SEMA News—April 2013

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Dick Scritchfield was a relatively new addition to the Car Craft magazine staff when he drew the assignment to cover the growing auto-stereo trend in the magazine’s January 1967 issue.

“If you haven’t already bolted a tape deck in that machine of yours, man, you’re either living outside of the ‘in’ group or have never heard an automotive stereo tape player in action,” he said in his opening paragraph. “Stereo might be great at home, but in a car—it’s something else. Just to drive along while listening to your favorite music coming at you from all directions is what most stereo owners refer to as the new surrounding sound.”

True surround sound, of the multi-speaker, mega-watt, AM/FM/CD/MP3/satellite/HD radio variety, is state-of-the-art in cars today. In 1967, Scritch was describing the birth of stereo in cars—a movement led by Ford in 1966—and the differences between four- and eight-track tapes.

“Bill Lear, manufacturer of the famous Lear Jet aircraft, set out with his engineers to design a cartridge and player that could handle eight sound tracks rather than only four,” Scritchfield wrote. That would allow a full one hour and 20 minutes of uninterrupted music. Ford’s choice of the eight-track player “started a feud akin to the early days of the 45 and 33 LP records. The four-track players had marketed more than 600,000 units when the eight-track Lear design was chosen as the Ford standard.”

Motorola stepped up to manufacture the Lear player in the quantities required by Ford, and “other members of the auto industry followed by offering eight-track players in their ’67 lines as optionals.”

In the opening photo for his guide, Scritchfield parked his iconic Ford roadster in front of a stereo store owned by actor Skip Young and his partner Bob Williams in Woodland Hills, California. To populate the photo, Scritchfield gathered several of the store’s employees around Young (at center in the photo), who, among other roles in the early days of television, played Wally in “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Young is holding a Muntz Stereo-Pak, one of several four- and eight-track players marketed by Madman Muntz.

“By keeping the price under $100, Muntz has been able to move his stereo units with tremendous acceptance,” said Scritch.

Tremendous acceptance for the time, maybe. But while the four- and eight-track manufacturers were duking it out for market share, a little-known device called the audiocassette was slowly improving in fidelity. Once it matched the eight-track for music reproduction quality, those big, bulky eight-track cartridges would become instant relics—or collectibles, depending on your point of view.

SEMA News—April 2013

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Dick Scritchfield was a relatively new addition to the Car Craft magazine staff when he drew the assignment to cover the growing auto-stereo trend in the magazine’s January 1967 issue.

“If you haven’t already bolted a tape deck in that machine of yours, man, you’re either living outside of the ‘in’ group or have never heard an automotive stereo tape player in action,” he said in his opening paragraph. “Stereo might be great at home, but in a car—it’s something else. Just to drive along while listening to your favorite music coming at you from all directions is what most stereo owners refer to as the new surrounding sound.”

True surround sound, of the multi-speaker, mega-watt, AM/FM/CD/MP3/satellite/HD radio variety, is state-of-the-art in cars today. In 1967, Scritch was describing the birth of stereo in cars—a movement led by Ford in 1966—and the differences between four- and eight-track tapes.

“Bill Lear, manufacturer of the famous Lear Jet aircraft, set out with his engineers to design a cartridge and player that could handle eight sound tracks rather than only four,” Scritchfield wrote. That would allow a full one hour and 20 minutes of uninterrupted music. Ford’s choice of the eight-track player “started a feud akin to the early days of the 45 and 33 LP records. The four-track players had marketed more than 600,000 units when the eight-track Lear design was chosen as the Ford standard.”

Motorola stepped up to manufacture the Lear player in the quantities required by Ford, and “other members of the auto industry followed by offering eight-track players in their ’67 lines as optionals.”

In the opening photo for his guide, Scritchfield parked his iconic Ford roadster in front of a stereo store owned by actor Skip Young and his partner Bob Williams in Woodland Hills, California. To populate the photo, Scritchfield gathered several of the store’s employees around Young (at center in the photo), who, among other roles in the early days of television, played Wally in “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Young is holding a Muntz Stereo-Pak, one of several four- and eight-track players marketed by Madman Muntz.

“By keeping the price under $100, Muntz has been able to move his stereo units with tremendous acceptance,” said Scritch.

Tremendous acceptance for the time, maybe. But while the four- and eight-track manufacturers were duking it out for market share, a little-known device called the audiocassette was slowly improving in fidelity. Once it matched the eight-track for music reproduction quality, those big, bulky eight-track cartridges would become instant relics—or collectibles, depending on your point of view.

SEMA News—April 2013

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Dick Scritchfield was a relatively new addition to the Car Craft magazine staff when he drew the assignment to cover the growing auto-stereo trend in the magazine’s January 1967 issue.

