2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

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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 the work in the music business. So where did he start out? Where thousands of music and movie legends start; in the mailroom, in his case at Sony Music in Century City. 

It was at a music industry networking event that Bob met Stan Goman. Telling him he worked in the music business and spoke Chinese (he was a Chinese language major in school), Goman reportedly barked “Talked to Cahoon!” It was after dinner with Keith Cahoon and an evening of concerts that he was hired to work operations for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Only problem is that when Bob landed in Sacramento, before leaving for Japan, Keith Cahoon forgot to tell anyone at 2500 DelMonte Street. Some blew him off and some greeted him warmly. Nonetheless, Bob Kaufman was a Tower employee. 

In this week’s episode, Bob tells us about landing in Japan and immediately being tasked with writing Operations Manuals for the newly franchised Korean operation by observing Jason Munyon and what he did each day. Bob also tells us the story of Jazz clerk Ching from the Singapore store and Russ Solomon bonding…in Sacramento. Bob also recalls a wild encounter with Michael Jackson, his manager and bodyguard that almost led to a brawl, but ultimately led to Bob meeting his wife. 

We wind down our talk with Bob, who was in the Conference room when a representative of Deutsche Bank had him removed for vehemently objecting to the terms of the sale of Tower Records Japan to raise capital to pay down the US debt obligations. 

He may have started with the company differently than most and worked in parts of the company none of us knew about, but after listening to this episode you’ll see that Bob Kaufman also bled red & yellow. 

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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 the Washington DC area as her father took a job as he head coach of the United States men’s national soccer team and was later the Head Coach of the US Men’s National Soccer team and then Head Coach of the US Olympic Soccer team in 1984. While dad was taking on coaching jobs, Despina was taking on music retail jobs; first at Waxie Maxies a Washington DC/Baltimore area record chain and then at Tower Records Tysons Corner in 1988. 

On this episode, we learn about why Despina’s mother insisted on calling her Debbie; Greek record stores that didn’t sell records; the culture shock of moving from cosmopolitan Greece to the sleepy suburbs of Washington DC; the early days of Tower Records Tysons Corner, Alexandria and Rockville, MD; Debbie’s many hats as Video Regional, Book Regional, Video & Book Regional,  Product Director, Regional Director and whatever else they threw at her; how the people she started with at Tower Tyson’s Corner became her lifelong friends; what she enjoyed most about her work with Tower; the mentors she had who helped guide her Tower career; the last hurrah of the Tower Records Bonnaroo store 5 months before Tower closed down for good and what the Federal Government could learn that Tower Records learned long ago. 

Join us for a well rounded discussion about all things Tower Records. 

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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 first day on the job the Go Go’s debut album hits #1 on the Album Chart. Later that week the Go Go’s play Madison Square Garden. If this sounds at all familiar, then you’re most likely this week’s guest, Keith Altomare. 

Keith spent a good amount of time at IRS Records (owned by uber Manager Miles Copeland) in New York City working as the label’s College Rep. His efforts helped propel REM’s “Murmur” to being Number One on the College Radio charts. 

When IRS opened an office in Chicago, Keith opened up that territory before moving on to Los Angeles working as IRS National Sales Director. It was in the aisles of the Sunset Store where he met his wife Betsy who was then the Night Manager at Tower Records Sunset. 

In 1989 Keith Altomare moved over to Rhino Records where he started as National Sales Director and then eventually became the VP of Sales working with Tower Records as one of the primary accounts because “They were awesome people who were there because of the music.” Keith also tells us about working with Rhino Records legend Gary Stewart who passed away in 2019. 

Join us for an informative conversation with a long time friend of Tower Records, Keith Altomare. 

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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 Accounts Payable process for those who want to know. 

Following Stan Goman’s initiative to get the Managers together every year, Julie took on the role of Travel and Meetings Department Manager where, with her team, she coordinated the yearly Tower Annual Conferences (TAC) as well as all corporate travel and planning. 

At it’s height, a TAC involved making arrangements for over 800 attendees and over 20-25 bands and musical artists each year. Julie tells us about one memorable TAC where one beloved artist who was performing, asked specifically to meet another legendary artist who was famous for staying in their tour bus. Julie also tells us about an artist who threatened to walk because they didn’t like the way their equipment was being handled. 

While overseeing TAC, Julie was met each morning by the Hotel’s security team who briefed her on the previous night’s shenanigans, often not giving Security the response they were anticipating or hoping for. Julie also reminds us that these events were held in the 90’s by revealing one of the largest expenses Tower had to pay out of pocket at each Conference.

