The Art of Business
Radio King: Burt Penchansky’s Acoustic Idyll
by Mala Hoffman; photo by Roy Gumpel

Burt Penchansky has a simple business plan. “I get up in the morning. I open the doors, and I beg people to think and I beg people to listen to music,” he says. His system is simple as well. “I have a philosophy that almost never fails me,” he explains. “I tell people to grab a piece of music that you love, that you’ve played frequently. Then shut up, sit down, and listen. If I succeed in doing that, then I have a multi-generational customer for life.”

It’s not exactly service with a smile, but it’s effective. Penchansky has been running Burt’s Electronics, located on Albany Avenue in Kingston, for more than a decade, and was also affiliated with a company across the street for several years before that. The business specializes in home and car stereo and video systems and car security, and was named Blaupunkt Dealer of the Year in 2000. Yet fighting against the tide of big box stores and sales mediocrity isn’t easy, Penchansky asserts.

“People want to be lazy. They want to roll into a town that has all the same stores. People want this easy option. They want to wander into a place and know what to expect. They’re giving up,” he says. “In my business, people like groovy, ornate toys. They want the big, most elaborate next thing and they want to get it without having to do any research. Then they walk in here with some piece of literature they’ve downloaded from the Internet, and I have to tear it up and throw it in the garbage.”

The process, he adds, is almost like re-education. “People don’t like to be told they’re wrong,” Penchansky says. “Since they’re already convinced they’re right, now they have to start all over again. They have their seven-page document and a friend who doesn’t know the product who agrees with them, so they’re all set.”

For Penchansky, who grew up in Sullivan County and balances working seven days a week with regular forays to concerts, listening to good music is not just entertainment, it’s a cultural necessity. “I’ve always loved music,” he says. “I got my first record player when I was five. I still remember what it was. I saw it at a yard sale recently.” (The model, a ge Wildcat, was from a time “back when ge really made things and didn’t just pollute the Hudson,” according to Penchansky.)
His career evolved from the hobby that began when he took apart the kitchen radio at age 10. “I put it back together and it worked perfectly,” he recalls. Later, while studying to become an English teacher at suny New Paltz, he did some electronics work for one of his professors, who encouraged him to change gears. “He said, ‘your interest is going to grow and expand. I think you can do a lot better with that,’” Penchansky adds. “He was probably right.”

After transferring to the rca Institute in Manhattan (conveniently located across the street from Madison Square Garden), Penchansky gathered the tools of the trade before then returning back upstate. “I already had the ‘what’ to do. They taught me the ‘why,’” he notes.

Now he uses that background and his own sense of quality to do exactly what he tells his customers when he goes to consumer electronics shows looking for new systems. “I bring a recording that I’m very familiar with and I insist on playing it through the equipment,” Penchansky says. “It’s ongoing homework.”

His goal, he emphasizes, is to wean the public from lesser-quality products that have to be replaced “needlessly and frequently. Every June or July, I get to see everyone’s player that they got for Christmas,” he adds. The warranty has run out, and Penchansky says he finds himself telling the customer that the $199 combination radio, tape, and compact disc player that seemed like such a deal needs $100 worth of work. Which, he adds, he won’t do, because ultimately, it isn’t worth it. “I can sleep at night,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of ‘you’ve changed my life’ stories.”

Which is actually why he continues to get up in the morning and open his doors. “The best review I ever get from someone describing a mall sale is ‘not bad.’ They’re just happy that it works at all,” Penchansky points out. “People will call me back after a sale, which they don’t have to do, they’re all set, but they call me to rave about how real it sounds. That’s what’s kept me going all these years. That’s why I keep doing this.”