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Richard Wozniak Was Young at Heart · MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds

Welcome to MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds. Richard Wozniak loved that Frank Sinatra song "Young-at-Heart." He was close on 40 years old. But when he dropped the needle on a record and a song emerged out of the vinyl hiss, the years seemed to melt away. So in 1956, when he opened his record store in Duluth, he could only think of one name for it, Young at Heart. He would relocate twice before settling on the brick storefront at 22 West First Street. There, He lovingly painted the walls pink and decorated record displays with cut out hearts, and he gave out cards for the young at heart's record club. In the 1970s a competing chain record store moved into Duluth. But young at heart remained the haunt for serious collectors and the hunt for pop country western and spoken word, so long as they didn't contain foul language. Wozniak wouldn't put up with that. 1999 Richard Wozniak, at 82 years young, finally closed up shop. Though he retained his love of music, he sold his records, 125,000 of them, to another collector in Wisconsin. MN90 is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, made possible by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Online at MN90.org.