
Hi Tech Service
Special | 9m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
Customers pick up their gear and say goodbye as Tom closes his beloved stereo repair shop.
After 34 years on Nolensville Pike, Tom is retiring, and his venerable stereo repair shop, Hi Tech Service, will be emptied out by the end of the month. This observational portrait captures the final days of a Music City institution: floor-to-ceiling stereo gear, takeout egg rolls on the counter, and the buzz of conversation from the people who made Hi Tech Service an irreplaceable community hub.
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Southern Shorts is a local public television program presented by WNPT

Hi Tech Service
Special | 9m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
After 34 years on Nolensville Pike, Tom is retiring, and his venerable stereo repair shop, Hi Tech Service, will be emptied out by the end of the month. This observational portrait captures the final days of a Music City institution: floor-to-ceiling stereo gear, takeout egg rolls on the counter, and the buzz of conversation from the people who made Hi Tech Service an irreplaceable community hub.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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(Classical music playing) (classical music continues) (record player button clicks) (classical music continues) (chair squeaks) - [Owner] Ahh, it's a big job.
How big are your woofers?
- My woofers?
- Yes.
- You know what I've got?
It's a big Nakamichi PA-7 power-- - See that, what happens when it goes down like that, there'll be a big base transient.
- Oh, okay.
- You couldn't just put them out in the middle of the floor.
So, okay.
So it sort of works.
- Okay.
- Yeah, unfortunately the service manual doesn't tell us how to do it.
- Okay.
- So it's one of these things.
- But I could probably but I could probably figure it out.
- They thought it would never fail.
- [Woman] If the door's locked cause we're technically not open, just knock.
He'll be here.
And I'll make sure he knows you're coming.
- [Customer] That'll last me a year and I'm like, okay.
Oh I'm so happy cause I got the other one working and it's just crappy but that's okay.
It was mom's old-- - [Owner] Yeah.
This is better.
- Yeah.
Much better.
Thank you so much.
- Yeah, thank you.
- Well, the best of luck.
- Thank you.
Music makes the world go around.
- Yes.
- [Customer] Enjoy retirement.
- [Male Customer] You're open next week or?
- [Female Worker] This is it, pretty much.
- Yeah, we'll be open a few days next week just for, to tie up loose ends, but probably not next weekend.
- Shuttin' down, I got ya.
(background conversations) (melancholy music plays) - So I'm here second shift (laughs) Better than no shift.
Yeah, I haven't even had lunch.
- [Berta] Hey Kenny!
- Hey Berta.
- [Berta] How you doing?
- Next Friday I'm gonna be taking off for Cleveland.
- Yeah.
So when's your last day here?
- Thursday.
It just appeared on my bench.
- Okay, he brought it back.
You might hook it up and see if the aux input works.
- He leaves Friday morning.
- [Berta] Oh, he's leaving Friday morning?
- And he's going moving back to Ohio, so.
- Okay.
- We should do maybe Sunday night?
We could do like a get together or something, just everyone.
- We'll just take him somewhere?
- Would he like Slim and Huskies?
That's down the road from him because he lives off Bell road, doesn't he?
- [Berta] I'll ask him.
You know, I don't know if he do or not.
- Yeah, because you can pick whatever you want.
Hi, how's it going?
What can I do for you?
- [Customer] I need a remote.
- [Female Worker] Yeah, do you know what brand it was?
- I threw all my TV remotes away.
Every single one is gone.
- You didn't do that.
- I did that.
well I didn't have that one so I didn't throw it away.
- You ordered me one last month.
- I know, I know.
- You can try Amazon, there's lots of budget.
- Well she doesn't go on Ebay so.
- EBay or Amazon will have them.
- So what do you need for this to order me one?
- More time cause I'm closing up.
I'm retiring.
You should retire too.
- [Customer] Your journey has been phenomenal.
- Well we kind of underestimated it but we always try to take care of people cause the word gets out.
- [Customer] At this point you know, I can't refer anybody else to you unless you wanna give me your cell phone and then I'll track you down.
(all laughing) - Yes, sure, sure!
- [Berta] We want to take you out.
- Appreciate that.
- [Berta] We want to take you out to Slim and Huskies cause we know you like pizza, right?
- Absolutely.
- [Berta] You like all kind of pizza?
- Anything but anchovies.
- [Berta] That's on it, you know.
- Everything else is all good.
- [Berta] I know.
Did you, do you ever been to Slim and Huskies?
- Uh uh.
- [Berta] You ain't never been there yet?
- Uh uh.
