine that would be a Tower in house exclusive. Spending a year submitting proposals to John Schairer, he was finally told by Carla Henson “Mike, he’s just throwing those [proposals] in the trash.”

Next, Mike Farrace went straight to Russ Solomon and within 20 minutes at lunch, they were plotting out what would eventually become PULSE! Magazine, an independent publication that reflected Tower Records, its customers and the music it sold in the best possible way. The first 3 issues were put together by Farrace himself and over the course of 222 issues it eventually built up an impressive in house staff.

When PULSE! started it was the old fashioned paste up method of putting a magazine together. It wasn’t for several years until PULSE! got into computer graphics typesetting/publishing. But that simple, convenient move got Mike Farrace thinking and reading about a digital future. This led to Tower having its first database store online which led to Tower selling music on the internet.

Mike also tells us about the only time an artist got pissed at PULSE!, and how it was all Mike’s fault. Later in our discussion Mike recalls seeing the end coming for Tower and how things ended for PULSE! and himself in 2002.

Ep. 28 Brandi Merolla (Art Dept #125 Village NYC) Plus A Tribute To Patti Drosins Dec 06, 2022

Born to a single, loving, hippie mother and possessing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers, Brandi Merolla didn’t recognize the brightly lit storefront at 4th & Broadway. She was on her way home in the fall of 1983 when she came upon this neon temple.

As she walked up to open the door, she saw a sign that said “HELP WANTED”. Brandi asked for an application and when the clerk at the Info Desk saw her resume and her art background she told Brandi “Why don’t you apply for the Art Department?” Brandi had no idea that this new, huge record store employed artists and soon her life would change in a way she couldn’t imagine.

On this week’s episode, Brandi Merolla takes us through her time at Tower during the infancy of Store 125 in The Village and all the opportunities and events she was a part of during this fascinating time in Tower’s history.

Brandi created backdrop displays for the in stores of Iggy Pop, Fela, Kate Bush, The Cure, Souxsie & the Banshees, Lou Reed, Paul Young, Violent Femmes, Timbuk 3, Samantha Fox, and Max Roach.

4th & Broadway’s front window was prime NYC real estate and Brandi tells us about a time she got a thumbs up from an artist whose work she recreated in the window and then later collaborating with The Beastie Boys for their window display before their debut “Licensed To Ill” came out. Hint: They didn’t get everything they wanted.

Hers is a story of opportunity, loss and ultimately redemption. When Brandi left Tower, it wasn’t on her terms. But despondent over losing this $4.25 an hour job she would have gladly continued to work, someone whispered in her ear that this was the best thing that could have ever happened to her.

Soon Brandi was taking all of the skills she learned at Tower and making foam core displays for 90% of the record labels based in NYC. She also parlayed this into a position with FAO Schwartz and a 20 year affiliation with The Howard Stern show where she has probably been exposed to more foam core displays of Gary Dellabate’s teeth than anyone in the tri-state area.

Join us for this fascinating story on “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records”.
Also, we open this week's episode with a tribute to Patti Drosins, wife of Russ Solomon who passed away at the end of November 2022.

Ep. 27 Dave Mulholland (Seattle/Austin) Nov 29, 2022

Dave Muholland grew up greatly influenced by the musical taste of his older sister as well as the music he was hearing in Northern Virginia record stores like Penguin Feather and Kemp Mill Records. In fact, he spent so much time hanging out at Penguin Feather while he was under 18, he got a job cutting lawns and cleaning up the parking lot and received his payment in records.

Dave’s English teacher in High School was Virginia Grohl, mother of a drummer who eventually moved to the Seattle area and drummed for a local band. Interestingly enough, whenever Dave Grohl shopped at Tower Mercer, the conversation with Dave Mulholland was less about music and more about how Grohl’s mother was doing.

After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA he made the decision to move to Seattle in 1991 after spending some time visiting a friend. Looking for a job he applied at Tower Records #185 at 5th & Mercer under the Space Needle.

Starting in the Video Store and eventually moving into the music store, Dave became the Buyer for the Blues, Country and Folk sections. Working in the biggest record store in the Pacific Northwest gave Dave a front row seat to some of the events happening in the Seattle music scene. In this week’s episode, Muholland remembers Kurt & Courtney shopping in the store just a few weeks before Kurt left this mortal coil. He also remember the time a year later when a clerk asked Courtney for her I.D. when she went to pay for her purchase with a check.

Dave Muholland was encouraged to pursue management with Tower Records and he made the move to Austin, TX, a place he had been visiting somewhat regularly. But once there, he found the vibe in the city and the attitude towards Tower was infinitely different than what he experienced working in Seattle and shopping on the East Coast.