“If you haven’t already bolted a tape deck in that machine of yours, man, you’re either living outside of the ‘in’ group or have never heard an automotive stereo tape player in action,” he said in his opening paragraph. “Stereo might be great at home, but in a car—it’s something else. Just to drive along while listening to your favorite music coming at you from all directions is what most stereo owners refer to as the new surrounding sound.”

True surround sound, of the multi-speaker, mega-watt, AM/FM/CD/MP3/satellite/HD radio variety, is state-of-the-art in cars today. In 1967, Scritch was describing the birth of stereo in cars—a movement led by Ford in 1966—and the differences between four- and eight-track tapes.

“Bill Lear, manufacturer of the famous Lear Jet aircraft, set out with his engineers to design a cartridge and player that could handle eight sound tracks rather than only four,” Scritchfield wrote. That would allow a full one hour and 20 minutes of uninterrupted music. Ford’s choice of the eight-track player “started a feud akin to the early days of the 45 and 33 LP records. The four-track players had marketed more than 600,000 units when the eight-track Lear design was chosen as the Ford standard.”

Motorola stepped up to manufacture the Lear player in the quantities required by Ford, and “other members of the auto industry followed by offering eight-track players in their ’67 lines as optionals.”

In the opening photo for his guide, Scritchfield parked his iconic Ford roadster in front of a stereo store owned by actor Skip Young and his partner Bob Williams in Woodland Hills, California. To populate the photo, Scritchfield gathered several of the store’s employees around Young (at center in the photo), who, among other roles in the early days of television, played Wally in “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Young is holding a Muntz Stereo-Pak, one of several four- and eight-track players marketed by Madman Muntz.

“By keeping the price under $100, Muntz has been able to move his stereo units with tremendous acceptance,” said Scritch.

Tremendous acceptance for the time, maybe. But while the four- and eight-track manufacturers were duking it out for market share, a little-known device called the audiocassette was slowly improving in fidelity. Once it matched the eight-track for music reproduction quality, those big, bulky eight-track cartridges would become instant relics—or collectibles, depending on your point of view.

SEMA News—April 2013

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Dick Scritchfield was a relatively new addition to the Car Craft magazine staff when he drew the assignment to cover the growing auto-stereo trend in the magazine’s January 1967 issue.

“If you haven’t already bolted a tape deck in that machine of yours, man, you’re either living outside of the ‘in’ group or have never heard an automotive stereo tape player in action,” he said in his opening paragraph. “Stereo might be great at home, but in a car—it’s something else. Just to drive along while listening to your favorite music coming at you from all directions is what most stereo owners refer to as the new surrounding sound.”

True surround sound, of the multi-speaker, mega-watt, AM/FM/CD/MP3/satellite/HD radio variety, is state-of-the-art in cars today. In 1967, Scritch was describing the birth of stereo in cars—a movement led by Ford in 1966—and the differences between four- and eight-track tapes.

“Bill Lear, manufacturer of the famous Lear Jet aircraft, set out with his engineers to design a cartridge and player that could handle eight sound tracks rather than only four,” Scritchfield wrote. That would allow a full one hour and 20 minutes of uninterrupted music. Ford’s choice of the eight-track player “started a feud akin to the early days of the 45 and 33 LP records. The four-track players had marketed more than 600,000 units when the eight-track Lear design was chosen as the Ford standard.”

Motorola stepped up to manufacture the Lear player in the quantities required by Ford, and “other members of the auto industry followed by offering eight-track players in their ’67 lines as optionals.”

In the opening photo for his guide, Scritchfield parked his iconic Ford roadster in front of a stereo store owned by actor Skip Young and his partner Bob Williams in Woodland Hills, California. To populate the photo, Scritchfield gathered several of the store’s employees around Young (at center in the photo), who, among other roles in the early days of television, played Wally in “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Young is holding a Muntz Stereo-Pak, one of several four- and eight-track players marketed by Madman Muntz.

“By keeping the price under $100, Muntz has been able to move his stereo units with tremendous acceptance,” said Scritch.

Tremendous acceptance for the time, maybe. But while the four- and eight-track manufacturers were duking it out for market share, a little-known device called the audiocassette was slowly improving in fidelity. Once it matched the eight-track for music reproduction quality, those big, bulky eight-track cartridges would become instant relics—or collectibles, depending on your point of view.

SEMA News—April 2013

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Dick Scritchfield was a relatively new addition to the Car Craft magazine staff when he drew the assignment to cover the growing auto-stereo trend in the magazine’s January 1967 issue.

