ÂÜÀòÂÒÂ×

Gene Hopstetter has been collecting records since 1981, when he walked into a record store and spent $36US on every AC/DC album he could find. He also ended up sending cash-stuffed envelopes to Australia to addresses in the back of music magazines to get more AC/DC albums. He continues to this very day to exhibit that same sort of behavior to find records.

In high school in the mid-1980s he landed a job as a stockboy in a local Hi-Fi emporium, which is when his HiFi journey began. When not unboxing Sony TVs he recorded MFSL albums to cassette on their Luxman components and AR turntables. This is where he first heard a Compact Disc, on a Sony CDP-101, but he resisted the temptation to sell all of his vinyl. He has always had a record player and vinyl in his life. His insatiable thirst for new music led him to join the staffs of two university radio stations, where he got involved with local music promotion and album production. And he still can’t believe he got paid to listen to records.

Gene was born and raised in New Orleans, where music and food were invented. He earned degrees in Creative Writing and Journalism from LSU, which he somehow manages to use in his current career as an IT professional.