Dave also walks us though the difficulty of holding things together after announcing that the store would be closing and having to hold onto staff for a couple months.

Ep. 26 George Scarlett (Record Division/Retail Ops) Nov 22, 2022

“If you don’t have the product customer’s want, but you have a lot of the product customer’s don’t want, why bother opening your doors?” was a line that this week’s guest, George Scarlett, wrote in one of his famous memos to the field. That single sentence stuck with me throughout my time at Tower and in various situations in other jobs. With one simple sentence, George summed up what every Tower Management team should have been trying to accomplish in properly ordering the correct product mix for their store.

And while George is probably best known for his highly informative, always entertaining product missives (is there any store out there that didn’t have a binder that said “Scarlett Memos” on the side?) there was a whole lot more to George’s adventures before, at and after Tower.

Did you know George was hired and left Tower Records on four different occasions for four different reasons? On this episode he’ll tell us all about the circumstances behind each flight and return.

Along the way George also tells us about early musical influences, why George’s mother put the “Batman” theme on the record player each morning, pear farming, nightclubbing, why John Lennon was the cutest Beatle, his mercurial relationship with Ken Sockolov, introductions and interactions with Corporate muckety mucks, hiring Greek-American princesses from Northern Virginia, working in radio, his admiration for his co-workers and the folks working in the stores, why Tony Valerio scared him, Tower dreams, when Top 40 radio was truly radical, going to lunch with Jim Swindel, his relationship with Russ Solomon over the years and making peace with his working past.
And a whole…lot…more.

Is this a long episode; the single longest episode we’ve aired yet. But with so many people traveling for Thanksgiving this week, George’s velvet tones are sure to soothe, amuse and make you reflect while traveling on trains, planes and automobiles.

Stick with the episode. It’s a goodie!

Ep. 25 Jerry Pompei (Sac, CVRR, Tower Video, A-Team) Nov 15, 2022

Jerry Pompei got turned onto music partially because he had two older brothers that worked for Tower Records; Tom and Mike Pompei. Promo albums came home regularly and Jerry took the time to listen to what his brothers were leaving behind. Shortly after he turned 18, Jerry started working at the Tower Broadway location in Sacramento.

Jerry jokes with us that he holds the record for having had the most bosses and it’s true he worked in a lot of different stores and departments; Broadway Records, CVRR, Watt Ave. Books and various Tower Video stores in the Sacramento area.

It was when Jerry became part of Store Development, specifically the A-Team group who would assist and train with new store openings and remodels that Jerry Pompei became well known and regarded throughout the company.

In this week’s episode, Jerry shares many stories of wild openings and events while helping Tower expand its presence throughout the country and throughout the world. He also shares the change in the position and the tone of his work as part of the A Team’s duties involved shuttering stores. Jerry also shares a very difficult time with the passing of an A Team member and the difficult circumstances around that event.

Ep. 24 Carla Henson (Main Office, TRIP, Bayside) Nov 08, 2022

In 1971 Carla Henson went to interview for a Summer job at the Tower Records headquarters in Sacramento. She got the job and she stayed with it for the better part of 30 years. Her original workplace was at a desk in between Walter “Bud” Martin and Russ Solomon.

Later, Carla worked for John Schier, Stan Goman and Chris Hopson. When she started with the company, there were only 5 people working at the Main Office. Carla Henson had a hell of a ride and a front row seat to the genesis of Tower Records.

Born in Oakland and struck by lightning when she heard the record “Tallahassee Lassie” by Freddie Cannon while in second grade, Carla’s was a life of music both behind the scenes and on the scene. Hanging backstage with Russ Solomon, Roger McGuinn and Bob Dylan in Houston, TX, digging deep into the local music scene in both Austin, TX and New Orleans, LA and flying to Tahiti to meet up with Russ were all a part of a day’s work for Carla.

“I got up every day for 30 years and loved…my…job! Not a lot of people can say that,” Carla tells us. Join us for a very special conversation this week with Carla Henson.

Ep. 23 Jon Burk (Capitol/CEMA Distribution) Phila, NYC, Boston, LA Nov 01, 2022

Jon Burk grew up in South New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. In the mid 70’s he was a teenage Beatles fanatic and all he wanted to do as a young man was work in a record store.

Jon never worked at Tower Records, but he did put in his time, working several years for the Listening Booth record chain where he specialized in doing displays, i.e. visual merchandising. He made his move to the distribution side after banning the local CEMA Distribution merchandiser for producing lousy displays. He talked his way into the position and a career in record distribution was Jon’s.

Meeting the Tower brass before opening and then calling on Tower Records’ first Philadelphia store was a treat for Jon, until he had to regularly track down buyers for orders. After Philadelphia, Jon headed up and staffed CEMA’s Boston office, where working on Marketing ideas with Tower Newbury’s Robert Stapleton was “kismet”. His appreciation for the store’s Art Department was significant as well.

