SPARS History: 1979-
by Pete Caldwell
SPARS President 1990-1991
Founder, Doppler Studios (Atlanta, GA)
©1999, All Rights Reserved.
Table of Contents
Beginnings: 1979
SPARS Defines Itself: 1980 - 1981
SPARS under the Founders:: 1981 - 1986
Redefining of SPARS: 1986 - 1993
SPARS as an Audio Industry Mirror: 1994-1999
A Future of Possibilities

BEGINNINGS: 1979

The audio recording industry of the early 1970's was a much smaller place  than it is today. During this era, individual studios were working in a vacuum.  There were few manufacturers of pro audio equipment, there was little to read,  and not many people to talk to. Most consoles were custom built or were  modifications of equipment designed to do something else, and most studio owners  who had gained any success at all were guarded about their secrets.

By the mid-70's some of these early facilities had matured, and the pro audio  landscape was becoming populated with manufacturers, dealers, magazines and  consultants. But in 1979 when SPARS was born, there were still only about 50  large, successful, U.S. studios, mostly in New York or L.A. These facilities  fell roughly into two groups. The first group comprised those studios that began  small and ignorant and grew through the tenacity, talent and drive of their  owners, who more often than not spent their nights behind consoles and their  days on their knees wielding soldering irons. The second group was comprised of  large companies or well funded enterprises like the record companies who at some  point along the line had simply bought into the industry as a matter of need for  services. Despite the financial impact of this latter group, the industry in  those days was driven by the tenacious, maverick breed of studio owner. Not only  were these men guarded about their secrets and their customers, they were  suspicious of any new, smaller studio enterprise partly because they knew how  little they had known when they began and how hard practical knowledge had been  to come by.

This was the professional audio industry in 1979, and for the most part the  founders of SPARS were these mavericks. What they did not know was that the  industry was in the process of changing forever, and that what they were  creating was about to become obsolete before it began. What they also did not  know was that, in SPARS, they would create a living, breathing entity that was  beyond their control, an organization able to change as the industry changed.  They would create an invaluable industry mirror into which everyone could  gaze.

Although no one knew it at the time, SPARS began in The Pacific Dining Car in  downtown L.A. during the AES Convention in the Fall of 1979. Only months later  would the spirit of that evening beget an organization and be given the name,  The Society of Professional Audio Recording Studios. Certainly at the time none  of the revelers at Kent Duncan's (Canteen Recorders / L.A.) and Billboard  Magazine's dinner bash were thinking in the lofty terms of industry wide  communication, leadership and direction. Nonetheless, the guest list was  impressive: Harry Harsh (Sound mixers, NYC), Howard Schwartz (Howard Schwartz  Recording, NYC), Dave Teg and Tom Cahill (Atlantic Records, NYC), Ham Brosmius  (Audio techniques, NYC), Mack and Danny Merman (Criteria, Miami), Jeep and Joyce  Hared (MCI, Ft. Lauderdale, FL), Chris Stone (Record Plant, L.A.), Jim Stern  (Fantasy Records, L.A.), Ike Bedouin (Audio Industries, L.A.).

'Everybody was having a whopping good time,' Mack Merman (Criteria Recording  / Miami) would later remember in an interview for R/EP Magazine, 'the discussion  got into, 'Mr. Manufacturer or Mr. Studio Equipment Supplier, none of you are  giving us what we want. You don't listen to us.' And it sort of got heavy. Jeep  Hared of MCI was there. He was the only manufacturer I remember. It was mostly  studio owners from the L.A. area. But Jeep got riled up. I can't say that he got  angry, but he got up and said, 'Hey, wait a minute! We always listen to you. Why  don't you guys come down to Fort Lauderdale, we'll have a big confab about this  thing and we'll see what it is that you really want.''

SPARS was born among those cocktails, out of the good natured and often witty  ranting of a hand full of men and women who were enjoying an unfamiliar feeling:  that they were among friends; that they were more alike than they wanted to  admit; that they shared a rare bond - they owned and operated recording studios.  That night it seemed that their problems, their fears, and even their dreams  were the same.

Jeep Hared made good on his invitation, and on June 15th, the spirit of the  Pacific Dining Car moved to Ft. Lauderdale where it would flourish as Kent  Duncan's dinner party was expanded by MCI invitation to a representative guest  list which included the owners of 15 of the top U.S. recording studios of the  time:

A & R Studios/NYC, Atlantic Studios/NYC, Criteria Recording  Company/Miami, Flyways-Header Recording/Hollywood, Group IV Recording/Hollywood,  House of Music/New Jersey, Howard M. Schwartz Recording/NYC, Canteen  Recording/Burbank, Larabee Sound/Hollywood, Media Sound/NYC, Record Plant/Los  Angeles, Regent Sound Studios/NYC, Sigma Sound Studios/Philadelphia, Sound  mixers/NYC, Studio 55/Chicago.

As in L.A., these guests were unaware that they were about to become part of  recording industry history. In truth most of them were thinking about the cost,  configuration, and availability of future recording console technology. The  first evening in Ft. Lauderdale Jeep had arranged a little outing, a boat trip  on the New River. MCI played host to the studio owners on the 98 foot pleasure  craft, Pilgrim II. Chris Stone (Record Plant/L.A.) recalls, 'It soon became  clear that we had an opportunity to do a great deal more for the industry than  design a console.' In fact, it soon occurred to almost everyone aboard Pilgrim  II that the productive and satisfying atmosphere of cooperation and mutual  endeavor that everyone was experiencing might be continued. The possibility of  future meetings was much discussed. By most accounts, it was Kent Duncan who  favored a formal organization from the very beginning. According to Stone, Kent  was the original 'mover and shaker' for organized action. It is ironic that so  much impetus for an industry-wide organization of studio owners came from a man  who was very soon to disappear from the scene.

