Podcast Ep 80: 80 years of Sony with Bill Crutchfield

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All right, Hope, you ready to do this? Let's do this.

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Hello and welcome to Crutchfield the podcast. I'm JR. And I'm Huffy. And we are here to celebrate 80 years of Sony. That's a long time. Yeah. And when I saw that, I thought we have to talk about that. Sony has a very warm, very large place in my heart.

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It has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. Yeah. I just, as soon as I was into electronics, I was into Sony. Yeah. That's a while ago. Not as long ago as it was for you, but you know, still quite some time. Exactly. I am older and wiser and way more mature than you. So, and so we are celebrating Sony's 80th birthday on this episode. We're going to talk about them, about what makes it Sony special for us specifically. Remembering some of our high points of Sony history in our lives and in our company, and we'll also talk about some Sony news for 2026. Yeah. One, we will talk a little bit more extensively about which is that Sony has exiting the 12 volt space, meaning they're not going to make car stereos anymore. Yeah. And one, we're not really going to speculate or talk about at all, which is the Sony TV and TCL deal. We don't know what we don't know. No, it hasn't even gotten regulatory approval yet and nothing is changing right now. So I will say that Sony in the past has demonstrated their ability to develop great partnerships. I trust it's going to work out. I know it's all positive, but you've already said too much. Yeah. We were, we were asked to not speculate or talk about. Speculate. There's no speculation. It's going to be awesome. That's a prediction. We've already said more than they told us to say. So we're going to move on. Moving on. And to the highlight of today's episode, which is the fact that Bill Crutchfield has joined us in studio to talk about Sony and so much more. That's right. For any long-term Crutchfield the podcast listeners. Oh, geez. If you remember back in the early days, this whole show was predicated on the idea of talking to Crutchfield employees about what cool products they've bought that they like that they use and how it impacts their lives, et cetera. And we always talked about how someday we would get Bill in here and ask him that question. We did today is that day. It has finally happened. That's right. Uh, it only took 80 years of Sony to make it happen. Uh, and then I want to tell you after we cut the mics off, Bill said, we should do this more. That's right. He did. He did. And you would have turned it off. You should have left him recording. I know. Right. Uh, which is a crazy thing to say, uh, because this is going to be the last Crutchfield the podcast episode for a while. We don't know when it's going to come back, but it's going to be a pretty great last episode with Bill on it celebrating Sony. We're just going out on a bunch of really good feelings. Uh, and with an eye towards coming back someday, uh, possibly in a new physical studio space, definitely in the new physical stairs, possibly with more statistics and numbers to back up the fact that you're out there listening and that this podcast means something to some people, not just Huffy and me. True. True. And Bill and Bill. Yeah. We know Bill likes it. And there you go. So if you have been a long time listener, thank you so much for being a listener and, uh, it's not over. We're just taking a pause and indefinite, indeterminate amount of time pause. Uh, so, uh, this might feel like a last ever episode, but hopefully it's just the last for now. All right. Enough of that Sony. Yeah. I don't know about you, Huffy, but, uh, I literally, since the first time I ever watched TV, Sony has been in my life. Uh, and that comes from my grandmother's house, uh, watching TV at her house. We, she had what was widely regarded in the entire Stoffel family as the best TV in the family, and it was a Sony Trinitron 13 inch CRT TV with rabbit ears on a rolling cart in my grandmother's apartment. Nice. Did it have a dial to turn? A very kajunk, kajunk sort of clicking dial. I know. It was amazing. Yeah. It's at VHF and UHF. Was it different dials? Yes. Two dials. I remember, I know this because I don't remember the size, but the first TV that, you know, I watched movies like Goonies on as a kid, uh, was a Sony Trinitron TV that had a kajunk, kajunk dial on the side and it was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I know I grew up just thinking that, you know, if I was going to, if we were going to buy some electronics, the Sony stuff was the good stuff. It just always was. It was always, you know, we're looking at TVs. If you're looking at, um, you know, stereo stuff, whatever it is, like the Sony stuff was a good stuff. It always has been in, I mean, fast forward to today, I still own two Sony TVs. They are my go-to brand of TV. They are what my eyes like. My TV that I watch every day. Yeah. Uh, my main TV is a Sony. It is my dream TV. I love my Sony TV. So, and honestly, if I was going to get another TV today, we carry some great ones, but Sony would be at the top of the list when, uh, when looking at the different manufacturers, for sure. No doubt about it. Uh, all right. Let's keep reminiscing. Yeah. Uh, Sony Walkman. I had several Sony Walkmans growing up. I'd end not to talk about my youth this entire episode, but I remember my first Walkman was actually a Discman. I had a Sony Discman, the D11. Um, and it, it was so awesome. I used to sneak it into middle school. Wasn't allowed to bring it to school because it costs too much. Um, but I would still be the cool kid on the bus and I had to have it out where everyone could see it because it didn't even have any kind of anti skip protection. I used to sit out there like I was a waiter, you know, bringing you, uh, your food on a big platter and that would be me on the school bus to keep it from skipping, but it sounded amazing. The first CD I ever listened to was Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction. Okay. On a CD Discman at my friend's house. He had one. And so I was, mind was blown two ways, right? I, I got to finally hear my favorite album, uh, which I had previously only listened to on vinyl on CD. I remember my first CD is on that Discman. And I remember the Discman and it was sitting, uh, we were outside in his backyard. It was sitting on his picnic table. And I remember we couldn't touch it because if you touched it, the CD skipped. Wow.