Jon’s declared his biggest win in Music Distribution to be building the Blue Note Lounge in the lobby of Tower Newbury’s Jazz department.

Enjoy this week’s episode where in addition to Tower Records we discuss one hit wonders, being a Beatles fanatic in the 70’s, the upside and dark side of making your bones in the music business in Philadelphia, Philly radio’s role in the music business overall and bringing it all back home at the World Premiere screening of “All Things Must Pass” in Los Angeles and catching up with all the Tower people he partnered and did battle with in this heady years of record stores.

Ep. 22 Tom Rule (Sac, Bay Area, Nashville, Ann Arbor, Chicago) Oct 25, 2022

“It was better than going to college. I wouldn’t have traded it for anything,” is how this week’s guest, Tom Rule, describes his 20-year tenure with Tower Records.

Tom started his career at a small indie record store in California called Condor Records. As it happened, his first day on the job was the day Elvis Presley died and for a while he didn’t understand why everyone was calling the store with questions about Elvis Presley records.

Twenty years with Tower included stints in El Toro, Watt Avenue, Mountain View and TRIP part time covering the Bay Area. He transferred to Broadway in Sacramento, a two year stint full time at TRIP, back to Mountain View where he became that store’s first CD Buyer and eventually the store’s Assistant Manger. Off to Nashville for 3.5 as Assistant Manager for 3.5 years, opened and was General Manager for the Ann Arbor MI store then to Chicago to help Schaumberg and finished in 1999 at the Bloomingdale, IL store.

WOW!

During our conversation Tom recalls a standard record industry lunch with CBS Records where he peppered Jerry Pitti repeatedly with questions as to why they wouldn’t allow Tower to carry what were deemed “parallel imports” and a hilarious back and forth with Stan Goman when he was called out for a promotion he had done for years. Tom also recalls working at the Nashville store and his involvement with Fan Fest, planning out his partying at Tower’s Annual Conference so that he could get more from the daily meetings and his impressions of Tower Records founder Russ Solomon.

Tom’s story has come full circle and has a happy, on-going ending in that he has his own indie record store, Moldy Toe’s Records (https://www.facebook.com/moldytoesrecords) in San Clemente, CA where he tells us about the current state of music retail and the demographics of customers currently buying music in his shop.

Join us for this fun conversation with the always interesting, irrepressible Tom Rule.

Ep. 21 Monica Ricardez (West Covina, Mexico City, National Latin Music Coordinator) Oct 18, 2022

Born in Mexico City, raised in Chicago and moved to California at age 12, Monica Ricardez started her career with Tower Records as a clerk in West Covina. She got a call two days after submitting her application and filling out Bob Fetter’s famous 2 page music quiz. Rotating between the record floor and the Classical Department, Monica also worked in the unique position known as Label Auditor doing inventories for specific record distributors before Tower had computerized inventory tools.

Leaving Tower and moving to Mexico City to open a business with a friend, Monica became friends with one of the investors of Tower Records Mexico who lured her back to Tower and she never looked back. Training a crew of people who knew nothing about how Tower Records operated, Monica proved invaluable during her time in Mexico City.

A couple years later she came back to the US working with Rick Dorsey in West Covina and immediately set about working the Latin Music section. “It’s not a great section” she told him. In true Tower fashion, Dorsey gave Monica free reign to overhaul the section which she did immediately causing significant growth in that department. Recognizing these increases, Monica was promoted to the position of Southwest Latin Music coordinator and ultimately, after interviewing with Stan Goman and George Scarlett she was promoted to National Latin Music coordinator and worked out a deal where she didn’t have to move to Miami as originally envisioned.

Monica discusses her triumphs, her inability to get some Tower Managers fully on board and other hurdles she faced and overcame during her time at Tower Records. Her interactions with Russ Solomon are what kept her with the company to the end.

Ep. 20 Mark Ryan (Tower Canada) Oct 11, 2022

This week’s guest, Mark Ryan, is Canadian.
Don’t let that stop you from listening.

Mark was on site the very first day of building the Tower Records store in Toronto, ON and he was the last person to lock the doors six years later.

“To this day, it’s still the best job I ever had. It was a dream job”. On this episode of the “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records” podcast, Mark fills in all the spaces in between.

Mark talks to us about meeting at an Amanda Marshall (look her up) record release party in Toronto, interviewing for Tower’s first store in Canada and landing the gig. In a short time, Mark soaked up all that was Tower and moved from one position to another until trained to take over the store as General Manager at Yonge & Queen Street 2.5 years after starting.