So on Saturday morning, June 15, 1979, the organizing meeting was held for  what was to become The Society of Professional Audio Recording Studios. Within  the space of two or three hours a basic structure for the organization was  hammered out. There was then considerable discussion of the qualities of  leadership the first president should have, and after much generalizing, Kent  Duncan nominated Joe Tarsia (Sigma Sound/Philadelphia) for the position, which  would later be labeled Interim President. Chris Stone seconded the  nomination.

The choice of Joe Tarsia tells us a great deal about the founders and the  industry climate of the late 70's. Many thought Joe was 'safe' meaning neutral,  neither New York nor L.A. Many thought Joe was 'safe' meaning mild mannered.  Many thought Joe was 'safe' meaning that they perceived that he would be easy to  influence or even manipulate. About this, they could not have been more wrong.  The truth of the matter is that Joe Tarsia was 'safe,' not for any of these  reasons, but because he was (and is still) a great guy. Chris Stone recalls that  Joe tried to decline, ''No, no, no, not me, Joe kept saying, but I saw that  spark in his eye.'

After Tarsia's election, there was a great deal of discussion as to what the  qualifications for membership ought to be. Little did anyone know how explosive  and sensitive an issue this would later become. Tarsia felt that there should be  levels of membership, thus creating a more open organization. Although this  vision was a long way from a classless society, it was the most egalitarian  position. It was generally felt that membership qualifications should have  something to do with equipment and the capital investment levels of prospective  members, but no decisions were reached. Certainly there were those who wished a  totally exclusive society of only the top studios. One opinion suggested that 50  members was a comfortable goal.

The dues structure was agreed upon. This was not discussed under the heading  of membership qualifications, but as it turned out nothing did more to limit  membership and to alienate the middle level and small studios. It was decided  that each studio member would pay $2000 per year. This was unanimously  passed.

David Teg (Atlantic Studios/NYC) was elected Secretary and Kent Duncan was  elected Treasurer. The country was to be divided into four regions, and an  Executive Committee was selected. The duties of this Executive Committee were  defined to include the drafting of By-Laws; various announcements,  advertisements and press releases; the drafting of a budget; the establishment  of a checking account; and the hiring of a full time administrator. August 11  was set for the first meeting of the Executive Committee in L.A. It was Chris  Stone who suggested SPARS, The Society of Professional Audio Recording Studios,  perhaps in the tradition of the then fledgling APRS, Association of Professional  Recording Studios in England. Joe Tarsia confides, 'I didn't like the name  SPARS. It sounded to me like we would all have to wear little sailor suits.'  Nonetheless, the name was approved unanimously, and the founders returned to the  work of designing the 'Super Console.' SPARS was born, and the fat was in the  fire.

Certainly if there is a hero in all of this it is Joe Tarsia. To say the  least, Joe did not know what he was getting into when he accepted the nomination  for the presidency. He remembers the weeks following the Ft Lauderdale  organizing meeting. 'I was on the phone every day for hours with Chris (Stone)  and Kent (Duncan). After a while I began to tape the conversations because they  would tell me one thing one day and something different the next.' Joe saw all  of this as well meaning but over zealous help, and it was coming in disorganized  and independent bursts from many of the men who had attended the Ft. Lauderdale  meeting. It did not take Joe long to realize that if anything at all was going  to get done, he was going to have to do it alone, in spite of all of the 'help'  he was getting from both coasts.

Joe Tarsia initially acted as a filter for all of the diverse input, but in  the end what he tried to do was implement what he perceived to be the consensus  of the June 15 organizing meeting. By June 25th he had summarized the rambling  notes describing the Ft Lauderdale meeting into the short minutes which were  later presented to the first meeting of the Executive Committee. These minutes  list the elected officers and the dues. They also describe a membership process  whereby prospective members would be approved by a membership committee, and  they also detailed the agenda for the August 11 'Executive Committee Meeting,'  which was later referred to as the 'Board of Directors Meeting.' Tarsia also  included a summary of what he thought the goals of the organization should be  according to the best ideas of the various founders:

1. To establish a forum for professional audio studios.
2. To achieve excellence in the craft.
3. To comment on and evaluate professional audio equipment.
4. To promote good engineering practices.
5. To act as a voice to address important issues confronting the industry's  present and future equipment needs.
6. To publicize technical innovation.
7. To provide technique of studio management.
8. To educate the membership in matters affecting professional audio.

In accordance with the mandate that membership be tied to technical  capabilities, the qualifications for membership stated that a studio must have  at least two 24-track machines. On July 18, Tarsia wrote an open letter  requesting applications for membership. In July, Pro Sound News published  Tarsia's request in an article outlining the aims of SPARS and the two 24-track  criteria for membership. This along with the $2000 annual fee hit the industry  like a bomb shell. Several more large studios rushed to join including Ardent in  Memphis, Automat in San Francisco, The Hit Factory in New York, Masterphonics in  Nashville, and Universal in Chicago bringing the total membership to 23 by the  August 11 meeting, but across the country the reaction of the rank and file  middle and smaller studios ranged from anger to indifference. Many found the  'two 24-track' rule an arbitrary standard by which to judge professionalism. Few  commented on the $2000 fee, but, if the truth were known, that was probably what  separated the players from the non-players.

On August 11, the Interim Board of Directors, as the Executive Committee was  now being called, met at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in L.A. In an eight hour  meeting they approved the interim By-Laws, revised the two 24-track stipulation  down to one 24-track, redefined the four regions, and set the date for the  general membership meeting at the New York AES (Thursday, November 1, 1979).  There was also discussion of SPARS seminars to be held during the New York AES,  and a seminar committee was appointed.

