Music Retail
Ronnie Drumm has had a full and fulfilling life in music! As a child he picked up the trumpet, which he used during his time as a big band leader, musical director and educator. Ronnie worked with a who’s who of entertainers such as Steve Allen, Bob Hope and Jack Benny as well as a long stint as...
Grace Altieri has a background in law but was willing to put that career on hold when her husband decided to open a drum shop in Tampa. AJ was working for a local music store and was really growing the drum segment of the business, so, when a chance came along to open his own store he jumped at it...
CK Gottschalk is the president of the music store in Michigan that his parents established in 1936, the same year they married. They expanded their business just before CK was born and later moved the business to central California. CK studied music and taught math while his mother ran the store...
David Cox was a software engineer who decided to create a computer solution for music retailers’ accounting and rental management. David created Tri-Technical Systems, Inc in 1984 and focused on designing software to meet the needs of music stores, which he now admits required more attention than...
Ken Tobias loved repairing guitars for himself and his friends and was able to turn it into a business in the early 1970s when he opened Tobias Guitars in Downers Grove, Illinois. One of his first lines was Martin Guitars and with the help of his son, Paul, several years later the store became the...
Paul Tobias is the son of the founder of Tobias Guitars, which is located in Downers Grove, Illinois and specializes in handcrafted acoustic guitars such as those made by Taylor, Martin and Santa Cruz. Paul took over as president when his father retired but his father has not gone far from the...
Bruce Johnson began his career in the music industry working in the accounting department for Wurlitzer in DeKalb, Illinois. While on the job he began outlining a computer program that could help with the company’s retail stores. The more he worked on the program, the more he saw the need to code...
Bernard Michaelson was just a teenager when he began working for Frank Hessy. Hessy’s Music store in Liverpool was the hangout for all of the young musicians in the area at a time when bands seemed to be on every street corner. One such band Bernard recalls coming into the store were the Beatles....
Sara Michaelson grew up in the music store her father, Frank Hessy, established in Liverpool, England in the late 1950s. Hessy’s Music was THE store in town to find all of the local bands and to learn of their scheduled gigs. All four members of the Beatles purchased instruments at Hessy’s Music...
Richard Elkin ran the England-based music publishing company his grandfather formed. Richard’s father, William, was a well liked publisher who brought English products to America. Elkin’s Publishing was sold to Music Sales, where Richard later worked for several years before opening his own music...