Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474752
48 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Fall 2022 High and just eighteen. This experience got me hired by Bill Graham at Winterland in San Fransico to sell merch on tour with Night Ranger, where I drove a rental truck full of T-shirts from gig to gig for nine months in 1984. It was at these shows that I saw the sound engineers installing and mixing where I got the bug. T-shirts were sold in the lobby while the real fun was down in the house. Shortly after my return from tour, my dad heard a friend named Charlie Massa had purchased what was left of "Quad Eight," a sound company, and had moved it into a tiny building in Burbank. He had drawings and parts but needed somebody to solder stuff together. He hired me at minimum wage, about $4 an hour at the time. He handed me a power amplifier, pointed me to a wall of parts, and said, "Can you build me a dozen just like this one?" I did. After a year or so, he sent me to a Pro Audio dealer around the corner to get a sub-woofer for a system upgrade we were doing at the home of Barbra Streisand. Pro Audio Services and Supply Co. was in a famous old recording complex once known as Kendun Recorders. It had two full studios with large control rooms and two extra smaller rooms. In the '70s, everyone from Stevie Wonder to Paul McCartney had recorded there but the gear was gone, repossessed a decade earlier, and the buildings had been emptying for years. I started bugging the new owner, Bob Hacken, for a job. He had built his company selling new and used gear for music studios and now his plan was to find tenants for the rooms and to sell them new and/or used gear, along with a service contract. After many visits, he agreed to hire me. He told me he had rented the first and largest room and sold a big package, including a big Trident 80B mixing console. My first day would be the day that console arrived from England in a 9' crate. He needed the help to move it. He and his tech, Mark Bonasara, had me soldering mic lines and Tuchel con- nectors for weeks. I was up to about $8 per hour and I was learning a ton. Warranty repair on Crown and Crest amps, Skyler Quintana Doug Miller