"Turntable sales are hot"

from wbbm780.com - by John Cody

(WBBM) – A major Chicago-area electronics retailer says the surprise seller of this holiday season is the phonograph turntable, an almost medieval technology from the time before there were iPods or even CDs.

WBBM's John Cody has the story.

They played phonograph records at either 33 or 45 revolutions per minute and sounded scratchy but nice.

Michael Abt, president of Abt Electronics in Glenview, says turntables are selling so fast that two popular models by Sony are sold out and won't be available until January. But, Abt says there are other turntables in stock.

Abt says people with vinyl record collections are digitizing the music to transfer it to iPods.  Or, their children or even grandchildren are doing the transfers for them.

He says Abt can only go so far in the record equipment distribution. 

He says he does not sell those old needles made from cactus thorn that were among the needles--other types were bamboo and steel--that once were used to play 78s. 78 rpm records came before vinyl LP records.