Just stumbled onto this page and have really been enjoying the posts. Especially the posts from GarryB, TWKRIN, and KFOM. I grew up in Bloomington IN and owned a pair of Cizek (in typical Indiana drawl we pronounced them as SEE ZAK) speakers in the early 70's. I think I was 16 or 17 when I bought my speakers at a local stereo shop. The first new speakers I'd ever owned. I'm pretty sure they were the 10" two ways (don't remember the size of the tweeters) and I don't think I paid over $I00 new for the pair. I don't even remember them having model numbers at the time. I definitely remember they weighed a LOT. They did look a lot like AR-3s with very thin white grill cloth. You saw a lot of their speakers in Bloomington at that time as they were the best you could get for the money. I met Roy and Ronnie when I was working at The Guitar Gallery on Kirkwood. They came into the store occasionally as all of the "hippies" hung out around there on Kirkwood. I also met them again when I had a problem with one of the speakers and I hand carried them back to their factory for repair. At that time the "factory" was located on Walnut street right across from The Penguin. They did move around a lot and it was always pretty much known that they always had trouble paying the bills. I remember going there two or three times to make sure I got my speakers back.
I also remember that in my dealings with them Roy communicated with the public through Ron? Roy would say what he wanted to in a very soft tone and then Ron would repeat it at a level you could hear. At that time they didn't have any administrative staff that I saw.
I left Bloomington in 1978 and unfortunately my speakers didn't leave with me. I was always surprised to hear how successful they'd become after leaving IN. Cool to have them associated with my hometown.
Used to Work at Cizek
in Cizek
Posted
Hey All,
Just stumbled onto this page and have really been enjoying the posts. Especially the posts from GarryB, TWKRIN, and KFOM. I grew up in Bloomington IN and owned a pair of Cizek (in typical Indiana drawl we pronounced them as SEE ZAK) speakers in the early 70's. I think I was 16 or 17 when I bought my speakers at a local stereo shop. The first new speakers I'd ever owned. I'm pretty sure they were the 10" two ways (don't remember the size of the tweeters) and I don't think I paid over $I00 new for the pair. I don't even remember them having model numbers at the time. I definitely remember they weighed a LOT. They did look a lot like AR-3s with very thin white grill cloth. You saw a lot of their speakers in Bloomington at that time as they were the best you could get for the money. I met Roy and Ronnie when I was working at The Guitar Gallery on Kirkwood. They came into the store occasionally as all of the "hippies" hung out around there on Kirkwood. I also met them again when I had a problem with one of the speakers and I hand carried them back to their factory for repair. At that time the "factory" was located on Walnut street right across from The Penguin. They did move around a lot and it was always pretty much known that they always had trouble paying the bills. I remember going there two or three times to make sure I got my speakers back.
I also remember that in my dealings with them Roy communicated with the public through Ron? Roy would say what he wanted to in a very soft tone and then Ron would repeat it at a level you could hear. At that time they didn't have any administrative staff that I saw.
I left Bloomington in 1978 and unfortunately my speakers didn't leave with me. I was always surprised to hear how successful they'd become after leaving IN. Cool to have them associated with my hometown.