Ep. 78 Marty Bender Sobolewski (Tower Sunset, Cashbox Magazine, KROQ, WWWM, WFBQ, Radio Consultant)

2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

“I knew quite a bit about [Tower]. I knew Sunset was the mecca. So I just popped in one day and that’s how it all started” says this week’s guest Marty Bender Sobolweski. From his earliest memory of his grandmother pulling out a record player to his mother coming home from her temp job at Capitol Records in Cleveland with a box of free records, Marty has been a life long music fanatic.

An early record store job at Ohio’s Audio Buff Records (which sold a lot more than its narrow exterior suggested) to becoming the Midwest Promotions and Marketing Director for Peaches Records, prepared Marty for the bright lights of Hollywood. But nothing could prepare him for a constantly crowded store featuring the likes of Andy Kaufman, John Belushi, Robin Williams and a very inebriated Tom Waits wanting to shop after closing time.

Covering charts reporting for a vacationing employee led to Marty being hired by Cashbox Magazine, Billboard Magazine’s prime compeition. Marty takes us through the process of putting together a chart with detailed chart information (see our Instagram account), how albums gained or lost a bullet and what led to so many pages of ad buys in a music magazine.

From there Marty set out to the world of radio, working simultaneously at KROQ and KNAC before moving back to the Midwest as on-air talent, Music Director and Program Director for a number of stations. It was in Cleveland that Marty tells us he conceived of the “Classic Rock” format of radio and all that followed.

Join us for a wide ranging conversation about music, record stores, music mags and radio with our guest Mary Bender Sololweski.