While attending the University of Madison-Wisconsin as a journalism and marketing major from 2003-2006, Rick Stoner fondly remembers roaming the aisles of Strictly Discs — the Monroe Street record store he acquired from longtime owners Ron and Angie Roloff last fall — just as the world was on the cusp of the digital music explosion.  

“Strictly Discs is where I bought CDs before I had an iPod,” Stoner says. “That’s another way of saying that I’m 40 years old.” 

Buying the beloved local business, which Ron opened in 1988 as a single-level, 800-square-foot shop (he later expanded it by converting the store’s 1,700-square-foot basement level into a retail space) was a full circle moment for Stoner — albeit not one he actively sought out. “I was not looking for a record store,” he says. “I was looking for a business at a certain price point. And the fact that I saw this listing was a very happy coincidence.” 

The relatively quick five-month acquisition process concluded exactly one year ago, on Halloween 2023. And in January, after serving in advisory roles for three months during the handoff, the Roloffs fully exited the business (which was a subject of Billboard‘s “In a Pandemic” series from 2020 to 2021) to officially embark on their retirement, leaving Stoner to pilot the future of a store that has been a part of Madison’s cultural heart for 36 years. It’s a legacy he doesn’t take lightly, and, to foster a sense of continuity, he felt it was important to keep as many of the store’s existing staffers on board as possible. 

“Retaining the team has been really my number one priority,” Stoner says. “Maintaining the business, maintaining the customers — to me, all those things are achievable if you’re retaining the brain trust and knowledge and vibe that comes with the team that has been there for a long time.” The store’s entire staff stayed on after the acquisition, including longtime employees Evan Woodward — who now serves as GM and runs the shop on a day-to-day basis — and Mark Chaney, who fills the role of assistant GM. “Everyone’s worked together really well,” Stoner adds. “I think they appreciate maybe a different approach to things, a little more structure, and I certainly appreciate the knowledge of music that they bring.” 

Stoner’s 18-year background as a high-level advertising executive focused on management and new business development at companies including Brado, Derse, BBN and Bader Rutter makes him well-equipped to expand into new areas and supercharge what the store was already doing well. One of the first changes under his purview was instituting a new inventory management system that would be capable of handling the shop’s roughly 500,000 used vinyl records in addition to new product (he chose a system that was originally designed for grocery stores). 

Another major item on Stoner’s to-do list was already in motion prior to his acquisition of the business: the conversion of 1,000 square feet of the 5,000 square foot Strictly Discs warehouse in neighboring Cambridge, Wis., into a second retail location, which officially opened Oct. 19 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule (a grand opening is slated for sometime in November after the store’s permanent exterior sign is installed). “We have plenty of customers that aren’t in downtown Madison, and it takes them a while to drive downtown through traffic, find parking,” he says of opening the new storefront. “Now those people will be able to come here. And I also think we’ll be serving a rural customer that maybe just isn’t exposed to the cultural curiosities that come with a record store.” 

Stoner is currently looking at creative strategies to build interest and excitement in the new location, including giving customers access to the music lover’s paradise contained in the back 4,000 square feet of the building, which boasts the majority of the business’ used product. Though Stoner has yet to settle on what that would look like, some ideas include quarterly bin-picking days and a “buy a crate and fill the crate” promotion. 

Strictly Discs’ mountain of used product is one of the business’ key strengths. Beginning in 2010, Ron Roloff focused his energies on acquiring large private music collections in Wisconsin and beyond, leading the store to become known as the home of a treasure trove of hard-to-find records in all different genres. “I think what sets us apart is the volume and quality of more niche genres: jazz, classical,” says Stoner. “We have an extensive soundtrack collection that, before buying the business, I never could have imagined or guessed how well that does for us.” 

Those used records are key to another major initiative Stoner has in mind: creating a subscription model that would allow customers to choose a certain number of new or used records per month — which would require integrating the store’s website with the Shopify platform — and either pick up their chosen product in-store or have it delivered to their homes. The idea was partially inspired by similar plans offered by the likes of Vinyl Moon and Vinyl Me, Please — though, as Stoner points out, those companies don’t allow customers the kind of choice Strictly Discs can offer. “If you’re paying $50 or $100 a month, especially if you live in a rural area, the record store is coming to you,” he says. “And I don’t see a lot of shops doing that.” 

