2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

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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" and The Band's "Music From Big Pink" when others listened to Top 40 radio. And though he was in the middle of North Carolina a lot of artists from the early 70’s played in or near where John lived.

When John moved to Washington DC to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, he had never heard of Tower Records. His cousin, a stockbroker, told him “On your way home, stop at Tower Records.” John couldn’t figure out why he was saying that at 11pm, but soon found out after visiting the store at 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue.

On this week’s episode John and I discuss some of the characters that made that DC store so special. And while more than a dozen people who worked at the DC store claim to have been Dave Grohl’s boss, John, who was then the “Rock Floor Manager”, was actually the guy overseeing Dave and his small group of followers (yes, even in 1989). John left the DC store to pursue greater management opportunities in the New York/New Jersey markets. Making the opposite commute of living in NYC and working in Paramus NJ, John was privy to some very special concerts and industry events that he tells us about.

It was during John’s tenure running the Paramus NJ store that he dealt with a situation so incredibly bizarre you might not believe some of the things he had to endure.

Join us for a fascinating conversation about Tower Records in the 80s & 90’s. 

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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.

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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. 

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.