Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 23

Decatur, Illinois Herald Review Sunday, January 28, 1996 Pulse ectofs I A ah pi I A ft -T: II I 1 It I I -t i IL fcHrv. MINICH 1 '01 I vv, I wch Oli II a 1 i i Herald ReviewDennis AAagee NO STRINGS ATTACHED: Linda Brandon, owner of Linda's Music Center, is turning the building at 22nd and Wood streets into a showroom for instruments, classrooms and mini-concert hall. Problems paying off Christmas shopping will make them even busier. NEW YORK (AP) Rising consumer debt is creating some concern among lenders, economists and lawmakers, but at least one group quietly cheers the borrowing binge: the nation's 6300 ConSUIT18r bill collectors. Collection prOtCCtlQII agencies say Law protects business is public from booming as unfair debt col-more creditors lection methods.

report an Stories D6 increase in late payments and loan write-offs, and they're preparing for a busy spring and summer when overdue accounts from the holidays are passed on. "We expect to have plenty of work to do," said Tom Haag, who runs State Collection Service, a Madison, collection agency. "If debt is on the increase bad debt will increase as well." Consumer indebtedness has been climbing steadily in recent years and is now over the $1 trillion mark. While most individuals pay their bills in a timely manner, at some point in their lives they may become financially overburdened. A job loss, medical problem, divorce, or poor money management caused by overspending can easily push anyone over the edge and onto a collection agency hit list.

In 1994, the most recent year for which data are available, 290 million accounts totaling $84 billion were handed over to collection agencies, up from the previous year when there were 226 million accounts worth $79 billion, according to the American Collectors Association. Among the biggest areas for debt collection: bounced checks, credit cards and late payments for medical care Of course, it's best to work with a creditor before an account reaches this stage at the very least to avoid a damaged credit rating. And understanding your DEBT Continued on D6 and they'll love the sounds they'll hear when remodeling turns woman's Decatur business into music center By GARY MINICH Staff Writer Brandon has been teaching music since age 14 and has been selling musical instruments for a quarter-century. She is well-known at the Grand Old Opry, and Nashville stars are among her customers, ordering new instruments through her. Encased in glass is a Peavey Spanish guitar bearing the signatures of Garth Brooks, Charlie Daniels, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Ricky Skaggs, Crystal Gayle and others.

Chet Atkins signed it when she was his guest at a November concert in Elkhart, Ind. Brandon started playing music at age 7 when she and her brother got instruments for their birthdays, one day apart. Her brother Bob got a steel guitar and Brandon got an accordian. Lessons followed. "Seven is about right to start lessons," she says.

And while she may have had a talent for learning, she didn't play "by ear" until after she had received music lessons and learned to hear and distinguish notes. She says her mother, Alta Brandon-Sampson, was instrumental in her career choices. MUSIC Continued on D2 DECATUR Linda Brandon had her eye on the brick building at 22nd and Wood streets for a long time. "I dreamed about getting into this building and what I could do with it," she says. Brandon's dream came true in November when she moved Linda's Music Center from 121 N.

22nd St. to the former Vilmure's Fine Foods location. In February, Nashville stars and representatives of some of the top brands of musical instruments will help her celebrate a monthlong grand opening. But, it will take much more than a month to make the building match her plans for it. "I'm not sure we realized what bad shape it was in," Brandon says.

The roof had to be replaced and ceilings had to be replastered. Then remodeling began to turn it into a combination of showroom, teaching rooms and concert hall. Still to come is transforming a former alley into Brandon's office and sprucing up a display area for pianos and organs. Super Bowl fits bill for pork ILLINOIS pork producers are expecting a "super boost" from Super Bowl XXX later today. The National Pork Producers Council has lined up a special 30-second spot and two new 15-second spots around the theme "Taste What's Next." "Pork and the Super Bowl are a perfect match," says NPPC's Michele Hanna.

The game offers "the single largest television audience of the year and the right environment to showcase the meat with the broadest appeal (Sixty-six percent of Americans eat pork on any given day, versus 57 percent for beef and 49 percent for chicken). There are 85,000 U.S. producers in the $66 billion industry that accounts for 764,000 jobs nationwide. WHEN TOM AND Jerrie Branson take a break from the game, it's likely to be Oscar Mayer sandwiches. And, odds are, they'll take that break during the game.

The owners of Decatur's Mail Boxes Etc. will be staying glued during commercials for 30-second Mail BoxesOscar Mayer spots featuring Chad Gretzma. Gretzma's job is driving a Weinermobile around the western half of the country full time. He uses Mail Boxes Etc. for faxes to and from OM headquarters and to send his laundry home to Mom, as well as receive fresh supplies from her.

"He's the ultimate customer," says Tom. "That's no baloney!" HDD MARGIN NOTES: Illinois Power got a King Day salute from the Decatur Human Relations Commission for its support of Homework Hangout, the Parent-Teacher Hotline and the Richland Minority Leadership program. IP Chairman Larry Haab has been relieved as chairman of the Illinois Coalition by Consolidated Communications chief Bob Currey. The Illinois Coalition, which Haab chaired for two years, promotes statewide economic development. Two Caterpillar Inc.

products are among Heavy Duty Trucking magazine's "Nifty Fifty" new products of 1995. Honored by the mag: Cat's 3126 mid-range diesel engine, and Cat ID, an instrument panel information display that keeps drivers posted on engine performance. Easter Seals' Carol Blackwell hopes Fridays in February will raise $10,000 this year. In 1995, 190 Decatur businesses agreed to let employees wear jeans each Friday in February for $1 contributions. Participants are eligible to win jeans from Summer's and food from Schlotzsky's Deli.