“He spent his whole life working on staying young” is how she describes Tower Records founder Russ Solomon and fondly recalls her friendship and working relationship with the head of the company she’d never heard of. 

Learn all about the behind the scenes logistics of working 19 hour days to make yearly TACs a time to remember. 

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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 the local movie theatre. 

In Nashville the yearly focus appeared to be on the week long Fan Fair (now known as CMA Fest) where the 1,000 square foot booth would do more business in 6 hours than the main Nashville store for the day. On top of that, the Nashville store would host multiple in store performances with established and up & coming country musicians making for a very busy week. 

Jon winds down our conversation talking about being a clerk in the jazz section and the first time he met Russ Solomon in the Tempe, AZ store. This scenario ended up with Jon spending an hour with him at a local restaurant, discussing his thoughts and impressions on his store. 

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Growing up in the 1930’s in Cincinnati OH, Rudy Danzinger’s parents weren’t music listeners. Lionel Hampton was Rudy’s first major exposure to music and because of that single live performance he became a fan of big band music. 

Moving to California, Rudy took a job as manager of a local record store, Marin Music, in Mill Valley CA.  Rudy innovated early on; soliciting record orders from the area businesses as well as hooking up a speaker near the store’s front door causing customers to come in off the street asking what he was playing. Pretty heady stuff for the early 1950’s. 

Rudy met Russ Solomon in 1958 working for Record Supply, a music distributor. It proved to be a fateful meeting that would pay off down the road when Rudy came to work at Tower.

Working in Book Division, Rudy found his calling. Partnering with publishers to get Tower Books some co-op advertising, Rudy soon became the conduit for Book signings that made sense for Tower. Musicians, athletes, and yes straight up authors were often greeted at a Tower book signing by Rudy Danzinger.

Rudy reminisces about some of the better signings that came Tower’s way. He also tells the story of a book signing Tower passed on, but brought the author to the Main Office to meet Russ Solomon, only to leave the Corporate office with 500 Tower employees lined up high-fiving and roaring their approval as he left.

Rudy Danzinger claims he’s the oldest living ex-Tower employee around. Whatever his status, you’ll enjoy our conversation with a man who truly loved his job and brought joy to many he worked with. 

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Before he started working for Tower Records Watt Avenue in 1975, today’s guest Mike Farrace had already run a Sacramento music magazine called “Rock & Roll News”. Following three years working at Tower Records Watt Avenue under Store Manager Mike Koontz, Farrace started working for Tower Advertising. 

Mike tells us all about his time as Northwest Advertising Ad Manager, chasing down labels and blank tape companies for advertising dollars. Yet the whole time he was in Advertising, Farrace was thinking about starting up a Music Magazine that would be a Tower in house exclusive. Spending a year submitting proposals to John Schairer, he was finally told by Carla Henson “Mike, he’s just throwing those [proposals] in the trash.” 

Next, Mike Farrace went straight to Russ Solomon and within 20 minutes at lunch, they were plotting out what would eventually become PULSE! Magazine, an independent publication that reflected Tower Records, its customers and the music it sold in the best possible way. The first 3 issues were put together by Farrace himself and over the course of 222 issues it eventually built up an impressive in house staff. 

When PULSE! started it was the old fashioned paste up method of putting a magazine together. It wasn’t for several years until PULSE! got into computer graphics typesetting/publishing. But that simple, convenient move got Mike Farrace thinking and reading about a digital future. This led to Tower having its first database store online which led to Tower selling music on the internet. 

Mike also tells us about the only time an artist got pissed at PULSE!, and how it was all Mike’s fault. Later in our discussion Mike recalls seeing the end coming for Tower and how things ended for PULSE! and himself in 2002.

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Born to a single, loving, hippie mother and possessing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers, Brandi Merolla didn’t recognize the brightly lit storefront at 4th & Broadway. She was on her way home in the fall of 1983 when she came upon this neon temple. 

As she walked up to open the door, she saw a sign that said “HELP WANTED”. Brandi asked for an application and when the clerk at the Info Desk saw her resume and her art background she told Brandi “Why don’t you apply for the Art Department?” Brandi had no idea that this new, huge record store employed artists and soon her life would change in a way she couldn’t imagine. 

On this week’s episode, Brandi Merolla takes us through her time at Tower during the infancy of Store 125 in The Village and all the opportunities and events she was a part of during this fascinating time in Tower’s history. 