We also talk about the outstanding in-stores at Tower Toronto, talking on the phone on 9/11 moments after the second plane hit the towers and how Mark attended his first Tower Annual Conference as a cardboard cut out manufactured by Renee Tyler.

Our conversation ends with Mark learning about Tower Canada’s closure through a newspaper interview and the difficulty in closing down a store, something all Tower Managers would experience a mere five years later.

Ep. 19 Dave Coker (Sac, LA, Seattle) Oct 04, 2022

This week’s guest, Dave Coker, was shopping at the original Tower Records location in Sacramento when he was 10 years old. When he started working at the Tower Broadway store in 1968, the San Francisco Tower store had just opened and soon the world of music retail would open itself up to Coker Dave.
Going to College and doing Military service while working on and off for Tower in 1973, Dave was riding his bike down the street when Russ Solomon flagged him down and asked him if he wanted to go to a new store they were opening in Stockton, CA.

Dave talks about the origins of his nickname, running his first store in Stockton, being transferred to Westwood in Los Angeles and partying way too much on company time and off and giving career advice to one of his buyers and future recording artist, Dan Navarro.
Getting the offer to move to the lush, green state of Washington at just the time he wanted to get out of the craziness of LA, Dave mad his move, first to Tacoma and then to the U-District store where his video store employed members of the band Green River. Dave explains why top shelf record label people passed up jobs in Los Angeles to stay in Seattle and the camaraderie of the music professionals in the Northwest.

Dave also reminisces about the origins of the Tower Annual Conference (TAC) and how things changed when Tower went from a small, local operation to a world-wide concern.

Ep. 18 Sharon Vitro (Boston, Nanuet, Sunset) Sep 27, 2022

This week’s guest has an extensive music retail resume. Prior to working at Tower Records Sharon Vitro worked for Record Town, a New England music retailer for six years. She ran stores in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts before quitting over a ridiculous corporate policy. The next day Sharon was working at Tower Records on 360 Newbury Street where she worked for 5 years, briefly with Greg Wallis and then with Robert Stapleton.

Leaving Boston, she worked for Tower throughout the country with a who’s who of some of Tower’s best; The Southwest Regional Office where she was Kevin Cassidy’s assistant , General Manager of Nanuet LI where Steve Harman was the regional and San Diego, Brea and the last General Manager of the fabled Sunset Store where she worked with Bob Feterl.

Regarding Sunset, Sharon remember one particular morning when there were 3 staff members on the sales floor and the customers included Elton John, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall and 50Cent. These kind of shopping “drop ins” were so frequent, staff members and records reps first words were often “Who did I miss?” Sharon eventually put a sign up on the back room refrigerator listing what musicians and actors had shopped there that day and staff members would write what they were wearing, what they bought and other snarky comments.

The biggest event Sharon oversaw was an “unsanctioned” Prince in store in March of 2006 for “3121” when they were asked qt 4:30pm if Prince could play at the store at Midnight. Realizing that it wasn’t a joke and not having had the event approved with by city of West Hollywood, Sharon and the Sunset crew had an insane day they’d long remember.

Ep. 17 Clint Johns (Tower Magazines) Sep 20, 2022

If you had to bet which employee of Tower Records had visited the Playboy Mansion the most, who would you bet on? Russ Solomon? Robert Stapleton? Stan Goman? Robert Stapleton? Bob Feterl? If I could place an actual wager on this bet in Vegas, I’d take my life savings and bet it was Robert Stapleton. But I’d be very wrong and very poor.

Clint Johns visited the Playboy Mansion more than any other Tower Records employee, visiting 2-3 times a year and he even once lost track of one of his friends in the grotto, but I digress…

In this episode, Clint Johns tells us all about his career with Tower and everything we’d want to know about Tower Magazines. Privately, at Magazine industry functions, Tower’s competition would acknowledge Tower’s superior Magazine departments; the depth and breadth of the departments and particularly the dedication to zines and small press.

Never at a loss for words, Clint takes us through his time working in the stores, as a Book/Magazine Regional working with Kevin Cassidy and his descent into Mag Hell, working with the enigma Doug Biggert.

Clint also walks us through the three types of Magazine Section Leaders he witnessed during his time in Magazines.

Finally, Clint tells us about the day he worked up the nerve to pop his head in Russ Solomon’s office and came out impressed 3 hours later.

Join us for a deep dive into one of the most unsung, profitable and respected departments of the company with our guest Clint Johns.

Ep. 16 Kevin Cassidy (Bay Area, SW Regional, Exec VP Retail Ops) Sep 13, 2022

“He was the most important factor in any type of music education I had” says this week’s guest Kevin Cassidy in reference to his father. Kevin grew up on the streets of Philadelphia and pretty quickly grew into a jazz-loving, doo-wop appreciating, Beatles album buying, James Brown revering pre-teen and teenager. As a teenager Kevin quickly found a double date to a Blind Faith/Frank Zappa concert wasn’t the best way to score with the ladies (“You’ll never take me out again”), but it laid the groundwork to Mr. Cassidy’s exploration of a variety of musical styles.

