Upstate Factory's Closing One For Record Books By: Hart Seely Staff Writer She started the job on a Friday, 49 years ago. She found herself pressing the music of Bill Haley and The Comets into a 78 rpm record, and she knew her world would never be the same. "I remember my mother-in-law telling me, 'Never start anything on a Friday,' " Verone Hulbert recalled. " 'If you start something on a Friday, it never ends.' " But the end is near for Universal Music Group's record-pressing plant in Gloversville. Early next month, the plant will close, 112 union workers will lose their jobs, and another icon of the 20th century, the vinyl record, will edge one track closer to extinction. With it will go a record-making legacy that began here in 1953. That year, the Brunswick Radio Corporation of America moved to Gloversville, a city of 15,000 people in the Adirondack foothills that was once famously the "leather capital of the world." In 1962, Brunswick joined Decca Records, whose artists - including Buddy Holly, Marty Robbins and Conway Twitty - pushed country music into the commercial mainstream. Six years later, Decca merged with MCA Records, expanding its lineup. The plant produced for MCA until the 1990s, then settled into a revolving door of corporate owners, ending with French-based Vivendi Universal. In its glory days, more than 600 employees worked around the clock and this was one of the largest record manufacturing plants in the United States. Friday, the machines went idle; by next week, the ranks will be reduced to a handful. "It's a heartbreaker," said Hank C. Zinner, who started here 38 years ago. "It hurts because people are still buying records. It's just that the company we work for right now doesn't want to make them." A Universal spokesman declined to discuss the closing. Peter Lofrumento said Universal will still sell some vinyl records, but they will be manufactured by other companies. "While decisions like these are difficult to make and are not undertaken lightly, they are necessary to meet the many new challenges brought about as the industry continues to rapidly evolve," Lofrumento said. Nationwide, about 20 companies still make vinyl records, catering to small niche markets of deejays, fans of hip-hop, audio purists and nostalgia buffs. The end of vinyl has been prophesized since 1982, when compact discs hit the market. As LPs vanished from retail shelves, aging music lovers disconnected their turntables and sold their record collections in garage sales. In 1983, vinyl records generated $1.7 billion in sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Despite a revival between 1996 and 1999, sales of vinyl LPs last year had fallen to $19 million. The Gloversville plant never made CDs, though it did produce eight-track and cassette tapes, which endured their own rise and fall. Last week, as employees awaited the final production shift, talk shifted from fond memories to anger. Earl "Skip" Van Alstyne, president of Local 348 of the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees, said workers, who earned about $13.50 per hour, will receive almost no severance package. "All they're giving us is one month's extra health insurance," he said. "I wonder if the artists out there know the way this company treats its people. For all these years, we've been making their records. I wonder if they know what's been done." Van Alstyne, who started at the plant in 1966, recalled making records for the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn - who once visited the plant. "Before the records ever hit the street, we would get to listen to them," he said. "You looked forward to going to work. You would hear something new every day." In recent years, as vinyl music turned to rap and hip-hop, listening took on a different tone. "I'll tell you," Van Alstyne said, shaking his head. "A sailor doesn't cuss as much as they do on some of these songs." He said all employees recently signed a vinyl template, which will become the last record pressed. Instead of grooves, it will bear their signatures. "It's going to be tough," said Hulbert, who would have celebrated her 50th year at the plant in September. In recent years, Hulbert inspected records for scratches, then jacketed each finished product. "Of my favorites, one would have to be Neil Diamond, back in the early years," she recalled. "Those were great songs. And didn't we do Tom Jones?" "We did," responded co-worker Karen Fuelleman. "And Olivia Newton-John. She was very big for us for a while." As songs intertwined with memories, the women moved from laughter to sadness. "I don't like the way the company did this," Fuelleman said. "But, I had a good living there, and I can't say otherwise." "We did have good times, didn't we?" Hulbert said, nodding. "We made them ourselves." Fuelleman said. "That's how you do it. You have to make the good times yourselves." The plant closes May 6; a Friday, of course.

Originally Published In the Syracuse Post-Standard On April 10, 2005







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