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What a great segue because the first CD I owned was MC Hammers. Can't touch this.

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We didn't even plan that everybody. That's awesome. Yeah. Feel free to comment, uh, who had the cooler first CD experience. Also, what was your first CD that you listened to on a Discman? If you're old enough to have that experience. I had MC Hammer and then I had Vanilla Ice. Those were my first, you know, I was a kid in the nineties. When I graduated high school, my dad bought me a Sony stereo system. It was awesome. It was a, uh, receiver up at the top, uh, technically an integrated amp, but then a tuner and then a dual well cassette deck and a five disc CD changer with two massive floor standing speakers, uh, a complete full Sony system. He bought it for me from circuit city, RIP circuit city. Uh, even Bill would say, all right. Heck yeah. City. We had circuit city was great. It was great. Uh, and, uh, but that stereo got me through many, many, many years of that is how I listened to music at home. Uh, at very, I think my dad regretted buying me that stereo because of how loud I would listen to music, uh, while I was still living at home. And I use that stereo for quite a long time after that. Uh, and so, uh, yeah. And I had Sony stereos in most of my cars ever since I started working here. Uh, just so much love for Sony as a brand. So you're the soundtrack of your youth was played on a Sony. And the soundtrack of my twenties and the soundtrack of my middle age life, they've been a part of my life as long as I can remember. That's awesome. And they will continue to be right now. I have a pair of Sony headphones in my pocket that I can use whenever I need some earbuds with noise canceling. Those things are fantastic. XM fives or XM sixes sixes sixes. Very nice. The new ones. Yeah. Um, I think I've told the story in the past of the XM threes I used to have. Uh, I'm pretty sure that some threes that I literally lost in my backyard and bribed my kids to find them and they did. And I ended up having to pay them 20 bucks when they found them two months later, uh, the earbuds that had been lost in my yard. And of course we had rain during that time and, uh, they survived. That's crazy. I mean, that's just a testament to those earbuds. They're phenomenal. And I have a noise canceling over the year, uh, Sony's as well that are ever bit as good as those. And I use them to mow and they do such a good job with noise canceling. You can use them like that. So that's one of the products I think that they're absolutely just crushing right now is their personal audio devices and have been for years. We were filming a video about one of the new repairs of Sony over ear noise canceling headphones. This has been a few years ago now, but, uh, we wanted a thumbnail for the video and we wanted to have the headphones appear in the air in front of me. Right. So the, the headphones would be in focus and I would be sort of in the, you know, that shallow depth of field, uh, blurry in the background. And to get that, there's any number of ways you can fake a photo like that. Right. Dangle them with some fishing wire. Uh, just use Photoshop. Instead, what we did was in the video studio, we spent about 45 minutes throwing the headphones across the room, uh, to get them to be flying through the air at just the right trajectory, just the right angle to get the perfect picture of them literally flying through the air. I have that picture. Maybe I'll find a way to stick it on, uh, crutchfield.com slash podcast in the show notes. I'm a, no promises. If I can figure that out, then, uh, then that's happening. And if you can't figure it out, this part won't be in the podcast. Exactly right. Oh man. So we, we should get to Bill, shouldn't we?