Going to college at the University of Georgia on a basketball scholarship, started working at Underground Records which eventually turned into School Kids records. When basketball didn’t figure into his future, Kevin headed to Colorado to, again, work in a record store for close to six years. After years of the record store life, Kevin Cassidy headed out to the Bay Area where his family had relocated. Working for a family that owned three local restaurants, one of his customers, Robert Olsen suggested he leave the service industry and become the Tower Records Berkeley jazz buyer.

From there, Kevin blazed a path through Tower Records. He learned some smart business lessons from his Regional Manager Wayne Ennes. Running stores and then becoming a Regional Manager full of single store markets, the nightmare of opening the WOW store in Las Vegas, Kevin eventually was bumped up to running Retail Operations during Tower’s toughest time.

We finish with Kevin reminiscing about two important Tower folks who had a great impact on him; Tower Records founder Russ Solomon and his good friend Robert Olsen.

Ep. 15 Wendy Powell (Executive Asst. to Stan Goman) Sep 06, 2022

“It was all music, all the time” is the way our guest this week, Wendy Powell, describes growing up in a family where her father was a musician traveling around the country playing in a variety of bands and styles.

That love of all things music led to Wendy working at Tower Records in Stockton, CA. Her first meeting with her boss from the future, Stan Goman, consisted of him telling her to get her receiving department cleaned up. From there, Wendy wanted to hit the bright lights of NYC. Instead she ended up in the suburbs of Long Island at Carte Place…but eventually ended up in the Village working in Tower Records 4th & Broadway. In the Village store pop artist Keith Haring was a regular shopper and Wendy recalls an interesting interaction with him. Almost every department at Tower consisted of a band that was recording and touring and Wendy tells us about some of them. She also recalls Spike Lee filming “Mo Better Blues” with Wesley Snipes in the Jazz Department.

Opportunity called back in Sacramento CA when a position as an Assistant to Stan Goman opened up. Not holding her messy Stockton receiving department against her (it probably was fine, Stan just *had* to make a point) Wendy got the job and worked 13 years for Mr. Goman. Wendy Powell credits that time with Stan and the hands on experience of working in Record Division/Retail Ops as what has carried her throughout her work career. Wendy talks about the day Stan was let go and how she came home crying as a result.

But there were a lot of joyful times in Wendy Powell’s story. Wendy talks about the ability to work at many Tower Records Grand Openings, especially at Lincoln Center with Elton John. Wendy got to attend Arista Records 15th Anniversary Party at Radio City and meet one of her idols and many icons in the industry. Wendy’s involvement at the Tower Annual Conferences is discussed. She also tells a touching story of Russ Solomon and Stan Goman coming to her and her roommates apartment one year for Thanksgiving dinner.

So whether you were on the receiving end of one of Wendy’s phone calls on behalf of Stan or simply want to learn about another Tower legend’s career, sit back and check out our “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records” podcast interview with Wendy Powell.

Ep. 14 Zev Feldman (Resonance Records, Blue Note, Jazz Detective) Aug 30, 2022

“I don’t think I ever recovered from Tower going away” Zev Feldman tells us towards the end of this episode.

If you worked at Tower Records on the East Coast, you most certainly worked with Zev Feldman. Starting as a salesman for Polygram Distribution, young Zev covered Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. A visit from Zev Feldman was full of energy, enthusiasm and a pure music fan’s zeal. Later Zev had a stint with Rhino Records as the Northeastern Classical & Jazz Sales Manager

When Tower Records went away and the music business tried to figure itself out (has it succeeded?) Zev landed at Concord Music Group as a National Sales and Marketing Director for catalog recordings in Los Angeles. In 2009 Zev moved to Resonance Records where he was given free reign to search out previously unreleased recordings by some of the legends of Jazz.

Zev’s releases have been critical and sales smashes, so much so that he was elevated to the position of Co President of Resonance Records. As each ensuing project dominated the jazz landscape, Zev was hired as a consulting producer of archival and historical recordings for Blue Note Records in 2018 working with Don Was. But it doesn’t stop there. Zev Feldman is also a consulting producer with Elemental Music, Sunset Blvd Records, Real Gone Music and Reel To Real Recordings. Very recently Zev was named Best Producer in the 70th Annual DownBeat Critics Poll.

