Vinyl Snob

In our 11th episode, Dave digs deep into the macabre, interviewing Jason Leach of Andvinyly, a company that will take ashes from your dearly departed and press them into vinyl records. It gives a whole new meaning to “deep cuts”. We also hit three Bay Area stores on Record Store Day 2019, coming back with some great interviews and a few records of course. And in our indie record store segment, we travel to Red Devil Records in San ... Read more

We are happy to celebrate our 10th episode by celebrating women in vinyl and their perspective and experiences. Producer Dana Berry sits down with three San Francisco Bay Area women who not only are avid vinyl collectors but own or have owned record stores - Tracy Parker of VAMP Art and Music, Hannah Lew of Contact Records and Windy Chien of Aquarius Records. Host Dave Whitaker follows up with episode 9 guest Mike LaVella, who shor... Read more

In episode 9 we continue our Confessions of a Vinyl Addict series. Producer Dana Berry interviews Mike LaVella, a life-long record collector who also worked within the music industry as a writer for Maximum Rock n Roll and Thrasher, published the garage punk/hot rod magazine Gearhead and ran Gearhead Records. Mike now runs a ‘Now Playing’ vinyl spinning night in the Bay Area. Take a journey with Mike as he recounts the plot points ... Read more

In episode 8 of Vinyl Snob, we speak with Paul Rigby, a journalist and hi-fi audio reviewer from the UK who writes for such magazines as Long Live Vinyl. He also maintains a very impressive and comprehensive website. Dave talked with Paul about how he ended up as a writer specializing in music and hi-fi, entry level turntables, what makes one turntable better than the other, how to upgrade a turntable and what it really means to be... Read more

In episode 7, 'Theater of the Buy' we speak with two record store buyers and find out what they look for when they price records for trade or cash. In our first segment we speak with Ken Kubala from Amoeba Records. He is a buyer for both their Berkeley and San Francisco stores. His insight into the “theater of the buy” is gleaned from thirty years in the retail record business. In our second segment, we have Henry Wimmer, t... Read more

In episode 6 we introduce a new segment called "Confessions of a Vinyl Addict". In it we talk with "advanced" vinyl collectors and find out what drives them and why, how and where they hunt and how they ended up as vinyl addicts.  In this first installment, Vinyl Snob producer Dana Berry speaks with Gavin O'Neill, a collector that curates his own specialized selection of albums from a certain era in pristine con... Read more

In episode 5 we finish our conversation with Ron McMaster at Capitol Records. We dig into what mastering really is and Ron talks us through the “you got one shot at it” process of cutting a lacquer. The next step is pressing a record and Vinyl Snob wastes no time in driving from Hollywood to the Valley to speak with Steve Sheldon, the General Manager of Rainbo Records. Steve takes us on a tour of the manufacturing plant, starting w... Read more

In Episode 4, we talk vinyl maintenance and gear. Dave speaks with Bes Nievera Jr, the brand ambassador for Music Direct in Chicago, about how to care for your records and stylus. Then we travel to Boston to speak with Peter Maltzan and Bob Hertig of U-Turn Audio. A modern start-up with an old school mission. U-Turn manufactures high quality turntables for a reasonable price  Episode credits:David Whitaker - Host & ProducerDana... Read more

In our third episode, we journey to three Bay Area used record stores. Vinyl Snob producer Dana Berry chats with Steve Maag of Collins Music in Suisun City, Dave Kloski of Dave's Record Store in Berkeley and Tom O'Shaughnessy of Econo Jam Records in Oakland. Host Dave Whitaker then takes a trip out of his record store comfort zone and visits Not Another Record Swap, a buy, sell and trade gathering held at the Lost and Found... Read more

In this episode we head to Berkeley California on Record Store Day and visit two of the biggest record stores in the Bay Area, Rasputin’s and Amoeba. At Rasputin’s we speak with long time manager Tom Chandler and customers about visiting the local record store instead of buying online. At Amoeba we sit down with manager Dina Ruedel and co-founder Dave Prinz about the culture of the local record store and why they have become popula... Read more

Welcome David Whitaker and Vinyl Snob to the RNRAP family of podcasts! In our first episode we are joined by Vinyl Mastering Engineer Ron McMaster at Capitol Records in Hollywood. We talk with Ron about the days before digital and he takes us through the resurgence of vinyl in recent years. Episode credits:David Whitaker - Host & ProducerDana Berry - Executive ProducerCameron Robbins - Theme MusicRecorded at Post Audio Sacramen... Read more