2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we welcome back our old friend Kevin Ertell, who is releasing a book today entitled “The Strategy Trap”. From Amazon.com ; “In The Strategy Trap, veteran operator and former Nike executive Kevin Ertell delivers a no-nonsense guide to solving the problem every leader faces: why great plans so often go nowhere. Drawing on 30+ years of experience leading execution at...

Send us Fan Mail We just became aware of the recent passing of our old friend John Fonvielle. Please enjoy this repeat episode with one of the sharpest, funniest people I ever had the pleasure of working with at Tower Records.  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ John Fonvielle grew up on the mean streets of North Carolina. Actually it wasn’t mean at all. It was...

Send us Fan Mail Growing up in Seattle, Washington, this week’s guest, Peter Ames Carlin, has a distinct memory of the hubub surrounding the release of The Beatles “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band” even though he was only 4 years old at the time. “I have very vivid memories of “Sgt Pepper” being the new record…and then “The White Album” and puzzling through that stuff when I was very young”...

Send us Fan Mail 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 othe...

Send us Fan Mail 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, Assis...

Send us Fan Mail 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” whi...

Send us Fan Mail “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 th...

Send us Fan Mail 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!

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail “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....

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 books...

Send us Fan Mail “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...

Send us Fan Mail “ ‘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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 a...

Send us Fan Mail 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,...

Send us Fan Mail “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’...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Ter...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 i...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Stockto...

Send us Fan Mail 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. 

Send us Fan Mail 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 roo...

Send us Fan Mail “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 li...