music: "Make A Change" - Johnny Rogers (Amon 815b)

Now that Ernie was gone, it became apparent that a number of changes would have to be made. For one thing Customers had continued to call the studio Rainbow.

I decided we needed a new name and came up with Tera Shirma, based on our surnames. Since it was to be Shirma and not Sherma, I  dropped an 'r'  to leave, Tera. I then contacted a sign writer and told him I wanted to keep the original green background. The title Tera Shirma was painted white.

When the sign went up, I felt so proud, it looked fantastic. Now that I look back on it I wish I had taken a photograph.

Al was strictly a silent money partner, so the day to day running of the studio was now on my shoulders.

Sadly he died in the late seventies.

I now had to assess what it was I owned, but it wasn't much, a struggling studio. 

The first thing I did was get the place cleaned up. It just looked so much better with the floors polished etc. Then improvements were made to the reception area, where a leather couch and a coffee table sat. Some simple things were added, like pictures on the wall.

The control room was also a little shabby. That was the next order of business.

We refurbished the walls with nice wood panelling and did some other cosmetic things. Even though we didn't add any new equipment, I had Milan, my engineer, add a large panel to the equipment rack that had various coloured lights. Some would blink on and off at various times and it looked impressive but, in reality, it did absolutely nothing.

Milan brought his wife along after a few weeks and she commented on how the place was looking more professional, and it was, it was looking pretty good.

There wasn't much business at that time, however. We'd get a little demo session from time to time, but not a lot of money coming in. I think the rates for studio time were $25.00 per hour.

It was now the time for a bold move, especially now that the control room was looking better, and I decided to raise the rates for leasing the studio.

I gulped and put it up to a whopping $40.00 per hour.

It was now May 1966.

Continued