Let me introduce you to the genius behind Hollowood Music and Sound's Service Department.
'Electric Bill' Carnell

written by Tony Aiello

In late 2006, Bill Carnell passed on and is no longer with us. These are just some of my memories of Bill. He was, to say the least, an eccentric. Bill was a bit rough around the edges, but once you got to know him, he became a big old teddy bear. Maybe a somewhat rabid teddy bear. But nevertheless, when I mentioned the word 'genius' earlier, I meant it. The man could just look at something, and in a matter of moments could tell you not only what the problem was, but what caused it and what it takes to repair it. His shop was in the basement and there was always some cool jazz playing on his stereo system. Bill was a major jazz buff, as am I. Although a genius, his manner of testing things was somewhat odd and unexpected. Every so often the sound of the music would be drowned out by a sound from hell vibrating the entire store to the third floor. Sounds such as him yelling into a microphone, cranking a guitar amp to eleven, frequency sweeping a speaker, and his almost 'Tourettes Syndrome' sounding outbursts of "CUDA" or "STOP IT!", to name a few. There were also smells eminating up from the basement that no one could identify. Is he cooking? Is something burning? We always had to go downstairs to invesitgate. And there was his somewhat artistic editing of photos, signs, and labels, with an exacto knife, and maybe adding a lithium battery wired to some LED's, that made Photoshop seem almost undesireable. One of Bill's favorite tricks to play on me was to, as he used to say, "Walk up to a keyboard, turn the volume on ten, hit the DEMO button, and run like hell!" Bill had a great sense of humor. The 'basement troll', as we liked to call him, in the early 1970's ran a pirate radio station and broadcasted from the basement of a downtown business (until he was caught). He often would record the broadcasts and continued making recordings for his friends and family with Bill doing all the voiceovers and special effects, which he was doing long before the effects techology existed.
For over 20 years at Hollowood's, Bill was a friend, a colleague, a hell of an electronic service man, a war veteran, truly one of a kind, and now, surely missed.