industry news
» A display case shows some of the first car au- dio products sold and in- stalled back in the day.
» Some of today’s staff at the store. L to R: Gary Lardinois Jr., Jeremy Czech and Jim Nackers.
designed a stereo tape player called the Autostereo for cars, and sold both the players and cartridges from his own stores and franchises. By the early ’60s, Muntz audio products were so profitable that he founded his own company to manufacture prerecorded Stereo-Pak cartridges. After Kehler contacted
Muntz about the Stereo-Pak, he began to install them at his shop. One of the first Ste- reo-Pak under dash tape decks
» Muntz Audio-Video’s storefront today.
was installed on a 1967 Dodge Cornet. The rest is history. Just like with car audio, the
installation work at the store began to evolve with the times as products became more sophisticated and advanced. Nackers worked at the store as an installer during the early ’70s, and that’s how he met his wife Jenny, who also was an employee. “I’ve been here for 40 years, and bought the business from Bill’s son, Roland,” he said.
In fact, the store presently
has two other installers who have been at the store for about the same number of years as Nackers. A lot has changed since Acme Radio opened its doors in the original location in downtown Green Bay. The current location is between “old” Highway 41 and the current highway 41 — still in a large district for shopping. The store’s long history and
reputation for what happened in the past is a great story, but today there’s the common mis- conception of the store being “old school”. But employees such as 32-year-old Czech, who’s been at the store for 11 years, are helping to change that perception. His expertise has been with custom iPad installations in vehicles, which has been popular within the past year. “I worked for another shop
WHO’S WHO
for a few years and knew one of the Kehler family members. The family hired me for sales, but I did an install job the first day and kept on install- ing,” he said. Though Czech manages the
current Facebook page for Muntz Audio-Video, the store did open a MySpace page in 2006. “Social media has been fantastic for us for the past few years,” he said. Outside the virtual world,
Nackers said the store’s main clientele are repeated customers and generations of families. “That’s how we survive,”
Nackers said. “You know, most car audio businesses started in the 60s, but I don’t know anybody that goes back father than that. If they did, they’d probably be out of business. We have no plans to step away or close shop in the near future. It’ll be a while.”
PATRICK FENNELL Audiowerks Tewksbury, MA Years of Industry experience: 9 Hobbies: Cars, movies, baseball What you’re really good at: Remote starters
ROBERT FLOOD WWJ Customs Glasgow, KY Years of Industry experience: 7 Hobbies: Cars and weight lifting What you’re really good at: Educating people on car audio
JP JONES Final Touch Crew Frankfort, KY Years of Industry experience: 18 Hobbies: Guitar playing, watch collecting, cooking, playing with my kids What you’re really good at: Coaching and training, fabrication and remote- start technology
26 Mobile Electronics May—June 2013
HOWARD KAMISH Howard’s Electronics Glenwood, IA Years of Industry experience: 30+ Hobbies: Electronics, guns
What you’re really good at: Computer repair, but napping is a close second
AXEL MOHREN Ampire Electronics Grevenbroich, Germany Years of Industry experience: 26 Hobbies: Cars, dogs and rock’n’ roll What you’re really good at: Sales
Adam LeSage Photography
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