Being the co-founder of one of the most successful A/V specialty retailers in the country, ListenUp, based in Denver, Colorado, would be considered an achievement, but Walt Stinson also is the co-founder and the first president of the Professional Audio/Video Retailers' Association, (PARA), the trade association for 250 professional audio, video, home theater and custom electronics specialty dealers. Stinson has been dubbed the dean of A/V specialty retailers.
He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on July 2, 1948. At age 10 he heard his first shortwave receiver and a year later enrolled in a summer program in electronics. At Webster Groves High School Stinson had his own ham radio station before earning a technical diploma in electronics. He attended Knox College in Galesburg, IL, where he built and repaired stereo systems and, during summers, worked as a customer engineer for IBM.
He graduated from Knox in 1970, where he met his future partner, Steve Weiner. In 1971, he landed a job at LaSalle Electronics, a western Illinois parts distributor, where Weiner, also worked. Both migrated to electronics when the company's component stereo department opened. In 1972, Stinson left LaSalle and founded KVR Research with Weiner to study sound reproduction, psychoacoustics and the CE market.
It was while exploring career opportunities at the Chicago Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 1972 that Stinson decided to open a store. Stinson, Weiner and Stinson's wife, Mary Kay, drove to 15 major markets gathering demographic projections from chambers of commerce and information about existing audio retailers. Back in Galesburg, the trio selected Denver as the most appealing market. ListenUp was incorporated on October 10, 1972 and the store opened with just $10,000 in capital. Mary Kay joined the business in 1974 and the three remain involved in the company's management.
The first year was slow but Stinson's radio and electronics background launched the company into high gear when he bartered broadcast engineering services for radio advertising time in 1973. Stinson and ListenUp produced hundreds of recordings of jazz, rock and blues legends such as Miles Davis, BB King and Bob Dylan. The tag line, "Sound by ListenUp," was ubiquitous on the radio and at concert venues and established the retailer as a major CE player in Colorado. This led in 1978 to the ListenUp commercial division, which designs, sells and services large scale audio video and control systems for commercial and institutional clients, as well as performance venues, including the famed Mile High Stadium, Folsom Field and the Rainbow Music Hall. Meanwhile, ListenUp sales grew 30 percent per year for the first seven years.
In 1979, Stinson received a letter from retailer David Beatty, owner of Beatty Electronics proposing a meeting to discuss the challenges facing independent audio dealers. On October 17 dealers gathered at the Airport Hilton in Kansas City to form PARA. Beatty was elected PARA president, Stinson vice president. When Beatty retired six months later, Stinson assumed the PARA presidency, serving out Beatty's term, then was re-elected to a two-year term in 1981. He also served as PARA's chairman from 1983-1985 and as general advisor to the board from 1996-2002. In 1999, he received the first PARA Founders Award. PARA merged with CEA in 2004.
In 1982, Stinson set a world record in the American Radio Relay League International DX Morse Code competition, and also founded Retail Computer Management Systems, a dealer-owned developer of enterprise software. In 1984, he co-founded Assured Systems, a dealer-owned distribution and marketing company. Assured merged with AudioVideo Independent Dealers (AVID) in 2002 to create Home Entertainment Source (HES), a division of the $4 billion AVB/Brand Source buying group.
In 1983 and 1984, Stinson helped to launch the CD in the U.S., serving as a delegate to the Compact Disc Group and appearing frequently in the media. Returning from Japan in 1983, he was questioned by U.S. Customs about the shiny discs in his luggage. Stinson's gamble on CDs paid off - ListenUp's revenue doubled in the next three years to $10 million.
In 1983 Stinson enrolled in the University of Colorado Executive Program, where he earned his MBA. From 1989 to 1994, Stinson was a director at the Madrigal Audio Labs and, from 1998 to 2004, was a director of the American Radio Relay League. Since 2004, Stinson has served as vice president and secretary/treasurer of the Progressive Retailers Organization (PRO GROUP), a $2 billion annual buying group. Today, ListenUp has six stores in Colorado and Oregon with 110 employees.