Brandi created backdrop displays for the in stores of Iggy Pop, Fela, Kate Bush, The Cure, Souxsie & the Banshees, Lou Reed, Paul Young, Violent Femmes, Timbuk 3, Samantha Fox, and Max Roach.

4th & Broadway’s front window was prime NYC real estate and Brandi tells us about a time she got a thumbs up from an artist whose  work she recreated in the window and then later collaborating with The Beastie Boys for their window display before their debut “Licensed To Ill” came out. Hint: They didn’t get everything they wanted. 

Hers is a story of opportunity, loss and ultimately redemption. When Brandi left Tower, it wasn’t on her terms. But despondent over losing this $4.25 an hour job she would have gladly continued to work, someone whispered in her ear that this was the best thing that could have ever happened to her. 

Soon Brandi was taking all of the skills she learned at Tower and making foam core displays for 90% of the record labels based in NYC. She also parlayed this into a position with FAO Schwartz and a 20 year affiliation with The Howard Stern show where she has probably been exposed to more foam core displays of Gary Dellabate’s teeth than anyone in the tri-state area. 

Join us for this fascinating story on “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records”. 
 
 Also, we open this week's episode with a tribute to Patti Drosins, wife of Russ Solomon who passed away at the end of November 2022. 

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Dave Muholland grew up greatly influenced by the musical taste of his older sister as well as the music he was hearing in Northern Virginia record stores like Penguin Feather  and Kemp Mill Records. In fact, he spent so much time hanging out at Penguin Feather while he was under 18, he got a job cutting lawns and cleaning up the parking lot and received his payment in records. 

Dave’s English teacher in High School was Virginia Grohl, mother of a drummer who eventually moved to the Seattle area and drummed for a local band. Interestingly enough, whenever Dave Grohl shopped at Tower Mercer, the conversation with Dave Mulholland was less about music and more about how Grohl’s mother was doing. 

After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA he made the decision to move to Seattle in 1991 after spending some time visiting a friend. Looking for a job he applied at Tower Records #185 at 5th & Mercer under the Space Needle. 

Starting in the Video Store and eventually moving into the music store, Dave became the Buyer for the Blues, Country and Folk sections. Working in the biggest record store in the Pacific Northwest gave Dave a front row seat to some of the events happening in the Seattle music scene. In this week’s episode, Muholland remembers Kurt & Courtney shopping in the store just a few weeks before Kurt left this mortal coil. He also remember the time a year later when a clerk asked Courtney for her I.D. when she went to pay for her purchase with a check. 

Dave Muholland was encouraged to pursue management with Tower Records and he made the move to Austin, TX, a place he had been visiting somewhat regularly. But once there, he found the vibe in the city and the attitude towards Tower was infinitely different than what he experienced working in Seattle and shopping on the East Coast. 

Dave also walks us though the difficulty of holding things together after announcing that the store would be closing and having to hold onto staff for a couple months. 

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“If you don’t have the product customer’s want, but you have a lot of the product customer’s don’t want, why bother opening your doors?” was a line that this week’s guest, George Scarlett, wrote in one of his famous memos to the field. That single sentence stuck with me throughout my time at Tower and in various situations in other jobs. With one simple sentence, George summed up what every Tower Management team should have been trying to accomplish in properly ordering the correct product mix for their store. 

And while George is probably best known for his highly informative, always entertaining product missives (is there any store out there that didn’t have a binder that said “Scarlett Memos” on the side?) there was a whole lot more to George’s adventures before, at and after Tower. 

Did you know George was hired and left Tower Records on four different occasions for four different reasons? On this episode he’ll tell us all about the circumstances behind each flight and return. 

Along the way George also tells us about early musical influences, why George’s mother put the “Batman” theme on the record player each morning, pear farming, nightclubbing, why John Lennon was the cutest Beatle, his mercurial relationship with Ken Sockolov, introductions and interactions with Corporate muckety mucks, hiring Greek-American princesses from Northern Virginia, working in radio, his admiration for his co-workers and the folks working in the stores, why Tony Valerio scared him, Tower dreams, when Top 40 radio was truly radical, going to lunch with Jim Swindel, his relationship with Russ Solomon over the years and making peace with his working past. 

And a whole…lot…more.

Is this a long episode; the single longest episode we’ve aired yet. But with so many people traveling for Thanksgiving this week, George’s velvet tones are sure to soothe, amuse and make you reflect while traveling on trains, planes and automobiles. 

Stick with the episode. It’s a goodie!