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Sorry, caught you mid sip on that. Yeah. Uh, yes. Absolutely. I had before Bill came in here for this interview, I had a long list of stuff. To talk to you about Sony first Sony innovations, all these things. It was, it was, this episode was set up to be a historical timeline of Sony. Right. Uh, and I was both excited to talk Sony and I was like a little nervous of how well that was going to go over. And then Bill comes in with his timeline and it's so much better than the timeline I put together for us. Yeah. So we're not even going to do it. I had this piece of paper with my timeline is literally going in the trash. Yeah. He went to the Crutchfield libraries as he puts it, right. And did some homework to come on our podcast. No, I think that's awesome. And he wrote it all up. He sent it to me ahead of time. Uh, so we, we knew what we were getting with Bill and then he somehow still exceeded expectations.

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So, uh, huge thanks to Bill for being on the show. Now, a couple of things you need to know before we start playing this interview. We just recorded it like 10 minutes ago. Uh, one Bill Crutchfield found a, uh, ballpoint pen on the desk with, uh, you know, a little plunger at the top to turn the pit, to open the pen up. Uh, and he couldn't stop clicking. He clacking that thing. And I didn't have the heart to say anything. Neither one of us were like, Bill, stop clicking the pen.

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So I just want you to know at some point you're going to hear some pen clicking. It's just, it's just part of the deal. Uh, and two, Huffy said something wrong. And he is here to apologize ahead of time for it. Yeah. To this day, I still get nervous when Bill's in the room and try to perform. And yes, I, uh, I tried to, he was recalling a story about a Sony small, the portable TV, the portable TV. They had the Walkman for cassettes. They had the Discman Ford CDs and they had the, I thought it was view man. It was not as soon as I said it in front of Bill and he tried to be nice. I think he knew I was wrong. He just kind of agreed with it, but, uh, he's like, Jr will fix that in post.

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Yeah. It's the watch man, which makes more sense with the Walkman. Then there's a Watchman. Maybe they should have gone view man. Maybe it'd still be around. I don't know. But no, I should have said watch man. So when you get to that point, we're not going to go fix it in post. It's just, we're just going to leave it there. You know, it's coming. Listen for the pen. Uh, and we will be right back to close out this chapter of Crutchfield the podcast right after Bill joins us in studio. Bill, welcome to the Crutchfield the podcast. Well, Jr, it's great to be here. You know, we talked years ago when we started the podcast about having you on. Uh, and it's, it only took like six years and you're here. I am here. And I'm proud to be here. Uh, and part of the reason I wanted you here today was to talk about Sony as they celebrate 80 years of being a company. That's a pretty significant milestone in birthday. And you know, we've been a, uh, we've had a nice partnership with Sony for quite a long time. Um, and so I wanted to kind of know what has Sony meant to you and to Crutchfield over the years. That's a great question, Jr. Um, I launched our first catalog in the summer of 1974.

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It offered products made by 10 different car stereo manufacturers. Pioneer is the only one that's still in business today. The other nine have gone out of business. I added Sony in 1975. Therefore, Sony is now our second oldest partner out of the current 272 vendor partners, which we currently have. Sony has been just a wonderful partner over all these years. I think probably the most significant reason I have so much respect for the company is because we're so culturally similar. We have great organizational cultures, which focus on demonstrating respect for all of our stakeholders while striving for excellence and innovation in everything we do.

