2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

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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 a recent article he had read. It was time that Kevin cherished. 

Kevin had a wide and varied career at Tower Records. Starting out in the original Las Vegas store in the video store, then to "apprentice" as the Classical Buyer for that store and out to Panorama City California as a Video Assistant Manager and eventual Store Manager. He landed as Sherman Oaks Video Store Manager under Regional Manager Gayle Boswell. While Kevin was in California he auditioned as the bass player for the band of a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member, but didn’t get the gig.

Working in the stores wasn’t enough for Kevin. Having an interest in tech, he joined the Store Service team. With an all star roster of employees many will remember, he was a part of the nationwide and then world wide rollout of the Tower ISP program.

Wanting to put that ISP knowledge to practical use and get closer to his long distance relationship, Kevin took the position of General Manager of the Tyson’s Corner Virginia store. In a thriving, busy store he worked the Tower ISP program to its fullest, oversaw a one of a kind Cirque Du Soleil in-store and dealt with the wrath of a woman who worked for a US Senator who wanted Tower Records to remove their Playboy videos, lest they tempt her son.

It was back to Sacramento to work on the challenge of Tower.com. Kevin tells us about the time it took to make Tower.com the #2 store in the US back when buying music on the web was not normal, how a consortium of retailers including Virgin, Best Buy, Borders Books and Tower Records got rejected by the record labels to sell major label music files before Apple Music and how after 20 years, in 2005 it all ended as Kevin was recruited by Borders Books to rebuild their Borders.com and help start up their Borders Rewards program.

Kevin points out early in the episode that none of this would have happened had he not got a job at Tower Records in April of 1985 following an extremely dark chapter in his young life. Kevin said “I found my people. Tower saved me.”

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“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 heard a band, Santana, two months before their debut album was released.

Jackson tried for a long time to get a job at Tower Stockton but was stiffed by the managers. When Phil Minas took over as manager in 1977 he hired him. Jackson did store artwork and slowly grew into a jazz fanatic As things got crazy in the store (have a gun pulled on you for not returning two LPs?) Jackson moved out to the brand new 24 hour Tower store in Las Vegas.

Jackson bounced around Tower locations until a legal matter caused him to leave the company and he moved back to Stockton to deal with it. He returned to Tower in 1983 at the new Stockton location with Tom Pompei at the helm, but hisgoal was to get out of working in the store and work in the Corporate Office. Seeing a notice for an editorial assistant at PULSE! Magazine, Jackson submitted a number of record reviews to Mike Farrace and was hired.

At PULSE! Jackson found his voice and jumped into magazine production and writing. Not every assignment wentaccording to plan. Artist Shelby Lynne simply did not want to be interviewed the day he showed up to talk to her. And how do you spend a week in Minneapolis profiling The Replacements? Drunk enough to have tapes full of gibberish, calling the band on the phone to get quotes to flesh out your story.

Jackson talks about all of this and more in a wide-ranging episode you won’t want to miss.

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“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 expertise. His recall of songs, artists, dates and chart positions is downright academic.

Carl started with Tower Records in 1968, but was shopping in the record department of Tower Drug Store in 1957. Though he always bought 45 rpm singles at other stores around town (“If I could afford it, I bought it"), on his first visit to Tower he bought Elvis Presley’s debut album, his first purchase of an LP. He got the job at Tower after spending a year meeting weekly with KXOA DJ Tony King. King was recording Carl's extensive 45 collection to have a better playlist than the other radio stations in town. Tony King told him he had an interview with Rick Briare at 16th & Broadway in Sacramento because “You belong in the music business”.

Seven years with Tower, Carl considered himself a “lifer”. Until an opportunity he had been promised was pulled at the last minute. Shortly thereafter MCA Records came calling. Carl spent 25 years with MCA first servicing all the Tower stores in Northern California where they let him write his own orders. Gigs and promotions in Denver and Atlanta followed.

After MCA and Polygram merged, Carl got a call from Stan Goman and Mark Viducich, telling him “We want you to come back home”. Soon after Carl returned to Bayside, the Tower-owned distribution company. Carl headed up Bayside Special Products and later worked on cultivating outside accounts to grow Bayside’s business until the end in 2006.

Carl also talks to us about the genius of Russ Solomon, having Stan Goman work for him on assignment for a short while, using his position & influence as Singles Buyer to manipulate the charts, the “Dutch Boy” who kept asking him for a job and why Ral Donner (who?) was his favorite rock & roll act of all time. Throughout you will be amazed at Carl’s recall of names, dates, chart positions, song titles and the many people he hired and fired.

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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 number of women that went on to head up departments at MTS, Inc, Shauna was sent to Tower’s small corporate offices by a temp agency and was interviewed by Tony Valerio. Shauna remembers it well or at least what Tony was wearing; green shades, a white silk shirt with red polka dots, red plaid pants, white shoes and a white belt. Her first job was in the accounting department balancing statements for the indie labels Tower did business with.