With a goal of launching some iteration of the subscription model during this year’s holiday shopping season, Stoner and his employees are currently focused on what he calls “the Herculean effort” of cataloging the store’s warehouse inventory. Stoner aims to initially target customers within Wisconsin but outside of Dane County (where Madison is located), drawing interest through targeted ads online and via the store’s email newsletter. “I think my main concern about it is that it doesn’t cannibalize our store,” he says. “So my hope is someone could subscribe to that, pick up things in store, they would get a discount in store for being a member, and it would allow us some growth and customer loyalty.” 

The focus on getting the subscription plans off the ground ties in with Stoner’s overarching goal of beefing up Strictly Disc’s e-commerce efforts. On that front, the Roloffs were already ahead of the game, with a sales mix of 70% in-store and 30% online (within that, the mix is 90% vinyl and 10% CDs; while 65% of vinyl sales are new product.) “I’ve learned that that’s pretty atypical,” he says. I think [we have] the highest online [sales percentage], at least of record stores in our coalition [the Coalition of Independent Music Stores].” And in the long term, he’s looking to flip those stats on their head: “I want that 70-30 to look like 20-80 without hampering the growth of the store,” adds Stoner, who’s hoping to triple the store’s business through online sales. 

The plans don’t end there. In addition to supersizing the store’s Record Store Day activities — this year, the store closed down part of Monroe Street with the city’s permission and threw a block party for the event — he’s looking to launch pop-up record shops at music festivals and other events outside of Madison to extend the physical store’s geographic reach. 

For all of his ambitious plans, the store’s longtime customers probably won’t notice much of a difference. Like Ron, Stoner is currently intent on keeping Strictly Discs a pure music shop, steering clear of merch sales and other non-music items — which would be difficult to institute in any event, he says, given the shop’s relatively small footprint — and keeping intact what people loved about it in the first place. 

“[In] our main record shop in Madison … almost nothing has changed, and that’s been intentional,” Stoner says. “It’ll be a staple of the community for the next 36 years, just like it has been the last 36 years.” 

More in this series:
Twist & Shout in Denver, Colo.
Grimey’s in Nashville, Tenn.
Home Rule in Washington, D.C.
Sweat Records in Miami, Fla.

Officials in Wisconsin have held a regulated hunting season for white-tailed deer since 1851, just three years after statehood.

It has varied greatly over the decades, including closed seasons, rules that prohibited archery equipment, times when deer numbers were highest in the northern part of the state and the current era when whitetails are much more numerous in the southern half.

And every four years the gun deer hunting season is held in the same month as a presidential election.

The Department of Natural Resources held a media briefing Wednesday to present information in advance of the 2024 Wisconsin gun hunt.

The agency normally holds the pre-hunt event later in the year, but given the Nov. 5 election for president and other offices did it earlier this year to “make sure this information is able to reach the public and doesn’t get lost,” said Zach Wood, DNR public information officer.

Yes, no two years are exactly alike.

Here’s another new piece for 2024, this one from the regulation book: Due to a change in state law, hunters in Wisconsin can now use air rifles to hunt deer and other big game.

In another rule change this year, the junior antlerless deer tag is good on either public or private land (in the past the hunter had to designate one land type).

Here are answers to some of the most common questions about the state’s annual gun deer hunt.

More: Wisconsin deer harvest in 2024 trending higher than last year

When is the 2024 gun deer hunting season in Wisconsin?

The Wisconsin gun deer hunting season traditionally begins on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and runs for nine days.

This year’s nine-day gun deer season runs from Nov. 23 to Dec. 1.

Do I need to buy a deer hunting license?

Yes, all deer hunters are required to buy a Wisconsin deer hunting license.

You can buy a license online at gowild.wi.gov or in person at a sporting goods store or other license sales outlet. The DNR has an interactive map of license sales locations on its website.

How much does a deer hunting license cost?

A resident gun deer hunting license is $24; $20 for those aged 12-17; and $7 for those under 12.

Where available, residents may purchase additional antlerless deer permits for $12 each.

A non-resident gun deer hunting license is $200.

What is the rut? And does it affect deer hunting?

The rut is the annual mating period for deer. In Wisconsin it peaks in early November and is associated with increased deer activity, including during daylight hours, as bucks pursue does.

This increased deer activity definitely favors hunters, and data show gun deer harvests are typically higher when the season starts earlier in November rather than later.

How do I learn about hunting regulations set by the Wisconsin DNR?

The DNR publishes a hunting regulation pamphlet that lists rules pertaining to the gun deer and other seasons. The document is available online at dnr.wi.gov and in print form at license sales outlets.

