Friends, business partners reopen TD's store

Almost a month ago, local Bloomington music legend Tom Donohue passed away, leaving a void in the emotional compositions of so many friends of both the man and his music.\nDonohue couldn't read music and he couldn't play it. Friends teased him for a brief stint many years ago as a drummer in a band called the "Retarded Gods." But his colleagues say his knowledge of music and artists was "encyclopedic."\nSince 1996, Donohue ran TD's CDs & LPs, and in its newest incarnation, the store sits at 322 E. Kirkwood Ave., in the same building as Laughing Planet and Soma. It's a place reflective of Donohue's personality. Disorganized. Eclectic. Stuff everywhere.\nThe store, which was closed for a brief period, opened again for business Nov. 22 -- the day that would have been Donohue's 54th birthday, said longtime friends and business partners Patrick Fiore and Marina Ballor, who shared store ownership with Donohue and took over the entire ownership after his death. Donohue passed away from liver cancer Nov. 12.\n"The reason we want to continue the store without him is because it catered to a number of young people who couldn't really find their music readily available anywhere else," Ballor said.\nDonohue was a one-time Catholic seminarian whose vocation changed from serving the Holy See in Rome to the music community in Bloomington, with the store created when Fiore and Ballor, owners of Le Petite Cafe, fronted the cash.\n"Not only did we keep a low profile, we kept no profile," Fiore said.\nThe first store opened in 1996, and the second location in 1998.\nBallor said the store never lost money. Fiore said the store always broke even and business was up and down.\nDonohue had "a willingness to unearth rare records and unheard-of bands" Fiore said. "He would go through his huge brains to come up with hunches."\nFiore and Ballor sense a fear among many of the store's patrons that the store will change a great deal with Donohue's passing. They say it's not so.\n"We're preserving the spirit, but we're changing the clutter," Fiore said.\nBallor said Donohue liked to keep boxes around for students when they had to pack up and for breaks. He had 5,000 boxes and the aisles were so crammed with records and CDs, two people couldn't get into the same aisle and reaching for stuff was seemingly impossible.\nStill, the store is popular both among Bloomington residents and students, who voted it as Best Record Store in the IDS Weekend "Best of Bloomington" poll in November.\nFor the time being, the store is open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. Fiore said during the winter vacation they may alter the hours a little.\nTD's only employee and store manager, Jason Nickey, is worried even cleaning the place may be too much of a change. He said a lot of people just went to the store because of Donohue's personality, and he and Fiore both said it's too soon to tell what effect not having Donohue around could have on business.\nBut Nickey said Saturday was the best day the store had since the reopening.\nFriend and local musician Rex Miller said Donohue was a very good source of information, echoing Fiore's thoughts about Donohue being a walking encyclopedia.\n"He was really good at exposing people to new musical ideas," Miller said. "I think that was Tom's strong point."\n-- Contact staff writer Brandon Morley at bmorley@indiana.edu.