Regional Slants

It's not quite accurate to say that John Heinz, founder and owner of Atlantic City's Concert Quality Sound, was born into the business, but he sure got an early start. His father worked on the tech end at the Hughes Television Network, which was in part a forerunner to ESPN, and also one of the first companies to get into closed-circuit telecasts – it was working those sorts of gigs at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall that led to the Heinz family relocating there from New York, and it's where young John got his first exposure to the world of sound.

From Huey Lewis to a birthday party for a one year old; from a wedding featuring a rock legend to a 2,000-person corporate party; from a six-stage music festival to celebrating the world champion San Francisco Giants – Sound on Stage has been through it all, and then some.

Harvest Productions of Kansas City got its start in 1987, incorporated in 1992, and in the nearly two decades since has grown to be one of the most successful and dependable sound/lighting/video companies in their corner of the Midwest. Harvest's founder and president, Ron Davis, is a Kansas City native himself, and likes that his company's name reflects the agrarian roots of the region in which it thrives. "And," he points out, "the company is always growing."

Atlanta has been one of the Southeast's major entertainment hubs since the late 1960s. It was home to some of the first large-scale rock festivals, and it has always been an important stop for any significant touring act.

Like so many people who founded regional sound companies, twin brothers Anthony and James Cioffi – who run the very successful Boulevard Pro in northern New Jersey ("seven miles from Times Square," Anthony points out) – started out as musicians.

Though his last name is also part of his company's name, Carlson Audio Systems co-owner Mark Carlson is always quick to point out that his Seattle-based concern has always represented a collaboration with his partner Jonathan Myers – and also currently thrives with the invaluable help of a dozen other full-time employees and four times that many independent contractors who have helped turn Carlson Audio into the biggest sound company in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1975, two penniless students living "the original hippie counter-culture lifestyle" began working with blind ambition from a garage in Nottingham, England, begging, borrowing and stealing, determined to bring their dreams of creating an audio business to fruition.

Like so many folks involved in the live sound business, pMd Productions president Dave Kuhn got his start as a musician. "Back in high school [in La Puente, California, east of Los Angeles] I was in a bunch of garage bands. All my friends were pretty talented and got better at their instruments-and I did not," he laughs. "But I did have an affinity for our sparkly blue [Naugahyde] Kustom Tuck ‘N' Roll PA. So that's partly where I got the taste for live sound and for equipment."

"Onstage Systems began in 1978 as Dallas Backup, Inc. Our parents, Charles and Vickie Belcher, started the company as a backline company," comments Hyacinth Belcher of Dallas-based Onstage Systems, a company she has run with her brother Chris for the last several years. "They tried everything they could think of to get us to see the light and not do it," she laughs, "but we love it; I can't imagine doing anything else."

Miami and the surrounding South Florida area has long been one of the most competitive markets in the country, and one of the broadest – few can match its stimulating mix of big arena shows, clubs, large niches (Latin and dance/electronic) and, of course, parties.

Much like Woodstock, the odds are that if you remember what happened on the Sunset Strip in the 1980s, you probably weren't there. Hundreds of thousands of musicians, managers and hangers-on strolled up and down the Los Angeles avenue hoping to make it, bank it, or, well, you know.

Mark Bowman has been kicking around the Phoenix performing arts scene for over 20 years now, beginning when he was working with the City of Phoenix as a recreation leader.