Cellular phone sales in Metro Detroit were pioneered in 1985 by Tom Parks at Birmingham Autosound through his aggressive affiliation with both Cellular One and Ameritech Mobile. I was the manager of BA for a while in 1986, and we had some of the heaviest hitters in the marketplace through our doors getting those huge briefcase phones...it was a big deal when the first clunky all-in-one Motorola that looked like a miniature WWII field phone came in!

I still have my stylish brick NEC 200...and remind the fine folks at Verizon exactly how long I've been a client whenever they try to screw with my account. I casually mention that I've been on their brain-cancer plan since 1988...and have kept all of my old phones for an art project in case I ever actually develop any problems. It gets an amazing response, usually in my favor.


The late 70s and throughout the 80s were a curious time in the hifi industry, when Highland and Fretter geared up their product and sales force...Adray, too, at least for those of us on the westside.

I started at Tech Hifi in June of 1981, which was an 80-plus store chain out of Boston...that bumped up against the eastern expansion of a chain called Schaak Electronics from Minneapolis. They stalemated in the Metro Detroit market, although Tech Hifi owned the College Towns...including Ann Arbor and Lansing, and went into the Grand Rapids market before they imploded.

Detroit, in retrospect, was a microcosm of the wars fought all over the country...as Highland and Fretter expanded...these national chains all but devastated the hobbiest hifi independents who thrived here from the sixties through the eighties.

I had all but forgotten those days, until I ran into a pair of DLK .5 mini-monitors...Schaak's 'home' brand...at a client's home last month. They were in such great shape, I had to buy them off the guy.


I never quite understood what a force those two chains were...until they went away...but not after significantly altering the retail landscape.

They left a vacuum that Best Buy and Circuit City filled...I knew the background on BB from my ex-bro-in-law from Minneapolis...and am not surprised that they survived the battle after Circuit City fired all their experienced salespeople. It was only a matter of time.


There are still a few good appliance stores left, and a few of them do hifi and video pretty well...but the knowledge base is all but gone. Retired and/or left for greener pastures. About the only one I trust any longer is that joint out at 12 Mile...Paulson's...and if I got my story right, he is an old Fretter buyer. I have heard great things about Witbeck's as well...over on Woodward Avenue, and that other joint in Birmingham north of 14 seems to keep Bloomfield 'applied'.


We all made good money, even through the recession of the early 80s...but all that vanished with the advent of the internet. A whole bunch went away...the passion, the demonstrations, the ability to actually LEARN and make informed purchase decisions.


Those who only went for price were clueless, yet the industry acquiesced and all but killed themselves. There are still clients who seek out better performance, and better installations and setup...thankfully. Or I would be even thinner...and colder.

Cheers