One on One with Mike Chorney
RPM: Why don’t we start with finding out a little about your background and how you came to be involved with Car Audio in the first place?
Mike Chorney: I was originally going to school to be a doctor. Car audio was actually a hobby of my brothers but I took a liking to it as well and before I could even drive a car or had my license, I’d convinced my dad that I could get a car, build and install a great sounding car stereo system for it… and make money at it. That’s where it started. I began competing in car audio events and winning. Before long I was getting all kinds of people wanting me to build their systems. Friends of friends sorta thing, to the point where we had cars lined up in the alleyway behind our house. All cash business of course. Ultimately, the neighbours started complaining … and finally had the cops shut us down.
RPM: How did you translate that kind of hobbyist/backyard installing business into a “real job?”
MC: Rick Stewart, the owner of Visions Electronics, had heard about some kid doing all of these installs, and asked around to see who it was. Turns out he was a neighbour of ours. We ended up getting together, and he hired me on to help get the Visions Install business up and off the ground. I spent ten good years at Visions where we started a competition circuit and eventually took car audio from basically consisting of being a four-foot Kenwood board to ultimately having a full-blown program that continues today.
RPM: How is it that you ended up working for Future Shop?
MC: I was head-hunted by some senior corporate guys who were also car audio types. My primary job was to start the corporate program for car audio install as I’d done at Visions. That was ten years ago, and I still remember asking them how big they thought the service component of car audio install would grow to become. Their response at the time was “maybe doing a million($).” Short years later, we were doing over $30 million.
RPM: What do you see as having affected the biggest changes in the car/mobile audio segment over the years?
MC: If you look at the cycle of 12 Volt in general, the aftermarket was always several steps ahead of OEM and that gave an advantage to the aftermarket retailers and installation centres. But in recent years, OEM has caught up. While there will always be an enthusiast market wanting better than what is offered as standard equipment in OEM, our emphasis has changed somewhat to where now we have become better positioned to provide solutions for the customer’s individual needs. Through Bluetooth, back-up cameras, video systems, in-dash GPS or iPods – all varieties of integration have become a large part of our business. As an old audiophile, it pains me to admit that it’s less about the audio, but I think if you’re wanting to excel in today’s environment, you’ve got to understand what today’s environment looks like, and adapt accordingly.
RPM: What about marine as a segment for 12 Volt/mobile audio. Is this an area that you see any potential in?
MC: Well, speaking as a boater, with a lot of friends who are boaters, there just aren’t a lot of good marine retail spots for an enthusiast to go to. Generally speaking, you end up at a boat dealer who may have a small display and have a limited amount of inventory, that in turn sees them getting the pieces from somewhere else and then having to get someone else again to install it. It can become pretty cumbersome. With FS having a good reputation in 12 Volt and given that we are also already in the important markets (Calgary, the Okanagan, Vancouver, etc ), it’s just a natural fit for us to go after that category, so to answer your question – absolutely.
RPM: What, then, does the future of mobile audio & info/entertainment hold in store?
MC: iPod and iPhone, by virtue of the sheer volume of units hitting the market, play such an important role in all of this moving forward. Content and accessing your own personal content is really driving this wave. Your vehicle will interface with your home network, allowing you to access your content that way and become more and more interconnected with the likes of your portable GPS & iPhone. People have tried sim card-activated devices in the car, but it doesn’t make sense when your cell phone is in your pocket and you’re simply tapping into the network services of your phone.
RPM: So what will this all look like?
MC: You could have a deck in your vehicle that you can speak to and ask information from. For example, asking it to call for a reservation at a certain restaurant or show you directions of how to get there, all in a safe and hands-free environment. Driving safety and collision avoidance are becoming more and more important in the aftermarket as well. With the prevalence of backup sensors and cameras and the like, people who are in the market for a used car, or perhaps can’t afford a higher-end new car, or simply want to option out of those features for cost purposes, are going to the aftermarket for those products.
RPM: What differentiates, say, a Future Shop from a WalMart, Canadian Tire or Costco when it comes to bringing these new technologies to market?
MC: One of the things that we’ve realized is that new technology isn’t always easy to grasp. You know, when you get home and you’re facing unpacked boxes of computers, a TV, home theatre system, or car audio systems. How do you make it all work together? We have a service called Connect Pro Services, who are a team of trained technicians (some of whom have been here longer than I have and are incredible) who will make house calls to make your life that much easier in optimally connecting all of these technologies together. This is one area where we’ve successfully differentiated ourselves from any of the ‘mega big box’ retailers and will continue to grow moving forward.
RPM: And finally, what’s next for Mike Chorney?
MC: That’s a good question. I’ve been in this industry for 20 years and one of the things I like to do is work with staff and develop staff, so as I continue to do that…well, we’ll have to wait and see.
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