1981: Jimmy built his first recording studio and opened rental operation at 260 Main Avenue in Stirling, NJ.
1983: The business moved to 239 Main Avenue still in Stirling. Worked mostly for club bands and concentrated on buying more equipment.
1985: By purchasing Dugan Sound SAS was able to expand into new areas like sporting events, college graduations, events that used 70 volt systems, and corporate theater.
1986: We were privileged to provide the sound for the Statue of Liberty's 100th Anniversary Official New Jersey events at Liberty State Park. We also bought a Midas 36 Ch. Pro 3 mixing console.
1988: Our pro equipment grew even more when we purchased EAW KF 850s and Crest 8000 amplifiers. Jimmy and Marianne got married.
1989: Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, New Jersey, used our large concert system for the next three summers in their Great Arena.
1992: On two weeks notice, we provided 25 sound systems for the Morristown, NJ "1st Night" New Year's Eve celebration.
1994: SAS toured with the WWF through the USA and Canada, purchased our TAC SR 6000 48 channel front of house mixing console, and got ready for the Pope to come to Newark but he was a no-show.
1995: We moved the business to Route 206 South, Somerville, NJ. We also purchased our TAC SR 6500 40 X 18 monitor desk. AND we got to provide sound for Pope John Paul's visit to Newark, NJ.
1996: The highlight of this year was providing sound for President Clinton at Princeton University's Graduation Ceremony as well as Princeton University's 250th Birthday Celebration.
1997: The year of More! More touring, more special events, more corporate events, more installations, more shows.
1998: We purchased the major assets of Blue Chip Sound, leased two new 16' GMC diesel trucks, upgraded our computer network to NT 4.0 server and workstations, and did more gigs with WWF, Bill and Hillary.
1999: Another busy year that included the 100th Army/Navy Football Game Halftime Show, expanded our management team, did shows at PNC Arts Center, Waterloo Village, State Theater, more WWF, James Beard Awards, AT&T, Lucent and J&J Web Week Conferences.
2000: Bought two 24' box trucks and a new van, added 16 more 850s to inventory, moved to a new location with 12,000 sq feet in Highland Park, NJ, completed upgrade of the N.Y.S.E. Boardroom's sound system and video screen, said goodbye to Rod, Al, Don, Joh H., Mike F., Lynn and Mike G., said Hello to John Lynch, Gene Pawlowski, Danny Swarbrick, Jeff Dunn, Brian Holling, Geoff peterson, Errin & Joe, Lico & Mark, Anthony , Chris. We grew gross sales by more than 50%!
2001: We enter our 20th Year!
Jim Ferrante: Owner/President for life, Big Cheese, Head Muck-i-Muck. Played guitar since age 6; at 7 "borrowed" his father's dictation machine to see how close he could match Jimi Hendrex and Led Zepplin guitar licks. He's been hooked on equipment ever since.
Jimmy rented his first sound system in the eighth grade. He was signed to Arista Records at 17 and promptly became a statistic.
He graduated Bentley College in 1981, High Honor Eco/Fin major, Accounting minor.
Started Stirling Audio Services in 1981.
Married Marianne in 1988. They have three cats.
Brian Holling: Installations Manager
Danny Swarbrick: Shop Manager
Randy Cutlip: Assistant Shop Manager Veteran of the Jersey club scene.
Donny Quinton: Rental Manager Over 20 years experience touring, concerts, stage and tour management, worked with Regina Belle, Will Downing, WWF. Married Kathleen in 1994; they have two sons.
Gene Pawlowski: IS Manager
Phil Liebowitz: Systems Engineer, Rigging Specialist
Gus Heningburg: Systems Engineer, Site Coordinator
Adam Roller: Systems Engineer, MIDI Specialist
Curt Hansen: Systems Engineer, Bass player extradinaire
Terry Loftus: Systems Engineer
Geoff Peterson: Systems Engineer
Tony Pagano: Systems Engineer, Video/Projection Specialist, Powerpoint god
Johnathan Mills Winkler: Systems Engineer
Karl Maverick: Systems Engineer, Video/Projection Specialist
Joey DeMaio: Systems Engineer
John Lynch: Systems Engineer
George Bade: Systems Engineer, Installation Specialist
Currently Vacant - Office Manager
Marianne Mason Ferrante: Lan Administrator, Webmaster , application programmer, and all kinds of other stuff that the boss needs her to do. Great at rolling wire at the end of the night. BA, MA - Rutgers University, Certification in Computer Technology - SCTI, MCSE, MCP, MCP-I
Shop Kitty: Security Coordinator