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Uh, that feels very much on point for both companies. It's partly why I love Sony so much. Huffy has loved Sony for so, for so long. Uh, and so have we as a company and there, I think you've sort of nailed why that is, uh, and it's not just about all of the amazing products they've built, but it's about more than that. And it's the people in the culture.

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I agree. I totally agree. Sony has had an incredible number of innovations over the years. Uh, and we've been there with Sony for a lot of them. So Bill, what stands out to you as Sony's greatest innovation and, and why? All right. A little bit of history. Sony was founded in 1946 and this one certainly surprised your audience. Um, its first product was not electronics. Its first product was an electric rice cooker of all things.

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Therefore, I think the greatest innovation that they made was shifting, um, away from rice cookers to consumer electronics. Sony manufactured Japan's first tape recorder in 1950.

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Uh, then in 1955, it really revolutionized the world when it introduced the world's first tiny, very, very small quality transistor radio. And I remember that well because my parents gave me one as a gift. Uh, I just found it fast. It was beautifully made. It worked great. It was only am of course, in those days. Do you still have it? No, I don't. I wish I did. I wouldn't be surprised if that was something on a shelf. So we have a lot of stuff and I want to open a museum here because we've got so much stuff scattered about excellent. But you know, that little radio was one of the reasons that, um, I got very interested in consumer electronics as a young child. So Sony is part of the reason why there is a Crutchfield corporation. Very definitely. That radio, I think had a big bearing on my interest in consumer electronics. Cause this was the dawn of the, um, transistor era. Um, and transistors had not been out for that many years before Sony introduced this radio and it really was a game changer because radios were big and clunky and, um, were too tight and they, with two type radios, they had big batteries and even the portable ones. And, um, when Sony came out with this very small all transistor radio with relatively small battery is light is quality. It was just an amazing product. You know, throughout the years, we've been helping launch many of Sony's many

