“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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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!
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
