2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

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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. 

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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. 

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“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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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.   

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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