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innovations that you're more familiar with yesterday. I spent about an hour in our company library going over all of these old catalogs and are probably hundreds of them up there. And let me, let me just go through a list of some of the innovations that we've helped Sony launch in the fall of 1975 crutch, but well, prior to that, that was my fourth catalog when I introduced, um, our first home product. And those were Sony, um, cassette and eight track decks. Um, but they were branded super scope. And that's an interesting story because between 1957 and 1975 Sony products, products made by Sony were distributed by a U S company called super scope and branded as such, um, that changed in 1976 when all their products became branded as Sony products. Interesting history. Then in 1981, we introduced home audio. That's when I've converted from strictly car stereo with a few little home products like these Sony, Tom decks. Um, we got very serious into home audio. And, um, one of the first products, a couple of early products that were all Sony's the Sony had a small compact audio system and we carried that and featured that proudly. Then there was the legendary Sony Walkman that had just come out and we featured that as well. And interestingly, we had three small Sony TVs, um, that were portable. And we think of our giant TVs today. We were excited by these little TVs with the screens ranging from 3.7 to 7.7 inches. So I think I remember those, aren't they the view man, civil walkman. I think it was called a view man. Sony's one of Sony's strengths seems to be taking things that we know and, uh, let's see how small we can make it and make it even more accessible and usable for more people. Well, there's another interesting thing about Sony and the Walkman is a good example of that. Um, you know, a lot of my success has been driven by, um, intuition. You know, I don't do, you know, I really believe in my gut feeling and Mr. Morita who founded Sony was the same way. When he came up with the idea of a Walkman, everybody told him it was crazy because the conventional thinking then, if you're going to have a portable cassette player, it had to have record capability. It needs to be able to record. Exactly. And he said, he said, no, that might get too big and too heavy and too expensive. So the Walkman really was amazing. And, and again, against, he went against all, um, advice in introducing it. And it became a sensation all over the world. So, um, great story there. We got even more serious into high five. We introduced Sony receivers, a lot of, um, receivers, a line of turntables, tape decks, and even some Sony microphones. So we were really deep into Sony high five products back in 1982, not 72. Now, were those microphones like pro audio, like studio type microphones? Well, they were probably between. They may not have been true studio, but they were certainly not, um, the real chief microphones that you thought of in that era, but they were good quality microphones. Nice. Then in the summer of 82, a big breakthrough came out when Sony introduced the beta max VCRs. Ah, yeah. And this was really revolutionary because now we could record, um, our anything we wanted to see and play it back when we wanted. And it totally transformed television viewing and they were extremely popular. For several years of my childhood bill, we had a Sony beta max, uh, VCR on our kitchen counter with a small Sony TV above it, and everybody in the family knew not to ever touch it because my mother had it set to record days of our lives every day at 1PM. And if you messed with her timer and it didn't record, nobody was going to be happy that day. So I have both fond and scary memories of the Sony beta max VCR. Well, it was a tremendous piece of engineering and it was a brilliant product and the quality was excellent. I mean, one problem when they, it, it, it fell out of favor because VHS came along, JVC came up with a VHS system and it was capable of recording for two hours where the Sony beta max initially was only capable of recording one hour. Yeah. So that put VHS way ahead in the, in the marketplace, but it was a terrific system. And, and you know, up until very recently, um, TV outlets were using beta max technology for remote, um, our, for, um, news programs. I know when they've come out here and done interviews with me, it's with a Sony beta max. Yeah. Professional recorder. Yeah. That far outlived the beta max at home. That's correct. State of pro pro format for so long. Precisely. Exactly. Also at that same time in 1982, Sony came out with a pro field series of TV components. I remember I had one in my house and on, they were literally component TVs. The screen was separate. It was like a, um, you know, display we have today, but they're giant because they were all CRTs big toot and they weighed a ton and then the tuner was separate. The beta max was separate and, um, you could kind of put them together as you wanted and locate them where you want. I had my components in a different location than my TV display. So it was a great, and the technology was superb. I mean, it was, um, excellent technology, the best of the time in 1984. That was another big, big breakthrough because Sony invented and we helped launch, um, both car and home CD players. And you know, that, that really was an amazing piece of technology. And again, Sony was the principal driver of that. In 86, um, Sony came out with a small compact beta max and many eight millimeter portable cameras. So, um, this was the first time the camera wasn't tethered to the, um, portable player. One thing I didn't mention, let me back up again back to 82. Um, I got off on the pro field components, but they also came out that year with, to call the beta pack. And that was a portable VCR with a connected camera. Now they just didn't have the technology then to combine the recorder and the camera. So we lugged around this, this box, which was the recorder. And then we had the camera that was connected by cable. I have fond memories of this as well. My parents had one. So you took out like half the VCR removed from the VCR deck. And, uh, you would carry it around with the camera. That's where the tape would go. My mom made like, she's soda bags so that she could shoulder strap that part of it. So she could have a portable camera. Uh, and we filmed so many things with that. It just has a family. It was a great time. No fond memories of those. We laugh at stuff like that now, but back then it was just revolutionary. I mean, this is, this is a long, long time ago, 1982, but then in 86, uh, four years later, they were able to, um, make it much more compact. And that's when they came out with the first cameras with the eight, with both beta max and then another version with the mini eight millimeter decks built into the camera. That was a real game changer. Now 96 was really, uh, this shows the depth of our Sony partnership. I think more than almost anything. That's a big year for us at Crutchfield because that is the year I started. Oh, that makes it really. That makes it, that makes it a really important. But what were you going to say, Bill?

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It's okay for me to talk. Thank you, Jay. And now I have this permission now.

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Huffy, that's okay. I'll talk to him later. In 1995 or 1996, well, let me back up in 1995, Crutchfield launched the first consumer electronics website in the world. Um, it went live only one month after Amazon.com. And we didn't even know about Amazon.com. That was a little company out in Seattle. They were selling books. Yeah. Full of books online. I think I've heard of them. Yeah. But so many people, I'll get off the subject for a minute. So many people thought I was crazy. One of my very successful businessmen were telling me, Bill, you're nuts. Why do you, why are you investing in this, this crazy idea? Nobody's going to buy products like yours over a computer.