- [Customer] How long have you been here?
I've been here, I mean I've been seeing this spot here since I was like almost a teenager, man.
I mean, back in the early eighties.
I know for sure its been here, right?
- We, I think we were here in '84.
(music plays) There we go.
- [Customer] Okay, well let's get it then.
- Okay.
- [Customer] As long as I can go home, plug up my stereo to that mug and jam my apartment with Funkadelics, I'm good.
(all laughing) - Kenny, what was the album that really floored you?
Any album.
What album did you hear for the first time that floored you?
It blew your mind.
- [Kenny] Peter Gabriel's "So".
- [Rocker] For me, it was Black Sabbath's debut.
The Godfathers of heavy metal was Cream.
If you listen to fresh Cream, man, nobody sounded like Cream back in 1966.
- [Kenny] But yeah, yeah that's where I - [Berta] Is it in reverse, Tom?
- It's okay.
- [Kenny] They'll figure it out.
- Don't even need to.
- Ahh okay.
- He's up there.
- Hold that.
- Oh very good.
Oh please.
Okay.
- [Rocker] But if you really wanna look at like the premier guitar players.
You had Yardbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.
(background talking) Yardbirds, you had Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck.
John Mayall, you had Mick Taylor was later, replaced Brian Jones in Rolling Stones.
And Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood Peter Green, John McVie from Fleetwood Mac.
- [Kenny] Yeah, and you, do you know the story behind Peter Green's guitar that, that-- - Yeah.
- [Kenny] Gary Moore, the late Gary Moore from Dublin.
He ended up with the guitar.
- He sold it.
He sold it to Kirk Hammett from Metallica.
- [Kenny] Oh okay.
Okay.
- Do you know what made his-- - [Kenny] I heard it's in the museum now.
Is it still?
- No, Kirk Hammett owns it, but he keeps it over in England.
- [Kenny] Okay.
Okay (group talking) - [Kenny] See I'm moving in a week.
As soon as High Tech closes I'm, I'm hightailing it for Cleveland, Ohio.
I'm gonna be up there for a year or two.
- [Rocker] Keep in touch, okay?
- Will do sir.
And I'll be back to visit.
I'm gonna be up there for a year or two taking care of some things for my mom.
She's got a lot of work she needs done and she can't really afford it, so you know.
And she trusts me.
I'm her son, so.
Well, we're actually on good terms, so.
Some people aren't.
- [Rocker] What about your dad?
- [Kenny] Not so much.
We probably had that discussion before.
- [Rocker] Yeah, I thought maybe y'all come to terms with that.
- [Kenny] Yeah.
Nah, it is what it is.
He, he made this decision.
It's all cool.
Everybody's gotta do that.
- [Rocker] We all gotta go our own ways.
- [Kenny] Right.
You know it.
You know it.
- [Rocker] You gotta live your life for you too, man.
- [Female] Egg rolls.
- [Male] Egg rolls.
- [Berta] Oh, Brazil.
Nah, I pass on that.
It's a Donna Hathaway one.
I got that.
- [Man] That's a goodie.
- [Rocker] Now if you go back to Greek mythology, you know that Greek mythology makes a lot of sense to Christianity.
- [Kenny] Well, a lot of parallels.
Lots of parallels.
- [Rocker] But if you look at Buddha, Buddha shows a lot of what Christianity is.
They believe even a cockroach has a right to live.
- Let's sit let's, oh.
We're gonna make a tower.
- [Male Worker] We might as well.
- Tower of power.
(light piano playing) - [Rocker] Look at ancient civilization.
- [Kenny] Yeah.
- [Rocker] I'm talking like 50 ton stones, man.
- [Kenny] They left behind.
Exactly.
They left behind.
- [Rocker] You couldn't even jackhammer a penny through was symmetrical in all the way.
- [Kenny] Yep.
How did they create that?
They had super tools.
I mean tools that were much stronger than our, even the strongest tools, hardest tools.
- [Rocker] Look at the pyramids symmetrical in every way.
- [Kenny] I think it's possible that those civilizations actually had greater technology than we have today.
And it might have been wiped out from an asteroid.
- [Rocker] I believe, man, that the pyramids, they served no purpose except for being in a line.
- Hey, can I get you guys to help bring stuff in?
- [Rocker] Oh, geez.
- [Kenny] I gotta have lunch.
- Please?
- [Rocker] Come on, come on, come on!
(piano music begins) - [Kenny] Yeah, and I was behind schedule all day.
(Conversation fades) (piano music continues)
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