Coeur d'Alene destination record store The Long Ear to close in July after 53 years in business
Business was so slow when Terry and Deon Borchard first moved their record store, the Long Ear, to Coeur d’Alene in 1985 that they relied on relatives to keep the phone line busy.
“When we moved up here, nobody knew we were here,” Deon Borchard, who along with her husband has been running the shop since they lived in Big Bear Lake, California, in 1973, said. “My mom used to call us up so that our phone would ring.”
The independent record store, which has moved around the Lake City three times and outlasted former industry giants such as Borders, Sam Goody and Hastings, will see those phones go silent in July. Their building at 1620 N. Government Way sold last summer, and the business plans to shutter when its lease expires after its owners fruitlessly searched for another new home.
A company that teaches gun training and safety will open at the location.
Terry Borchard, who recently turned 79, said it’s “very regretful that we have to close” but circumstances pointed to an end to the business that never had a long-term strategy. When people would ask them, “What’s your business plan?” Terry Borchard would respond flippantly.
Vinyl records line the shelves at The Long Ear in Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Deon and Terry Borchard have owned the CD and vinyl store for 53 years and are closing on July 3. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Revie)
“Well, we’re opening tomorrow,” he said, chuckling. “ ‘What’s your long-range goals?’ Well, I think we’re opening next month.”
The Borchards had to eke out that existence early on, when most of their business came from mail orders from customers back in California. The couple started the business in 1973 on a whim in a 16-foot by 30-foot space in the skiing and vacation enclave two hours east of Los Angeles, catering to construction and seasonal workers as well as the occasional celebrity who came to browse the bins on weekends. They remember the actress Shelley Duvall, of “The Shining” fame, and Ted Cassidy, who played Lurch on the TV series “The Addams Family,” stopping in to check out their stock, among others.
“The Jacksons had a place up there,” Deon Borchard said. “Michael was just getting moonwalking together; he would moonwalk down the aisle of the albums.”
It took a local radio promotion, once the Borchards had opened their first location on Government Way, to attract customers to the storefront in Coeur d’Alene. The station 92.9 KZZU (then known as “The Zoo”) ran an “album of the week” that Terry Borchard heard on the radio. A partnership allowed customers to buy the record at the Long Ear, and get a free case of soda pop. Music fans started walking through the door.
“That really helped us,” Terry Borchard said.
Other undertakings were more involved. As the cassette tapes in the racks were replaced by CDs and, later, digital downloads both legal and otherwise, the Borchards leaned into serving the community and the customers they credit for keeping them afloat. In 2000, just a few days after moving into their second Coeur d’Alene location on Fourth Street, the business launched “Earfest,” a local music festival. It would run for more than a decade with frequent collaborators Scatterbox, a local punk rock band.
Those early concerts were sweltering, ad hoc affairs. That first year, the store’s air conditioner was on the fritz, and the electrical hookups to the stage out back were only 220 volts.
“We were blowing up amps and stuff, it was real tired,” Terry Borchard said. “But had good turnouts for that.”
Though the King of Pop never came through the Coeur d’Alene locations, the Long Ear was able to attract other rock luminaries. Singer-songwriter Carole King stopped to buy some cassettes for her rental car’s tape deck between shows in Sandpoint, and Adam Levine’s Maroon 5 did a signing at the shop supported by their label.
Catering to eclectic tastes is a necessity for a record store in a smaller market, the Borchards said. In their stockroom, amid piles of used records of big bands and country music stalwarts, were sealed copies of the latest release from Noah Kahan, the singer-songwriter who rocketed to Top 40 fame with his 2022 album “Stick Season.” The trope of the condescending record store clerk, popularized in popular culture in films such as “High Fidelity,” wouldn’t work in North Idaho, they said.
“I’ve been in stereo shops that had an attitude, and records stores that had an attitude,” Terry Borchard said. “We welcome everybody.”
“Everybody’s got different ears,” Deon Borchard said.
The Borchards have taken over most of the backroom work at the Long Ear, while employees Nic Fritze, Joel May and Ben Schoelen are most likely to interact with customers these days. Fritze said he got his job as manager by pestering the Borchards when he was in high school.
Deon and Terry Borchard, owners of The Long Ear, are photographed Tuesday with their staff, from left, Nic Fritze, Joel May and Ben Schoelen. They have owned the CD and vinyl store for 53 years and are closing on July 3. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review)
“I was the obnoxious dude that kept bringing in resumes,” Fritze said. He’d been introduced to the Long Ear when he and his uncle came in and bought Guns N’ Roses 1987 release “Appetite for Destruction” and knew he wanted to work there.
May, who was standing near the register at the end of a recent work day as shop cat, Major Tom (named for the fictional character dreamt up by David Bowie) looked on, also said working in music was his dream.
“It’s been nice to have a lot of time with local music collectors,” May said.
Both say they’re hoping to continue working in a music industry, particularly vinyl, that is seeing a boom in popularity. In 2025, sales of LPs in the United States eclipsed $1 billion for the first time since 1983, according to a recent survey from the Recording Industry Association of America. While streaming still reigns supreme as the medium of choice for American music listeners, vinyl sales have been increasing ever since hitting a record low of $8.6 million in 2005.
The Borchards said the last two years were the best they’d ever seen in sales. At their Record Store Day event on April 18, a line had formed out the front door and down Spruce Avenue to the northeast of the building.
“It was the longest line we’ve ever had,” Deon Borchard said.
Deon Borchard wears her 45 RPM adapter earrings at The Long Ear in Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. She and her husband Terry have owned the CD and vinyl store for 53 years and are closing on July 3. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Revie)
That makes the news of closing a bit strange to share, Terry Borchard said.
“It’s not like, ‘Gee, we gotta go out of business because business is so bad,’ ” he said.
Instead, the cost of staying where they are would be untenable. The building sold in June 2025 to Andee Abad, a local real estate investor. She plans to open a location of the business called United Defense Tactical at the site, a California-based self-defense training firm that provides instruction in the use of firearms. Abad expects the build-out to take about three months, with plans to open near the end of October.
“It builds character and discipline,” Abad said of the training that will be offered in the new business.
Meanwhile, the Borchards and their employees are breaking the news to their customers and reminiscing on the last 41 years of recorded music in Coeur d’Alene. The couple plans to spend more time with friends and on hobbies once the business closes, scheduled for July 3. They credit their customers for allowing them to last as long as they have.
“For whatever reason, they supported our little independent record store, and we’re truly blessed,” Terry Borchard said.
“We’ve been completely and constantly amazed at all the support we’ve gotten from the community,” Deon Borchard said.