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Well, and people in the company thought I was crazy. So we, in order to get away from all the critics here in the company, I rendered some space over at the airport and moved a team of people. You remember that. I do. Yes. We moved a small team of people over to the airport to develop this website. And we did. And we were the first consumer electronic website. Well, you were crazy in the seventies to start a catalog. Oh, there were people were going to buy it. Nobody's going to buy it over the mail either. That's right. I, my next door neighbor was a professor at our graduate business school at the university of Virginia. Told me I was totally crazy. And, um, well, Well, you're the right kind of crazy. That's the right time. You have to go back to what I was saying earlier. Follow my intuition. So a lot of times that conflicts with logic. Um, now initially when we launched this website and you remember this, it was not transactional because we hadn't developed the transactional technology at that point. Being able to take credit cards, all of it online. Yeah. It was basically collecting names for, um, catalog inquiries, but we were working frantically to make it transactional. And we launched the transactional phase of aspect of that website in the spring of 96 and guess who will guess the manufacturers of the product that we launched in the spring of 1996. I don't have to guess. Can I guess? Yeah. Go ahead. How about Sony? How about that? That's the right brand. What product do you remember the 96? No, I was busy graduating from high school. Sony satellite TV products for direct TV. That's exactly right. That was the only thing we were selling then we had this and this morphed later into direct TV, but Sony started that well, direct TV launched the satellites back then and they were providing the programming, but all the home electronics at that time were made by sounding. Yeah. So the only thing we had on that first transactional website were the home receivers, we had antennas, we had various different little accessories and, um, and we had a lot of content about how you go about buying and installing these, this new technology. I bought one and installed one in 96 and you could do it yourself because it was unlike those big satellite dishes where you needed a pro to come do it. There was a little blinking light on it to let you know if you were dialed in on the satellite. I mean, I had it installed easy. I never knew I could do anything like that. And all of a sudden I could watch any TV show I wanted. It was great. I did the same. I did exactly the same thing. Then let's go up, skip another year and go up to 1997. That's when the DVD came out. And of course we helped Sony launch the DVD. Then in 2003, um, we start carrying Sony cameras at that time. We were only selling the point and shoot cameras and they were pretty well made obsolete and in later years by things like our phones. Yeah. On smartphones and 2004, um, HDTV started and then a very crude form. It started with rear projection TVs and big plasma TVs. Now these plasma TVs did have a relatively flat screen, but they were very heavy. And, um, um, they put out a lot of heat and they put a lot of heat and they, and they had a burn in problem. If you left them on too long, it'd burn into the screen. So, but it was the beginning. I mean, all new technologies go through their, their teething pains. Yeah. And that's what happened with that. But it, it really got us going. And then the next year in 2004, the LCD TV started coming out. And, um, and of course we carried all the Sony TVs since then we've helped launch a constant evolution of Sony audio photography and video products. So it's been just a really interesting ride and we're so proud that we've been able to share their success. You know, Huffy and I have been putting together a list of all of the Sony first and innovations and key products over the years. And the list is too long for one podcast episode to contain. You put together a nice streamlined list, uh, that really highlights Sony stuff, uh, as it relates to how we've been a part of that. And so I, I, you went, you went above and beyond for today's podcast, Bill. Thank you so much. Uh, I do have another question for you. That's fine. But go ahead. See, since you complimented me, I'll let you. Oh, yes.

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Is that the secret? I need to do that more.