Throughout our conversation Zev discusses growing up in Record Stores, working for Universal Distribution and doing all of his work in Record Stores, he explains the complicated process of putting these gorgeous jazz box sets together and how brick and mortar retail is always the jumping off point for releasing these labors of love. He also tells us about his regular visits to the Tower Records stores in Dublin Ireland and Japan and the feelings invoked. Finally Zev tells us how Tower’s demise hurt him personally.

Ep. 13 Keith Cahoon Pt. 2 (Tower Japan) Aug 23, 2022

You’ve gotten the call to go to Japan and run Tower Records Asian Operations…now what? In part two of our podcast interview with Keith Cahoon, he takes us through his journey navigating the record business in a place that originally didn't want Tower Records to succeed.

In fact, initially, many of the major Japanese record companies would not sell to Tower Records. But that didn’t deter Keith Cahoon and his team (after taking over from Mark Viducich & Stan Barton) from moving forward and building one of the largest retail brands Japan had ever seen.

In this episode of our podcast, Keith Cahoon attempts to set the record on the original businessmen who reached out to Russ Solomon about opening in Japan, the prevailing wisdom of why the record labels discouraged in store appearances and performances from musicians, and who Tower reached out to for the first Tower Japan instore.
Keith also explains what the “Large Retail Store Law” was about, Russ Solomon’s regular visits and scouting for locations, which Tower Big Wig would insist on eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken when they visited, the amazing team he worked with to build, expand and grow Tower’s Asian business, and finally, the precise moment Keith sensed things were over for the future of Tower Records. Keith also offers his final thoughts on the legacy of Tower Records founder Russ Solomon.
If the film "All Things Must Pass" made you more aware of Tower Records Asian operations, this episode will completely open your eyes to how a kid from Stockton, with a lot of help, was able to run a retail music empire.

Ep. 12 Keith Cahoon Pt. 1 (Tower Japan) Aug 16, 2022

When you're a carpenter and it's getting into the rainy/cold season, what do you do for employment? If you're Keith Cahoon, you apply for a job at Tower Records, which you expect to last for a total of 3 months.
Working at Tower, then leaving, then getting hired back and then leaving again was a regular occurrence for Keith. Staying with Tower Records provided Keith an opportunity of a lifetime, though he didn't know it right away.
Keiths first seven years with Tower were in the US. Seemingly out of nowhere, Keith was asked to run Tower Record's Asian Operations when there were only 3 stores. When Keith left Tower Asia had grown to 62 stores with over $500 million a year in sales, eclipsing the US operation.
In this first of two parts, Keith Cahoon talks about the role music had in his life as a child & teen, his early years as a carpenter, as a Tower employee, as a Blues buyer, as someone who helped Earl Martis put TRIP together and how he ultimately got the surprise phone call from Russ Solomon asking him to go to Japan.

Ep. 11 Rick Dorsey (LA: West Covina, Westwood) Aug 09, 2022

Rick Dorsey is a 20 year Tower Records veteran. Starting his career in West Covina in 1986, Dorsey also worked at, and then in May of 1992 (the first day of the LA riots) ran, the Westwood, Los Angeles store until 1995. Rick ultimately went back to West Covina where he worked until 2006 when Tower Records went out of business.

But long before he worked for Tower, Rick had the bug of being a major music fan. His older sister brought home records by The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Ramones and she turned Rick onto music greater than what was being played on radio. Music became his main identity as a teenager as he snuck into local clubs to see some of the great LA bands of the time; Oingo Boingo, The Stray Cats, X, Agent Orange and others.

In this episode Rick tells us about the managerial influence of Bob Feterl and Anita Bonds, why shopping visits from Michael Jackson were so stressful, conversations he had with George Harrison, what R&B song Al Cowlings and OJ Simpson were looking for the day before the low speed White Bronco chase, why Anita Baker stopped her show at the Greek Theatre to shout out Westwood’s Jazz Buyer and why Russ Solomon’s style guided his managerial outlook.

Ep. 10 Suzy Leydenfrost (Village, Video East Coast Reg Mgr, Lincoln Center) Aug 02, 2022

In 1984 Suzy Leydonfrost was attending the School of Visual Arts in NYC, when she decided that scene wasn’t for her. A friend who had a job at Tower Records in the Village told her she’d get her a job interview. What happened during that interview was pretty outlandish, but Suzy got the job and her journey with Tower Records began.

In this episode of “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records” Suzy Leydonfrost describes the energy of mid 80’s Manhattan as well as her ascent with Tower Records and Video.

Taking the job seriously, Suzy became a Supervisor and then the #625 Store Manager in a short period of time. From 1985 to 1991 Suzy ran several Manhattan Tower Video stores. In 1991 Suzy became the East Coast Regional Manager for the Video Division where she helped open and oversaw a swath of stores on the East Coast.