“If you haven’t already bolted a tape deck in that machine of yours, man, you’re either living outside of the ‘in’ group or have never heard an automotive stereo tape player in action,” he said in his opening paragraph. “Stereo might be great at home, but in a car—it’s something else. Just to drive along while listening to your favorite music coming at you from all directions is what most stereo owners refer to as the new surrounding sound.”

True surround sound, of the multi-speaker, mega-watt, AM/FM/CD/MP3/satellite/HD radio variety, is state-of-the-art in cars today. In 1967, Scritch was describing the birth of stereo in cars—a movement led by Ford in 1966—and the differences between four- and eight-track tapes.

“Bill Lear, manufacturer of the famous Lear Jet aircraft, set out with his engineers to design a cartridge and player that could handle eight sound tracks rather than only four,” Scritchfield wrote. That would allow a full one hour and 20 minutes of uninterrupted music. Ford’s choice of the eight-track player “started a feud akin to the early days of the 45 and 33 LP records. The four-track players had marketed more than 600,000 units when the eight-track Lear design was chosen as the Ford standard.”

Motorola stepped up to manufacture the Lear player in the quantities required by Ford, and “other members of the auto industry followed by offering eight-track players in their ’67 lines as optionals.”

In the opening photo for his guide, Scritchfield parked his iconic Ford roadster in front of a stereo store owned by actor Skip Young and his partner Bob Williams in Woodland Hills, California. To populate the photo, Scritchfield gathered several of the store’s employees around Young (at center in the photo), who, among other roles in the early days of television, played Wally in “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Young is holding a Muntz Stereo-Pak, one of several four- and eight-track players marketed by Madman Muntz.

“By keeping the price under $100, Muntz has been able to move his stereo units with tremendous acceptance,” said Scritch.

Tremendous acceptance for the time, maybe. But while the four- and eight-track manufacturers were duking it out for market share, a little-known device called the audiocassette was slowly improving in fidelity. Once it matched the eight-track for music reproduction quality, those big, bulky eight-track cartridges would become instant relics—or collectibles, depending on your point of view.

SEMA News—April 2013

CHRIS KERSTING

Whether CEO or Tech Geek: Drive Technology to Drive Sales

No matter what your role in your company or your knowledge of today’s business tech tools, everyone is striving to increase sales. This issue of SEMA News is loaded with info on great business technology that will help you do just that.

One biz tech system all SEMA members should be aware of by now is the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC), and we have big news—a new tool to help members get started and maximize product sales.

The paragraphs immediately below can help even a CEO who is not a biz tech wizard learn why the SDC is an essential sales driver. Then you can pass this issue of SEMA News along to your tech and marketing folks to dive into the details. If you’re a techie, consider this an SDC update and enjoy the articles in this issue, which go deeper. In either case, I hope this information prompts you to learn more—and sell more—by participating in the SEMA Data Co-op.

How Does the SEMA Data Co-op Help Sell Parts?

Parts sales today are driven by the availability of good product information—marketing copy, images, video and more—in digital formats that your trading partners can easily find, access and use. The SDC is an industry-owned and -operated “meeting place” to share your product information with your trading partners. In that respect, it’s much like our highly regarded SEMA Show. You and your trading partners can use this shared information so that those looking for your products online can find them and place an order.

Full Launch and a New Tool

We are pleased to report that the SDC recently achieved two important milestones. First, we completed a successful six-month beta phase—including hundreds of SEMA manufacturers and channel partner participants—and have now launched full-scale service.

Second, we released a break-through new tool for the industry—SEMA PIMS—to help your company easily organize your product information and have it accessible to your industry business partners.

SEMA PIMS is a robust and very useful Product Information Management System where each manufacturer controls the content and distribution of their product data—and it’s yours to use as a member of the SEMA Data Co-op. The tool ensures that all data brought into the repository complies with industry standards through a very intuitive, web-based interface. And don’t worry about getting started, SEMA PIMS and our entire SDC suite of services provide a fulltime Help Desk to assist companies at any level. In short, for those who dream of a really good system to organize and update your product information, we now have a super product-info tool at your fingertips.

You’ll find a full update from SEMA Data Co-op CEO Jon Wyly in this issue, in which he talks about SEMA Search, another powerful SDC feature that is just on the horizon. Meanwhile, we look forward to meeting with SDC users as the opportunity permits, and we anticipate some informative user-group meetings in the near future.

—Chris Kersting, SEMA President and CEO

SEMA News—April 2013

CHRIS KERSTING

Whether CEO or Tech Geek: Drive Technology to Drive Sales

No matter what your role in your company or your knowledge of today’s business tech tools, everyone is striving to increase sales. This issue of SEMA News is loaded with info on great business technology that will help you do just that.