[00:30:04:11 - 00:33:46:13]
Noted. Noted. Uh, so we've carried Sony car products since very early in Crutchfield's history, as you just sort of sketched out for us. Uh, but Sony just announced that they are exiting the car stereo business just within the last month. Uh, this is kind of big news for us. Uh, and it's, it seems like it's maybe a sad but necessary business decision on Sony's part and that's just how, I don't know, that's how I react to it. Uh, how do you see it and what does this decision say about like the car stereo business overall? Well, no, I totally agree with you. That's it's, it is unfortunate and we're going to miss their products, um, because they've been just superb. Like all Sony products, quality has been excellent and the features are great. But you're looking at this in perspective one, um, this is a very small part of Sony's business. So, um, the mobile electronics, maybe their smallest business. I mean, it's, it's tiny compared to television or audio or, or now they're getting into industrial products like sensors that are used on smart cars. But, um, it, it makes sense because they don't want to be distracted with a declining business. And it is declining because unfortunately for the aftermarket car stereo industry, cars are getting away from the ability to install aftermarket, particularly head units, you can, speakers are still possible, but you know, so many modern cars, say I don't know my, my cars, the multi-function display in the center of the dash contains a lot of electronics and there's just no way you can really, um, retrofit an aftermarket head unit into most of these modern cars. And that's only going to get worse as cars continue to evolve in the very old cars leave the highways. So it was a good business decision. And, but it was a very understanding and it's very understandable that they would, and we're going to see more of that, but there will be, we will still have a car stereo business because there will be some lines that will, um, or relatively smaller, you know, smaller companies that will concentrate on, on coming up with ways to, um, conquer some of these challenges that modern cars present. That was my read on the situation as well. Was that, yeah, Sony is not a car stereo company. They are a massive company, far bigger than just car stereo. And there are car stereo companies that we sell and deal with that do specialize. And that's where you're going to see the innovation come from. You're going to see it coming out of some of the other companies we represent. And, um, but, um, no, I think it's very large and Sony, we just can't, you can't realize how big a company this is. I mean, it's, it's not just in products. I mean, they've got, uh, and consumer products, they've got professional products, they dominate, um, you know, the TV broadcasting industry, um, digital cameras for the movie industry that with Sony studios pictures, they, um, have a very big presence in entertainment. The video games are very big part of their business. So this was just a teeny teeny tiny part. I'm sure it was less than 1% of their total business. And we still have plenty of other wonderful Sony products. Oh yeah. Yeah. And then we'll have more Sony products that, but they won't be in car stereo. Sony TVs, home theater receivers, all that stuff. Headphones huge in that good cameras. Yeah. The mirror mirrorless cameras are some of the best in the world. I mean, they, they still excel in a lot of ways that, uh, we can still partner with them. And so, oh, I totally agree. No, our partnership will continue to strengthen over the years. That's wonderful. All right, Bill, here's a question I didn't put on the thing I sent you earlier. No.

[00:33:47:14 - 00:33:52:15]
Do what Sony products, if any, do you currently own and use and enjoy?

[00:33:53:17 - 00:35:04:06]
Oh goodness. We have some Sony TVs in our home. I had Sony head, the wireless, the cordless, um, um, noise canceling headphones I use on trips. Do you use the over the ear ones or the in-ears? No, no, I use the over the ear. My, what my wife has the inner ear ones, but I use the over the ear ones. And, um, we have Sony amplifiers on home receivers for home theater receivers. Home theater receivers. We know we almost, and I've Sony cameras, I have several Sony cameras. And, um, I think we have a sampling of almost everything they make in the consumer area. Yeah. On one of the first episodes of this show, I promised our listeners that at some point we would ask Bill what he, what he has at home that he was interested in, because that was the original conceit of Crutchfield the podcast, and it's only fitting that this should happen on the last episode of Crutchfield the podcast. Bill, thank you so much for taking time to join us in the studio today. It's been a pleasure having you. Well, thank you. And we'll certainly try to resurrect our podcast because I think it's an exciting part of our business, but we're going to take a pause for a little while. Yeah. A pause would be a good thing. And, uh, I like the idea that it is a pause, not a stop. It is. It's going to be a pause. You have that recorded now too. I do.

