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Before he started working for Tower Records Watt Avenue in 1975, today’s guest Mike Farrace had already run a Sacramento music magazine called “Rock & Roll News”. Following three years working at Tower Records Watt Avenue under Store Manager Mike Koontz, Farrace started working for Tower Advertising.

Mike tells us all about his time as Northwest Advertising Ad Manager, chasing down labels and blank tape companies for advertising dollars. Yet the whole time he was in Advertising, Farrace was thinking about starting up a Music Magazine that would be a Tower in house exclusive. Spending a year submitting proposals to John Schairer, he was finally told by Carla Henson “Mike, he’s just throwing those [proposals] in the trash.”

Next, Mike Farrace went straight to Russ Solomon and within 20 minutes at lunch, they were plotting out what would eventually become PULSE! Magazine, an independent publication that reflected Tower Records, its customers and the music it sold in the best possible way. The first 3 issues were put together by Farrace himself and over the course of 222 issues it eventually built up an impressive in house staff.

When PULSE! started it was the old fashioned paste up method of putting a magazine together. It wasn’t for several years until PULSE! got into computer graphics typesetting/publishing. But that simple, convenient move got Mike Farrace thinking and reading about a digital future. This led to Tower having its first database store online which led to Tower selling music on the internet.

Mike also tells us about the only time an artist got pissed at PULSE!, and how it was all Mike’s fault. Later in our discussion Mike recalls seeing the end coming for Tower and how things ended for PULSE! and himself in 2002.

Ep. 29 Mike Farrace (PULSE! Magazine) 01:03:19 Share

2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

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Ep. 29 Mike Farrace (PULSE! Magazine)