In general, each deer hunting license authorizes a hunter to kill one buck and at least one doe.

Antlerless deer tags are issued for public or private land. And counties serve as deer management units.

The number of antlerless deer tags in each county is determined through a process that starts with recommendations from the County Deer Advisory Council, followed by review and potential changes by the DNR and the Natural Resources Board.

If I shoot a deer, do I have to register it?

Yes, all harvested deer must be registered by 5 p.m. the day after the animal is recovered.

Hunters can register deer online at GameReg.WI.Gov or by phone at (844) 426-3734.

Can you bait deer in Wisconsin?

Baiting deer is prohibited in 61 of Wisconsin’s counties and legal in 11, according to the DNR. The prohibitions are due to a state law that bans baiting and feeding deer in areas where chronic wasting disease has been found.

The 11 counties where baiting is legal are Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Clark, Douglas, Iron and Price in northwestern Wisconsin, and Brown, Door, Kewaunee and Manitowoc in northeastern Wisconsin. In these counties, hunters are limited to two gallons of corn or other bait at a site. Check the DNR website for further details.

Penn State faced issues with its communications equipment last week at Wisconsin, to the point that head coach James Franklin said the sideline lost contact with the coordinators and players on the field in the fourth quarter. Coach-to-player communications equipment has become an issue in college football, as ESPN and The Athletic reported Wednesday that Big 12 teams are returning devices to address “technological concerns.”

After practice Wednesday in State College, Franklin said that coaches on the sideline could not connect with cooordinators Andy Kotelnicki and Tom Allen in the press box or quarterback Beau Pribula and middle linebacker Kobe King on the field. Pribula and King wore the in-helmet earpieces, through which coaches relay play calls. Franklin said the blackout occurred in the fourth quarter of the Nittany Lions’ 28-13 win over the Badgers. It’s an issue Penn State will want to fix before Saturday’s game against No. 4 Ohio State at Beaver Stadium.

“Last week at the end of the game, we lost contact with the booth, so we had no contact with the coordinators at the end of the game, we had no ability to communicate with the quarterbacks and the linebackers on the field,” Franklin told reporters. “We’ve been working on that, coming up with a soliution, but we did have a problem at the end of that game at a very critical moment.”

Asked how long the issue persisted, Franklin said, “if it’s one play, it’s too many plays.”

Penn State’s issue was different than those of other programs reporting concerns with the technology. According to The Athletic, Big 12 officials asked teams to return their coach-to-helmet devices because of concerns about encryption. The Athletic reported that teams believe others might be able to listen to their in-game discussions.

Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt told ESPN that he learned his football team’s in-game conversations might be accessible to anyone with a scanner. Hocutt told ESPN that it’s about operating a game “whose integrity is not questionable in any way on a Saturday afternoon.”

Penn State has had issues with its in-helmet communications system this season, though apparently not regarding encryption. In early games at West Virginia and the home-opener against Bowling Green, Franklin said that Penn State’s defense had trouble with the audio. Penn State solved that in part by moving Allen, the defensive coordinator, to the coaches booth and having defensive analyst Dan Connor call plays to the linebacker.

“I think the other thing that’s a big one for us that we got settled in the second half [against Bowling Green] is the communication,” Franklin said in September. “We were trying to rely specifically on the headset communication, and at home that can be a little bit more challenging with the linebacker trying to verbally communicate to all 11 guys on the field. It’s very similar to what I had explained to about-no huddle teams on offense trying to get the quarterback to communicate to everybody. That was still going to be challenging unless you’re huddling.”

This is the first season in which college football teams can use coach-to-player communications equipment to make play calls. Franklin has said that he’s uncertain whether the technology will curb the sign-stealing concerns it was meant to address.

“The interesting thing is, all of this got pushed because of the whole sign-stealing [issue], and for the offenses that are no-huddle, it doesn’t change them at all,” Franklin said before the season. “Because you still have to get the information to the wide receivers. How do you do that? You signal. Do I think we should have had helmet mics? They’re good changes, but I don’t know if they’re necessarily solutions to some of the challenges out there.”

More Penn State Football

Is the Penn State-Ohio State game a must-win for the Nittany Lions?

Penn State fans aren’t happy with another Big Noon kickoff vs. Ohio State

How Ohio State is preparing for the Nittany Lions

Penn State on SI is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on X (or Twitter) @MarkWogenrich.