By the week of the New York AES Show the membership had grown to 32. Several  weeks prior to the convention each member received an impressive 'Itinerary for  the First National SPARS Convention.' Beneath the new SPARS logo there appeared,  for the first time, the SPARS slogan, 'Dedicated to Excellence Through  Innovation - Education - Communication.' This was the brain child of Joe Tarsia,  and in later years he would say that, of all the things he did that first year,  the creation of that slogan was the one accomplishment of which he was most  proud. The invitation expounded on an impressive list of events at New York's  famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel including the Wednesday Board of Directors meeting,  the Thursday General Membership meeting, and several weekend 'symposiums.'

The first General Membership Meeting was held the next morning in the Barron  North Suite of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. After Tarsia's opening address and a  review of the By-Laws, there was a politically charged discussion of the  qualifications for membership, especially the one 24-track rule.

The meeting continued with the election of officers. Joe Tarsia was  unanimously elected first President and Dave Teg Secretary/Treasurer. The  Regional Vice Presidents were all also elected by acclamation: Chris Stone, Bob  Lifton, Mac Merman, and Murray Allen (Universal Recording/Chicago). Several  committees were organized: technical, membership, business, newsletter,  education, finance, seminars, and credit procedures.

Riding the wave of success of the first 'convention,' SPARS chapters met in  New York and in L.A. In early 1980, the New York group would begin the annual  luncheon meetings first held at the Chinese Pavilion and later that year at  Gallagers Restaurant where SPARS has gathered ever since. The details of these  meetings and other SPARS news were disseminated to the membership in DATATRACK,  the organization's newsletter which was appearing as often as weekly in the  early days.

All in all it had been a tour de force. Tarsia and the founders had outdone  themselves the first time out of the gate, and much of the industry was  impressed, but what about the rank and file? At best the jury was still out. At  worst SPARS was seen as an 'elitist drinking club.' Perhaps they were elitist.  Certainly there was little love lost between most of the SPARS founders and a  good stiff drink or two, but with the first general membership meeting and the  following two-day 'Symposium,' SPARS had arrived in style and was obviously on  the scene to stay.

This was all pretty heady stuff, but the new year would bring with ita  sobering dose of reality for SPARS. The first hint of this foul tasting medicine  surfaced at the Waldorf Asteria meeting in the Treasure's report. The expenses  for the operation of the organization to date were in excess of $40,000, mostly  from costs incurred as part of the New York Convention. Bills from that affair  were still trickling in. Revenues to date were $64,000 from 32 members. But the  board, which had been targeting and hand picking prospective members, had only  five more prospects on the line and, after the initial rush to join by many of  the nation's top studios, the growth of SPARS was suddenly alarmingly slow.

It is important to note here that these men were dedicated to making spars  work, even if it had to come from their own pockets, and to be sure some of it  did. For the most part they had traveled and met and dined and drank with their  own money. It has been confirmed by several of the early SPARS leaders that the  presidency of SPARS in those days personally cost the president or the  president's studio about $10,000. Few Board member expense reports had come to  SPARS, and in Nashville the entire Board of Directors individually pledged to  waive reimbursement for expenses incurred on SPARS business. This is a  tradition, which remains even today.

Despite these problems, Tarsia and the new Board remained undaunted. They  planned and executed another world class event dubbed The Second National  Convention to take place at the Biltmore Hotel in L.A. during the Spring AES  show (back in those days there were two AES Shows each year). It began with the  usual Board of Directors Meeting, and an all day General Membership Meeting in  which the membership controversy raged full force in heated discussion. All of  this was followed by two days of symposiums covering a wide array of technical  and business topics the center piece of which was 'Recording Studio Design and  Acoustics' featuring George Augspurger, Jeff Cooper, Tom Hidley, and John  Storyk. Over two hundred people attended the symposiums and enthusiastically  inhaled the wisdom of panelists like Bob Liften, Phil Ramone and Wally Heider.  For SPARS members the most memorableevent of the Spring AES Show was the  incredible 'Cinco de Mayo' celebration at the home of SPARS V.P. Chris Stone  (The Record Plant).

But after this grand bash, it was time to take a sober look in the mirror.  The organization's first complete financial statement showed $83,000 in expenses  against revenues of $72,000. There were few new members on the horizon, but the  SPARS public position on membership remained unchanged. Despite this seemingly  inflexible public stance, the newly elected Mid-America Regional Vice President,  Murray Allen (Universal Studios/Chicago), was anything but set on keeping the  status quo. Later that year in Chicago, the Board would meet to further discuss  new solutions. But it was in a private meeting at the SPARS headquarters in  Philadelphia that Joe Tarsia, Murray Allen, and Chris Stone made the first move  to open up SPARS. Interestingly enough, this meeting did not deal with the rank  and file but with yet another category of members, the manufacturers.

In the beginning, it was felt that the inclusion of the manufacturers as  SPARS members in any category would diminish the organization's ability to  influence this group. It was Murray Allen who first pointed out that this had  the odor of an adversarial relationship. Stone and the others were quick to see  his point. If the manufacturers were included in a specific, non-voting  category, perhaps they would feel more a part of the process, perhaps the lines  of communication would be shorter and more cordial, and last, but far from  least, SPARS would have their desperately needed financial support. A few of the  larger manufacturers were contacted, and each expressed enthusiasm for the idea.  By the General Membership Meeting that Fall there were several manufactures  ready to come on board. Ampex and MCI were the first to join, followed by 3M,  Neve, Otari, and SSL.

The wisdom of this move has been demonstrated again and again. SPARS now had  a more direct, convivial and formal conduit to the manufacturers. This would  allow for the establishment of the manufacturer Interface Program, and would  facilitate broader, more personal relationships among individual SPARS members  and the sales and technical representatives of major manufacturers of audio  recording equipment worldwide.