In 1995 Suzy left the Video Division and in a short period of time ran the original Lincoln Center, it’s move to Ansonia while Lincoln Center was being renovated and then the return to the remodeled Lincoln Center #866 which she ran until she left the company in 1997.

One of the highlights of the interview is Suzy relaying in some detail her time running the cursed Ansonia building and a horrific shooting that took place on Halloween 1995. Suzy also talks about her approach to running the remodeled Lincoln Center store and how she made sense of operating a store with 150 employees. Finally, she explains why running an in store with a Classical artist was mored difficult than an inshore with a punk rock band.

Ep. 9 Robert Stapleton (Sunset, El Toro, Boston, Corporate) Jul 26, 2022

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, a young man named Robert Stapleton applied for a job at Tower Records at the age of 15. He got the gig and he worked at the landmark Sunset Strip Store from 1970-1979. He was later store Manager of El Toro, CA and in the late 80’s ran the store on Newbury Street in Boston, as well as being the New England Regional Manager. He ended his career in 2001 as National Director of Field Marketing.

In his 31 years with Tower Records, Robert Stapleton saw and did a lot in his time with the company. Even before he worked for Tower, his father Buck Stapleton, the LA Promo Rep for Capitol Records was taking young Robert to pool parties with The Beatles and up to San Francisco to play a part in the signing of The Steve Miller Band to Capitol Records.

Throughout this episode Stapleton tells story after story, tale after tale when he was, in his words, “in the right place at the right time”. Robert is effusive with the lore (riding on a double decker bus with Keith Moon up Sunset Boulevard, holding a suitcase (contents unknown) for a scared Sly Stone when the police showed up for a car crash, starting up the Tower Records Walk of Fame in Boston) and pulls no punches regarding the demise of Tower Records.

You definitely want to listen to this episode.

Ep. 8 Terri Williams (Tower Advertising) Jul 19, 2022

Terri Williams started working at Tower owned Central Valley Record Racks in 1975 at 15 years old. In 1978 when she talked about going to College, Russ Solomon told her “Stick with us, kid. I’ll make you a star!” Terri was hired by Chris Hopson in the newly formed Tower Advertising Department. For the next 32 years she helped Chris Hopson and Tower Records establish a first rate Advertising Department.

In 1982 Terri became the New York City Regional Marketing Manager, working to help establish Tower 4th & Broadway a full year before the store opened. Terri then went on to open up the whole Eastern corridor (Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and many more New York City stores). Following Terri’s work on the East Coast she was promoted to National Marketing Manager and then Vice President of Marketing.

On this episode of “2500 DelMonte Street, Terri reminisces about the early days of CVRR, explains for everyone exactly what CO-OP advertising is and how it worked at Tower, talks extensively about the work that went into getting the New York market up and running, living in Russ Solomon’s NYC condo, the Store Opening party for 4th & Broadway and Andy Warhol’s appearance there, the Talking Heads in-store for “Speaking In Tongues” featuring David Byrne and pop artist Robert Rauschenberg (and the Tower ad he designed for the event), another view of the Donald Trump story from the Trump Tower store, working with Rock The Vote, the reopening of Tower Lincoln Center with Elton John, Rudy Giuliani and Placido Domingo and insights working alongside Chris Hopson and Russ Solomon. Terri also talks about how Tower Records “Dancing Christmas Trees” was the last commercial project that the upstart Pixar Studios did before branching out into movies.

We finish our conversation with Terri discussing her departing Tower Records in 2002 and why she didn’t make it into the film “All Things Must Pass”.

Ep.7 Tim Devin (Mt View, DC, Paramus, Village, Lincoln Ctr, NY Regional) Jul 12, 2022

Tim Devin started working record retail in the Bay Area for Wherehouse Records. On new release dates, he would have to drive to the Tower Records Campbell store on his lunch hour to pick up New Releases as Wherehouse wouldn’t receive theirs until 4 or 5 days later.

Finally realizing he needed to be working for Tower, he applied at Tower Records Mountain View where he was hired by Assistant Manager Barbara Williamson. Tim transferred to the Washington DC store shortly after Mountain View Store Manager Kevin Ferreter moved to DC and enticed him with the promise “You’ll get a store, Tim!”.

From there Tim’s Tower career was in and around New York City, running stores in Paramus NJ, the Village store at 4th & Broadway and the Lincoln Center store at 66th & Broadway. Tim finished his career as the Regional Director for Tower Records in the New York area.

Tim discusses some of the best concerts he saw growing up, the weekly scrutiny by NYC based record labels on where records were positioned when he ran the Village Store, the time he told The Artist formerly Known as Prince “no!”, the night Russ Solomon showed up unannounced and drank beers in Tim’s office with the band Luscious Jackson and Daniel Lanois and the in-store nobody showed up for, leaving the “artist” almost in tears.

