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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

KPBX sale a feast for the ears


Volunteers Abram Klebandoff  and Kathy Bentley sort through boxes of classical albums Friday in the Masonic Center. 
 (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

This weekend’s KPBX record sale is a wonderland of nostalgia and obscurity.

But which item is nostalgic and which is obscure depends on your perspective.

Bread’s “Baby I’m-A Want You” is filed in a box not far from Burl Ives’ “The Lollipop Tree.”

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five share space with Buddy Holly.

A videocassette of Fellini’s “Roma” rests near “A Muppet Family Christmas.”

“We get everything,” said Bill Wright, a volunteer who was helping sort records Friday in preparation for the sale. “Classical music is a good portion of our holdings. Rock and pop is a good set of our holdings. Easy listening is another good chunk. A little bit of everything for everybody.”

The annual sale, today and Sunday at the Masonic Center Auditorium, is a fundraiser for the public radio station that’s reached its 17th year. Boxes of LPs, videocassettes, CDs and DVDs fill the auditorium, alongside tables of turntables, reel-to-reel players and stereo speakers – but there’s nary an iPod in sight.

Although there are some forms of digital recordings, the general spirit of the sale fits into more of an analog groove – a method of recording first demonstrated by Thomas Edison that aficionados say is warmer and richer in sound than CDs and other digital forms of music.

“I can’t push against the ocean – digital is the future, no question,” said Jathan Hall, a Seattle resident who came to Spokane to volunteer at the sale, in part to get first crack at some of the jazz, soul and classic rock LPs. “But I prefer analog.”

Volunteers spent Friday separating music by genre, checking the quality of donated items and preparing for the weekend rush.

“Sorting,” Hall said, when asked what kept him busy Friday. “Sorting, sorting, sorting. That’s the name of the game today.”

Kathy Sackett, special events director for KPBX, said the sale is the biggest special-event fundraiser for the station.

“It’s 99 percent donated by the community,” she said. “We have people send stuff from Montana. We go to Coeur d’Alene and pick up boxes and boxes and boxes from Long Ear Records.”

Sackett is a vinyl lover herself – she has three working turntables and two backups. She said for people who love old audio equipment, there’s more to browse through this year.

“I think we have more equipment this year than we’ve ever had before,” she said. “We have more of everything than we’ve ever had before.”

More obscurity and more nostalgia. Beverly Sills meets Jethro Tull. “Rigoletto” going hand in hand with “Jane Fonda’s Workout Record.” Cat Stevens’ “Tea for the Tillerman” alongside “The Name of This Band is Talking Heads.”

All with the warmth, pops and scratches that spell aural satisfaction for the vinyl junkie.

“With vinyl, it’s kind of like a well-worn suit,” Wright said. “The more you wear it, the more you’re comfortable in it.”