Still, the new Board was not finished sweeping aside the barricades. On  October 30th, 1980, the General membership of SPARS voted to enact broad changes  to the By-Laws. These changes incorporated a multi-leveled membership structure  similar to the present [pre-'01] SPARS membership structure: Regular Membership  ($1000 per year), Affiliate Membership ($500 per year), Advisory Associate  Membership (Manufacturer, $2500 per year), Associate Membership ($250 per year).  Here was a sudden, but not surprising, reversal of position: a two-class voting  and studio structure, manufacturers were in as non-voting members, and most  surprisingly so was almost everyone else.

It is certainly safe to say that much of this was financially driven. The  Board was just beginning to get a general idea of what it cost to run a trade  organization and what the cost of the kind of the quality programs they demanded  would be. It is also likely that many of the Board Members were beginning to get  some inkling of what the true potential for SPARS was. Perhaps they were  beginning to envision a SPARS that was not only financially empowered, but also  politically diverse: a more accurate mirror for the industry of the future.

Murray Allen (Universal Recording/Chicago) was elected to succeed Tarsia as  President, and by the end of his term in the Fall of 1981 the ground work would  be laid for the even more sweeping 1982 By-Law revisions, including the $365 per  year Regular Membership Category for the medium and small studios. Membership  qualification continued to dominate SPARS politics well into the 1990's as the  organization worked to accommodate a rapidly diversifying industry. Still, the  dialogues that characterized the membership issues of the 90's would be mild and  measured indeed compared the emotional exchanges of the early-80's, and the  wounds from that initial controversy would be slow to heal.

In the meantime, SPARS continued to stage high quality, topical programs for  the entire industry. The October, 1980, meeting was followed by SPARS Audio  Conference III, which was open to all, and included seminars on studio  marketing, down-time management, and engineering practices. In January of 1981,  despite continuing financial problems, the SPARS Board voted to stage the  organization's first independent event, SPARS Audio Conference IV, 'Partners for  Profit and Progress.' The date was set for August, and Nashville was chosen as  the site. Heretofore all SPARS seminars, conferences and panels had been held  during AES. The success of these had been undeniable, but the SPARS leaders were  soon to find that an independent event was more to manage than it appeared on  the surface. It was hoped that the lure of a SPARS 'stand alone' extravaganza  would boost awareness, membership and cement the organization's position as a  viable forum for industry issues, but advance bookings were slow to come, the  hotels were demanding huge deposits and guarantees, and SPARS was essentially  broke. By the May Board of Directors meeting, the sad handwriting was on the  wall, and after consulting the Advisory Members who had agreed to participate  and help finance the event, President Murray Allen announced the cancellation of  the Nashville Conference.

It was decided that if the industry would not come to SPARS, that SPARS would  go to the industry, so in the same announcement Allan announced the First SPARS  Road Show, to be held first in Nashville, then in New York, L.A. and last in  Dallas. This was billed, as 'a nitty gritty look into the true state of the  industry today.'

Despite the success of most SPARS programs, the organization was still facing  serious financial problems. In early 1981, Nick Colleran (Alpha Audio/Richmond)  had been appointed Comptroller. In addition to owning and operating recording  studios, Nick was a CPA. He quickly put the books in order, and the dire reality  of the financial situation became apparent. By mid-1982 SPARS could boast only  42 Regular Members, 6 Affiliate Members, 10 Advisory Members, and 30 Associate  Members. The organization was more than $10,000 in `debt and without a capable  Executive Director. Additionally, there was growing uneasiness among some of the  Manufacturer Advisory Members as to the direction of the organization.

Indeed, the direction of the organization was a problem. The fact was that in  those days, there were about as many visions of the SPARS direction as there  were Board members to envision them. At one end of the spectrum were those like  Chris Stone who was elected as the third president of SPARS in October of 1981.  Stone saw the organization as a powerful leader, and setter of standards for the  manufacture and use of equipment, as well as for business practices. He  envisioned an on-high, benevolent overseer of the audio recording world, whose  job it was to guide, and educate and coordinate all within the industry. At the  other end of the spectrum were those like Mack Emerman and perhaps even Joe  Tarsia who saw the SPARS experience as more personal. This group saw a more  modest organization, which would become a forum for ideas and for networking. In  the middle were those like Bob Lifton who saw SPARS's role as essentially  technical, or Nick Colleran who saw the possibilities for SPARS as a beacon for  the business side of the industry. In any case matching any of these dreams with  the SPARS checkbook was no small feat.

With Chris Stones's election to the presidency in late 1981, the SPARS office  was moved from Philadelphia to L.A. and shortly thereafter the then-acting SPARS  Executive Director, Ms. Bart DiGrazia, was replaced by a young graduate student  from UCLA, Gary Helmers. The appointment of Gary Helmers was a key to the  future, for he was to gently lead SPARS for the next five years through its  formative period. In truth, Gary was more of the Chris Stone school in his  vision of the organization's destiny, still he had at least a loose grasp of the  financial situation, and he was able to temper the Board's grand vision with a  degree of fiscal responsibility.

The history of this period was one of slow steady growth in membership, and  continuing financial woes. The public perception of SPARS was always one of  excellence - perhaps tempered with a little arrogance, for there were those who  recalled the elitist image of the early days. Still, SPARS continued to put on  quality programs through the presidencies of Mack Emerman (Criteria/Miami),  Jerry Barnes (United Western/L.A.), Bob Liftin (Regent Sound/NY), and Len  Pearlman (Editel/Chicago). During this period the groundwork was laid for many  on-going SPARS programs: manufacturer interfaces, internship programs, testing  program, business conferences, the SPARS digital code, and the database program.  The diversity and perhaps inconsistency of the SPARS dream was evident in this  array of programs some of which continue today and some of which have proved  either too expensive or too unwieldy to manage over the years.

