Vinyl fans groove at KPBX sale

Vinyl lives.

In fact, it rules – at least at the KPBX recordings and videos sale.

Music lovers, record collectors and others in search of a deal flocked to the Masonic Temple downtown Saturday for the annual extravaganza featuring more than 40,000 LPs.

While the sale includes thousands of other items, including DVDs, compact discs, cassettes and even stereo equipment, audiophiles say it’s the venerable vinyl that draws the crowds.

“They sound so much better than CDs,” said Geritt Shipley of Spokane, carrying an armful of old records including Emmylou Harris’ “Ballad of Sally Rose” and “Cimarron.”

An 18-year-old who listens to most of his music on an ancient Philips 212 turntable, Shipley thinks vinyl sounds so much warmer and fuller, even truer to the musician’s intent and original recording, compared with a CD or music that’s downloaded on an MP3 player.

“Listening to records gives me comfort,” he said, describing his affinity for the snap, soft crackle and pop of a turntable’s needle.

The Masonic Temple was crowded will all kinds of folks Saturday – people like Shipley eager to expand their growing LP collections; bargain hunters hoping to find stuff to sell on eBay; and die-hard vinylites in search of extra copies to replace their damaged goods.

“At this point in my life, it’s become a neurotic compulsion,” said Larry Lapidus, describing his obsession.

A record collector for 45 years, Lapidus has amassed more than 10,000 mostly classical LPs. Although he has no written inventory of his collection, the Spokane resident somehow remembers every title he has bought. He can even recall where he was and what the weather was like outside when he purchased a particular album.

“Many people feel that CDs, while they have benefits, really don’t provide a pleasing and realistic sound,” said Lapidus, who added another two dozen records Saturday to his classical music collection.

This year’s sale is the biggest ever as more donors from throughout the area and as far as Canada and Montana drop off or send their old videos and recordings to Spokane’s public radio station. Now in its 16th year, the annual sale has become a Presidents Day weekend tradition and remains one of the station’s largest fundraisers.

“There’s music here for everyone,” said Kathy Sackett, KPBX’s special events director. “One of the reasons we do the sale is to make sure all this music stays live.”

Bill Wright, a volunteer at the station who’s considered the “R&V guru,” spent more than two months sorting through more than 300 boxes of donated records, filing them according to genre – rock and pop, easy listening, classical, jazz.

“I do it for the love of music and slightly for the memory trip,” said Wright, the station’s volunteer of the year in 2002.

Sifting through all the vinyl brings back memories of his youth, of the long days and nights spent listening to the Beatles and Rolling Stones.

There were plenty of records from that era Saturday morning, but people quickly swarmed the rock LP table as soon as the doors opened at 9 a.m.

At least 200 people got there early, crowding into the hallway outside the Masonic Temple’s first-floor auditorium. A few, including Joel Severson and Shane Younker of Spokane, arrived as early as 7:30 a.m.

“You have to get in first to get all the good stuff,” said Younker, who “scored” a couple of rare finds, including “Electric Latin Love” and Don Rickles’ “Hello Dummy.”

Herb Alpert and Donny Osmond fans, however, were in luck. According to organizers, the station received a noticeable number of “To You With Love, Donny” and Alpert’s “Whipped Cream & Other Delights,” a 1960s favorite featuring a woman covered only with a thick coat of fluffy whipped cream on the jacket.

“It was popular with a lot of adolescent boys,” recalled Sackett. “It was probably a good memory for them, but it was time to move on.”