FEATURES
America the Beautiful 2010 has been a good year for American patriotism. And we don’t just mean annual rituals such as the Fourth of July.
Not Doubting Thomas
Mendello Retires, Thomas Named Fender CEO Former Guitar Center CEO Larry Thomas has a new gig: CEO at Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
The ‘Spin’ on the DJ Market Whether your store carries a full line of DJ products, just a few or none at all, it’s hard to dispute that these products have carved a major indentation in the MI marketplace.
Music City Mystery Summer NAMM had many highlights, but attendance dropped 4 percent compared to last year. The future of the show is a topic on many minds.
The Canadians’ Club Changes galore took place at this year’s installment of the MIAC show in Toronto. The date changed to May. The location changed. Why were the adjustments made? Did the alterations work?
Floyd Rose Sued Geoffrey McCabe, an inventor and guitarist, has sued Floyd Rose Guitars and distributor Davitt & Hanser Music for patent infringement.
Pay It Forward! You’ve heard enough bad news. We take a look at the fantastic things happening in MI today.
-‘MIM is the Word The Musical Instrument Museum opened in Phoenix to a lot of fanfare. Rebecca Apodaca, an expert on antique instruments, gives you a rundown of the latest thing to hit MI.
-‘Loud and Clear Pro audio products continue to sell. We get the scoop from four top manufacturers.
-‘Open Door’ Policy NAMM makes a big change by allowing member-invited guests on the last day of Summer NAMM.
-Musikmesse A-107K! Attendance at Musikmesse and Pro Light + Sound dipped slightly, but optimism was up.
-It’s in the Cards ! You need to have PCI DSS-compliant terminals to handle credit card transactions by July 1. What are we talking about? Don’t worry, we’ll explain.
-Unplugged Acoustic guitar sales grew dramatically in 2009 and the beginning of 2010. Is this the beginning of a new trend?
-Head of the Class! We shine the spotlight on many of the new companies that launched at NAMM.
-Musicorp Mourns Mike Murphy We honor the sale rep’s life that ended way too soon.
-Is a New Healthcare Plan Just Snake Oil? We take a thorough look at how a new public healthcare plan can affect you and your employees. ?
-Bonanza! Behringer Buys Bosch Brands Behringer’s parent company added the Midas and Klark Teknik brands to its stable.
-The Stars Will Come Out…This Weekend We highlight a few of the celebrity appearances at NAMM.
-What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been!!! We reminisce as we close out the first decade of the new millennium. It was a tough 10 years for many. How about for the music industry though? What’s ahead?
-It’s Voting Time! Here are your nominees for the 24th annual Music & Sound Awards.
-Here We Come to Save the Day!!We provide a plethora of accessories that manufacturers assure you will provide excellent margins.
-For Those Who Make Lesser Publicized Instruments, We Salute You!!For the first time, we pay tribute to instruments and products that get little press coverage. We provide a well-deserved spotlight for these products!

-Kathy How:Now here’s a story you don’t hear connected to MI every day. A woman who grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, studied medicine and later moved to England.
-Sarah Heil:We’ve all heard the stories about people beginning in the mailroom and later becoming the CEO of a major corporation. Those people are rare, but it does happen.
-Sue Avant is a trailblazer. She’s also someone who
has varied interests. And she is, indeed, formidable.
-Mary Ann Giorgio It sure sounds like a great job to cover soap operas like Days of our Lives and speak to celebrities on a daily basis. But MXL’s Mary Ann Giorgio was never comfortable in that industry. She sure is comfortable at MXL Microphones though.
-Fusion Bags For the first time, we feature multiple people in this column. We look at the genesis and growth of the all-women founded business, Fusion Bags.
-Linda Arink is one of the very few female executives at a DJ company. Learn how she became involved and why she hopes we won’t even need to have a column about top industry females in the future.
-Debbe Stephenson stumbled upon MI shortly after college, but is sure glad she did. She’s now president and COO of Pro Co Sound.
-• Mary Peavey
-• Jennifer Tabor
-• Tarina Dunwoodie
-• Stacey Montgomery-Clark.
-• Cathy Duncan
-• Bee Bantug
-• Dale Krevens
-• Melanie Ripley
-• Susan Grund
-• Toby Nady
-• Shawna von Behren.
-• Berenice Chauvet
-• Sue Kincade
-• Tish Ciravolo
-• Vikki Hayward
-• Roxana Ramirez
-• Susan Lipp

If you’re tired of hearing about all of the bad stuff going on the world, boy do we have a treat for you. When you open a newspaper (you pick the day), stories about health scares, murders, steroids, Human Growth Hormone, and suicide bombings are assured of being in there. Well, you won’t hear about any of those in this story. You also won’t hear about the recession and subprime woes. For the first time, we present several great things that manufacturers are doing in our industry today. How do companies make a difference for their communities? How do they make a difference for larger charitable causes? Here are some of the people and stories from companies you perhaps communicate with on a daily basis.

