Radio-Active Records in Fort Lauderdale is creating a cool scene

On the wall, a grid of album covers: Led Zeppelin II, Cash, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz celebrating the sonic verve of Cuba y Puerto Rico Son.

Below this, a row of new and used CDs: punk, heavy metal, soul and Motown, blues. There's some incense and books about bands by the register, a couple of listening stations trussed up with turntables and headphones.

The guts of Radio-Active Records, however, are in its back room, a cavernous square fringed by lime-green walls, where artists show their paintings and photos and musicians rock a small, hand-built stage.

Yet what stands out, above all else, is an extraordinary tally of vinyl records.

The independent music store, one of only a few in Broward County, first opened as a CD shop six years ago at the Gateway Plaza in Fort Lauderdale. Owner Sean Kayes had already run a couple of stores in Hollywood and Pompano Beach.

But Kayes had begun collecting vinyl, as addictive a habit as smoking or checking your e-mail. So he decided to start stocking it as well. His first purchase was 2,500 platters for $200, obtained from a woman who pulled up with the stack in the back of her pick-up truck.

Kayes and store manager Mikey Ramirez aren't sure how many records exist in current inventory, but they're guessing it's more than 8,000.

Radio-Active is as much a shrine as it is a vendor, and had you visited on a recent rain-drizzled afternoon, you would have joined the devout poring silently over neatly bundled bins, listening to New Order sing about power, corruption and lies, hoping to find whatever album for which they're pining, and for a deal at that.

Q. What makes vinyl special?

Mikey: CDs wind up on the floor of your car, or you throw them at your little brother. You tend to take more care of your records. You have to pay more attention to them; when [a record] ends you have to lift the needle. They just sound better. Each side has a story. When you listen to a record, it's more like "OK, here's the first part of the book, and here's the second part."

Q. What makes this store cool?

Sean: One of the greatest things for me is when somebody from Boston or New York walks in and says, "Wow, you have a record store like this in Florida?" It's in the oldest shopping center in Broward and all the stores in it are independently owned. The only chain is a Subway, but even that's a franchise.

Q. I like the green you chose for the walls.

Sean: I was going to do muddy colors, but when I said that to the kids — that's what I call my employees — they said, "Ehh. Can we do something different?"

Q. Why did you decide to expand the store to include the back room and a stage?

Sean: The AC broke and the landlord told me we had to go into the warehouse to fix it. I hadn't even been back there. I called Mikey and said, "You gotta come and see this. You won't believe it." It was an old decrepit storage space; I think it was a dining room for Nathan's [Famous] Hot Dogs at one time. It took us months to clean it out.

Mikey: It was beyond gross. Like a crime scene.

Q. What do you think the art shows and the live music bring to the store?

Sean: They bring the right kind of people, people who aren't commercial artists and who know that money is not everything. Let's face it, I'm not going to become rich running this shop. But my stress level is zero and I love coming to work.

Mikey: Even if I didn't work here, I'd be here buying records every day. I spend more time here than at my own house.

Q. How close is the vibe in Radio-Active to the record store in the movie High Fidelity?

Mikey: We're not that store. We're not going to treat someone [with disdain] just because they want to buy Billy Joel or Coldplay or some other music we don't listen to. We know most of our customers by first name. We treat everyone with respect.

Sean: Although if someone came into the store looking for that Stevie Wonder song, I might have to say something.

Q. What are your top five albums to accompany the brutal summer heat of Florida?

Sean: Anything by Toña La Negra. We just got in tons of Latin records, and I brought home five of hers to check her out. That was it. She's got one of those Edith Piaf- Billie Holiday, once-in-a-century kind of voices.

Mikey: Diamanda Galas, because it sounds like you're in the pit of hell. And that new Hercules and Love Affair. It's a good summer boogie. Also any Sun Ra. He's just cosmic.

Sean: Definitely the new Beck. He just nailed it. There's r&b stuff, shoegaze-y stuff. Plus he kept it short and sweet. It's 33 minutes and there's no fluff and no waste.

Q. Got any weird record tips?

Mikey: If you slow down the 12-inch copy of Madonna's Into the Groove, it sounds just like David Gahan from Depeche Mode.

Sean: When you play Imaginary Lover at 45 speed, it sounds like Stevie Nicks. She's Mikey's favorite.

Mikey: Don't write that. People might not know it's a joke.


WHERE IT'S AT
Radio-Active Records, 1930-B E. Sunrise Blvd., inside the Gateway Plaza, Fort Lauderdale; myspace.com/radio_active_records or 954-762-9488.

[Sun-Sentinel]