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The Hit Factory Recording Studio Reborn! — Part 2

After 20 years, The Hit Factory -- the legendary NYC studio that reinvented popular music -- is truly back.

Engineer Thom Panunzio mixing at The Hit Factory in the mid-1970s. PHOTO: Courtesy of Thom Panunzio
Engineer Thom Panunzio mixing at The Hit Factory in the mid-1970s. PHOTO: Courtesy of Thom Panunzio.

Continuing our coverage of The Hit Factory‘s monumental return under second-generation studio legend Troy Germano, we pick up from Part 1 and dive into the original facility’s peak years under Troy’s father, Eddie Germano.

FATHER AND SON

The cover of Mix's March 2023 issue.
The cover of Mix’s March 2023 issue.

“Eddie Germano was the manager of the Record Plant in 1974, and he gave me my first job,” Thom Panunzio recalls. “I was a staff engineer at that point, and they would assign artists to Jay Messina or Jack Douglas or me or Jimmy Iovine. All these great producers, like Eddie Kramer and Bob Ezrin, and then Bowie, John Lennon, the Rolling Stones, KISS—every room had some superstar. My goodness, it was so much fun. It was a great time to be in New York City.

“I was actually only at Record Plant for a very short time,” he continues. “I remember Eddie called me into his office on a Friday, and he said, ‘It’s killing me to do this because I think you’re fantastic. I really like you, but I’ve got to let you go. We’re cutting back, and I have guys who have been here three years. You’ve been here for, like, three months.’ And then Monday he called me back and said, ‘You know, I’ve been thinking about you all weekend. I don’t want to lose you. How about you go to work on the remote truck for a while until I can get you back into the studios?’ That was the coolest thing in the world. This was working with David Hewitt, and you go to all the great concerts and you’re onstage with these huge artists. And it’s live, so you learn pretty quickly how to make a mix work.”

Eddie Germano would later offer Panunzio a job as chief engineer at The Hit Factory, though he says that he declined out of loyalty to Roy Cicala at Record Plant. Still, he brought work to The Hit Factory and he has ever since, at every location, including nine out of the last 10 Joan Jett album projects.

A bit of history: the back wall of Studio 1 at the previous incarnation of The Hit Factory, West 54th Street, circa 2002. Photo: Dave King.
A bit of history: the back wall of Studio 1 at the previous incarnation of The Hit Factory, West 54th Street, circa 2002. Photo: Dave King.

“Nobody who ever owned a studio was like Eddie Germano. Nobody,” Panunzio states. “He was like the head of Columbia Records, or head of Universal Records. He was like a record company executive, a mogul, an entrepreneur, whatever. He was a big presence and a big shot. And you knew when he was there. Troy was the same. I’ve known Troy since he was a boy. From the time I first met him, he was playing hockey and he had this huge hockey bag that he used to drag into the studio, either coming from school or going to practice. This bag was bigger than him! He would walk into the room and didn’t care who you were with. You could be in there with John Lennon, and it would be like everybody stopped what they were doing to say hello to Troy. He demanded that attention just by being in the room. He was very much like his father.”

Over the ensuing years, Troy Germano’s role in the business would grow to the point where he was considered something of an equal partner, groomed to one day take over the family business. Despite the rapid advancements in digital technology and rising competition from both mobile production and emerging, lower-priced studios, business was still humming on W. 54th Street. Life was good.

Then, in 2003, Eddie Germano died unexpectedly following a scheduled surgery. Four months later, Troy walked away from the company. In 2005, the building was sold, the equipment auctioned off, and The Hit Factory studios were shuttered. Though he remained active in consulting roles—from studio design to product manufacturing to record-label business development, it would be five more years before Troy was back in the studio.

 

COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE CONCLUSION, EXPLORING THE 2023 RETURN OF THE HIT FACTORY, TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING.

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