2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

Ep. 84 Fuzzy Swing (RCA Records, CEMA/EMD Distribution Regional Manager)

March 19, 2024 Bob Zimmerman Episode 84
Ep. 84 Fuzzy Swing (RCA Records, CEMA/EMD Distribution Regional Manager)
2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records
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2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records
Ep. 84 Fuzzy Swing (RCA Records, CEMA/EMD Distribution Regional Manager)
Mar 19, 2024 Episode 84
Bob Zimmerman

Fuzzy Swing never worked for Tower Records, but he worked at Tower Records in San Francisco as an inventory rep and sales associate on behalf of RCA. In addition to Tower, he had several mom & pop independent stores in the Bay Area. In later years Fuzzy was promoted to sales covering the Sacramento area stores Tower Broadway, Tower Citrus Heights, Tower K Street, Tower Stockton, Tower Chico, and Tower Fresno as well as calling on Tower International and working with the team at Corporate. 


Fuzzy eventually moved over to CEMA, later EMD holding the position of Regional Director where he came into contact with many more Tower stores nationally. Not bad for a guy who started his retail career in North Carolina in 1970, working for several indie record stores, focusing as a singles buyer, and managing the rock and roll band Frog Level. 


On this week’s episode, Fuzzy walks us through all of this and more. We talk about his visits to Tower Annual Conferences, the annual Halloween parties CEMA threw at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, Fuzzy’s interactions with Russ Solomon and his famous nephew Adam Lambert of American Idol and Queen fame. And as we mentioned at the top, though Fuzzy never worked at Tower, he ended up marrying Tower...he'll explain it all to you in this episode. 

Show Notes

Fuzzy Swing never worked for Tower Records, but he worked at Tower Records in San Francisco as an inventory rep and sales associate on behalf of RCA. In addition to Tower, he had several mom & pop independent stores in the Bay Area. In later years Fuzzy was promoted to sales covering the Sacramento area stores Tower Broadway, Tower Citrus Heights, Tower K Street, Tower Stockton, Tower Chico, and Tower Fresno as well as calling on Tower International and working with the team at Corporate. 


Fuzzy eventually moved over to CEMA, later EMD holding the position of Regional Director where he came into contact with many more Tower stores nationally. Not bad for a guy who started his retail career in North Carolina in 1970, working for several indie record stores, focusing as a singles buyer, and managing the rock and roll band Frog Level. 


On this week’s episode, Fuzzy walks us through all of this and more. We talk about his visits to Tower Annual Conferences, the annual Halloween parties CEMA threw at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, Fuzzy’s interactions with Russ Solomon and his famous nephew Adam Lambert of American Idol and Queen fame. And as we mentioned at the top, though Fuzzy never worked at Tower, he ended up marrying Tower...he'll explain it all to you in this episode.