Ep. 35 Bob Kaufman (Gen Mgr Asian Development & SVP Business Development and International Franchising)
2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records
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Growing up in Encinco CA and regularly shopping the Sherman Oaks Tower Records, Bob Kaufman had a fake i.d. as an underage teenager. It wasn’t to buy beer, but to sneak into the local clubs to see his favorite touring bands play.
Booking concerts at University of California Santa Barbara as well as doing air shifts on the college radio station, Bob knew he had to one day work in the work in the music business. So where did he start out? Where thousands of music and movie legends start; in the mailroom, in his case at Sony Music in Century City.
It was at a music industry networking event that Bob met Stan Goman. Telling him he worked in the music business and spoke Chinese (he was a Chinese language major in school), Goman reportedly barked “Talked to Cahoon!” It was after dinner with Keith Cahoon and an evening of concerts that he was hired to work operations for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Only problem is that when Bob landed in Sacramento, before leaving for Japan, Keith Cahoon forgot to tell anyone at 2500 DelMonte Street. Some blew him off and some greeted him warmly. Nonetheless, Bob Kaufman was a Tower employee.
In this week’s episode, Bob tells us about landing in Japan and immediately being tasked with writing Operations Manuals for the newly franchised Korean operation by observing Jason Munyon and what he did each day. Bob also tells us the story of Jazz clerk Ching from the Singapore store and Russ Solomon bonding…in Sacramento. Bob also recalls a wild encounter with Michael Jackson, his manager and bodyguard that almost led to a brawl, but ultimately led to Bob meeting his wife.
We wind down our talk with Bob, who was in the Conference room when a representative of Deutsche Bank had him removed for vehemently objecting to the terms of the sale of Tower Records Japan to raise capital to pay down the US debt obligations.
He may have started with the company differently than most and worked in parts of the company none of us knew about, but after listening to this episode you’ll see that Bob Kaufman also bled red & yellow.