Paul Doege on 40 Years of Recycled Records

Recycled Records is Reno's longest-surviving record store and a staple of the small business and music communities here in the Biggest Little City. Many of us bought our first cassette tapes, CDs, or records at Recycled Records. We've seen them move locations a handful of times over those years, including moving into Midtown before it was cool, and recently leaving Midtown now that it's expensive. On this episode of Renoites, Conor sits down with longtime former owner of the store, Paul Doege. Paul purchased Recycled Records shortly after it opened and began running the business at the age of 23. He spent almost 40 years as the owner and manager before retiring in 2019 and selling the business to some of his long-time employees. Conor and Paul talked about the business model of used records and how it helped Recycled Records survive both the rise in digital piracy of the early 2000s and the advent of streaming in more recent years, the different locations of the store throughout the years as landlords regularly raised rents by impossible amounts, the early days of Midtown where Paul was an active member and one-time president of the merchant's association, the impact of TV, radio and print advertising in establishing their brand, Paul's plans to travel to Antarctica now that he is retired, and much more! Recycled Records is currently located at 4048 Kietzke Lane in Reno and can be found online at http://www.recrecreno.com Thanks for listening! If you have feedback or guest suggestions, please email [email protected] and consider supporting the show financially at http://patreon.com/renoites