Analog Connections
Words by Fielder Hagan | Photos by Olivia Trehern
Down on 1st Avenue, fixed between Mama Mocha’s Coffee and Griff Goods, is a record store that many locals have grown to know and love. Whether you poked your head through the always-open door or attended one of their late-night concerts that showcased local talent, 10,000 Hz has become much more than just a place to buy records.
Russ and Hannah Baggett opened 10,000 Hz in July of 2018 simply because there were no record stores near them that catered to their tastes.
“My wife and I met, and I was tired of having to drive to Birmingham or Atlanta or wherever to look for records,” Russ said. “I figured if I was thinking that and other people probably were too. We decided to open a store in Opelika.”
10,000 Hz began as a bi-weekly pop up shop a year and a half before the store front came to be. The name 10,000 Hz came from an album by a French electronic band named Air. Their album, 10,000 Hz Legend, was the first new vinyl Russ ever purchased after hearing their song “How does it make you feel?” from a DJ.
The music scene in Opelika is lively with many bands cycling through and sharing their personal take with the community. When Russ envisioned what his potential business could be, he knew he wanted it to be a record store that brought people together through the medium of music.
The first pop-up took place in the space behind John Emerald Distillery. Russ booked a few local bands and brought around 100 to 150 records of both new and old titles that were a mix of his favorites and what he thought the public would like. Russ was blown away by the response he received from the community at the event. He sold half of the records in one night.
Every few weeks or once a month, Russ did more pop-ups throughout the community and met a lot of people.
“We started getting regular customers, people who are coming not just from here in Auburn to shop with us. They were coming from Columbus, Georgia, and elsewhere. And that's a pretty good indication that what we were doing there was of at least some interest and that we could probably make a go of opening a real real store.”
Typically record stores do not reach those outside of their immediate communities, but 10,000 Hz’s wide array of customers shows the importance of community support. Aside from those who have always listened to vinyl, numerous people have purchased turntables from Russ just so they could continue supporting him.
Russ didn’t want 10,000 Hz to be a business with a niche market. Russ believes what sets the store apart is its unique selections. Anyone can walk in and find something they’ll love. Russ grew up moving constantly traveling with his military family, but his time living in North Carolina played a large part in establishing a foundation for how 10,000 Hz runs. There were 10 record stores within 25 miles of each other in Russ’ hometown of Raleigh and Chapel Hill, each appealing to a different style of music. Russ felt the only way to survive as a record store was to have a large selection of titles for customers to choose from, especially in Opelika. Although many of the records in 10,000 Hz focus heavily on indie rock and indie bands, their other genres provide a vastly different selection from what you may find in big-box stores.
When it came to establishing a storefront, Russ, an ex-musician, designed the space to make himself and customers comfortable. If he was going to spend a vast amount of time in the shop, he wanted the space to reflect somewhere he would hang out. The do-it-yourself (DIY) culture influenced his decision to take the store’s design into his own hands. The DIY scene is summed up best by putting on a show with local musicians in a nonconventional way, leaning on a small community of musicians rather than traditional music venues. When clubs and bars won’t let artists play their music, they create their own places to perform. The tech is often makeshift, and the music often leads to noise complaints. This is why it is so important for Russ to open his doors to local bands — he provides a safe and creative outlet for people who have felt like misfits in the local music scene.
“You have to be really dedicated to it, and you have to really enjoy doing this stuff,” Russ said. Russ believes in order to make music, you have to dedicate time to it in order to perform well. Even the legends need practice.
Russ attributes the store’s continued success to about 150 loyal patrons along with investments made in their website and online presence. The shop was converted from an active store with customers walking around to a space that is dedicated to assembling and shipping packages every day. 10,000 Hz’s storefront has transformed from neat and orderly rows of bins containing records to a floor space riddled with packing paper and bubble wrap.
For now, the storefront is still closed to the public. Russ misses the connections he built with his community and the ability to sell people records in his own store. Instead, Russ is willing to push those satisfactions aside for the safety of himself and his community. Through his patience, resilience and sacrifices, he has shown the responsibility of being a business owner in a pandemic and what it means to be truly community driven. To think that if Russ had not been his genuine self and received the support he did when the storefront initially opened, 10,000 Hz may not have been as successful faced with such trying times.
Only when everyone is healthy, safe and vaccinated will Russ have talks about opening his doors again.
“Hopefully [we can] sell a bunch of records in the air in the shop and hopefully sell a bunch of them online and figure out how to manage both sides of that equation,” Russ said. “We will be kind of on our way to being a real business and not just being some guy sitting in a shop by himself all day, every day.”
10,000 Hz is community driven. The store has a lot of returning customers, especially people in Opelika and Auburn who buy stuff from them every week. Russ believes this group of customers is living proof that the community values his business. Russ believes one of 10,000 Hz greatest strengths is its inclusivity, welcoming all types of people.
Easily the biggest challenge Russ has faced was 10,000 Hz’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last thing Russ wanted was 10,000 Hz to be a place where someone could catch a potentially fatal virus. So on March 14, 2020, the brick and mortar shop closed. With that hard decision came harder decisions as to how 10,000 Hz would stay afloat without the daily foot traffic and community engagement it cultivated over the years. For the time being, 10,000 Hz has more or less moved to an online hub for records, speakers, turntables, etc.
“That's been difficult, certainly, and posed all kinds of challenges,” Russ said. “But it's also made us get good at selling stuff online and doing things in different ways and being flexible and creative, trying to be nimble, to keep the business going. ...At this point, we’ve found customers all over the country.”
Rather than open his doors to make an extra dollar, Russ has remained steadfast in his dedication and service to public health. In this decision, he has sustained losses to his business that are difficult to imagine, but holding onto his integrity posed to be much more rewarding to Russ.
10,000 Hz Records is located at 717A 1st Ave, Opelika, AL 36801. At the time of publishing this, the store front is closed to in-person shopping due to COVID-19, but you can still shop their entire selection online at 10000hzrecords.com. Russ and Hannah hope to reopen the store front soon, but in the meantime, you can follow them on Instagram and Facebook for updates on new releases, Record Store Day events and announcements on when they will reopen the store to in-person shopping.
You can also get a glimpse inside by watching C. A. Jones perform live in 10,000 Hz Records in our “Southbound Sessions” series, Vol. 1, Ep. 1. Watch it here.