One biz tech system all SEMA members should be aware of by now is the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC), and we have big news—a new tool to help members get started and maximize product sales.

The paragraphs immediately below can help even a CEO who is not a biz tech wizard learn why the SDC is an essential sales driver. Then you can pass this issue of SEMA News along to your tech and marketing folks to dive into the details. If you’re a techie, consider this an SDC update and enjoy the articles in this issue, which go deeper. In either case, I hope this information prompts you to learn more—and sell more—by participating in the SEMA Data Co-op.

How Does the SEMA Data Co-op Help Sell Parts?

Parts sales today are driven by the availability of good product information—marketing copy, images, video and more—in digital formats that your trading partners can easily find, access and use. The SDC is an industry-owned and -operated “meeting place” to share your product information with your trading partners. In that respect, it’s much like our highly regarded SEMA Show. You and your trading partners can use this shared information so that those looking for your products online can find them and place an order.

Full Launch and a New Tool

We are pleased to report that the SDC recently achieved two important milestones. First, we completed a successful six-month beta phase—including hundreds of SEMA manufacturers and channel partner participants—and have now launched full-scale service.

Second, we released a break-through new tool for the industry—SEMA PIMS—to help your company easily organize your product information and have it accessible to your industry business partners.

SEMA PIMS is a robust and very useful Product Information Management System where each manufacturer controls the content and distribution of their product data—and it’s yours to use as a member of the SEMA Data Co-op. The tool ensures that all data brought into the repository complies with industry standards through a very intuitive, web-based interface. And don’t worry about getting started, SEMA PIMS and our entire SDC suite of services provide a fulltime Help Desk to assist companies at any level. In short, for those who dream of a really good system to organize and update your product information, we now have a super product-info tool at your fingertips.

You’ll find a full update from SEMA Data Co-op CEO Jon Wyly in this issue, in which he talks about SEMA Search, another powerful SDC feature that is just on the horizon. Meanwhile, we look forward to meeting with SDC users as the opportunity permits, and we anticipate some informative user-group meetings in the near future.

—Chris Kersting, SEMA President and CEO

SEMA News—April 2013

CHRIS KERSTING

Whether CEO or Tech Geek: Drive Technology to Drive Sales

No matter what your role in your company or your knowledge of today’s business tech tools, everyone is striving to increase sales. This issue of SEMA News is loaded with info on great business technology that will help you do just that.

One biz tech system all SEMA members should be aware of by now is the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC), and we have big news—a new tool to help members get started and maximize product sales.

The paragraphs immediately below can help even a CEO who is not a biz tech wizard learn why the SDC is an essential sales driver. Then you can pass this issue of SEMA News along to your tech and marketing folks to dive into the details. If you’re a techie, consider this an SDC update and enjoy the articles in this issue, which go deeper. In either case, I hope this information prompts you to learn more—and sell more—by participating in the SEMA Data Co-op.

How Does the SEMA Data Co-op Help Sell Parts?

Parts sales today are driven by the availability of good product information—marketing copy, images, video and more—in digital formats that your trading partners can easily find, access and use. The SDC is an industry-owned and -operated “meeting place” to share your product information with your trading partners. In that respect, it’s much like our highly regarded SEMA Show. You and your trading partners can use this shared information so that those looking for your products online can find them and place an order.

Full Launch and a New Tool

We are pleased to report that the SDC recently achieved two important milestones. First, we completed a successful six-month beta phase—including hundreds of SEMA manufacturers and channel partner participants—and have now launched full-scale service.

Second, we released a break-through new tool for the industry—SEMA PIMS—to help your company easily organize your product information and have it accessible to your industry business partners.

SEMA PIMS is a robust and very useful Product Information Management System where each manufacturer controls the content and distribution of their product data—and it’s yours to use as a member of the SEMA Data Co-op. The tool ensures that all data brought into the repository complies with industry standards through a very intuitive, web-based interface. And don’t worry about getting started, SEMA PIMS and our entire SDC suite of services provide a fulltime Help Desk to assist companies at any level. In short, for those who dream of a really good system to organize and update your product information, we now have a super product-info tool at your fingertips.

You’ll find a full update from SEMA Data Co-op CEO Jon Wyly in this issue, in which he talks about SEMA Search, another powerful SDC feature that is just on the horizon. Meanwhile, we look forward to meeting with SDC users as the opportunity permits, and we anticipate some informative user-group meetings in the near future.

