Regional Slants

One morning in late August, 2005, Randy Frierson woke up with a bad feeling he couldn’t shake. There was a storm coming, but something felt especially wrong about this one. In addition to Concert Systems Production Group, he also had an RV business. So they loaded up as many family members and employees as possible. They headed out just as the devastating hurricane known as Katrina hit, and got as far as Pensacola where the bridge was washed out. So was, it turned out, most everything in their hometown of Gulfport, MS.

Like many regional companies, Frequency City Sound & Lighting Ltd. started off from humble beginnings. Like many others, it’s a familiar tale — local rock ‘n’ roll guitar player with PA (Peavey mixer/amp head, some mics and a couple Peavey SP3 speakers) decides to branch out and make money doing sound for other bands between his group’s gigs. Eventually the business grows into a serious operation.

A stellar history filled with steady growth, a recent move into a 225,000-foot facility, and several awards — including a 2008 Parnelli for Best Regional Sound Company in North America — keep the people at Tour Tech East busy. Owner Peter Hendrickson knows he’s not gotten where he is by accident, and this affable Canadian keeps his sense of humor on at all times and his ego in check.

There are many day-to-day challenges a regional audio company must contend with, but even Hyacinth Belcher couldn’t have imagined police officers storming her office, hands on guns, ready to draw. Co-owner of Dallas-based Onstage Systems with her brother Chris, she laughs about it now, though surely the “raid” got her adrenalin going.

“I’d complain, but it’s a pretty good life,” says Ken Freeman of MSI. “This business has been very good to me and my family, and I am thankful for it.” He smiles and adds: “It sure beats sitting in the office becoming another old fat sound guy.” Freeman is MSI technology sales manager and has been in the audio business since 1986.

One of this year’s ubiquitous expressions has been bounced around the zeitgeist a lot, but it has real meaning in regard to Delicate Sound’s recent history: “Go Big or Go Home.” The opening of a second office is always a Most Serious decision for a small business operator, but owner Smoother Smyth did it when his business was so down its very existence was in question.

The Business of Being Up when Times are Down

Larry Schmidt’s “secret” can be summed up in three words: common business sense.

No fancy MBA here, just some business classes at a junior college and the patience to sit down with a sharpened pencil to just work through it has put him where he is today. It’s a spectacular year (and that’s not even counting the Parnelli Award the company received in 2011 for Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year!)

Bret Dowlen has spent more than 30 years building sound systems, creating synergy between components and generally making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

"It doesn't matter if you hire us to do one show, a tour, or an entire sound system installation, you will always receive the same level of engineering and attention to detail that I've built this company's reputation on," he notes.

Like many, Paradise Show & Design founder Larry Epstein started as a freelancer and built a company. Unlike other entrepreneurial hopefuls starting out a quarter century ago, Epstein and his company is still around. One reason for the company's longevity is its ability to adapt to the changing needs of its customers. Epstein can count the clients Paradise Sound has lost on one hand. And for that, he credits his staff.

Don't look for a website for Relles Sound. Owner George Relles of the Eugene, OR-based company hasn't bothered with one, as he's "not in a position to grow my business." But it's an enviable position to be in, because he's "basically been servicing the clients I've had for 20, 30 years."

This multi-million dollar corporation, whose client roster spans all the way up to the President of the U.S., is a bit of an anonymous anomaly – and that's just the way owner Chip Self likes it. "We fly under the radar, as almost everything we do is as a subcontractor," Self says. "We're the people in the background. The way I look at it is that, if anybody notices us, we didn't do it right. Our whole job is to be invisible."

The Nashville Soundco Invests in Gear, Staff

Colleen Cussick stood on the crest of the May 2010 floodwaters that decimated downtown Nashville and took pictures of a waterlogged building and building lot on her cell phone. But it wasn't just any building. Until very recently, it was home to where she worked – Brantley Sound Associates (BSA).