Tim also talks about Tower Washington DC’s most famous alumni, Dave Grohl and how he was greeted at the Lincoln Center store when he arrived to man the cash register in support of the release of the Foo Fighters album “There Is Nothing Left to Lose”.

Tim talks about his role as New York Retail Director and how Tower was chasing new opportunities & carving new sources of revenue, despite knowing that the end appeared imminent. He finishes by reminiscing about time spent with Tower Records founder Russ Solomon.

Ep. 6 Dalia Goldgor (Rockville, Alexandria, DC, Event Coordinator) Jul 05, 2022

For someone who spent two years campaigning for a minimum wage job at Tower Records Rockville, Dalia Goldgor ended up with quite a career with the company. In this episode, we talk with Dalia about the role music played in her early life, surrounded by Ukrainian and Russian family members singing folks songs at dinner parties, her much older brother turning an 8 year old Dalia onto The Smiths, Queen and Blondie, our shared love of Prince, managing her first store at Tower Records Alexandria and the night Dave Grohl forgot his wallet while writing a check on a huge purchase for all of the Foos, the joy of the Fairfax VA store, the struggles of running the Washington DC store and finishing her career in the DC Regional Office as both Regional Event Coordinator and Regional Assistant. The demise of the company at the store level is told in crushing blow by blow detail and the efforts Dalia and Regional Manager Despina Panagoulias took to remove all personnel files before the liquidators took over. Dalia's enthusiasm for Tower is still evident all these years later and she has the tattoo to show for it as well.

Ep. 5 Erik Flannigan (Writer, Archivist, Music Manager) Jun 28, 2022

Erik Flannigan is a writer, music archivist and Manager currently based out of Los Angeles. He started shopping at Tower Records in Tacoma, WA thanks to a yearly Gift Certificate a relative would send him each Christmas.
He worked at Tower Records Tacoma for one year with Jeff Prey as GM and Tony Siegel as Assistant Manager. He would go on to be Editor of Backstreets Magazine and a staff member of Seattle's legendary music paper, The Rocket. Flannigan left Seattle for LA in 1992 and was on the forefront of web based music journalism. He spent a considerable amount of time as a Vice President at MTV Networks and is now the Manager for music artists Raphael Saadiq and The National.
Flannigan talks about his father's obsessive music collection of 78 recordings, Erik's 3 favorite concerts of all time, how shopping and working at Tower Records shaped his sensibilities as a music collector. Erik also believes that before Starbucks, Tower Records was the original "third place".
We also talk about the film/cassette project from a couple years ago celebrating legendary concert taper Mike Millard with the "Juicy Sonic Magic" recordings of The National.

Ep. 4 Joel Abramson (Sunset, Israel, Corporate) Jun 21, 2022

Joel Abramson had a unique & varied career with Tower Records. A native New Yorker, he found his calling in the City of the Angels, helped open up Tower Internationally by laying claim to Israel and finished his career at the Corporate Office in Sacramento as Director of Purchasing.
Joel talks to us about the cocky (his words) first interview with Bob Delanoy, working in the Sunset store when some mornings there were more rock stars than staff on the sales floor, the trials and tribulations of Tower Israel and why in the last couple years the Tower Product team ordered so many CDs, directed the stores to return them and turned right back around and then ordered the same CDs for the store again.

Ep. 3 Diane Rea (Beaverton OR, San Francisco) Jun 14, 2022

Diane Rea started out as a teenager with Tower Records in Oregon, but that wasn’t her first experience working in professional entertainment. Diane talks to us about her time at the Beaverton, OR store and what the phrase “Manager’s Meeting” meant, her move to San Francisco’s Columbus & Bay store after a disastrous interview with Ken Sockolov, and why ending her career at the Market & Noe store was a perfect ending to her Tower Records career.

Ep. 2 Stan Goman Part 2 Jun 07, 2022

In this second interview with former Tower Records COO Stan Goman, he tells us about his transition from the field to the Main Office, his relationship with Russ Solomon, why Tower Records never opened stores in Florida, did Apple Computers approach Tower Records to sell the new iMacs in 1998, how fancy restaurants chosen by the record labels didn’t impress him and how he dealt with his departure from Tower Records when he was let go at the end. All this and more in this episode of “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records”.

Ep. 1 Stan Goman Part 1 May 31, 2022

Former Tower Records Chief Operating Officer Stan Goman talks about the early days working at Tower Drugstore up to his time running stores in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Sneak Peak: Welcome to "2500 DelMonte St: The Oral History of Tower Records" May 14, 2022

In this episode your host, Bob Zimmerman, details the reasons behind launching a weekly podcast exploring the ins & outs of the World's greatest Record Store chain, Tower Records.

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