Let’s start with Alyssa Janney, who manages the HealthRHYTHMS division of Remo Inc., which is devoted to music therapy wellness applications of its business. “Reaching beyond our doors,” she said, “we support organizations that use music products in music-therapy and wellness applications. We are a patron member of the American Music Therapy Association. We have also supported through membership the American Holistic Nurses Association and the Florida Healthcare Association just to name a few. We also reach out to help many organizations around the globe who are trying to make a difference in their communities. One of the most exciting things that we are doing is the HealthRHYTHMS Group Empowerment Drumming program. We have trained facilitators now in 48 U.S. states and 17 countries around the world. The HealthRHYTHMS program is a research-based group drumming program that integrates proven wellness strategies for psycho-social and health outcomes. It’s being used in hospitals and long-term care, in schools, corporations, and community organizations. It’s used to build cohesive teams, for employee wellness, for cancer support groups, for alcohol and drug addiction support groups, for support of our military and their families, at-risk youth, and more. The program has very broad applicability because HealthRHYTHMS can be used as a platform for addressing many different needs in a way that is non-threatening, supportive, accepting, and fun! It’s one way we are using our core competencies to make a difference. And it’s all based in solid, scientific research which has been published in peer reviewed medical journals.”

PRS Guitars has generously provided for its community. The company holds an annual golf tournament with proceeds benefiting people living with cancer at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. And PRS Guitars’ latest venture was to help a local man whose house burned down. “He lost everything,” said Larry Urie, national sales and marketing manager for PRS. “He’s a musician and he doesn’t have any insurance. He only had one instrument that survived the fire. That was a PRS Standard 20th Anniversary model. The firemen estimated it was 800 degrees where that guitar was. How did it survive? The guitar is charred, but still playable. It has a broken string and the finish is bubbled over. We decided to fix it for him. Then I went to Paul [Reed Smith] and said I have a better idea, ‘Let’s give him a new guitar and see if he’ll trade us his. We can keep this burned guitar to show to people.’ The person came in and we gave him a new guitar. We don’t forget where we came from.”

Musicorp is a big supporter of the South Carolina Youth Advocate Program, which is part of the national Youth Advocate Program. “It’s a non-profit organization that trains and oversees foster parents and foster families for special needs foster children who come through the state,” said Gene Taylor, a Musicorp sales rep. “Often, these children are abused and medically fragile. In our local Charleston, S.C. area, at any time, we have about 70 kids in care through the agency. What we do is organize drum circles for them. We actually bought the whole drum circle kit from Remo.”

In fact, Taylor’s wife is a regional director for the youth program, and drum circle participants have ranged in ages from 3 to teen. “The first drum circle we did was at the [advocate program’s] Christmas party,” said Taylor. “We had about 50 kids join in. For half of those children, it was their first experience having their hands on an instrument of any kind. We’ll be doing one this spring, summer, and we’re looking to conduct one for the entire state organization, which would involve several hundred children.”

Tanya Fox, Canadian and International sales administrator for Sabian, has a vital role in a local program located in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, about 20 minutes away from Sabian’s headquarters. “The program is called Funstage,” said Fox. “I’ve been a part of its committee for the past three years. It’s a nonprofit organization whose mandate is “to bring good entertainment to the community and reasonable prices for all families to enjoy. We’re part of the New Brunswick Arts Council who draws in artists to perform. We determine which artists could be excellent for our program. We usually stick to three to four performances per year. This year, we’re doing three and the last one is scheduled for [this month].”

Tickets to the concerts cost $7 Canadian if paid in advance and $8 at the door. That money all goes to the organization’s operating expenses. “We’re not making money. We try to bring in good talent so the kids in Woodstock and surrounding areas can enjoy it at affordable prices.”

Funstage’s last performance, which took place in February, featured Halifax, Nova Scotia-based band Razzmatazz, which plays folk, Celtic, and blues music. According to Fox, attendance has grown dramatically during the past couple of years. Past events drew about 120 people. However, 370 attended the February performance. The theater’s capacity is 400.

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