HP Mall's Kassie Landry and Illinois Power's Debra Mahaffey share a birthday today. WYDS DJ extraordinaire Griz England is a Feb. 1 baby. Sister Glenda Bourgeois, St. James associate pastor, celebrates Saturday.

And Salvation Army's two Major Uptegroves have February birthdays: Major Dan's is Friday Mrs. Major Chariene celebrates Feb. 6. BIB CLOSING QUOTE: "You can live to be 100 if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be 100." Woody Allen. Gary Minich monitors Central Illinois business for the Herald Review.

Vacations, workweek lengths spur debate Triinkthis 'pioneer' is happy? You bet! Employees in many nations are calling for a little more time off. PARIS (AP) All work and no play makes Jacques a dull boy. To French workers who waged a crippling strike late last year, working less and playing more has become a battle cry for a hi Ml ni. iw Ail I LAS VEGAS (AP) Gaming pioneer Si Redd leaned forward on a sofa at his posh estate home, fingered his cowboy string tie, and assessed his 84 years. "I'm the luckiest guy in the world," he said, his soft eyes misty.

"I'm just a country boy at heart. I believe it was the fun of the journey that I enjoyed most." Redd's journey has stretched from Mississippi, where he scrambled to eke out a living with his sharecropper parents, to Nevada, where he became one of the gaming industry's pioneers. He's the founder of Reno-based International Game Technology, a leading manufacturers of gam Associated Press SLOT MAN: Si Redd takes credit for inventing the video slot machine and video poker. He wants to make Mesquite, into another Reno. better life.

In France, the push is on for a 35-hour workweek and a sixth week of guaranteed vacation. But to the Japanese, struggling to remain on top, that route looks more like the road to ruin. In Japan, companies are reaffirming their commitment to a 44-hour workweek, the longest among leading industrialized nations, and many workers aren't even taking all of their three weeks' holiday. Nations and corporations are dealing in vastly different ways with a common dilemma: How to improve the quality of life, yet stay competitive? Workers around the world are redefining the bottom line some by lingering on the job, others by punching out early. Some of their leaders, frustrated by mounting unemployment, are peddling a shorter workweek as a way to create new jobs by spreading the work around.

Employers are split over how long the week should be. And labor analysts, forever hunting for trends, are scratching their heads. "The world is not going in the same direction," said Ray Richardson, an industrial relations expert at the London School of Economics. "Workers in general want to spend some of their increased wealth in more leisure But these things are simply not constant throughout In the United States, the traditional workweek has remained unchanged at 40 hours since the end of World War II, and vacation usually is a minimum of two weeks, among the world's shortest. Forty-hour workweeks also are the standard in Austria, India, Italy, Ivory Coast, Russia and Venezuela.

By contrast, in Chile workers are on the job for 48 hours a week and vacation three weeks a year. Kenyans work 44 hours a week and have at least 21 days of vacation. In Japan, where just a decade ago the standard workweek was six days, companies are lobbying the government to maintain its 44-hour workweek, which by far leads the industrialized world. Four of Japan's major business groups are pressing the Labor Ministry to delay its plan to move to a 40-hour work- WORK Continued on D2 ing devices, and is credited with innovations such as the video poker machine. He's still moving along, focusing now on real estate and resort development in tiny Mesquite, Nev.

"I want Mesquite to be the end of the rainbow for me," said Redd, who dropped plans for a law career when he saw there was money to be made from people plunking coins into machines. Mesquite is a town of 5,500, located 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Redd owns the Oasis Hotel-Casino, three golf courses and 2,200 acres of land. "I want to make Mesquite a big city," he said in a recent interview. "I hope the day comes when it will be as big as Reno." A lofty goal? Perhaps.

But Redd has come far by overcoming long odds. Born 15 miles outside of Philadelphia, he spent his boyhood selling cloverine salve for a dime and Grit Magazine for a nickel, often walking 10 or 12 miles to make a sale. hoot owls off the drinking dipper," he recounted in a thick Southern accent. "Things were very tough. If we could get a nickel ice cream cone once a week, we were in heaven.

Our family was always broke" That's why he thought he'd struck gold when he took a coin-operated pinball machine as repayment for a $16 loan while attending East Mississippi Junior College in Decatur, Miss. He put the machine in a local hamburger joint, cutting a deal with the owner to split the revenue. At the end of the first month he checked his machine and found 3,200 pennies. "I couldn't believe I'd recovered my investment in one month," he said, his voice rising. "I thought 'This is for Redd moved to Sterling, 111., where he bought 200 jukeboxes from the Wurlitzer company for nothing down, unaware the machines were items the company didn't PIONEER "We were so far out in the country, you had to scare the Continued on D2 FINANCIAL NEWS UPDATES AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Financial tables begin on page 3 Headlines ............5025 Market Indices 5027 NYSE Weekly Losers ...5031 CBOT Prices 5036 Precious Metafc .....5037 ....5035 MutnTa toucttone phonelr Dow Averages .....506 NYSE Weekly Gainers 5030 CBOT Overview.