Thursday, June 1st, 2017
My story starts at the end of my senior year in the parking lot of Pleasant Valley high school. It was 1993. I was waiting with my friend for his older brother to pick him up. As his brother drove into the parking lot I heard for the very first time an awesome sound coming from his car. The air was filled with energy and excitement. He had installed a 12” subwoofer and the infamous Rockford Fosgate “Punch” amplifier. From that moment I was hooked on car audio.
Two weeks before graduation I decided to skip a study hall class. The teacher of that class wanted to prove a point, and wrote me up for skipping class resulting in a day of in school suspension for me. Since it was the end of the year I was allowed to fulfill my suspension on a half day of school. That morning my friend and I stopped at IGA, the local grocery store, on our drive to school. I purchased two magazines, Car Audio and Car Stereo Review. I read both magazines cover to cover that day.
Ten months after graduation I was hired for a job with H&R Auto Radio in Allentown, PA. This was my first job as a professional installer, I was eighteen. I worked for H&R Auto Radio for one year before moving onto another stereo shop. This is where I would meet David George and George Romberger. They were collaborating on an idea. David George designed and built “car audio” systems while George Romberger designed and built “home audio” systems. The two of them simply saw it as “audio”. I was hooked on this concept.
After working at H&R Auto Radio during the day I would drive across town and spend hours at night just listening “JST LSTN” to music at their studio. This is where I first heard the warmth and musical-ness of vacuum tube amplifiers and high-end audio. The sound was amazing. Within a few months I was hired as an installer for Blossom Studios. This is where my journey into audio and installing begins. David and George taught me their craft of designing and building audio systems. A blueprint for sound that I still use to this day on every installation. Over the next seven years (1994-2001) I got to be part of an amazing journey, building audio systems of an award winning Bronco at the Bloomsburg 4wheel Drive jamboree, an award winning Mitsubishi at an I.A.S.C.A. car audio competition, and a stereo system for the lead singer of the band Fuel. Great times for sure. Unfortunately it all ended one day over artistic differences. Blossom Studios closed in 2001.
In the spring of 2002 I opened Blossom Installations in Stroudsburg, PA where I continued to carry on the “quality is tradition” that I was taught over the last seven years. I opened my West Main St. location with just enough money and a dream. One installation at a time I worked to build the name Blossom Installations. By delivering high quality installations every time my shop quickly became to go-to shop when you wanted a job done right. Six years later the shop is buzzing with work. Then the morning of July 10th, 2008 happened. I received a phone call that changed everything. The shop was on fire. Driving to my building I could see the smoke. By the time I had arrived fire was coming from the roof. During the next three hours I watched everything I had work for disappear. In total six cars were lost that morning. Luckily nobody was hurt. I can remember this was the first time I had ever considered quitting. If it wasn’t for a handful of customers encouraging me to keep going I just might have quit. For the next three years I worked at my dealerships and again grew my name. As I became busier I built a shop in Bartonsville and continued to grow my business. I find myself just as excited as I was 25 years ago designing and building audio systems and electronics. I’m looking forward to entering my 26th year in audio…