—Chris Kersting, SEMA President and CEO

SEMA News—April 2013

CHRIS KERSTING

Whether CEO or Tech Geek: Drive Technology to Drive Sales

No matter what your role in your company or your knowledge of today’s business tech tools, everyone is striving to increase sales. This issue of SEMA News is loaded with info on great business technology that will help you do just that.

One biz tech system all SEMA members should be aware of by now is the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC), and we have big news—a new tool to help members get started and maximize product sales.

The paragraphs immediately below can help even a CEO who is not a biz tech wizard learn why the SDC is an essential sales driver. Then you can pass this issue of SEMA News along to your tech and marketing folks to dive into the details. If you’re a techie, consider this an SDC update and enjoy the articles in this issue, which go deeper. In either case, I hope this information prompts you to learn more—and sell more—by participating in the SEMA Data Co-op.

How Does the SEMA Data Co-op Help Sell Parts?

Parts sales today are driven by the availability of good product information—marketing copy, images, video and more—in digital formats that your trading partners can easily find, access and use. The SDC is an industry-owned and -operated “meeting place” to share your product information with your trading partners. In that respect, it’s much like our highly regarded SEMA Show. You and your trading partners can use this shared information so that those looking for your products online can find them and place an order.

Full Launch and a New Tool

We are pleased to report that the SDC recently achieved two important milestones. First, we completed a successful six-month beta phase—including hundreds of SEMA manufacturers and channel partner participants—and have now launched full-scale service.

Second, we released a break-through new tool for the industry—SEMA PIMS—to help your company easily organize your product information and have it accessible to your industry business partners.

SEMA PIMS is a robust and very useful Product Information Management System where each manufacturer controls the content and distribution of their product data—and it’s yours to use as a member of the SEMA Data Co-op. The tool ensures that all data brought into the repository complies with industry standards through a very intuitive, web-based interface. And don’t worry about getting started, SEMA PIMS and our entire SDC suite of services provide a fulltime Help Desk to assist companies at any level. In short, for those who dream of a really good system to organize and update your product information, we now have a super product-info tool at your fingertips.

You’ll find a full update from SEMA Data Co-op CEO Jon Wyly in this issue, in which he talks about SEMA Search, another powerful SDC feature that is just on the horizon. Meanwhile, we look forward to meeting with SDC users as the opportunity permits, and we anticipate some informative user-group meetings in the near future.

—Chris Kersting, SEMA President and CEO

SEMA News—April 2013

CHRIS KERSTING

Whether CEO or Tech Geek: Drive Technology to Drive Sales

No matter what your role in your company or your knowledge of today’s business tech tools, everyone is striving to increase sales. This issue of SEMA News is loaded with info on great business technology that will help you do just that.

One biz tech system all SEMA members should be aware of by now is the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC), and we have big news—a new tool to help members get started and maximize product sales.

The paragraphs immediately below can help even a CEO who is not a biz tech wizard learn why the SDC is an essential sales driver. Then you can pass this issue of SEMA News along to your tech and marketing folks to dive into the details. If you’re a techie, consider this an SDC update and enjoy the articles in this issue, which go deeper. In either case, I hope this information prompts you to learn more—and sell more—by participating in the SEMA Data Co-op.

How Does the SEMA Data Co-op Help Sell Parts?

Parts sales today are driven by the availability of good product information—marketing copy, images, video and more—in digital formats that your trading partners can easily find, access and use. The SDC is an industry-owned and -operated “meeting place” to share your product information with your trading partners. In that respect, it’s much like our highly regarded SEMA Show. You and your trading partners can use this shared information so that those looking for your products online can find them and place an order.

Full Launch and a New Tool

We are pleased to report that the SDC recently achieved two important milestones. First, we completed a successful six-month beta phase—including hundreds of SEMA manufacturers and channel partner participants—and have now launched full-scale service.

Second, we released a break-through new tool for the industry—SEMA PIMS—to help your company easily organize your product information and have it accessible to your industry business partners.

SEMA PIMS is a robust and very useful Product Information Management System where each manufacturer controls the content and distribution of their product data—and it’s yours to use as a member of the SEMA Data Co-op. The tool ensures that all data brought into the repository complies with industry standards through a very intuitive, web-based interface. And don’t worry about getting started, SEMA PIMS and our entire SDC suite of services provide a fulltime Help Desk to assist companies at any level. In short, for those who dream of a really good system to organize and update your product information, we now have a super product-info tool at your fingertips.

You’ll find a full update from SEMA Data Co-op CEO Jon Wyly in this issue, in which he talks about SEMA Search, another powerful SDC feature that is just on the horizon. Meanwhile, we look forward to meeting with SDC users as the opportunity permits, and we anticipate some informative user-group meetings in the near future.

—Chris Kersting, SEMA President and CEO