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Business was brisk at the final Pennsylvania Music Expo at its present location, and organizers of the popular monthly event said they are optimistic the show will go on.
"We don't have a spot yet," B. Derek Shaw, spokesman for the Keystone Record Collectors, said Sunday.
"People are wondering what's going to happen," he said. "We're still looking."
KRC has hosted the show for music enthusiasts for nearly 30 years. The expo has been held for about a year at the Pennsylvania Jaycees Bingo Hall, 2460 New Holland Pike, Leola.
But the Jaycees, Shaw said, have suspended the twice-weekly bingo event and will no longer lease the site.
On Sunday, expo patrons were focused more on finding good deals on good music.
The aisles, as usual, were crowded — even more so in the early morning hours, Shaw said, when many devoted collectors flock to find hidden gems among the wares.
Tables were packed to overflowing with CDs, books on music, T-shirts, knickknacks and, of course, vinyl.
LPs, 45s, even some rare 78s, all discs of perfect black roundness that were taken carefully out of their jackets and sleeves, gently blown free of dust and examined from every angle for any hint of a scratch.These people know their music.
"This is really an institution," Phil Schwartz, KRC's special projects coordinator, said Sunday. "It'd be a shame to see it end."
Shaw said they almost settled on a location at a local school — but unfortunately, he said, the site had only round tables to offer for KRC's use.
"Round tables don't work at a record show," he said. "We need rectangular tables."
KRC is looking for a climate-controlled site within Lancaster County with at least 7,000 square feet of open space, ample parking and easy access for vendors to load and unload their goods, Shaw said. The space would need to be available for use on the second Sunday each month.
Show coordinator Steve Yohe said KRC is booking tables for October "as if we're going to have a show."
"If we have to suspend it for a month or two, we will," he said. "But we got a lot of leads today. I'm excited by the response."
Yohe said KRC will announce news of a location for October on the KRC Web site, recordcollectors.org, and their hotline, 898-1246.
(777) (4) (4) (4) (2)"We don't want to see the show go down the tubes. We have a lot invested in this," said Shaw, who has been active in KRC since 1984.
Yohe said he helped found the show in 1979, back when it was held in club members' homes and, starting in 1980, at the Columbia Market House.
"People keep finding us. Most people can't even conceive of it until the walk in and see all the records and CDs," Yohe said. "So I'm confident something will turn up. ... It's in the hands of fate now."
E-mail: tknapp@lnpnews.com