The largest and most ambitious of these programs was the SPARS National  Studio Exam. In the early 1980's, the educational horizon for prospective  recording engineers was confused and bleak. There were few college and technical  school programs available to prospective engineers, and the usual road to this  career was via a series of internships and apprenticeships unevenly and often  unfairly run by some studios. Accordingly, there was at that time a great need  for studios to evaluate prospective employees and for prospective engineers and  mixers to assess their own knowledge.

In 1984, with the help of a $50,000 grant from Sony, SPARS hired the  Educational Testing Service to oversee the preparation, verification, and  security of the SPARS National Studio Exam. Over its six-year life the test was  taken by hundreds of students and professionals alike. By 1989 when the Board of  Directors began to look into updating and reworking the exam, the educational  landscape had changed dramatically, and the cost to update the test was out of  reach. The Exam was discontinued in 1990, only to reappear in updated form in  1996.

Another early SPARS program was the SPARS code. This was the brainchild of  Chris Stone and others, and it was designed for use with CD releases to  delineate exactly which parts of the recording process were digital and which  were analog. This program consisted of a series of guidelines set down by SPARS  and given to CD manufacturers so that they might mark their product honestly and  precisely. This program flourished until the early 1990's. But by that time, the  digital/analog technical scene had become so cluttered with conversions and  algorithms for interface as to resemble rocket science, and many felt the SPARS  code too simple to carry enough information to be meaningful. SPARS withdrew  endorsement of the code in 1991. But many labels continued to use it, and the  organization renewed its endorsement of the code in 1995.

A third ambitious project was the SPARS Database program, funded by a grant  from 3M. An effort was made to collect financial and technical information about  studios from coast to coast and to organize it into a database, which could be  maintained and updated over the years. After a few years, costs began to prove  unmanageable and a growing industry press, many of whom were beginning to  publish annual studio directories of their own had access to more timely and  more comprehensive figures, so the SPARS database ended almost before it  began.

As early as 1981, the SPARS Board became interested in establishing a formal  internship program. SPARS had been placing student interns in member facilities  from an early date, but problems had arisen. Designing and executing a  consistent program to fit the myriad needs of prospective interns and the  diverse practices of the individual studios had proved difficult. The various  studio members had wildly divergent ideas when it came to what an intern should  be, do, and receive in return. Even the length of an internship was open for  debate. Later on, as more colleges and universities began to offer formal  commercial recording degrees, the situation became even more complex. It seemed  that each institution had different requirements and expectations regarding  internship. As a result, SPARS continued its rather ad hoc approach to its  internship program, becoming a kind of clearinghouse to match the needs of  member studios with the availability and inclinations of individual interns, and  to put studio owners in touch with educators who had students ready for  internship. Despite efforts to formalize the program including Gary Helmers'  three level scheme that was presented to the Board of Directors in 1984, the  landscape proved too diverse to accommodate any strict form.

In 1983, SPARS began a program, which many would view as the personification  of the organization's purpose. The Manufacturer Interface Program began soon  after the manufacturers were offered membership status. The idea was to create a  forum, a two way street, for the flow of information, ideas, and industry  attitudes and mindsets. A manufacturer could schedule an interface, and  effectively spend a weekend with studio owners and operators from across the  country. On one hand, SPARS members could have direct access to manufacturers to  discuss new product development, service and pricing. On the other hand,  manufacturers could assess the market place in a very specific and personal way.  Early interfaces included 3M, Otari, Lexicon, SSL, Harrison, New England  Digital, Sony, Studer, Dolby and others. Many SPARS studio members who  participated in these meetings reported that they felt they had gotten more out  of the exchange than the manufacturers. Still, the informational value of buyer  perspectives and insights proved rewarding to manufacturers as well, not to  mention the sales opportunities.

The early 1980's saw the beginning of DATATRACK, the organization's printed  newsletter. At about the same time, the SPARS Hot Line or DATALINE was developed  to act as a clearing house for industry questions on almost any subject. All the  while, the monthly meetings in New York continued under the newly hired  Northeast Coordinator, David Teg. These manufacturer-sponsored meetings at  Gallager's Restaurant have become a New York institution and a model for SPARS  chapters nationwide. Elsewhere across the country, SPARS's efforts to establish  local chapters had been less successful. The L.A. group had originally been an  active chapter. But although a number of Los Angeles studios continued to  support SPARS as a national organization, the local group soon lost momentum and  disappeared. In Nashville, early efforts to form a SPARS charter there had come  to nothing.

Perhaps the most successful of the early SPARS programs were the seminars,  workshops, and conferences that the organization sponsored and the white papers  and tapes with often followed these events. Notable among these gatherings were  the Business Conferences held in Minnesota at 3M (1985); the Digital Conference  held at the University of Miami (1984); a series of teleconferences linking  participants in New York, L. A., Miami, Nashville, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and  other recording Meccas (1983); and Business Conferences held in Anaheim (1984)  and later in L. A. at UCLA (1986). These events were at the heart of the SPARS  ideal. They were small, informal, open forums specifically targeted as to  content, and brimming with information, controversy, opinion and insight.

Still, throughout the first half of the 80's, SPARS growth remained slow and  financial problems continued to plague the new organization. By 1985 membership  had passed the 100 mark, with 81 studio members, 14 manufacturers, and 41  associate members. The operating deficit had grown to nearly $20,000 by this  time with the year-end 1984 reporting a $14,000 loss on the heels of the festive  fifth anniversary celebration at Studio 54 in New York.

