n Family Business
ohn Radakovitz stands in front of a makeshift assembly line in the back ware-
house of Dimple Records in Roseville in July. One by one, he picks up a record,
places it gently in a sleeve, affixes an orange price sticker to the front and sets
it aside.
Music has been at the core of John’s entire adult life. He’s made a career
of trading tonal poetry captured on vinyl, then magnetic tape, then polycar-
bonate plastic disks — and somehow, in this era where millions of people lease
music encoded as zeroes and ones, the company he cofounded more than four
decades ago is still going strong. People still walk into his seven stores scattered
throughout the Sacramento area, and they’re buying music, movies, video games
and books, both new and used.
But John knows many people are walking into his stores for what could be
their last time: In June, John and his wife, Dilyn Radakovitz, announced Dimple
would close, and they immediately started liquidating the remaining inventory.
He’s putting the records in plastic sleeves, placing stickers on each one of them,
priced to move, because everything has to be gone in just a matter of weeks.
He pauses only when asked this question: What’s one thing he’ll miss about
Dimple Records?
“I don’t think he was ready for that question,” his son An-
drew Radakovitz says from a corner of the warehouse. John
never answers the question: He falls silent, his hands start
trembling, and, for a man who likes to crack wise at any oppor-
tunity, he is left speechless. Then he leaves the room.
For John and Dilyn, the full effect likely won’t be felt until
they start to see the shelves empty. “The liquidators keep say-
ing it won’t fully hit them for the first few weeks,” Andrew says
in July, two months before all stores closed. “They’ll see the
(sales) numbers, and things will feel like they’re still going, and
then they’ll start to see the store shelves empty out. They’ll sell
the fixtures. And that’s when it’ll feel real.”
MUSICAL BEGINNINGS
John Radakovitz woke up the morning of his 17th birthday to
find his parents had smashed his dinner plate and placed a
Greyhound bus ticket under his bed pillow. His parents gave
him an ultimatum: Enlist in the military or find a way to make
it on his own. Either way, he was getting out of the house.
Dimple Records specialized in used albums (above). The Roseville store (right)
featured unique decor — and empty shelves as the liquidation reduced invento-
ry. photos by matthew keys
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comstocksmag.com | October 2019