From the backseat of a Volkswagen van to a billion-dollar business, Chuck Surack’s path to success continues to serve as an inspiration in Indiana and beyond. In this episode, Gerry Dick sits down with the founder and chairman of Sweetwater Sound as he shares the ups and downs of transforming a one man music business into the nation’s largest online music instrument retailer, all while keeping the company's roots firmly planted in Fort Wayne. He also reflects on what success means today, the legacy he's building beyond business, and his next big thing: what could be a $250 million project in northeast Indiana.

Visit Fort Wayne is proud to announce the release of the highly anticipated Fort Wayne/Allen County Music Economy Strategy, along with the launch of the Fort Wayne Music Office — one of the strategy’s key recommendations and an important next step in strengthening our region’s music ecosystem.

For years, Live Nation’s executives told anyone who would listen that they weren’t a monopoly, just a very large, very successful company with a lot of satisfied customers. On April 15, a federal jury in Manhattan saw through it.

With an encore sure to include appeals, calls to sell off Ticketmaster and more, Live Nation on Wednesday was deemed an illegal monopoly by a federal jury in New York City.

In a case brought to court by California and dozens of other states during a five-week trial, the Michael Rapino-run Live Nation wasn’t helped by the release of internal correspondence about taking “advantage” of consumers with high prices and “robbing them blind, baby.” The promoter and events giant claimed those statements were simply ill-considered remarks by individual staffers, but the stink was on both in and outside the Manhattan courtroom of Judge Arun Subramanian.

Owners of independent music venues are pulling back the curtain to speak candidly about their financial struggles, a move that gives audiences a chance to support small stages before it’s too late.