In 1986, shortly after his election to the SPARS presidency, Len Pearlman  announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer and resigned. Nick Colleran,  the then First Vice President, assumed the presidency, and thus began a new  generation of SPARS leadership. As the once beleaguered comptroller of the  financially over-extended organization, Nick had had enough of spending, and  under his presidency SPARS began to tighten its belt. Gary Helmers resigned to  pursue another career and Shirley Kaye, a former SPARS studio owner and veteran  SPARS Board member, took the Executive Director's position in 1987. The national  office was moved from L. A. to the Miami area where Shirley lived. Expenses were  trimmed and membership efforts were redoubled.

Colleran and his successor to the presidency, Guy Costa (Motown- Hitsville/L.  A.), were transitional. Although they had been with SPARS almost from the  beginning, they were not typical of the founders. Tarsia, Allen, Stone and their  followers had been giants in their day, men not only at the top of the recording  business, but men heavily involved in what was then called, for lack of a better  name, 'the record business.' Colleran had aspirations in 'the record business,'  but his roots penetrated a broad spectrum of recording endeavors including audio  for advertising and commerce. Costa was a 'record business' man all the way, but  he worked for a large corporation, and accordingly his vision of SPARS and the  recording industry was tempered with a careful institutional pragmatism.

Likewise, the SPARS presidents who followed Costa, Bruce Merley (1988-89,  Clinton Recorders/NY), David Porter (1989-90, Music Annex/San Francisco), Pete  Caldwell (1990-91, Doppler Studios/ Atlanta), Dick Trump (1991-92, Triad  Productions/Des Moines) and Dwight Cook (1992-93, Cook Sound & Picture  Works/Houston) were all men of practical vision. They saw the recording industry  of the 90's as a dynamic new place indeed, and they wanted to run SPARS like  they ran their own businesses: prudently, confidently, expertly. Despite their  personal individual successes, none of these men had any grand ideas beyond  practical grasp. In general, some had their personal successes in 'the record  business,' but all were well grounded in a more 'full service' vision of the  audio recording studio including audio for video post production, sound for film  and TV, custom recording, commercial and industrial recording, and advertising.  Here again was a mirror for a quickly diversifying and even fragmenting audio  recording industry and a reflection of the new technologies and mindsets that  would be required to support it. In this spirit of diversity, SPARS changed its  name in 1987 from The Society of Professional Recording Studios to The Society  of Professional Recording Services.

This new recording landscape was baked in the heat of the so-called'home  studio' or 'project studio' controversy. As the industry fragmented, the  technology and expertise, which many of the big studios had so carefully guarded  for so long, was suddenly becoming widely available. Beginning in the 1980's,  many major American colleges and universities had introduced programs to teach  'commercial audio recording.' SPARS itself, with its technical and educational  programs, certainly played a parallel role in the opening up of the recording  business. But as small studios appeared in artist's and producer's homes and ad  hoc operations sprang up on seemingly every street corner, some audio veterans  were beginning to wonder if things hadn't gone too far, too fast. Many pointed  to the fact that serious problems of competition were arising. For example, some  of these so-called 'project studios' had no business license, were in violation  of local zoning ordinances and many operated in a naive vacuum ignoring  conventional industry technical practices and even simple business ethics. Were  these studios to be a part of SPARS? While many long-time audio professionals  became incensed and controversy raged, SPARS presidents Merley, Porter and  Caldwell stood by a view of a SPARS which would include all legal operations  regardless of size, endeavor, or location. These men were opposed to any vision  of SPARS as an industry policeman, and they rejected any mechanism through which  the organization might presume to autocratically set and then attempt to enforce  industry standards. The fact was that this kind of dialogue was not new to  SPARS, for many of the organization's original founders had envisioned exactly  that.

Additionally Merley, Porter and Caldwell believed that SPARS was trying to do  too much, and that the quality of some programs was suffering along with the  SPARS bank account. In 1989, just before the organization celebrated its tenth  anniversary with a memorable and extravagant New York Harbor dinner cruise, it  was resolved that SPARS would focus on a few meaningful programs and attempt to  do them with precision and style. This eventually led to the demise of the  original SPARS Test, DATALINE and other programs. Later, this strategy bore more  contemporary fruit. Business conferences were reorganized, and held first at NYU  and later at UCLA. DATATRACK was revived, and the internship program was  revitalized with the help of a strong group of Educational Associate Members  from major colleges and universities all over the country. In fact in 1992,  SPARS won a grant from the TEC Awards to help support its intern programs.  Through all of this Shirley Kaye proved both gifted diplomat and frugal  pragmatist in her executions and insightful interpretations of the new Board's  policies.

Perhaps the most visible and influential new SPARS program of this era was  the annual SPARS Digital Workstation Conference, with its timely, focused, and  specialized analysis of disk based and non-linear recording technology. The  first of these events was held in Chicago in 1989. Increasingly elaborate  conferences followed in Nashville (1990), Orlando (1991), LA (1992) and New York  (1993). The appearance of computer based products capable of flexible, high  quality, digital recording, sound editing and other diverse manipulations had  presented an enormous challenge for studio operators of the late 1980's. Thus,  the SPARS Digital Workstation Conferences were designed to clear up complex  issues surrounding the quality, interface and application of this revolutionary  new technology. Sessions were divided into two parts. The first day was devoted  to extensive 'head to head' demonstrations of the different products and the  second day to 'hands on' personal demonstrations.

Just as the digital workstation was redefining the recording industry, SPARS  had been busy redefining itself. All through the early 1990's ongoing efforts  had continued to establish more local chapters built on the model of the  successful New York chapter, progress in this area had been slow. L.A. seemed  just to spread out both physically and philosophically, and Nashville remained a  maverick town. Nonetheless, this period did see some success in this area as  both Montreal and Toronto established acting local groups.

