LAS VEGAS – PLSN’s Feb. 2020 issue will mark the 20th anniversary since magazine publisher and Timeless Communications founder Terry Lowe published the first issue of Pro Lights & Staging News in Feb. 2000. With that milestone in mind, NAMM invited Lowe to participate in the association’s Oral History program and share his reminiscences and perspective on the businesses of music and publishing.
Lowe recounts how, long before he knew he would be the publisher of seven music-related industry magazines and producer of an annual awards program (the Parnelli Awards), his first exposure to music was when his mom made him take tap dancing lessons as a kid. That led to his interest in drums and his place keeping the beat for a band in high school and college, teaching drum lessons on the side.
While still in his 20’s, he launched a magazine covering the Indianapolis music and entertainment scene called Hot Potato. After putting out that magazine for three years, the entrepreneurial Lowe got into booking and management, then got back into publishing with Performance magazine, a precursor to Pollstar, and then Mix magazine during its heyday, when issues distributed at AES could top 400 pages.
Along with building up PLSN (which now stands for Projection Lights & Staging News) and, two years later, the live audio production-focused FRONT of HOUSE magazine (FOH), Lowe launched a tradeshow call Pro Production, which the company did for four years. “That’s where the Parnelli Awards started,” Lowe notes.
And while Lowe’s company, Timeless Communications, no longer has a tradeshow under its umbrella, the Parnelli Awards, held for years during LDI in Las Vegas, are still going strong.
The Jan. 17, 2020 show, the third to coincide with NAMM in Anaheim, was the 19th annual ceremony, and it set a new record, with 750 attendees, who gave standing ovations to honorees including audio innovator Karrie Keyes, visionary award winner Michael T. Strickland and lifetime achievement award winner Mark Spring.
And if the Pro Production brand no longer applies to a tradeshow, it’s been adopted on the increasingly popular seminar program that Timeless Communications has been offering to NAMM attendees for the past three years.
To view the edited and full versions of the NAMM Oral History interview with PLSN publisher Terry Lowe, go to https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/terry-lowe
