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Water, Water Everywhere The repairs lasted about 20 years, but the leaks eventually returned. Hall’s Auto Sound has been dogged with drips, drops, and leaks ever since. To make matters worse, the leaks were directly over the show- room, the stock room, and the repair bench areas. To fix the leaks meant more money, but the shop location is a problem. The small town of Pampa sits in the northern part of the state, approximately an hour’s drive from Amarillo, which doesn’t draw enough consistent traffic to provide the revenue Hall need to fix his store. To temporarily solve the problem, Hall was forced to use rain
buckets even in the showroom in front of customers. Luckily, the only person it seemed to bother was Hall himself. “The leaks were causing some of the tiles to buckle so we had
buckets the length of the building every time it rained. We built a trough over the largest leak to contain the water,” he said. “People are funny. They don’t look up often. You have to force people to look up by nature. But even though people didn’t make a big deal out of it, it certainly didn’t do my shop any good.” Multiple roof leaks in a 100 by 50 foot Quonset building are dif-
ficult to find and expensive to repair. Considering the region’s two main industries, oil and farming, are very cyclical, Hall’s business can be very inconsistent. Adding other challenges such as the local economy, the emergence of big box electronic stores, do-it-yourself kits, and the Internet, combined to shrink Rick’s market even fur- ther. With the severe financial pressures he faced, Hall was simply unable to maintain the building as he did in the 1980s.
Help From a Friend Upon learning about Hall’s predicament, his life-long friend Bob
Crawford, owner of Crawford Roofing, offered to fix the roof. Crawford provided a reasonable estimate, but it was still out of reach for Hall. The battle with the leaks continued until early this year when Crawford came to Hall with a deal he could not refuse. Crawford was willing to move forward with the roof repair, and Hall could pay for it later. “You could use the word emotional,” Hall said of his friend’s kind
act. “He did it out of the goodness of his heart. He’s eventually gonna fix the rest of it, and not for free. It was quite a lift to get that fixed.” Despite the challenges of location and consistent business, the old Quonset building his granddad built is part of the Hall family legacy, and Rick has no intention of moving. “My brother Randy retired a couple of years ago, and I’ll probably be the last family member to use this building,” he said. “Now we have plans to clean it up again and replace ceiling tiles. You just have to feel good about your product. I want people to come in and think good things about us.”
18 Mobile Electronics July 2014 Who’s Who
Scott Huffman Independence Audio-Video Independence, Mo. Years of Industry experience: 31 Hobbies: Mountain biking, exotic beers, my kids, sports What you’re really good at: Mountain biking and being a dad
Darren Fettik Audio Designs & Custom Graphics Jacksonville, Fla. Years of Industry experience: 20 Hobbies: Golf and working out What you’re really good at: Trouble- shooting and customer service
Bill Sommers Sommer Sound Systems Panama City, Fla. Years of Industry experience: 24 Hobbies: Cars, Call of Duty, guns and flatland freestyle (bike) What you’re really good at: Attention to detail, custom installations
Randy Jackson Jackson Mobile Sound Porterville, Calif. Years of Industry experience: 14 Hobbies: Having fun with my wife and kids
What you’re really good at: Box building
Brian Miller AAMP of America Clearwater, Fla. Years of Industry experience: 25 Hobbies: Car stereo, of course! What you’re really good at: Fabrication
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