Shauna eventually moved over to the Payroll department after an interview with Bud Martin. At the time the department was only five people and they handled Payroll, Benefits and fielding calls from the Employee Complaint line. It was after a particularly ridiculous action by a manager to an employee and the rapid growth of the company. Shauna strongly suggested to Bud Martin and Stan Goman about breaking off into a separate Human Resources department to handle the volume of issues in the stores. Ginny Danielson was the first Manager of the Human Resources Department and Shauna took over when she left. 

In this episode Shauna talks about the various ways her department went about trying to keep the stores compliant, innovative ways to train managers that ended up in the New York Times, successes her department and Tower in general had in the area of HR, having to manage the art at the Main office as harassment free workplaces became integral to the 1990’s, her first concert in 1969 and the status of the 2500 DelMonte Street offices currently.

Join us for a fascinating insight into the inner workings of Tower Records Human Resources and the person who headed up the department the longest, Shauna Pompei.

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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 from his temporary assignment by Earl Martis.

A couple of years later Phil found himself in NYC and his brother Max recommended him to Matthew Koenig and Howard Cespedes. The day he went to talk to Howard, one of his favorite bands was doing an in store signing behind a large table and with an ice chest full of Budweiser Beer, leading Phil to think to himself “Oh, I’ve got to work here!” Phil got the job, worked his way to an amazing schedule through hard work and took in all that Manhattan had to offer. One Friday night while working his Country, Folk, Bluegrass section the local Capitol Records rep stopped by the store, unannounced, with an artist about to release his first album; Garth Brooks.

After being Assistant Manager to Howard Cespedes, Phil got burned out on NYC, left for a short stint in Dublin, CA with Kevin Cassidy and then headed to the first Chicago store working as Operations Manager with Greg Wallis. The store was a failure out of the gate and it took a long time before things caught on. Phil was promoted to the position of General Manager and worked with a strong team who ultimately made Chicago a Top 10 store in the chain.

From there Phil moved on to be a Video Regional Manager and then finished the last six years of his Tower Career as Midwest Regional Director, with a truly wonderful musical market of stores to oversee, until he left the company in 2005. 

Phil tells us about the amazing roster of Managers he oversaw, his TAC memories of Peter Glenn and Jack Gallagher, working with Bill Duffy, John Thrasher, Stan Goman and Russ Solomon, the end of his career consisting of closing stores and dealing with store resentment, having Tower dreams and a whole lot more. 

Join us for a wonderful, upbeat conversation with a true Tower jewel. 

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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, the oldest record store in Philadelphia (opened in 1908). In the early 1970’s when a friend headed west to San Francisco, word came back that Ray had to move out there and check out a record store called Tower Records. 

In San Francisco Ray was hired  and eventually worked with Stan Goman who came in to clean up the store. For a while Ray was Stan’s Assistant Manager until…he wasn’t. In order to avoid a pay cut, Stan and John Schaier, the General Manager of Tower’s Record Division, made the position of company wide Classical Music Manager.  Writing all of the radio scripts for Classical radio station ads and buying Classical cut outs for the stores were a part of his new responsibilities. 

Ray would regularly visit stores throughout the chain and make sure buying and merchandising was up to Tower standards. Prior to the opening of the 4th & Broadway store, Tower’s first in NYC, Ray moved from San Francisco to New York City. From 1983 on, Ray was writing opening Classical orders and doing the rack layout for new stores. Ray also joined almost all of the A Teams to help open the Classical Departments throughout the country and the world. 

On today’s episode, Ray recounts many of these openings and the hijinks surrounding some of the better known stores. 

As Tower wound down, Ray knew that his days and his position were numbered. It still didn’t make it easy when he was summoned to the Regional Manager’s office to take a phone call letting him know his position had been eliminated. 

Join us for an enlightening conversation about the all important, but little known Classical music departments that helped to make Tower Records the best record store chain in the world. 

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“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 fit into the all black high school he attended where he acquired a unique music related nickname. 

Reading books and magazine articles about people like Lou Reed, it was his ambition to move to the Big Apple. He started by moving to Long Island, where his mother had moved. Working for Tower Records Carle Place opened up a door to Ryan’s eventual move to Manhattan. 

For more than 6 years Ryan Bland was a witness to the internal and external activity of Tower Records #1 grossing US store, Lincoln Center NYC. While Ryan spends some time talking about busting customers and staff alike, it was working along side musicians he admired that got Ryan excited. 

As a performing artist himself (Ryan is the lead singer of the Brooklyn based hardcore/metal band ACHE) he enjoyed working with and conversing with artists that his fellow Loss Prevention employees knew nothing about. His conversation with Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction is one for the ages. 

Join us for a great conversation this week with Ryan Bland. 

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“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. 

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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. 

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“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.