In 1993, Howard Schwartz was elected to the SPARS presidency. If anyone  represented a truly a transitional figure, it was Howard. He was the last of the  organization's original founders to be elected president, and yet in many ways  he reflected the new industry more than the old. Although Howard Schwartz had  his roots in the 'record business' and operated a large studio complex, his  professional success in New York had come largely in the area of audio for video  post-production. Like the founders, he dreamed big dreams, but like the new  breed of studio owners, he is also a pragmatist. One of Howard's first jobs as  SPARS president would be to plan and preside over the organization's 15th  anniversary celebration.

To honor the fact that SPARS was founded on a boat and to follow the  tradition of the 1989 10th anniversary trip on New York Harbor, the  organization's 15th anniversary was also celebrated 'at sea.' Out in San  Francisco Bay on a beautiful October night in 1994, few of the revelers were  reflecting on the staggering changes that the industry had witnessed over the  organization's short 15-year life. Still, the fact remained that, owing to a  growing diversity of endeavor and a new generation of digital tools and  techniques, the audio recording scene in America had been forever changed. Its  landscape was no longer the domain of giants alone, and the terrain was quickly  becoming quite varied. Many of the inhabitants of this new land were unlike  anything out of the past. The history of SPARS in the five years following that  memorable boat trip was indeed a clear reflection of the profound changes that  our industry had undergone. We can see it clearly in an increasingly diverse  membership, in dramatic changes in the composition of the Board of Directors, in  the varied nature of many new SPARS programs, committees and events, and even in  the careers of the SPARS presidents of the late 1990's.

Steve Lawson (Bad Animals/Seattle) succeeded Howard Schwartz as the 1994-1995  SPARS president, and although at the time of his election, Lawson operated one  of the premier music studios in the Northwest, his career had been spawned in  voice-over and in advertising. In fact, Lawson's Seattle core business grew out  of a diverse array of audio services designed to accommodate an increasingly  sophisticated and diverse marketplace. Likewise, 1995-1996 SPARS president John  Fry's Ardent Recording in Memphis was defined by a broad spectrum of audio and  video services even though it included one of the city's most successful and  most celebrated music recording facilities. Tom Kobayashi followed Fry, and  Tom's career is perhaps the best example of the changing face of the audio  industry. When Tom first joined SPARS in the early 80's, he managed the vast  audio facilities at George Lucas' famous Skywalker Ranch in California. By the  time he became SPARS president in 1996, he had supervised the construction of  Lucas' extensive audio complex in L.A and then branched out on his own to form  EDNet (Entertainment Digital Network), a pioneer in the transfer of digital  audio worldwide. New Yorker Lee Murphy was next. Murphy's well-known boutique,  Briggs Bakery, had a long history of creating sound for a select list of  television clients. But by the time of his election to the SPARS presidency in  1997, Murphy's award winning facility was typical of a fragmenting audio  industry, which was suddenly overflowing with talented specialists. The 1998  SPARS president, Paul Christensen, followed in the same diverse mould.  Christensen's career had evolved out of live concert recording. Like the rest of  this industry, his endeavors had their roots in the recording of music concerts,  but concert venues have since become well known for its wildly varied  spectacles.

Likewise, the composition of the modern Boards of Director also reflected  sweeping changes in the industry. In the early days, the first Boards had been  filled primarily with owners and operators of large studios, mostly in New York,  L. A. and Chicago. In the 1990's, a comprehensive geographical cross-section  characterized the SPARS Board. A close look at this group reveals members from  Montreal to Houston, from Seattle to Miami. To be sure, New York, Chicago and  Los Angeles were still well represented, but in between, virtually all of the  secondary markets were included as well: Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, Seattle,  Miami, Tampa, Houston, San Francisco, Montreal, Philadelphia, Detroit, even  Richmond and Des Moines. Similarly, the diversity of professional endeavor  represented by the SPARS Boards of the 90's reflected the detailed  specialization that was appearing in the audio industry. Where early Boards were  composed of the industry giants and 'golden ears,' who worked primarily in  'record business,' modern Boards contained small studio owners, post production  pros, duplicators, concert sound specialists, even 'sound designers,' a term  that did not even exist when SPARS was born.

Just as the diversity of the SPARS Board of Directors began to reflect an  increasingly diverse industry, the variety of late 90's programs also mirrored  the industry's complex needs. Certainly the most visible of these programs were  the SPARS BizTech Conferences. By the mid-90's, most audio professionals had  begun to come to grips with workstation technology. Most studios had made their  initial investment, conventions for use and interface were beginning to  solidify, and the vast array of professional products was at last settling into  definable categories regarding issues like quality, speed, and flexibility.  Thus, it was decided that the annual SPARS Digital Workstation Conference would  be replaced by an annual 'Biz Tech' Conference. This concept called for nothing  less than broad band, comprehensive programs to address the on-going problem of  continuing education for audio professions. The first of these conferences was  held in North Hollywood in 1996. It was followed by BizTech '97 in New York,  BizTech '98 in Nashville and BizTech '99 in Chicago. Topics at the two-day  seminars embraced myriad industry topics ranging all the way from marketing to  digital file transfer.

Meanwhile SPARS made its appearance on the worldwide web. The SPARS home page  went 'live' in 1995, and by 1999 the organization's web site had become a  comprehensive clearing house and jumping off place for scores of professional  audio issues. With the success of the SPARS web site, DATATRACK, the  organization's newsletter, was discontinued in favor of a more direct, concise  and frequent publication called DATAFAX.

