2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

Send us Fan Mail John Fonvielle grew up on the mean streets of North Carolina. Actually it wasn’t mean at all. It was idyllic. But then he moved to Washington DC in the mid 1980’s. Now those streets could be mean. At a young age, looking up to his older brother - a world-renowned Beatles collector - John never listened to the radio much. He was obsessed with The Beatles' "Revolver"...

Send us Fan Mail

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Regi...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 ti...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Rec...

Send us Fan Mail 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. H...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Fe...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail “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 hear...

Send us Fan Mail “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 expert...

Send us Fan Mail 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 n...

Send us Fan Mail 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 fro...

Send us Fan Mail 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,...

Send us Fan Mail “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...

Send us Fan Mail “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 O...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail “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...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 th...

Send us Fan Mail 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 fir...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Acco...

Send us Fan Mail 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...