Dean of local stereo retailers is retiring

At this month’s end, after almost 50 years in business, Herbert Mooney, the original owner of Accent Sound, is retiring and closing the doors of his high-end audio shop at 6750 W. 135th St.

Mooney didn’t start off selling custom home-theater systems for upwards of $8,000 a pop. His first business was “The Kit Shop” at 6110 Johnson Drive, where do-it-yourself stereo buffs could build and test their amplifiers. He drew on his lifelong love of electronics, including a stint as an electronics technician in the Coast Guard.

Mooney is a descendant of one of Kansas City’s oldest Jewish families, the Woolf/Lightons. After the service, he returned to his hometown, working first at Wilcox Electric and then at Bendix, both times in the research and development department.

Feeling stuck in a dead-end job, he opened “The Kit Shop” on Dec. 1, 1961.

He explains, “There were benches in the front room with soldering irons so that people could build stereo equipment from kits, and I would check them out by plugging them in and making sure that they were wired correctly, so they did not burn up.

“I had the test bench at one side of the room and a variable voltage supply so that the voltage was brought up slowly, and any fault could be noticed. No parts would fry on first turn-on.”

In 1963, Mooney moved his store to 6104 Johnson Drive. But, soon enough, with the advent of transistors, kit building went out of fashion. So, in 1967, he changed the name and focus of the business. The Kit Shop became Accent Sound, a stereo-equipment retailer and installer.

Accent on sound
“The idea was we were placing the accent on the sound,” Mooney explained.

His inventory included brand names such as Fisher, Harman Kardon and McIntosh. Accent Sound carries the latter brand of amps to this day.

Over the years, Mooney said, he got to know many of the industry pioneers — self-made men like Frank McIntosh, Paul Klipsch and Rudy Bozak.

Herb’s wife, Enid, worked with him in the business as a bookkeeper, and they had three children. Their daughter, Terri Mooney, has worked in the business full time for more than 10 years.

There was another chapter in the Accent Sound story, between Mission, Kan., and south Overland Park, and that was 1987 to 2005, when the shop was located at 8020 Floyd St. in old downtown Overland Park.

During the era of the LaserDisc video system, which competed with VHS and Betamax, Accent Sound carried the area’s largest stock for rent — at least until Blockbuster came to dominate the video-rental market. There are still a few LaserDiscs in the going-out-business inventory at Accent Sound.

“I started with four-track tapes,” Mooney recalled, “then the industry went to eight-track, then to cassette tapes, then LaserDiscs for video, then DVD. I skipped VHS.”

Mooney owned the building on Floyd Street, but the city took it with its eminent-domain power in order to build the new Matt Ross Community Center in its place. Mooney said that the litigation that ensued was settled just last week for half the amount he thought he was owed.

Thus, the final chapter of the Accent Sound story played out in old Brandsmart location on the northeast corner of 135th Street and Metcalf Avenue. By that time, Accent had come to specialize in the fanciest of home-theater equipment.

“After they go to Circuit City and Best Buy and they are dissatisfied, they come here,” Mooney explained.

He said he is proud to be the oldest and longest-running audio and video dealer in greater Kansas City.

There’s one other unusual, and perhaps related, aspect to Accent Sound: “I’ve always had a service department,” Mooney said. “We fix it here, on site.”

Several former employees have left Accent Sound over the years to start their own audio businesses. One employee, Janet Young, has been with Mooney 29 years. Next month, she, like Terri Mooney, will be looking for a new job.
Herb’s retirement, together with increased competition and the downturn in the economy, led to the decision to close the store, the Mooneys said.

In retirement, Herby Mooney, 75, will pursue his hobbies, which include abstract painting, leatherwork and “pestering my wife.”

There will be an auction of all unsold goods sometime in June.

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