[00:35:05:06 - 00:35:11:03]
I'm going to play that for anybody that asks. Right. Bill, thanks once again. Okay. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it. Fun.

[00:35:12:12 - 00:36:16:13]
Hey, Huffy, we're back. Yes. Bill's gone. Yes. We have closed the door on this chapter with Bill in the studio. Yeah. Uh, and, uh, what do you, what do you think? How fun was that having Bill Crutchfield in here? My heart is finally starting to kind of calm down a little bit. I, you know, like I said earlier, I do get a little nervous when, when the boss man is, is around, but, uh, it's all good. It was amazing having him in the studio to put an exclamation point on this cool thing that we created. So I didn't think anybody here could have warmer feelings towards Sony than I did, but Bill clearly does. And I don't know, it was naive of me to think he wouldn't, uh, because Sony's been with us since literally the first couple of years of Crutchfield. So yeah, fantastic. Big thanks to Bill for, uh, for doing that. Crutchfield, the podcast is recorded right here at Crutchfield headquarters in beautiful Charlottesville, Virginia, where Bill started this company back in 1974.

[00:36:18:03 - 00:36:26:01]
This show is produced, recorded, edited, and conceived by me, JR, with help from Huffy, Dom, Tara, and more here at Crutchfield.

[00:36:27:04 - 00:39:06:16]
Thanks to Alexis for keeping up with our social media channels, comment on any of our posts and mention the podcast. And she will funnel your comments over to us. And, uh, I don't know if there's enough of them, that could be a reason that we get to keep doing the podcast. So, so do not stop sending us. Well, maybe, maybe start sending us comments and questions. Uh, you can also just email us podcast at crutchfield.com. If you do have thoughts, questions, uh, if you have thoughts on what the future of Crutchfield, the podcast should look like, uh, that would be a great place to share them, uh, and we'd love to address your concerns and questions and thoughts and compliments and anything else you have to share on a future episode. We got to make it happen. I don't know when it'll be, but we, we're looking forward to that day when this show comes back. That's right. Go to crutchfield.com slash podcast for all the show notes, transcripts, links, and more that page won't be going anywhere. So this show will live on in its current form. Uh, Huffy, thank you for being here with me on each episode. I want to just honestly tell you, buddy, this show would be way less fun to do without you. I appreciate it. Honestly, the fun's been all on my side. I feel like, uh, it's been fun to do. It's been fun to laugh with you, to laugh at me, laughing at you, laughing at whatever. Um, it's been, it's been great man to my Johnny Carson. That's what I think. Whatever, whatever it's, it's been a lot of fun. I'm glad that we have it. We've had this opportunity to do this together. It's, you know, talking about the stuff we do at work. We both enjoy our job. We both, uh, love the company we work for, the cool toys, the people that buy the cool toys that we get to interact with. It's, uh, it's been fun to put all that in podcast form and, uh, whatever the future holds, I look forward to, uh, you know, playing whatever role I can with that. So it's all good. And lastly, thank you. No, usually we take this moment to say thanks to Bill. Uh, yeah, I was in the middle of saying that just now, but it was really cool because we actually got to do it in person. Of course we weren't recording during that, but it was, uh, it was nice to have him in studio. So, uh, thanks, Bill. Yeah. For the past six years, he's been paying us whether he knew it or not to talk about the coolest stuff on the planet. He's very aware now. Absolutely. Uh, and, uh, yeah, it's been a pleasure doing this podcast and we hope to be back uh, sometime in the future. Uh, and I was going to say this time, thanks to Bill for talking with us about the coolest stuff on the planet. So there we go. Yeah. Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Bill.

[00:39:32:14 - 00:39:33:18]
I think I just spit on the desk.

[00:39:35:12 - 00:39:38:17]
Do not include that. That there's so many better things.

[00:39:40:08 - 00:39:44:02]
That's going to be the thing. No, just spit on the desk.

[00:39:45:03 - 00:39:53:11]
The things that make me laugh the most are what typically ends up at the very end of the show. And I don't care if anybody else finds them funny.