July 2008
On Jan. 21, 2008, the Amusement & Music Operators Assn. (AMOA) marked its 60th year "in business". I use that phrase because trade associations do pretty much the same as businesses do, though in a not-for-profit fashion. They charge dues for services rendered and if those services are attractive, the associations do well. If not, well, we've seen more than one operator group come and go in this industry. Of course, the health of any business association depends very much on the health of the industry its members are part of, and as such, the AMOA has been a fairly accurate mirror of the rising and shrinking fortunes of the jukebox and games operating trade. Its fall shows, for example, have reflected what was going on in the streets and arcades of the country over the years. In a way, you could almost gauge how much was in the national cash box by the number of people who registered for each fall's convention. You might also be able to gauge the general number of full-time operating companies out there the same way. In both instances, the numbers were down over past years. But as any veteran of the business knows, we've seen this kind of thing before, maybe more than once.
I've been working on a story for our September Expo Showbook reviewing these 60 years of AMOA and it's remarkable to see how many times this industry's quieted down and then made noise again. Lots depended on the machinery, of course, as seen during the late '70s, early '80s when electronic pins and videos made their twin market splashes. Mini-booms have also come along, like the dart era and the recent excitement with digital music boxes. I don't know (yet) if anything really novel is due to show at the fall expo, but I do know there's a base in the business that keeps most people in business and below which the professionals rarely if ever go...summer included.
Apart from the business aspect comes the emotional one: the association
has a lot of members who exhibit a nearly patriotic zeal for the group.
Back when it was called the Music Operators of America, they went through
some hard times, but some tough guys (like their second president Harry
Snodgrass of Albuquerque) went the extra mile to get the ship right again.
There are a lot of people in the trade right now going that extra mile to
keep their dreams alive while delivering solid entertainment to a public
looking for some relief (they buy gas, too). These are the winners. Look
for them at the fall show. Right now, they're busy working.
-- Ed Adlum, Publisher, RePlay Magazine
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