But these high-visibility programs were not the only agenda that SPARS  entertained as the 90's evolved. By the early part of the decade, the 'SPARS  Educational Associate Members Group' had grown to include representatives from  almost every major U. S. college and university offering serious professional  audio curriculum. Inspired by this increasingly zealous and vocal presence,  SPARS sought to create a point of liaison between these educators, their  students and the real world of professional audio. Two major efforts ensued.  Each was designed to aid these schools and the swarms of audio engineering and  commercial recording graduates that were flooding industry job markets in the  early 90's. The first of these was an inventive white paper and database begun  in 1992 by SPARS past-president David Porter (Music Annex/San Francisco). Porter  first worked to create a comprehensive index of job descriptions employed by  SPARS member studios. He then attempted to plug into this index a list of  skills, techniques and core-knowledge that prospective applicants would be  expected to possess in order to be seriously considered for each of these jobs.  The end result was a white paper, which proved an invaluable tool in designing  pro audio curriculum. SPARS then approached the problem of the quantifying the  quality of this curriculum. Again with David Porter at the helm, the SPARS Test  was brought out of mothballs, updated and revitalized. In late 1996, the new  test was released for evaluation, and the SPARS Test was back in use by early  1997.

The diversity of other SPARS programs in the 1990's was even more impressive.  Purely technical matters were addressed as well as business related issues. On  the business side, the SPARS Guide to Audio Industry Professional Practices was  first published in 1993. This handy booklet was based on a similar publication  of The International Telecommunications Society (ITS) and on a survey of SPARS  member facilities. It included suggested guidelines for a broad spectrum of  business issues ranging from cancellation policies and debt collection to sales  tax issues and the ownership of master recordings. On the technical side, The  SPARS Time Code Primer was published in 1995 and has become a vital reference  tool for students and industry professionals alike. The model for The SPARS Time  Code Primer came in the form of a pamphlet, originally published in French, by  members in Montreal. This was later translated into English and then expanded by  SPARS Director, Steve Davis (Crawford Communication/Atlanta) to create a  comprehensive technical manual. The final product went a long way toward  unraveling and explaining the mysteries surrounding the ubiquitous SMPTE/EBU  time code and its myriad applications. Such an extensive document was long  overdue in the audio and video industries, and it took SPARS to provide this  much-needed overview.

Despite all of its diverse leadership and varied programmatic accomplishments  in the last five years of the 20th century, the true test of SPARS as a mirror  of the audio industry at the beginning of the 21st century is the diversity of  its membership. When the organization began, there was only one kind of member,  a 'Sustaining Member,' operators of large studios. But as the organization  progressed, the leadership soon realized the need to include smaller studios,  and the 'Regular Member' classification was added. At about this same time  manufacturers were included as non-voting 'Advisory Members', and another  non-voting class of 'Associate Members' was soon included to accommodate  individuals. This was followed by the creation of a second class of Advisory  Members to accommodate the increasing number of small manufacturers who were  beginning to populate the recording landscape of the late 80's. In 1995, a new  class called 'Individual Members' was created to open the organization to a  growing number of audio professionals providing industry services but not neatly  fitting into any existing membership category.

Throughout the late 1990's SPARS continued efforts to organize active local  chapters. Progress was slow. In this period efforts centered on establishing  local groups in L. A., Nashville, Minneapolis and Miami. At this writing, these  efforts continue, and a number of local meetings have been held in these cities.  Still, ongoing stable local chapter organizations have yet to fully emerge from  these meetings.

SPARS began in 1979 with 32 members. In 1989, when the SPARS 10th Anniversary  cruise boat left the wharf in New York, the organization had 138 members (17  Advisory Manufacturing, 72 Sustaining and Regular Studio members and 49  Associate members). On September 25, 1999, as the SPARS 20th Anniversary cruise  boat leaves the wharf in San Francisco, about 250 members will be on board,  including 132 Sustaining or Regular studio members, nearly double the 1989  total. Most importantly a cross-section of the 1999 SPARS membership reveals a  constituency every bit as diverse as professional audio itself, a true mirror  for the recording industry on the eve of the millennium.

The challenges for the future are many. Most the building blocks needed to  realize the original founders dreams are today in place, but financial problems  still plague this small and highly focused organization. This is nothing new.  SPARS does not exist to make money. It exists to serve the industry, and the  organization has always found ways to do just that.

Toward the end of its twenty-year history SPARS withstood serious challenges  driven in part by ongoing controversy over the direction of the organization.  The SPARS Board for a time seriously considered folding the organization into a  larger and more financially successful group like The Audio Engineering Society  (AES) or The International Telecommunication Society (ITS). Serious talks ensued  especially with ITS. But many feared a loss of identity and/or control. After  some gut-wrenching reflection, it was decided to continue the organization's  historically independent course. The truth was that, despite its growth and  success, SPARS was still a maverick, and its members still represented a  maverick breed of professionals no matter how sophisticated and diverse they had  become. The professional audio industry requires a special kind of trade  organization, one that is lean and agile enough to respond to blinding  change.

The history of SPARS is particularly unusual because, in many ways, the  organization was built from the top down. In the 70's giants dominated the  recording industry. These sometimes larger than life characters put together an  organization, which reflected their recording world. Despite the fact that the  industry was changing beneath their feet, their dreams for a SPARS that would  serve studio members as an advocate, a teacher, a mentor, and a forum of the  exchange of ideas and information have remained inspiring. Still, in an industry  that was just beginning to discover its own 'grassroots,' it took a second  generation of leadership to look into the mirror and build a firm foundation  from which to launch the lofty dreams of the founders. And it will take a third  generation of leaders to begin to fully realize those dreams.

SPARS is a small organization, and even if it were to double in size in the  next five years (an ambitious but reachable goal), it would still be small. This  is what the founders wanted: a lean, flexible body, responsive to changes in the  industry; responsive to its own membership; and dedicated to excellence through  innovation, education and communication. SPARS is poised in the exact right  place in history with exactly the right tools and skills to become something  even more forceful - something very useful indeed to every single member. SPARS  can be just about anything it wants to be. The realization of this dream will  require only two things of those of us in the audio recording industry:  membership and participation. If you are not a member, join. If you are member  participate.

Back to the top