BERKELEY, CA — Bruce Borgerson, since 1997 the principal contract writer for Meyer Sound’s marketing department, has announced his retirement effective the end of December. He has been writing for the professional audio industry since 1979, both as a contributor to industry trade magazines as well as an in-house and freelance writer for leading pro audio companies.
“As somebody who has been passionate about good sound for as far back as I can remember, it’s been a joy and a privilege to spread the word about Meyer Sound,” says Borgerson. Although the bulk of Borgerson’s work has focused on web stories, press releases and feature articles, over the years he also has written brochures, case studies, ad copy and a few product data sheets.
“Bruce is ALWAYS a pleasure to collaborate with. A great listener who could distill my long explanations down to the key points,” says Meyer Sound’s Director of System Optimization Bob McCarthy. “The work we do at Meyer Sound is highly technical and often several steps removed from the mainstream, and Bruce was able to grasp the essence of the innovations and incremental advances we were undertaking and put them into readable language. There are far too many articles in our trade that are little more than laundry lists of model numbers, but Bruce always raised the bar far above that level and gave real information that accurately represented our unique company perspective.”
Borgerson recalls dozens of times when he appreciated the results of Meyer Sound technology, but two stand out in memory. “One of my clients, Xtreme Studios mobile truck, was doing a film scoring session in Seattle. They had a pair of HD-1s set up in the VIP room to monitor the live orchestral mix. It was astonishing. I had never before heard music sound that vivid and detailed through loudspeakers.” “Later, I went to a classical orchestral concert at the Newport Performing Arts Center on the Oregon coast shortly after their installation of a Constellation acoustic system. That venue is a rather ordinary 400-seat room designed for drama, but Constellation transformed it into a richly reverberant concert hall that obviously inspired the orchestra and absolutely delighted the audience.”
As other highlights Borgerson lists concerts at Oregon’s Britt Festivals – a 25-minute drive from his Ashland home — where he heard great performances through five generations of George Relles’ Meyer Sound systems, starting with Wynton Marsalis (MSL-3) in 1992 through Ringo Starr in 2023 (PANTHER). Also memorable were Buddy Guy at the Hult Center in Eugene (LEOPARD) and an uncanny, ear-opening introduction to the Bluehorn System in Bear’s Lab.
“Having been a Meyer Sound Dealer since 1996, I have had the opportunity and pleasure of working with Bruce Borgerson for many years,” says Relles. “He has written articles and taken photos of many of the projects I have been involved with over the years. He has been my voice in articles about my company and his ability to distill the relevant facts has been invaluable. I have always valued our working relationship and his contribution to the pro audio community.”
After a decade of writing record and concert reviews for college and alternative papers, in 1979 Borgerson launched a 45-year career focused on pro audio with a feature story in the November issue of Mix. From 1981 to 1987 he served as marketing communications and advertising manager at Studer-Revox America in Nashville. Since then, he wrote scores of feature articles for other publications, including FRONT of HOUSE, such as this great piece on the new sound system at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland — https://fohonline.com/articles/installations/yoshis/.
“I’d like to thank everybody I worked with at Meyer Sound, starting of course with John and Helen,” says Borgerson. “There are too many of you to mention individually, but you know who you are.”
