Roger's Car Stereo, Two Notch Road: 2008 4 comments
In 1983, I bought my first car. In a fit of what I can only call insanity, I chose a Renault Alliance. The only thing I can say in my defense is that it was Motor Trend's 1983 Car of the Year, that I was naive enough to think that meant something, and that it was cheap.
The dealership was on Two Notch down near Beltline, where that children's dental clinic is now, though the old building and lot are completely gone -- I can't even remember what it was called anymore. The car was a complete piece of junk, and an unmitigated disaster. I can't even begin to remember everything that went wrong with it, but here are some of the highlights.
First the gearshift knob came off. Then something went wrong with the accellerator system somehow such that the engine was always running at top speed. It certainly was an adventure driving it back to the dealership in first gear -- hopefully I would be smart enough today to call a towtruck. Then the electrical system melted while I was driving back from the 1986 Worldcon in Atlanta, and I didn't know if it were going to fail completely before I got back to Columbia (let alone trying to get all the way to Fayetteville) or if the fumes were going to knock me out first. Then a window cracked from the Fayetteville heat. Then the speedometer melted. Finally a headlight burned out, so I sold it.
Anyway, that's somewhat discursive, but does sort of relate to my post: I should have known something was up when the dealership claimed they couldn't put a radio in the car, and recommended I take it to Roger's Car Stereo.
Roger's was on Two Notch Road between Pinestraw and Fontaine and was something of a hole-in-the-wall, but they seemed to have a general idea of what they were doing. I got the radio, and it was OK for what it was (a cheap am/fm/cassette). It never melted, had the knobs fall off, or suddenly started playing at top volume. I was happy enough in fact, that when the radio gave out in my father's 1980 Corolla, I took it to Rogers for a replacement, and later when the speakers gave out in my 1991 Corolla, I got them replaced there. They seemed to close rather suddenly (I can't recall any going-out-of-business sale), and the place is now some sort of custom shop. I doubt there's anything they could do for a Renault Alliance though..
4 Responses to 'Roger's Car Stereo, Two Notch Road: 2008'
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Jonathan
21 Aug 08 at 8:41 am
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Yes, that building is still there, but they changed the motif years ago. And in the beginning, the "radio" was tuned to 104.7 (WNOK).
There were two "Sounds Real Good" girls. The first one is the one that actually said that great sound-bite. After she was on the ads for a long time, they got another (supposedly prettier) girl to lip-sync the sound bite over the first girl's recording.
ted
21 Aug 08 at 10:17 am
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I was the Manager at Rogers Car Stereo From the time they opened until I left in mid 1983. It was owned by Frank Rogers out of Greenville. He had a Stereo shop there, one in Spartanburg and a couple more in the upstate and one in N.C. You can read more about car stereo shops history by looking at the Continental Sound Thread. I was in the Car Stereos Business or worked for most of them from 1973 until the late 80s. The history is amazing. Continental Sound, Custom Car Stereo, Car Tunes, Auto Sound Lab, Nortons Stereo, Rogers Stereo, Big Apple Music. In 1973 There was not much of a car stereo then. Underdash 8-tracks and Bass 48 plastic rear deck speakers. I can tell all about it through the years if anyone is interested.
Mark
16 Jan 11 at 3:23 pm
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Ted, the name of the Dealership where you purchased your Renault from was called Ken Hyatt.
Rick
9 Jun 12 at 7:02 am
I did not get over that way much, but I remember in the early nineties, my Alpine CD player was stolen out of my vehicle, and I used Roger's to get an estimate on a new deck(for $5, so I guess they were used to doing that). They were several hundred dollars more than Norton's. I would love to see a picture of the old Continental Sound building on Two Notch, with the entire front of the store modeled after an Alpine cassette player. Remember that? I still remember their tv commercials "Sounds Read Good."